2008 Pickerel Lake Triathlon

2008 was the 4th year of the Pickerel Lake Triathlon. The PLT has become a much anticipated summer event for the Indian Trails Cottages. We had another terrific turnout this year. 2008 was our highest turnout with a total of 18 people that completed the triathlon solo in addition to 5 relay teams.

The weather was perfect yet again and we met at 8:00 am on Saturday morning. The course is a 1/3 mile swim around 2 buoys, a hilly 9.5 mile bike ride around Silvan, Emerald, and Pickerel lakes, and a hilly 5.2 mile run around Pickerel lake.

Last year I surprised a lot of people, including myself, when I won it by about 4 minutes. This year I really wanted to defend my title and I put in a ton of training, especially on the swim. Winning wasn't my only goal, or even my most important. My goals for the 2008 PLT are below, listed in order of importance.

1. Beat Paul, who had boldly proclaimed to dozens of people that he was going to beat me.
2. Win
3. Beat Jason
4. Finish in sub 1:20:00
5. Win the swim section
6. Set the swim course record

I didn't quite reach all of my goals, but I hit my top 3. I know it seems a little weak for a 26-year-old to want to beat a 45-year-old so badly, but all I heard about for the 7 days prior to the PLT was how Paul planned to beat me. Then, when confronted, he totally denied it even though I had more than 5 independent sources.

The overall and results are below.

Place	Name	Overall	Swim	Bike	Run	Bike Pace (mph)	Run Pace (min/mi)
1	Randy Elenbaas	1:22:32	0:09:41	0:33:54	0:38:57	16.81	0:07:29
2	Jason Schaaf	1:26:37	0:11:15	0:33:45	0:41:37	16.89	0:08:00
3	Paul Soper	1:30:13	0:12:25	0:37:34	0:40:14	15.17	0:07:44
4	Dan/Terry Kett	1:30:48	0:11:11	0:38:21	0:41:16	14.86	0:07:56
5	Abby/Matt/Dwayne	1:34:14	0:10:52	0:41:41	0:41:41	13.67	0:08:01
6	Stewart Aspinall	1:36:14	0:16:35	0:35:32	0:44:07	16.04	0:08:29
7	Darren Schaaf	1:36:57	0:14:51	0:35:46	0:46:20	15.94	0:08:55
8	Mark VanHarn	1:39:52	0:12:34	0:42:02	0:45:16	13.56	0:08:42
9	Dan Kuiper	1:39:52	0:14:05	0:35:34	0:50:13	16.03	0:09:39
10	Steve Elenbaas	1:41:19	0:13:42	0:40:54	0:46:43	13.94	0:08:59
11	Dave Geschiere	1:41:46	0:15:01	0:37:31	0:49:14	15.19	0:09:28
12	Derek Elenbaas	1:42:10	0:17:41	0:39:40	0:44:49	14.37	0:08:37
13	Roger/Claire Steensma	1:47:17	0:18:14	0:40:36	0:48:27	14.04	0:09:19
14	Andrew Wiersma	1:47:17	0:12:09	0:40:33	0:54:35	14.06	0:10:30
15	Dan Wiley	1:51:48	0:13:57	0:39:34	0:58:17	14.41	0:11:12
16	Mike Johnson	1:52:15	0:12:00	0:45:45	0:54:30	12.46	0:10:29
17	Marv Elenbaas	1:52:24	0:15:59	0:43:04	0:53:21	13.24	0:10:16
18	Seth Kuiper	1:54:39	0:15:08	0:41:25	0:58:06	13.76	0:11:10
19	Grace/Haley/Lydia Elizabeth	1:56:27	0:17:54	0:45:53	0:52:40	12.42	0:10:08
20	Jenny Scott	1:56:43	0:17:23	0:48:52	0:50:28	11.66	0:09:42
21	Ben Elenbaas	2:05:50	0:15:32	0:51:20	0:58:58	11.10	0:11:20
22	Sarah Kuiper	2:09:32	0:17:08	0:51:17	1:01:07	11.11	0:11:45
23	Ken/Jan/Claude	2:10:36	0:19:50	0:57:45	0:53:01	9.87	0:10:12
Partial	Lindsay Elenbaas	N/A	0:15:13	1:00:26	N/A	9.43	N/A
Partial	Jim Verhoef	N/A	N/A	N/A	0:47:35	N/A	0:09:09
Partial	Erik Verhoef	N/A	N/A	N/A	0:48:00	N/A	0:09:14
Partial	Jay Schaaf	N/A	N/A	0:48:27	N/A	11.76	N/A

My greatest improvement was the swim. I set the course record (Dan Kett had a lower swim time in 2005, but we had a different swimming route that year) and had a nice lead going into the bike. I also introduced the triathlon wetsuit to the swim, which proved very helpful and somewhat controversial.

Name	Swim	Swim Pace (min/mi)
Randy Elenbaas	0:09:41	0:29:03
Abby/Matt/Dwayne	0:10:52	0:32:36
Dan/Terry Kett	0:11:11	0:33:33
Jason Schaaf	0:11:15	0:33:45
Mike Johnson	0:12:00	0:36:00
Andrew Wiersma	0:12:09	0:36:27
Paul Soper	0:12:25	0:37:15
Mark VanHarn	0:12:34	0:37:42
Steve Elenbaas	0:13:42	0:41:06
Dan Wiley	0:13:57	0:41:51
Dan Kuiper	0:14:05	0:42:15
Darren Schaaf	0:14:51	0:44:33
Dave Geschiere	0:15:01	0:45:03
Seth Kuiper	0:15:08	0:45:24
Lindsay Elenbaas	0:15:13	0:45:39
Ben Elenbaas	0:15:32	0:46:36
Marv Elenbaas	0:15:59	0:47:57
Stewart Aspinall	0:16:35	0:49:45
Sarah Kuiper	0:17:08	0:51:24
Jenny Scott	0:17:23	0:52:09
Derek Elenbaas	0:17:41	0:53:03
Grace/Haley/Lydia Elizabeth	0:17:54	0:53:42
Roger/Claire Steensma	0:18:14	0:54:42
Ken/Jan/Claude	0:19:50	0:59:30

As more evidence how badly Paul wanted to win, look closely at the following pictures.

Everyone nicely lined up before the start.

Paul, lunging forward in full stride ahead of everyone.

Paul (in the center) in an all out dive to get ahead at the beginning of the swim.
The bike was again very eventful, but at least we didn't have any flat tires. Jason and I both crashed at the exact same spot while biking around Emerald. Ben popped a wheelie going over a speed bump and his front tire decided to roll away, leading to a painful crash.

Name	Bike	Bike Pace (mph)
Jason Schaaf	0:33:45	16.89
Randy Elenbaas	0:33:54	16.81
Stewart Aspinall	0:35:32	16.04
Dan Kuiper	0:35:34	16.03
Darren Schaaf	0:35:46	15.94
Dave Geschiere	0:37:31	15.19
Paul Soper	0:37:34	15.17
Dan/Terry Kett	0:38:21	14.86
Dan Wiley	0:39:34	14.41
Derek Elenbaas	0:39:40	14.37
Andrew Wiersma	0:40:33	14.06
Roger/Claire Steensma	0:40:36	14.04
Steve Elenbaas	0:40:54	13.94
Seth Kuiper	0:41:25	13.76
Abby/Matt/Dwayne	0:41:41	13.67
Mark VanHarn	0:42:02	13.56
Marv Elenbaas	0:43:04	13.24
Mike Johnson	0:45:45	12.46
Grace/Haley/Lydia Elizabeth	0:45:53	12.42
Jay Schaaf	0:48:27	11.76
Jenny Scott	0:48:52	11.66
Sarah Kuiper	0:51:17	11.11
Ben Elenbaas	0:51:20	11.10
Ken/Jan/Claude	0:57:45	9.87
Lindsay Elenbaas	1:00:26	9.43

For a good time you need a respectable swim and bike, but the run can make or break you. I had a 1:30 lead after the bike and knew that Jason could catch me if he had a great run so I never let up. My dad provided on course updates so I knew whether Jason was gaining or losing ground. Thankfully my legs had enough left in them for a good run and I finished with new overall course record of 1:22:32.

Name	Run	Run Pace (min/mi)
Randy Elenbaas	0:38:57	0:07:29
Paul Soper	0:40:14	0:07:44
Dan/Terry Kett	0:41:16	0:07:56
Jason Schaaf	0:41:37	0:08:00
Abby/Matt/Dwayne	0:41:41	0:08:01
Stewart Aspinall	0:44:07	0:08:29
Derek Elenbaas	0:44:49	0:08:37
Mark VanHarn	0:45:16	0:08:42
Darren Schaaf	0:46:20	0:08:55
Steve Elenbaas	0:46:43	0:08:59
Jim Verhoef	0:47:35	0:09:09
Erik Verhoef	0:48:00	0:09:14
Roger/Claire Steensma	0:48:27	0:09:19
Dave Geschiere	0:49:14	0:09:28
Dan Kuiper	0:50:13	0:09:39
Jenny Scott	0:50:28	0:09:42
Grace/Haley/Lydia Elizabeth	0:52:40	0:10:08
Ken/Jan/Claude	0:53:01	0:10:12
Marv Elenbaas	0:53:21	0:10:16
Mike Johnson	0:54:30	0:10:29
Andrew Wiersma	0:54:35	0:10:30
Seth Kuiper	0:58:06	0:11:10
Dan Wiley	0:58:17	0:11:12
Ben Elenbaas	0:58:58	0:11:20
Sarah Kuiper	1:01:07	0:11:45

There are now only 4 participants who have officially finished the PLT each year. Steve and I have both improved each year.

4-Year Solo Finisher	2005	2006	2007	2008
Jason Schaaf	1:35:59	1:24:52	1:27:25	1:26:37
Randy Elenbaas	1:35:31	1:32:41	1:23:06	1:22:32
Paul Soper	1:40:41	1:33:17	1:37:40	1:30:13
Steve Elenbaas	2:02:41	1:53:09	1:43:12	1:41:19

It seemed like many of the participants improved this year. When I looked at the results, I found that EVERYONE who completed the PLT in both 2007 and 2008 had an improved time this year. A few had remarkably improved times like Derek, Seth, and Dave. But Mike made the biggest improvement by far. Nice work Mike.

Comparison with Last Year	2007	2008	Time Diff	% Impr
Mike Johnson	2:34:19	1:52:15	0:42:04	37.5%
Derek Elenbaas	2:01:48	1:42:10	0:19:38	19.2%
Seth Kuiper	2:10:26	1:54:39	0:15:47	13.8%
Dave Geschiere	1:52:04	1:41:46	0:10:18	10.1%
Paul Soper	1:37:40	1:30:13	0:07:27	8.3%
Ken/Jan/Claude	2:19:26	2:10:36	0:08:50	6.8%
Grace/Haley/Lydia Elizabeth	2:02:56	1:56:27	0:06:29	5.6%
Dan Kuiper	1:44:17	1:39:52	0:04:25	4.4%
Sarah Kuiper	2:13:01	2:09:32	0:03:29	2.7%
Steve Elenbaas	1:43:12	1:41:19	0:01:53	1.9%
Jason Schaaf	1:27:25	1:26:37	0:00:48	0.9%
Randy Elenbaas	1:23:06	1:22:32	0:00:34	0.7%

All the participants

The Elenbaas participants.

Jenny made Evelyn a great onesie. I know many of the other competitors did not appreciate it, but I couldn't resist dressing her up for the occasion. It says "My daddy can outswim, outbike, and outrun your daddy."