On Saturday, I woke up at the unGodly hour of 5:40 am to participate in a relay triathlon at Pyramid Lake, which is about 70 miles North of my house. I was the designated swimmer.

I put on my swimsuit, grabbed some breakfast, and piled into my Trans Am for the drive. One good thing about being up before the crack of dawn is that there is no one on the road, and I could actually drive my Trans Am like it was meant to be driven. Man, was that fun! There is nothing like an open desert road in a sports car. But I Digress.

Even though I arrived at the race site at 7:00 am, I couldn’t find my teammates until 7:56 am. FOUR MINUTES BEFORE THE RACE START. Needless to say, I was a bit stressed at that point.

The race course was a triangle, with two sharp turns. At the race start, we had to run in from the beach, then run through knee high water to get to where you could push off and begin swimming. It was pretty much mayhem, with arms and legs everywhere. After the initial adrenaline rush, I was able to slow down and get myself going at a pace I could maintain for the remainder of the race.

The pack thinned a bit, but once we hit that first sharp turn, we were all over each other again. I was having to use my elbows and well placed kicks to defend my space. Then, some girl cut me off, swimming in front of me in the complete wrong direction. So, as a part of my downstroke, I grabbed her waist and moved her out of my way. I then took a breath towards her, and saw a look of shock on her face. She should have been thankful that I got her moving in the right direction!!!

Anyway, I felt strong the entire race. I picked up the pace as we swam into shore, and swam as far as I could in the shallow water, knowing it was faster to swim than walk through the shallow water.

Then, came the hard part. There was a good 1/4 mile run UPHILL to the bike transition area. You had to run up the sandy beach, then onto asphalt, and then on a dirt path, all going steeply uphill and all whilst BAREFOOT!

The second I turned onto the dirt path, I got a bit light headed. I had to slow to a walk, but then got mad when I got passed by a girl who was still running. (It figures that the run would get me and not the swim!) I then managed to run the rest of the way to my biker teammate. My teammates said I was about the 8th woman swimmer to make it to the transition area. I’d guess there were about 75 women competing, so that’s not too shabby…

After our biker took off, I decided to head back to the water for a cool down. By the time I got back to the water’s edge, there was no one in the water. It was beautiful — glass water that was the perfect temperature. I got in and swam for another 20 minutes, thinking that I’d at least finish off my workout while I was waiting for my team.

We ended up getting second out of the relays. Pyramid Lake was absolutely beautiful that day, and the drive out there had some breath-taking scenery. Pyramid Lake is known for water sports and fishing, and is only a 30 minute drive North of Reno. Click here for more information on Pyramid Lake.

And now for the pictures!

This is Pyramid Lake, right after I got out from my refreshing cool down.

Here I am right after taking my cap and goggles off. Hence, forgive my hair.

Here is my biker, Carol, after she finished her leg of the race.

Here is our runner, whom I met just minutes before the race start.

This is our team, just before we headed to the bar-b-que where they announced the awards.

And here is one of the rock formations in Pyramid Lake that gives it its name.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 8th, 2005 at 11:01 am and is filed under Adventure|Sports|Recreation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.