Oh how the Triathlon Gods smiled on everyone at Scofield this last weekend! The morning started off cloudy for the first 2+ hours or so until it finally got up to 80 degrees in the heat of the day. I had the pleasure of doing my first “Escape” distance, and let me tell you what a blast I had! The Escape distance is a 1.75 mile swim, 39 mile bike & 10 mile run.
We arrived a little after 6:30 to get set up and by 7:30 we were on the boats waiting to be taken out to ‘the island’. ‘The island’ is 1.75 miles away and it took us about 15 minutes minutes away-by boat!
When we got there we all laughed and had a fun time getting warmed up in the water waiting for the 8am start.
At last the bull horn sounded and we were off! The water temp was in the high 60′s and the visibility was about 15-20 feet. We couldn’t ask for anything more. It was a little difficult to sight and I know that there was a lot of zig zagging on several parties. It would have been great if there were some other buoys out there that we could sight off of. While it took some time we all made it back to shore and we were off to start the bike.
Now the bike course is something to be taken seriously as there is 3,000 feet of total gain. The first 8 miles is pretty flat, but then for about 5+ miles it starts to go up and up and up and up and up and up. It is probably a 6-8% grade that is just relentless. Once you get to the summit you drop 1,000 feet in elevation and go through some rollers for another few miles and then get to the turn around and repeat. It’s pretty safe to say that our legs were pretty hammered climbing that 2nd hill to get back up to the summit.
The run is a very flat out and back course. There is no shade on the course at all! If it was any hotter, I would have brought a Fuel Belt or something, as the aid stations are about every 1.5 miles apart. The water and Heed was cool/iced though, and that was very helpful.
While the price tag for this particular distance is a little pricey, I would definitely recommend this to anyone who is looking for a bigger challenge and to have a screaming fun time doing this crazy sport we love that is called triathlon.
You’ll see me in Scofield again next year. Count on it!
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