Lake Nokomis was just teeming with people. Because of the large number of athletes, they don't all start at once, so a large portion of them were just standing around waiting for their start time. Plus, there were a lot of spectators and vendors, so the park was crazy. It was also a very warm and humid morning, and the lake was over 80°F!
We got a late start heading to the course, and thus we missed the swim start. Apparently, they began swimming at some point. We found ourselves a spot along the course where the athletes run from the swim to transition. Of the pros, the first one through was Cameron Dye:
He was followed closely by a few others, and not too far back was local pro, David Thompson:
The first woman out of the water was Sara McLarty, followed by a chase pack of a few others:
Since this is such a large triathlon, transition is pretty huge. Here is a section of transition before most of the athletes finished their swims:
The pros, however, has already left, and it's amazing how few things they have at their transition spots:
All that's left is their running shoes and their swim stuff
From there, we went out to catch the athletes along the bike course. For the international distance race, the athletes followed their 1500m swim with a 40k bike ride, and would follow that with a 10k run. (The short course was a 0.4 mile swim, 15 mile bike, and a 3 mile run—deathmatch between metric and customary systems to come later). We managed to find a spot on Minnehaha Parkway around the halfway point of the ride.
The leader at this point was the same guy leading at the swim, followed by the eventual winner of the race:
The leader, Cameron Dye
Eventual winner, Matty Reed
As we watched the pros go by, I was doing ok grabbing photos of them. They were a little dark, but I mostly got them centered and not blurry. However, that changed when David Thompson went by. He's known for being crazy-fast on the bike, so I hoped to get a cool photo of him when he went by. Here he is:
What? You don't see him? Told you he was fast…
From there, we went to another part of the course to see the pro men as they headed into the last few hundred meters of the bike, and also watch the pro women head past. We then saw David Thompson again, and I had my camera at the ready:
Photo fail. Again.
The cool part about this photo was that it happened as the athletes made a 90° turn off of Minnehaha Parkway onto Cedar. David Thompson did this at almost full speed, weaved through cones, and managed to pass a rider or two all at that corner. That's why he came so close to our side of the road.
Now, on to the run. The run course was 2 loops around Lake Nokomis. We missed the pro men head by on their first loop, but were able to catch the pro women. The lead woman was American Sarah Haskins:
Now, on to the run. The run course was 2 loops around Lake Nokomis. We missed the pro men head by on their first loop, but were able to catch the pro women. The lead woman was American Sarah Haskins:
If you look closely at that photo, you can see a spectator with a shirt that was clearly homemade. Here's a close-up of the spectator:
As it turns out, that guy is Sarah Haskins dad. The front of his shirt said: "Go Sarah Haskins USA", and the back said "Sarah Haskins' Dad". Katie and I remarked to each other that we didn't understand parents like that, but then admitted that we would probably wear shirts like that if the occasion presented itself.
Not too long after that, the men came by on their 2nd loop:
Leader, and winner, Matty Reed
David Thompson. Look, a clear picture of him!
The course was a bit strange here, but it allowed me to head to the Cedar Avenue bridge to catch the pros one more time as they did a small out-and-back on the bridge.
A pro (in front), followed by an amateur on his first loop.
We were standing at a spot where the athletes had to make a 180° turn. Here's David Thompson running at an oblique angle.
Lead female, Sarah Haskins (on the right)
Here's a guy who started his lean nice and early, and his head got stuck (just kidding)
Side Note: In red in the photo above is Devon Palmer, another local pro. An interesting fact about him is that he also works at Gear West. When Katie and I went to buy our wetsuits a few months ago, Devon was one of the guys who helped us. So, even though they are "professional triathletes", they all have to pay the bills and have real jobs. The other guy who helped us with wetsuits, Curt, also ran (as an elite amateur), and placed 16th overall:
So, that's a cool thing about going to Gear West—the friendly guy helping you shimmy in and out of a wetsuit may just be one of the top triathletes in the world.
One cool thing about sports like running and triathlon is how much interaction you can have with the professionals. The pros use the same course as the guys in the mountain bike division. When you're getting passed on the course, you could turn to your side and see one of the fastest runners in the world passing you. Even at a race as big as this, you've got people out there doing their first triathlon on the mountain bike they had in their garage. They may be slow, but the race is just as exciting for them as it is for the people who win it. And who know, maybe even the pros once started racing in the mountain bike division…
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