Although we have been luxuriating in unusually warm fall weather these past few days, many of you will certainly remember the bitter cold that Mother Nature dished out last weekend at the Deer Creek Fall Challenge. I received this fun race report from my client Zoe Bowman, age 15, and wanted to share it. In the video above, Zoe is front and center at the start, and the first to sprint into the water… it was probably a relief to get into the 66F lake! Enjoy Zoe’s story below!

Deer Creek was great…but cold. I arrived at the race in winter gear and wondered to myself why I didn’t pick a sensible indoor sport. As I toed the line at 9:14am I thought that most sane people were still in bed. The final thought I had was that at the very least the lunatics who participate in this sport wear wetsuits! But real swimmers don’t wear wetsuits! (I might be revising that philosophy). The announcer counted down and we charged into the water. The air temperature was 48 and the water 66. I was hoping for the water would feel good…not at all. When I got cut off at the first buoy and water was shoved into my mouth, thanks to 10th grade Biology I wondered at all the pleasant things living in the water that was so murky I couldn’t even see my hands!

The rest of the swim was a blur of churned water and glinting sunlight. I exited the water and gave an internal groan to the audacity of that flight of stairs transition was at the top of. Seriously? Seriously. I couldn’t feel my toes until a few steps later when my nerves decided to reward me with a distant tingling. Transition 1 was a disaster; my fingers were numb and I couldn’t feel a thing. I made a comment to the man getting out of his wetsuit next to me, and I realized I was having fun! As I clipped into my pedals, I fumbled even more, I felt like I was wearing big boots.

The ride was really nice. With the help of some gloves, my hands were warm. The only things still cold were my feet, but that wasn’t changing anytime soon. At first though, my legs were so cold I couldn’t spin much above 80, but I warmed up quick. I was feeling great. Seeing a guy walking his bike the wrong way, I asked if he was okay as I rolled by. He said yeah, and held up his crank. Now there’s a bad day. I also saw a guy ride his bike into the grass and dismount. I was about to ask if he was okay…but then realized he was surreptitiously standing behind a telephone poll to pee. Now there’s a REALLY bad day.

I got off my bike and still felt like I was wearing boots! I couldn’t even feel my toes until mile 2! During the run I just felt on fire. My splits were right no target. I even had enough left to pick up the last mile. (Although that was probably due mostly to my feet thawing out). And it was so cool to see a man running with a prosthetic leg, what an accomplishment. I gave him a high-five, and it was the perfect boost for a sprint to the finish. Triathlon is such a great sport.

It was cold. It was fun. It was painful. It was amazing. Triathlon is the king of oxymoron! My finish was great, 2nd female over all amongst the age groupers… just ONE SECOND behind the other woman who finished ahead of me! (There was an elite female racer who finished faster, but I’m not sure if it’s right to really mix her results with the rest of us.) A bit frustrating to be sooo close to the woman ahead of me… but it was the perfect way to spend my weekend.