Blaylock Lakes

Race Report for Blaylock Lakes

Blaylock Triathlon – Fast transitions
What a place! Beautiful manicured landscapes. Nice clear morning with lots of sunshine. Blaylock Lakes was a triathlete’s dream. Most of the 400 plus competitors ended up parking just off the bike course overlooking the boathouse and lake and a short walk down hill to the transition area. It’s true! A Boathouse! As I hauled all my gear down to transition I noticed many of the spectators were lining up chairs on the dam to watch all the comings and goings. (Damn! I forgot my chairs!) It appeared to be a very spectator friendly race.

Finally! A swim you don’t have to run up a big hill to reach the transition area. There was not a pinecone, or pine straw, or sand anywhere to be seen or felt. (It was a little squishy!) My bike was racked about 50 meters away from the swim out. I had T1 and T2 times that would make Carole Sharpless jealous. The water temp was…well its June and you don’t wear a wet suit this far south of the Mason-Dixon line in June… nice.

The 14.7 bike course has several rolling hills. I never considered walking any of them. However, Two of the biggest were just out of the entrance after the first turn but before you could get warm up. I needed to get out of the saddle once or twice. Once you made the second turn, the roads flattened out to some beautiful country roads. I warmed up quickly. The Saturday morning traffic was minimal and well mannered. However, a little curious about what was going on out here. Every right turn had a pickup truck stopped and a local talking to the traffic management guys. The bounty of the area was overwhelming apparent as they saved one last hill before you turned into the entrance for Blaylock Lakes. The views on the bike were so nice I am sure the race director was compelled to remind you that this is a race and your heart should be pumping. (My heart pumping is not my problem; it is the lack of oxygen on these hills that gets to me.)

The morning coolness had warn off and it was just starting to get hot (did I mention it was June) as we shed our bikes and headed for the barn on the 5k run. Literally! This place has a barn too! And, someone had the foresight to pave a road over some small hills on the way to the barn. And of course that was the route we took. The hills did not help my run time any but, I was curious about the barn and it was so well landscaped that you could put the pain of running up the hills out of your mind. Thank God! they did not clear-cut all the trees for this development. There was plenty of shade on the run. And just when you thought the race committee had done all they could think of – out pops Dan Arnett (who finished first) hovering at the bottom of the last hill to encouraging everyone to surge up the last hill and sprint downhill to the finish (about 75 gut-wrenching yards.) I was actually glad to see him as it meant the end of the line for a very good race.

The crew at the Tri the Parks Races treat you like a champion when you finish. Before you can catch your breath, they have cleaned the timing chip off your ankle, serve you chilled water, shoved a cookie and or bagel in your mouth, and taken your picture.

Now that’s how some fabulous memories are made! If you are considering doing a first triathlon this is the one for you. I’ll be back next year for my second trip!

Becky Caldwell
Master Athena