2005 Pickeral Lake Triathlon

As usual, the long 4th of July weekend at the cottage was fantastic. This year's holiday weekend was highlighted by the first annual Pickeral Lake Triathlon. Last summer sometime in August, after a particularly busy morning (skiing, golfing, running, and swimming), some of the older Elenbaas men said we should make an event out of all the activity. Soon enough the idea of holding a triathlon for the Indian Trails Association was concocted. The subject quickly became a hot topic and was thoroughly exhausted at every Steensma and Elenbaas family gathering for the next 10 months. But through all the hype some organization took place and a course and date were set. July 2, 2005 at 8:30am:

MAP

The triathlon was a great motivation for physical fitness. A number of the participants trained for months and by race time, were in better shape than they'd been in for many years.

We weren't totally sure of how the event would turn out in terms of participation and support. As it turns out it was wildly successful. There were a total of 16 solo participants and 2 teams as well as well over 30 enthusiastic fans and helpers.

The race began from the boat launch with about a 1/3 of a mile swim. I was very surprised with the speed of a number of the swimmers, especially Dan Kett and Dan Rupke...man could they hall. Here are a few pictures of the swim:








The 9.5 mile bike portion of the race turned out to be a lot more confusing than I ever thought. The night before I drove the course and hung up a few paper signs at critical points, but even I made 2 wrong turns. Around Sylvan there are a couple of roads that turn off Sylan Lake Dr. that can easily be mistaken for the correct path. The main erroneous turn results in a steep uphill climb toward M37 which could go unnoticed for a good 1/2 mile. Fortunately, I realized my miscues within a few hundred yards each time. But going the wrong direction really hurt a few people, most notably Evan who went more than 10 minutes out of the way. Here are a few pictures of the bike leg.








The 5.2 mile run capped off the event. There were aid stations after about 2 and 4 miles and some fans took seats at other locations around the lake. We decided to give runners the option of taking Bliss Lane or the out road for the final 1/2 mile of the run, and this provided for a great race to 5th place. Dan Kett took the out road while Jason, who was a bit behind him, took Bliss lane. Jason unknowingly passed him over that stretch and when he reached Indian Trials property he didn't see anyone in front of him. But just after he pass the basketball court Dan came down from the out road and caught him by surprise, passing him with about 50 feet left. Jason, suddenly aware of another runner, turned on the jets and finished 5th.



There were two other close finished but niether were as exciting. Derek and Jake did most of the run together but Jake's quickness was too much at the end. But both gave a good effort.



Steve and Marv ran together from Camp Henry and the brothers trotted across the finish line with their arms around eachother's shoulders.



Here are the overall results and and the results of each leg:

2005 Pickeral Lake Triathlon Timesheet

Place:	Name:	Overall:
1	Dan Rupke	1:26:49
2	Darren Schaaf	1:33:40
3	Mark VH	1:34:24
4	Randy Elenbaas	1:35:31
5	Jason Schaaf	1:35:59
6	Dan Kett	1:36:00
7	Paul Soper	1:40:41
8	Terry Kett*	1:47:32
9	Jacob Lannon	1:53:58
10	Derek Elenbaas	1:53:58
11	Evan Steensma	1:56:53
12	Dan/Sarah Kuiper	1:56:57
13	Doug Elenbaas	1:57:31
14	Roger Steensma/Susan Geschiere	2:00:30
15	Marv Elenbaas	2:02:41
16	Steve Elenbaas	2:02:41
17	Michael Johnson	2:09:12
18	Paul Smith	DNF

*Dropped out of swimming leg.

Name:	Bike Time:	Pace(mph):
Dan Rupke	0:37:01	15.40
Randy Elenbaas	0:37:24	15.24
Darren Schaaf	0:38:18	14.88
Mark VH	0:38:29	14.81
Dan Kett	0:38:38	14.75
Dan Kuiper	0:40:11	14.18
Jason Schaaf	0:40:18	14.14
Paul Soper	0:44:25	12.83
Doug Elenbaas	0:48:04	11.86
Derek Elenbaas	0:48:09	11.84
Roger Steensma	0:48:50	11.67
Marv Elenbaas	0:51:48	11.00
Jacob Lannon	0:52:18	10.90
Michael Johnson	0:52:22	10.88
Steve Elenbaas	0:55:35	10.25
Evan Steensma	0:58:38	9.72
Terry Kett	-	-
Paul Smith	-	-

Name:	Run Time:	Pace (min/mi):
Dan Rupke	0:40:06	0:07:43
Jason Schaaf	0:41:09	0:07:55
Darren Schaaf	0:42:29	0:08:10
Paul Soper	0:43:53	0:08:26
Randy Elenbaas	0:44:00	0:08:28
Mark VH	0:44:24	0:08:32
Evan Steensma	0:44:34	0:08:34
Terry Kett	0:45:32	0:08:45
Dan Kett	0:47:54	0:09:13
Jacob Lannon	0:48:16	0:09:17
Derek Elenbaas	0:50:05	0:09:38
Doug Elenbaas	0:52:52	0:10:10
Steve Elenbaas	0:52:58	0:10:11
Susan Geschiere	0:54:34	0:10:30
Marv Elenbaas	0:55:45	0:10:43
Sarah Kuiper	1:01:45	11:52
Michael Johnson	1:02:46	0:12:04
Paul Smith	-	-

Name	Swim Time
Dan Kett	0:09:28
Dan Rupke	0:09:42
Mark VH	0:11:31
Paul Soper	0:12:23
Darren Schaaf	0:12:53
Jacob Lannon	0:13:24
Evan Steensma	0:13:41
Michael Johnson	0:14:04
Randy Elenbaas	0:14:07
Steve Elenbaas	0:14:08
Jason Schaaf	0:14:32
Dan Kuiper	0:15:01
Marv Elenbaas	0:15:08
Derek Elenbaas	0:15:44
Doug Elenbaas	0:16:35
Roger Steensma	0:17:06
Terry Kett	-
Paul Smith	-

And some run pictures:











A special thanks to all those that supported us in the race. Thanks to the statistician Cindy, the photographer James, the aid station helpers, and the fans.





The event was so great, we even had t-shirts made. Marv provided the official "Pickeral Lake Triathlon" t-shirts for all and the Steensmas came up with the idea to unify by wearing "Team WaHoo" t-shirts.





For more pictures visit:
http://photobucket.com/albums/b245/Pickeral_Lake_Triathlon/?start=0