Little Miami Tri

The Little Miami Triathlon is not the normal swim, bike, run triathlon. Instead of starting with a swim it starts with a 6 mile canoe or kayak down the Little Miami River. I choose to do the kayak, because it's a little quicker and a individual event. The canoe requires a partner. I don't mind working with a partner, but I don't particularly care for canoes when it comes to racing. Once you reach the first transition you ditch the kayak and run 5.5 miles back up the river mostly on marked roads and a couple of miles on a multi-use path. The final 1/4 mile of the run is the reall kicker. You hang a right off the multi-use path on to a dirt trail that leads to a set of steps. You run (or walk) to the top of the steps then back on to the dirt path which continues up, and up, and up, and up at about an 18- 19% grade. Does that sound right? Maybe I'm exaggerating, but it is steep! The Final leg of the race is an 18 mile bike on country roads around the Fort Ancient where the race begins and ends. The bike course is mostly flat with some rolling hills. The tough parts of the course are out on open roads in corn fields where the head winds can be pretty nasty.

Now that you have an idea of what the course is like let's talk about this year's adventure! I started at 8:38 am with a buddy. It was early enough that it was relatively cool. I say relatively because it was already warm enough that nothing extra besides race gear was necessary. We had received news that contrary to earlier reports they were unable to get permission to release more water into the river to raise the water level. We were in for a rough morning on the river and that's just what we got. As we paddled down the river we hit sections that were less than 6 inches deep. We went around bends and through small, shallow rapids that left about a foot wide path for which all the boats and kayaks to pass causing bottlenecks and a little bumper boat action. The key to getting through this portion of the race was to try and relax, and paddle smart. Otherwise I'd find myself flipped over like I saw a few other people. It's just the worst being soaked and trying to empty out a kayak full of water.

I hit the shore at an hour and ten minutes, which was a little disappointing. If the river would have been higher I could have easily brought it in at under 55 minutes. Since I used the event supplied kayak and paddle all I had to do was dump the kayak and paddle with some wonderful volunteers take a few sips out the water bottle that I had taken with me on the river before tossing it and run away. At this point I had a little surprise. As I was running out of transition I ran past the buddy with whom I started. I hit the road at a steady pace and worked the stiffness out of my legs that had set in over an hour of sitting in a kayak in the first mile. After that I settled in to a rhythm and cruised through the rest of the run. It was all smooth sailing until I hit the dreaded hill that I talked about earlier. I jogged up to the first section then walked as quickly as I could. Ran across another relatively level part and walked again. There is no real reason to run this part for me. It's more about conserving energy fort the bike.

At the bike transition I popped a couple of electrolyte tabs grabbed some water, changed shoes, changed into a dry cycling jersey and hit the bike. By this time it was really starting to heat up. The expected high was 90 and it was definitely getting into the 80's and sunny. That makes for a tough bike ride as you head out on to these country roads that are mostly along open fields and corn fields where more often than not you're going to hit a head wind and that is exactly what happened. The best thing to do is tuck on to the aerobars and concentrate on keeping a steady cadence, and if I was lucky I could fall into line with a couple of riders and do some drafting. On most triathlons drafting is against the rules, but there is no rule against it in this race. Unfortunately for me it wasn't meant to be for two reasons. I found myself, as I often do, in the no-man's land in between the quick riders and the slower riders. To add to my problems all of the pushing across the rocks in the kayak and my poor paddling skills had left my lower back tired and growing painful. It made it extremely tough to stay on the aerobars without hurting my back worse. I pushed through the headwinds, over the rolling hills as best I could.

Despite the pain in my back there was one upside to the bike portion. Thanks to the electrolyte tabs I was able to avoid the painful cramps that had plagued me in previous years. Every year before this one at about mile 11 my calves would just sieze up painfully making pedalling all but impossible. While the back pain was uncomfortable it was manageable and preferrable to the cramps. I was able to push through the back pain and once I hit the last few miles the adrenaline of the finish took over.

The final time 2:58:41 which is over 15 minutes slower than last fall. However I finished 10th out of 50 kayakers which is the highest I've ever placed!