I met the Iceman in North Dakota

A bit late on this post: work, training and life have been bogging me down lately...
Anyhow - In late February I headed off northeast into what was the last direction I had yet to venture.  The drive takes you through a tour of landscapes that seem to change by state.  Prairie in Wyoming, to jagged limestone mountains in South Dakota, and soon after you cross the state line you are greeted by the snowy windsweped fields of North Dakota.  My destination for the week - Minot, ND. Less then an hour south of Canada and Home to Minot A.F.B., plus a helluva lot of newly tapped oil!

Minot reminded me a lot of my alma mater's College town of Greeley.  It was fairly flat except for a couple large hills leading down to the river, broad city arterials with fast food restaurants on ether side, and a 'project in the making' downtown.  I had ventured up here with Brianna and her Mom Kim.  Bri had been hired by the hospital in Minot as a RN and was moving up to live with her Grandma and Aunt.  I figured it sounded like a great excuse for me to have adventure into a part of our country I had yet to set foot in.

Triathlon training proved doable but difficult in this brutal winter climate.  The temperature ranged from 20 degrees to -10.  Props to anyone (Bri) who can keep consistent training in this weather!  My runs were mostly done outside with little to no exposed skin, and with the help of Yak Trax you could keep relatively good footing.  Biking was done on the trainer indoors, not much to do about that when there's consistently ice on the ground.  I was able to get a couple miles done on top of the frozen snow in a field with my mountain bike.  If you get a chance to go icebiking I would say go for it, does a wonder for you're handling skills!  Swimming was the same as always, just in a different building...  The Minot Swim Club was gracious enough to let me drop in their swim practice at Minot High School.  They also thought me breast and butterfly strokes-not too beneficial to Ironman swimming, but it's good to mix it up sometimes.

Dash at the start of The Iceman

The pinnacle of my athletic experience during this trip was at the Iceman Winter Triathlon in Grand Forks, North Dakota.  It started on a sunny, clear, -7 degree morning.  The snow was frozen and hard as a rock - as you would expect up here.  We started the race with an unusual run down a sledding hill, around a tree, and back up the hill into the transition area.  After fumbling with my XC skis I set off down the park's ski trail.  The first couple miles were spent jockeying for position and settling into place, only then you can begin hitting stride.  The course took us through a flat park area, across the street and over the snow plow piles, where if you're not careful you'll liable to fall flat on your back as I did.  We then skied down the dike into the river valley, and then the river bed where we used a makeshift snowmobile trail to navigate the cottonwoods and tall grasses.  Once out of the woods (so to speak) we skied back up the hill across the street and into the transition area.

Arriving to transition after the bike

Thanking God the skiing portion was over, and it was onto the mountain bike.  The temperature had climbed to -4 by this point.  But it did little to solve the problem of my ski goggles fogging up and then freezing, leaving me with little to no visibility.  I was ether that or face the cold with no eye cover.  I decided to keep the goggles on until I hit the turn around point and could go with the wind.  I was able to navigate the half frozen bike trail with only a few close calls.  The hardest part was seeing the barricades and detour routes they had set up due to the ice being to bad to bike on on parts of the bike trail.  I finally made it to the turnaround bridge that brought me my first time in Minnesota, and off the icy pavement to the off road section.  I sucked it up and braced the cold on my eyes and face so I could be able to see the snowmobile trail we were being directed down.  By this time we were strung out by enough so that I felt like I was completely alone out there.  Finally we came back into the transition area.  Still wondering how I had made it back with all my bones intact I jumped off my bike and headed out on the run.

Heading out on the run

The run started off with a sadistic climb up a 30' snowplow pile that was more ice then snow.  After tumbling down the pile I had a good view down the course spotting at least 10 racers I felt I could take down before the end of the race.  I took off along the dike once again hoping my Yak Trax would be able to grip the cold ice-snow.  I was able to catch three racers before we flew down into the riverbed again.  The course took us across the river (this year it was over a bridge and not the ice in which I found lame) and back into Minnesota where the route took us through a frozen marsh complete with thick grass and uneven terrain - a perfect recipe for twisted ankles.  I made it out of the marsh, and passed four more before crossing back into North Dakota.  It was then back up the dike wall catching two more, and slipping and sliding the whole way.  I caught the last guy I had my sights on with a quarter mile to go before returning to the transition area for the third and final time.

Now in most triathlons the race ends after only three legs, but the Iceman does things differently.  In the most unpleasant fashion you have sled down a 100' hill, run out around a cone, and back to the top, three times!  To make matters worse, the sleds were those crappy cheap plastic ones you find at the grocery store for 5$.  I never thought sledding could be so painful; and NOT fun.  Tired and hurting from running on the hard snow, I knelt on the sled and went for it.  The icy snow was far from smooth, and felt like a doctor checking your reaction with a hard hammer over an over again.  The second time down they thought it would be fun to put in a jump.  At this time I had spun around backward, launching off the jump and then biffing the landing.  Slowly getting up I see the guy whom I had passed on the last part of the run was starting down the second sled run.  I ran down the rest of the hill and around the cone, and back up for my last sled run down.  After a third painful slide,  I rounded the last cone, he was only 20' back now and it was a mad sprint up the hill to the finish.  Using the last bit of energy I had left after almost two hours of racing I finish just ahead of him with seconds to spare.

Grabbing my crappy plastic sled

Sliding down... backwards

I had completed the Iceman in 11th place - 1:41:06 with splits of:
34:20 XC Ski - 3.5 miles
1:15:08 Bike - 7 miles
23:18 Run - 3.1 miles
+Transition and Sledding time...

At the finish

Afterword we went to the Bluemoose tavern to try and replenish calories before the trip back to Minot, and then to Colorado the next day.  It was a interesting trip to say the least, it seems like it would be a lot nicer in the summer, but an experience none-the-less in the winter!  Next up is the Lake Havasu Triathlon in march, I will get that 'experience' down on here soon.  It will make for a good read...

Sunrise just south of Minot on my drive home

Driving home through the western North Dakota canyons