Scott Tinley’s Extreme Adventure

This past Saturday Kurt (I know what you are thinking, he had a girlfriend, he is just my friend) and I headed up to San Louis Obisbo to do the Scott Tinley Extreme Adventure Triathlon. It involved an 800 meter swim, 17 mile mountain bike ride with roughly 5K feet of climbing, and 6 mile run. I lost all my brain cells and decided to do it on my single speed, for those that donno what that is its a bike with no gears. With that much climbing I didn’t sit down much.

So Sat we got to Lake Lopez, picked up our packets and decided that a quick swim was out of the question since we could barely stand outside for more than a minute and we were freezing. As much as we wanted to swim we both didn’t feel like becoming a human Popsicle. So we went to the movies. Zombieland-was actually pretty good. Then we met Mike and Julie for dinner. Mike did the race originally back in 2005 and wanted to do it again this year but had some injury issues but decided to come out and support anyway. Which worked out cause he was the token photographer and how I got all these great pictures (thanks Mike)!

Sunday was an early rise as start time was 7:30am. It was still dark when we arrived at the lake. Luckily the wind wasn’t blowing so it didn’t feel as cold as it did the day before. But it was still cold.
We set up our transition areas, got our suits on and took a minute to pose for a pre-race shot.

Finally got out of the water and didn’t fall on my a$$ coming up the slippery ramp. I was trying to pull off my wetsuit but it wasn’t easy cause I couldn’t feel my fingers, or my toes for that matter. It was really cold!

Here is my bike on the end, got there early enough to get prime time.

Kurt made it in before me and here he is taking some time trying to figure out where this thing goes. Once he got it on his head he was off.

This was the longest transition I have had on record. I was so cold I had a hard time getting things on. Now I know what it feels like to have no fingers. Finally I make it out and onto the LOOOOOONG bike section.

In the meantime our buddy Josh is practically on the run. Well here he is actually on the run but he was actually done with the race before I finished my first lap on the bike. Last year he won the race overall. This year he came in second. He is an animal!

Here is Kurt coming out of the sand trap.

Kurt on the run, he is such a happy runner. Look at that smile.

Josh makes a big finish. Yeah that ribbon thing wasn’t there when I finished. Actually they started packing things up when I came in.

Here I am coming through the sand trap.

The mountain bike portion started on the lower level around the lake. There was some short steep climbs with short descents. Some rollie pollie stuff and through the trees. Really nice. Then you head to the back of the lake and start heading up this really big climb. The climb seems to last forever, but its ridable. Until you get to “the wall”. You come around this corner and the hill gets so steep I couldn’t ride it on my single speed. I probably couldn’t ride it on my geared bike because it is all gravel. So it was a long “hike-a-bike”. But once you get to the top you are rewarded with the best single track down hill!!! I love the down hill. Its beautiful at the top and when you come down you get an amazing view of the lake the whole time.

Here I head out on my second bike loop and I was coming down a hill and right at the bottom only 2 feet from me is a young buck staring right at me. I politely asked him to move out of the way so I could pass and he politely didn’t stab me with his sharp antlers.

Then off to the run where I was joined by Kurt who had already finished and was so nice to pace me. He was very supportive and encouraged me to keep going.

The run is a little challenging because you do have to do two laps and like the bike there is a big hill. I walked up it but did enjoy the down hill run.

There you have it. 4:15 on the clock. That’s a long time. But had a great time. Oh and wasn’t last!

The nice thing about only having 5 women in the whole race is there is a good chance you win something. And there was only 2 people in my age division so I came in second!! Woot woot! Just don’t tell anyone there was only 2.

And of course wonder boy Kurt came in first even though it was his first Tri. And there was more than 3 in his class! Good job Kurt and Josh!!!

Now what will be the next big adventure?