B.O.L.T. Combo

B.O.L.T. Branched Oak Lake Triathlon. XTERRA style.

Good day at the office on Saturday. Both Abigail and I lined up for the XTERRA with Abs doing the short course = 300 yard swim, 10K MTB, and 3K run. And me on the Long course, 1300 meter swim across Branched Oak Liebers point to South beach, 17 miles on the MTB and 5 mile run.


Abbi would put her swimming style into action and comes out of the water in first after bumping and kicking her way out of the adult pack including our very own Darin Schlake. Darin would line up for the first time in a triathlon and get his feet wet...he took a couple blows in the water, including as he claims a kick in the goggles from Abbi. He managed to flounder his way through the swim putting the Back float into operation at one point to get relaxed enough to get through the swim and then put his Skillz to work, bringing back the field including Abs to take first overall. Abs would hold onto 5th overall and 1st female.


I remember my first Lake swim...terrifying. Dark water, Thrashing bodies, and incompetent swimming led to a frustrating first outing, at least in the water. With a little practice it continues to slowly get better. Just have to worry about getting a little E. Coli...but that's another story see Journal Star today. Let's just hope that no one drank to much of the lake water.

Jared and Jim and crew did a great job of getting the trail at Area 1 and Area 7 into good shape for the race. Area 1 has not seen a lot of action this year and needed lots of Love. Those guys spent a few very HOT days out there in 100 plus heat index getting the course prepped.

The race was pretty cool, in that we did a Point to Point swim. Haven't done that yet. We swam across the lake to T1 did a lap and a half on the trails there and then around on the road and finished with a lap on Area 7 Trails and on to T2 at Liebers point. Good job on the trail out there Schmitty.

This time I came out the water a bit closer to the front group, pretty happy about that...but struggled to pull the top boys back on the bike...in fact not at all. The guys from Colorado are fast...real fast...at everything. I knew they were coming...I was hoping for really hot and humid weather to help level the playing field. I figured all is fair in love and war and if I go to Colorado and race, I have to deal with dry air and no oxygen, so why shouldn't they have to deal with 100 degree heat index and humidity. Well even though we had a break in the hot weather, it was still hot...and my plan seemingly back fired. Couldn't deal...got out on the run and couldn't go. My heart rate wouldn't come down to get comfortable to go as fast as I would have liked. Tom Woods - Lincoln guy and fast runner would go blazin by as would Kevin Bjerke...yep you read that right, Bjerke. He's from South Dakota, and a pretty good runner too.

I ended up finishing 9th overall and 1st age group to complete the Sugar Bottom, B.O.L.T. double. See above the Sugar Bottom Nut and Branched Oak Lake Triathlon Bolt in tandem. Shout out to Ben Cohoon for having a super first XTERRA and getting second in a tough age group behind Bjerke. Both Woods and Cohoon are newbies to trail riding and both did great. Maybe next year if you were the fence you should do it too...what would it take? Pretty fun and a good test.

Now we wait...Do I have enough points to get the nod for US Championships? I think so...but there is another race in FT Collins end of the month that could skew the XTERRA Mountain region standings...and the problem is I didn't register and now it's full. So the cards are on the table and I'll just look forward to Gravel Worlds this weekend. You in?