Gull Lake Triathlon

I talk to Kelly probably all day every day and one of our recent conversations went like this. 
Kelly - Im thinking of doing Gull Lake Triathlon
Me - when is it?
Kelly - end of June
Me - Im coming!
I enjoy racing, travelling and seeing corners of America I wouldnt normally see on a family vacation, so Im always thrilled when Kelly lets me invite myself along.

We left a very rainy Tinley Park to drive to Hickory Corners in Michigan. Three hours and a Panera Bread later we arrived and headed on a reconnaissance to figure out the logistics of race location parking and moving all of our gear to the transition area. After that we checked into our hotel and the less said about that the better.

Morning came very quickly, far too quickly for me in fact, I only had 3 hours sleep bah. Im pretty sure that was due to the one hour time change and keeping one eye on our hotel room door.

We headed to the tri, parked up and walked 1/4 of a mile to transition to drop off our gear and get marked up. Olympic wave was due to set off at 7.45am and I had already planned to DNF on the swim due to my very sore foot.  I watched the swimmers, including Kelly, get counted into the water and then set off and hit the first two buoys before I hit the bathrooms and headed into transition to change my shoes and grab my bike.

I watched all the swimmers come in and leave and grew a little concerned for Kelly when she didnt return with the majority, I knew she wasnt a particularly slow swimmer so I expect she went off course a little. We'll never know. I waited for Kelly to come in just to be sure she was OK before setting off a couple of minutes before her.

Kelly passed me on the bike and yelled she wanted to make up some time which was fine with me, I was already shattered from lack of sleep. When we checked the triathlon place out the night before we had driven apart of the bike course which was incredibly bumpy and covered with pot holes. When I hit the first half mile point I spotted two drink bottles on the ground, one was a pink - KELLY's! She had lost all of her hydration in the first half mile. I tried to catch her to give her my spare bottle but she was already gone. DAMMIT

The bike course was rolling to say the least. It actually reminded me of a half marathon I did in Wisconsin. Thankfully Mother nature was kind to us, no heat, no humidity and more importantly NO HEADWIND. I tackled the hills the best that I could and it wasnt pretty. At mile 22 we passed a cemetery and I actually chose my plot. Mile 24 couldnt come fast enough. I did see one girl take a wrong turn on the course and thanked God it wasnt me. 

 
I headed to the finish line and racked my bike, Kelly was already out on her last leg of the tri, a 6.2 mile run, and I waited at the finish for her to come in.

The post race food consisted of french toast and breakfast burritos, very yummy, and I was really glad of it after having no fuel on the bike. It wasnt long until Kelly was back and after her quick dip in the lake, we waited for her age group award.

The triathlon closed down very quickly after that and I felt for those who were still finishing. If your bike was still hanging on a rack it was promptly laid on the floor while the racks were dismantled, so we  headed home but not without stopping for coffee.

Verdict: $75 race fee. A fairly small but highly competitive tri. Lots of tri teams and expensive kit.

Pros Good race event communications, nice race shirt, bike course was well marked, good race day organisation.

Cons I didnt win one but Kelly did and the medal looked cheap and of 5k quality, no bathrooms on the bike or run course, no aid on the bike course, no mile markers, first come first served parking.

Other Notes: the nearest hotel is 10 mins away but avoid at all costs. Gull Lake Inn.