NORSA's Couchman Rocks Yellow Creek Sprint

On Saturday, June 14, I (Kurt Couchman) ran the Jackie Kallal Triathlon at Yellow Creek State Park, near Indiana, PA, with the support and encouragement of my lovely wife Liz. Despite forecasts of ugly weather, the morning was perfect for a race: little wind, partly cloudy, warm but not hot.

Although I had less than the ideal amount of time to warm up, a twenty-five minute delay between being called to the starting line and the starter’s gun eliminated most benefits from warming up. The swim was half a mile, straight out and back in decently warm water with the buoys always to the right. I pushed myself a good bit harder in the swim than I should have, so I was pretty well winded by the time I got to the transition.

The bike was 9.5 miles on roads over rolling hills through forest and farm country, and those years of mountain biking certainly paid off when attacking the uphill stretches.

After getting off the bike, I had side stiches on both sides but pushed through it. The 3.5 mile run was basically straight out and back, partly curving around the lake. By this time, the sun had come out fully and it was hot. Or at least I was. And the showers afterwards were iceberg cold.

I learned a couple important lessons from this race:

1) Warming up fully makes for having a good time.
2) Swimming hard is stupid…it’s less than 1/6th of the race, and you can’t empty the tank too soon.
3) The last half mile or so of the bike is not the time to race the guy next to you…if it means you’ll get passed in the run.
4) And finally, yes, old people are fully capable of kicking my ass…so far.

I finished in 1:25:11 (4th of 14 in my age group). Full results here.

And as we left the park, the sky opened up and it started to pour.