one last Tri

This weekend, we headed up to Detroit Lakes for Aaron's last triathlon of the season. We planned to do some camping as well, since I missed out on the big family camping trip to the Boundary Waters. After packet pick up in Detroit Lakes, we headed out to the campsite at Buffalo River State Park. It was a very hot afternoon (90+ degrees), so sitting in a tent wasn't too appealing. Unfortunately, an abundance of mosquitoes made sitting outside the tent equally unappealing. We rushed through setting up the campsite and ate a quick dinner before piling back into the car, in search of air conditioning and the Twins game, ideally in a mosquito-free setting. Fargo was only a short 30 minute drive away, so we ended up at a bar downtown and watched a few innings of the game before heading back to camp. A few miles from our campsite, the sky opened up and rain just poured. Fortunately, Aaron's trusty tent kept us completely dry. I was very impressed.

We didn't have the best night of sleep, though, and had to get up pretty early this morning for the race. Aaron was in the first wave of the Olympic length race (~1500 m swim, 40 K bike, 10 K run). It was his goal to be the first competitor to finish the swim -- so he needed the fastest swim time of all the men competing in the Olympic length race (~70 people). It was close, but he did manage to finish the swim in first place:

While his lead didn't last too long, it's still pretty exciting to be a race leader -- and to be the best swimmer. Here he is in the first transition:

He used up an awful lot of energy on the swim, so he wasn't in too big of a hurry here.

The bike course was two loops around the lake. I was able to hang out in the car with food and a newspaper until he finished the first loop:

Shortly after he finished the bike, the rain started again, just as heavy as the night before. I think he was pretty glad to be done and into some warmer, dryer clothes.

We didn't stick around too long after the race since we still needed to get back to the cities, and we wanted to stop in Perham for lunch and to visit Aaron's grandmother for a bit.

While the conditions weren't necessarily ideal for camping or racing, we still had a nice weekend.

Next up: Kansas City!