Race Coverage

"Not My Best...Or Was It?"

Saturday, 29 October 2016 23:10

0.5 mi swim / 35.4 mi bike / 5.6 mi run // 41.5 mi total

By Christel Kippenhan (seecktri.wordpress.com)

Expect the unexpected, my mother once said. Because the unexpected most certainly will be expecting you.
~ Marjorie M. Liu

Leading up to the race

Superior Man 41.5 was my last scheduled triathlon for the 2016 season. Since it was two weeks after the USAT Nationals and two weeks after my work at Bemidji State University had started up again, we tried to hold over my A-race fitness with high intensity, low volume training....

Last year I had an Achilles’ tendon injury going into this race, so I was only able to do the swim and bike portions, but those had gone really well. So I was looking forward to the race this year, to see what I can do on this race course.

Morning of the race

With Diane Hankee, only one of the three podium finishers of last year’s Superior Man 41.5 women’s podium was scheduled to do this year’s race. However, this year’s women’s Superior Man 70.3 distance was stacked with talent. So, I was not really too surprised when Diane Hankee told me during the set up that she had decided to switch to the seemingly more competitive 70.3 distance. But wow, does this mean that I suddenly had the chance of actually winning this race? Another motivation to definitely go for it.  READ MORE