Over the Mountain 2010
By: Jack Shannon
Over the Mountain (OTM) is a race that I have loved and hated over the years. The last three times I’ve done this race, it’s been a very hot run. Hate that. This year, the run was much cooler. Love that. I also like the distance: 1500 meter (.932 mile) swim, 45K (27.96 miles) bike, and a 10K (6.2 miles) run. There are a few hills on the ride that I could do without. Hate them. The race is well organized and well supported in the community. Love that. In the end, I keep doing this race; so the love really outweighs the hate. It’s a great race to test the level of your training. So I guess I enjoy the challenge that OTM offers.
One of the unique things about OTM, is the format. With the exception of the run, OTM is a point-to-point race. You start at one end of the lake, finish at the other end, get on your bike, finish in town, then run an out and back loop twice. This format makes for interesting logistics in the morning. First, you drive to the swim/bike transition. You pick up your race number packet and drop off your bike and bike gear. Then you drive into town, park your car, get your chip and set up your bike/run transition area. When you are done with that, you get on a bus that takes you to the swim start (and body marking). All this takes time, so this is not a race where you can roll up a little bit before your start time and just take off. That, along with the fact it’s about a 45 minute drive, means one thing: Wake up at dark 30.
Tim Friederichs got to my house at 4:45, we packed up and hooked up (so to speak) with the Triathreesome (so to speak) relay team of Stacey Hien, swim; Holly Townsend, bike; and Hazel Tapp, run. We got to the T1 area at around 5:45, which is perfect. Arriving 15-20 minutes later means you park about ½ mile away on the road.
All of our logistics went well. The bonus was Tim and I was able to hitch a ride over to the swim start with the Triathreesome (no luck) ladies. We got in our wetsuits and waited for the start. Tim (45-49) was the first in our group to take off, I was two waves later (50-54), and Triathreesome (not so interested) was next. An interesting side note in my wave: Someone stepped on a fish hook and had to be carried out of the water. Ouch. Their race was over before it began.
What followed was swimming, biking and running. The weather was great; we all had a great outing. Tim rocked the course with a 2:37:47 (2.5 minute drop from last year), I came in at a 2:52:02 (PR by close to 8 minutes), and Triathreesome (the police notified us in no uncertain terms it was really just a name, not an invitation), flew in at 3:02:06.
Afterwards, there is plenty to eat and drink in the park. There is no beer though, so we went to the ever popular UCRR Award Ceremony©, where Everyone Gets a Trophy™ (but no threesomes).
