Kingswood Off-Road Tri Race Report

So I pre-rode the bike course on Thursday, and decided afterwards that if I made it to T2 without bleeding, I'd be surprised.

Little long lake is clean & pristine, cool & scenic; flanked on either side by treed ridges. The half mile loop in the water was pretty enjoyable with the exception of the last couple hundred yards where the rising sun obscured the shore.

I had a pretty good swim, relying on my own ability to swim straight & negotiate buoys, and was out of the water 3rd. A friend of mine who does XTerra's told me to "swim like you stole something," and get the singletrack to yourself.

There was about a 1/5 mile trail run up a hill to T1. I left some junky flipflips on the shore to run up in.

Transitions for me were a total fiasco.

At T1, I decided I needed a jersey over the top of my standard tri top, I fought to pull on my full finger gloves onto my wet hands before I clipped my helmet straps, which didn't want to match up in my fingers. I was passed by 1 or 2 guys in all that fumbling.

The bike was fun, but torture. You start the first of 2 loops in some tight singletrack that had one uphill section that weaved through trees & rocks. A fun drop & a climb took you to a gravel road to connect with the other side of camp. The gravel road had a long steep hill that you went over before hitting a mowed field aka "prairie" loop. This wasn't very technically challenging with the exception of one really steep hill that I had to hike-a-bike, and the fact that it was teeth-chatteringly rough. A few more moderate climbs really made you work before a few switchbacks down a sidehill. The trail crossed the road and went back up a fairly large hill before going to faster, flowing singletrack reminiscent of Lebanon hills with fast ups & downs. Except the trail was mostly loose mulch instead of dirt, so I was white knuckled most of the time. A last hill crossed to another mulch section with some very tight & technical descents. One last steep hike-a-bike and back to the gravel road to finish off the first loop.

I was passed by 2 guys in the prairie, but other than that, I had the bike to myself. Which was good, because I took some nice spills, namely the bottom of the prairie switchbacks--they were very used up by the second lap, and my front tire flew out from underneath me on the last one. So I'm without skin on my left knee/shin. The second lap on the mulch was interesting too--I could tell people were really wiping out and doing lots of skid braking, making these ugly and front tire-catching ruts.

In T2, I couldn't get a bike shoe ratchet to release. I'm pretty sure I burnt up 3 minutes trying to pry that shoe off. I noticed that my knee was bleeding nicely. I'm not surprised!

The run was back out on the gravel road, to it's own single track -- super fun and challenging steep uphills. I literally walked up one section. More uphill to camp, and even more uphill along the top of one of the high ridges, a loop and then back through camp onto another piece of awesome singletrack that flowed really well for running--mostly downhill this time, so I was really moving. The last bit was back along the gravel road.

Just about everyone got a prize of some type--there was only ~35 entrants. The race director plans to make it into an XTerra next year--I will sign up whether it is or not....I had a great time despite the infancy of the trail, and the fact that it was REALLY difficult. The intention is to improve the condition and length of the trail for both bike and run.

Pulling my bike off my car at my apartment, I noticed my front tire was dead flat. Wonder when that happened.