LAKE MACATAWA TRIATHLON.
Here's the venue for the next tri I am scheduled to do on June 9, on an inland lake right near Lake Michigan.

Course Info: Swim - Bike - Run
Swim course is a half mile triangle-shaped course in Lake Macatawa
Bike course is a 22.8 mile out and back with part of it following the Lake Michigan shoreline. It's a basically flat course with some shaded areas
Run course is a 4.8 mile out and back course featuring a select number of inclines.

I've never done this race, so it will be nice to tri something new. Lake Macatawa used to be (and hopefully still isn't) called Lake Maca-toilet because it was so polluted, which was one thing that kept me from doing it in the past. It also was on a weekend usually too busy with other things: graduations, weddings, my mom's birthday. This year, I have none of those.

I struggled with deciding which race to do: this one or the Olympic distance tri I have done a few other times. After much debating in my mind, I went ahead and signed up for this one on the deadline date so as not to incur a higher fee.

The reason I decided against the Olympic distance tri, which takes place the following weekend, was mainly lack of training. I just haven't had enough bike rides that would leave me comfortable enough doing this race. When I did it last year, I was severely undertrained as well, and to make a point, I was DFL in the race, and last by more than a half hour, taking over 4 hours to finish--not that that is so bad in itself, I'm just not ready for that much time yet. I suspect even with a good effort it would take me well over 3.5 hours. Monday's 3.5 hour bike ride left me not particularly peppy for the rest of the day, and I am still dragging. I also have a graduation that day out of town, meaning a couple hour drive, so no, I just am not up to that much of a hard workout for that day along with everything else. I know I should be pushing harder, but I really do need to pace myself here.

Last year, I did okay on the swim, so-so on the bike, and fell apart on the run and ended up walking 4 miles. Its a fast crowd that does this race. Awards start at 3 hours, and the race basically starts shutting down then, even though there are still many people who come in after that, but rarely anyone even close to 4 hours (with me being the exception--I do believe I have the distinction of having the slowest time in the history of the race!). They do still have the finish line going half staffed, but the race info does imply that if you can't finish in 3 hours or less, maybe you should just pass on this race! I'd like to say I don't know too many people who can finish this race in 3 hours or less, but that isn't true. In fact, I personally don't know too many people who take more than 3 hours on this course! And the bike isn't easy: rolling to hilly the whole way. So I am wimping out on this for this year at least and hoping for a better result at the Lake Macatawa tri. Besides, when you compare numbers, the swim is only 400 meters less (roughly), the bike 1.8 miles less, and the run 1.4 less for the run. Still a good workout.

I'm volunteering instead.