This is the eighth year that I’ve raced the Spring White Lake Half. It’s become somewhat of a tradition for me, and as Tevye from Fiddler On the Roof says… I forget what he said, but it had something to do with tradition.
Anyway, it was a good race. One thing that caught my attention was the number of athletes registered for the long course race, the “half.” There were only 200. Not too many years ago, this race would sell out at 500. Have people lost interest in triathlon? No. That’s not the answer. On the same day, at the same time, and in the same place was an international distance race put on by the same race company, Setup Events. That race had 300 registered. It seems like the shorter, international race was more popular. And why not? A decent athlete can complete one in about 3 hours and she doesn’t have to spend as much time training. Three hours is how long I spent on just the bike for the half race. Also, the shorter races usually cost less. So why did I do the half? Maybe that’s were tradition comes in. Or maybe not. I’m at a point in my fitness where a 30 mile bike ride is not that great of a challenge. I look to the Spring White Lake race as the first big challenge of the year. This year I did not run because my running legs are still in recovery from last year’s abuse. But the swim and bike were just enough of a challenge to remind me that I can still do this and that I still have work to do if I’m going to race the Savageman triathlon on September.
Posted by LG on the run
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