St. Croix River Triathlon

The 2010 St. Croix River Triathlon was probably one of the best spectator events that I've been too. Its too bad that there weren't more spectators! The Sprint distance triathlon was held on Saturday, September 4 and the Olympic distance on Sunday, September 5. This race benefits Charities Callenge and the Hudson High School Athletic Departments. My guess is that with so many more people that participate in the Sprint distance, all of the spectators are at the Saturday event. No matter, since Pete was participating in the Olympic distance, I was a Sunday spectator.



Coming of off record heat for the summer, it was hard to imagine waking up that morning and believing that Pete would be getting into the water with air temperatures below 50-degrees. At most events you wouldn't see people milling about the transition area minutes before the start, instead you'd see them in and out of the water, warming up. I saw one person in the water warming up. One. Then again this is one of the smallest events, with 103 participants.

Pete was one of only a handful of people that would be swimming without a wetsuit. We see in the coming years if he dons one in future races. There were three waves of group starts, men 39 and under, men 40 and older, then women and relay teams last. With Pete's age group in the water first, and he being without a wetsuit, I could amazingly see him out in the water. With two laps around the buoys, I was psyched to see him holding strong in the top four.

Twenty-four minutes and Pete was out of the water. Up the sand to the steps, up the steps to the transition area, throwing on his bike gear and he was off. Of course being that it was still under 50-degrees, today's bike gear included a jacket. I would later find out that his feet were frozen and didn't warm up until halfway through the run. Cold.

Because there were virtually no spectators, I was able to run around taking pictures - which was just a blast! Click HERE to some pictures of the race.

I knew that I had a little over an hour before Pete would be back from the bike, 40K. I watched more people transition, talked with the announcer, talked with some really awesome people waiting for their turn to run the relay and really just enjoyed myself.

An hour and forty-two minutes in, Pete was blazing in on the bike, his transition was so fast that he ran by me and all I heard him say was "My feet are still frozen." By this point I was just beaming with joy. He was kicking ass. His times were already amazing and I was just so damn proud of him. I knew that as much as he might be hurting, I also knew that his competitive nature, determination and two months of training since the Life Time Tri would just propel him forward. It did. At 2:38 he crossed the finish line. My Pete.

The folks that put on this race did an amazing job. Final Stretch, really knows how to show a racer a good time. I'm looking forward to participating in this event next year. To view the results for the St. Croix River Triathlon click HERE.