Xtreme Gets Skinny in Skaneateles
The Skinnyman Sprint Triathlon in the heart of Skaneateles, NY, is a beautifully engaging challenge for the expert and rookie triathlete. It is a very well organized event that takes athletes through an 800-meter lake swim, 11 mile (usually 15, but there was road construction this year) bike sprint through the rolling hills of farm country, and finishing with a 3 mile run through downtown. The first half of the run is mostly uphill, but you finish with increasing speed downhill to the finish line. With proper training next year, I recommend this race for other Xtremes as it puts your other fitness talents to the test. Of course this is not the only race during the weekend, as there are also four others, including the Escape From The Judge, which is a 1-mile swim sprint through the lake from the Country Club back to the seawall pier in downtown, which I plan on doing next year too. Congrats to King Ferry Bootcampers Karen Philip and Sue Dean for completing the race too!
Breakdown of Xtreme’s splits for first triathlon: Overall finish 119 out of 561.
800 Meter Swim: 15:58 (I lost at least 2-minutes as I tended to veer off course away from the buoys!) Overall Swim: 166th
11 Mile Bike: 35:49, averaged 18.9 mph. Overall Bike: 217th
3 Mile Run: 20:50, 6:57 average mile. Overall Run: 34th
COMPLETE RESULTS: Skinnyman Tri
I was ranked in the 300’s for both of the transitions, swim to bike & bike to run. Slow transitions cost me a couple dozen spots. This shows there is a lot of strategy in the sport, not only with the fitness level, but the tactics taken between legs.
There is much to learn in training for such an event, as I was dedicated in July to the training, but over the past four weeks it has been minimal. Nonetheless, I showed up, had fun, blasted out solid rookie times, learned from a handful of mistakes, and now I’m looking at competing in the Cortland Sprint Triathlon on September 15th. Think about it if you need something new to try. Otherwise I hope to see you at Lisa’s 5K Run at Myers Park in Lansing on September 22nd!
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