Todd Dohogne and I were signed up to race in the combined age 80 and over coed division and our other Off the Front teammates, Marci Morris and Aron Rauls, were to race in the under 80 coed division. This was going to be an interesting race for us. We have mountain biking and adventure racing experience but, neither of us have ever raced a triathlon. We were worried about the speed triathletes would have on the run and bike especially, since they removed the dirt sections. We knew we had to hammer on the bike and attack the hills. We have a lot of paddling experience and hoped we could gain some time in this section too. We decided to use a running tow, which was a bungee attached to Todd that I can hold on to in order to keep his pace.
Pre-race
The rain stop when we arrived which made it nice for pre-race set up. I tried to pick a prime spot to hang our bikes on the racks in the transition which was on the end of the last rack on the way out to the gravel road. We put our biking shoes upside down in plastic bags to prevent the shoes from filling with water later. The radar showed more heavy rain and wind coming again. It started out a little warm and muggy but, I kept my tights and long sleeve base layer on since temps would probably drop once the rain started. I chose not to carry anything on my back since I knew I could hydrate after the short run once on the bikes.
Run 1 (2.88 miles)
We maneuvered our way to the front row with my bungee attached to Todd's pack and the start gun went off. We started off on the run pacing ourselves since we were warned of the "hills." In fact, the first run had some pretty decent elevation. We were thinking the elevation would be good for us since we are not flat road runners. Our goal was to keep our other teammates, Aron and Marcy, in sight since we knew they were faster runners. We seemed to be able to pass some of the teams the more hills we encountered. We came into the muddy transition area (TA) and quickly changed our dry shoes and put on a helmet.
Bike 1 (2.94 miles)
We took off quickly on the cross bikes onto a flat gravel road which was slick in spots. We seemed to be in a pace line with other teams until we reached the paved roads. I tried to hold on to Todd's wheel as close as I could. Good thing I had clear sunglasses on since I was constantly being sprayed in the face with his back wheel. We started passing teams once we reached the first couple of climbs. We could tell the wind was really starting to pick up so it was really helpful and fun working with Aron and Marci taking turns pulling in a pace line. This section seemed to go pretty fast and we found ourselves pulling into the boat launch in 3rd position overall.
Paddle (2.83 miles)
Todd and I felt we could use our paddling experience to either gain some time here or at least, hold our position. I was worried about the 31 total all male teams who might be stronger than a coed team. We had 4 checkpoints we had to collect on the paddle section which could be done in any order but, you had to punch the corresponding checkpoint number with the same number on the passport. Excited but, nervous about our current position we quickly put the canoe in the water and jumped in. It didn't take me long to realize we got in the boat backwards. You have got to be kidding me! Of all the years I've been paddling, I made a total rookie mistake. I decided the quickest way to correct for it was for each of us to carefully turn our bodies around in the canoe. Oh crap..this meant I had to steer the canoe. I don't usually have to do this. I became a little more nervous so, I made Todd still navigate so I could focus on the steering.
We decided to attack our checkpoints (CPs) in a counter clock direction. Each of the 4 CPs were in a deep cove which can be seen on the above map. Once we arrived to the first CP and punched our passport, we quickly switched spots in the canoe since Todd is more experienced with steering and navigating at the same time. However, I was surprised I seemed to do ok steering our boat on the way there.
It was hard to tell how we were doing overall now since teams went off in different directions. We seemed to be holding our 3rd place overall position at least in our direction. On the way to the third CP, the rain and wind really started to pick up. When we got close to the CP, Todd had a great idea and decided it would be quicker to pull over and run along the bank since it would be faster than paddling in there and back out. We were on our way back to the boat launch which was the last CP. The rain really started to pour and we were now paddling against the southeast headwind. We pulled the tip of the canoe onto the rocky shore. We both attempted to get out of the boat at the same time. Suddenly, the whole boat tipped since it was partly onshore causing me to fall into the water on my left side. Oh crap...again! That was some cold water! We came off the water in 3rd overall so managed to hold our position on this leg.
Bike 2 (9.4 miles)
The last bike leg was super hilly and mostly all gravel roads. This was good for us since we are normally mountain bike racers and we were hoping we could catch another team here or maybe lengthen our gap with other teams behind us. Initially, the steep climbs were warming me up since my clothes were soaked. But, I'm sure everyone's clothes were soaked anyway since we were all out in the pouring rain. The downhills were starting to getting a little sketchy on the cross bikes and water was starting to accumulate at the bottom of them. The downhills were also making me really cold with my wet clothes and my teeth chattering. I tried to keep focused on catching the top 2 teams. Where were they? I starting giving up hope on seeing them then, in the last few miles, my eyes spotted them. "Oh yeah! There they are!" Immediately, Todd and I started to really crank it out and passed them on a big climb. It looked like maybe the two person male team was a little tired. We bolted into the TA for the last time and heard we were now in 2nd place overall. We quickly changed into our cold running shoes with our frozen hands and soaking cold feet.
Run 2 (1.4 miles)
Initially, I was excited at this point that we were doing well and I could smell the finish line. However, Todd and I both felt like we were running with bricks in our shoes and could barely feel our feet and legs. The last run leg was mostly flat. I was worried some of the fast triathletes could catch us on a flat run. The first half started out on gravel which was getting really soupy and not easy to run on. Sure enough, the 3rd place 2-person male team decided to get us back by passing us up in the first 1/2 mile of the run. Bummer! We kept our heads up and keep trying to squeeze it out. We had about another 1/2 mile to go on pavement and headed up a short climb. I looked over my shoulder and there was another 2-person male team chasing us down. "Oh no you don't!" I turned to Todd and asked, "how bad to you want to win 3rd overall? Let's do it!" 
The Finish
We started to dig a little deeper on the last quarter mile of the race and found ourselves crossing the finish line in 3rd overall out of 48 teams and 1st overall coed team. We were both so stoked about our finish with our first off-road triathlon but, we were also freezing so it was hard to stand around to celebrate. I waited around the finish line for our teammies, Aron and Marcy. They came in shortly after us with an awesome finish and won 1st in their division and 5th overall. They also raced in the trail run the day before and both did really well. It was great for both Off the Front teams to podium and make our coach, Chris Mileski, proud!
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