Hagg Lake Tri Northwest Championship

Photo by Greg Gallagher

This was a “similar” course as the Nationals course in 2007 and 2008 in Oregon. I raced Nationals last year and thought that it was a great venue and course because of the terrain. After the race, we all agreed that there was about 3 miles of total “flat” section on the bike, and maybe a half a mile on the run. You were either going up, or down. That has its advantages and disadvantages, but all in all an honest course.

We headed over on Friday afternoon with Trish-ah, Nat, Greg, Jessi, Emma, and myself. The 6 hour drive is always eventful with a group like that. The stories, the jokes, …they never end. As we arrived in Forest Grove, it was getting to be late. So we were on the hunt for a place to eat. Since it was Friday, and it was about 8:00pm, places were packed. So we decided to go to a little hole in the wall Italian restaurant. You could not only order food here, but you could also gamble and play the slots. Classy place as you can imagine. We all made our order and sat and waited. Surprised to hear a microwave going off continually, we peered over the counter to see our dinners being prepared…in the microwave! Oh well, it’s just dinner the night before a race :)

Jessi and Natalie pre race
Photo by Greg Gallagher

Getting all suited up

Photo by Greg Gallagher

This course was set up similarly to Nationals for the bike and the run. But the transition was set up in a different spot, and the swim was in a different part of the lake as well. In transition I got to chat with some familiar faces…Matt Berg and Dave Campbell. Both are really great guys, and competitors, that I seem to run into at many races throughout the year. I got my transition set up and went to the swim start. I was racing in the elite wave which only consisted of about 8 people. So the swim start was pretty uneventful. I plodded along initially swimming behind Matt Berg since he normally swims faster than me. I eventually lost his feet and was swimming in clear water…which I prefer actually. My mind started to wonder a bit, but I was plodding along. I could see Matt was making time on me at each turn, but nothing that I did not feel I could not close on the bike. I eventually got out of the water about 30 seconds behind Matt. I had a quick T1 (fastest of the day) and was on the bike.

Natalie right before her start
Photo by Greg Gallagher

Jessi finishing the swim
Photo by Greg Gallagher

Finishing the swim
Photo by Greg Gallagher

The Hagg Lake bike course is very rolling. It really makes you stay on top of what you are doing all the time. There are lots of places that you can lose time since you are constantly transitioning from ascents and descents. You can easily find yourself easing up on the down hills and giving up time. I knew what I rode there last year at Nationals and figured I should be able to do something similar to that again. Going sub one hour on this bike course is tough. Even at Nationals not many people did. I managed to squeak under the hour mark, but was slower than I was at Nationals. I came into T2 fast and had a great transition, another fastest.

Natalie...lap one down

Photo by Greg Gallagher

Jessi
Photo by Greg Gallagher

Jessi coming into T1

Photo by Greg Gallagher

Coming into T1

Photo by Greg Gallagher

The run at Hagg is very similar to the bike…hilly. Either up or down. You have to run well on the down hills here in order to have a good time, similar to the bike. I was feeling good and comfortable. I remember running this last year and feeling a bit tight and uncomfortable the whole time, so this comfortable feeling was welcomed. I eventually hit the turn and was headed back. I was bale to get a split on 2nd, which was still Matt. I had about 4 minutes on him at that point so I was not running scared. I kept running strong and ended the run about 30 seconds faster than I ran at Natz. I was very happy to see that since at Natz I was running for my life from Chris Thomas to hold on to 3rd place. At this race, I was just running steady. So though I am not a “fast” runner, I am running consistently better than I have before, and my bike times are not dropping either. If I could shave 2 minutes off my swim, life would be great :)

Natalie enjoying the run way too much

Photo by Greg Gallagher

Photo by Greg Gallagher

Jessi heading out on the run
Photo by Greg Gallagher

Coming back to finish
Photo by Greg Gallagher

Photo by Greg Gallagher

It was a lot of fun traveling with friends again. It makes racing a lot less stressful. Congrats to Natalie in getting in another Oly race this year and having a great time doing it. It’s fun to see and experience her excitement after races. She has watched so many and really knows what they look like on the outside, it’s neat to hear her participant experience. Also, thanks to Greg for taking all these amazing photos. Without him, all these photos would have some gigantic watermark across them and they would not have been as good a shot anyway. Greg is a phenomenal team player when traveling…always seeing where he can help out. Thanks to Trish-ah for coming along and entertaining us all with her antics. When she is not luring guys all the time, she contributes to our conversations too :) She also was Emma’s best friend during the race. Trish-ah is amazing with kids…just amazing. Jessi was in a bit of a quandary as to why in the world she was even doing this race on the day. I think we all get this way from time to time as we are standing with our feet in the water. We question what in the word are we doing? Do I have to do this? Who is really in control here? But once we get going, they seem to disappear. Jessi had a strong bike and ran really well off the bike on a difficult run course to win her age group and be 7th overall. I think we all question how we can perform when we have such an apathetic attitude at the start of a race. But it normally subsides and you find your grove. It’s always fun doing a race when you see your wife out there working hard too. It’s a great sport to share.

Thanks everyone for a great race weekend!

You can find Dave Campbell's race report that he writes for Racecenter.com, as well as results, at:
http://www.racecenter.com/blog/2009/07/race-report-2009-hagg-lake-triathlon.html