Cherry Creek Adventure

Ashley and I thought it would be a good idea to do a trial run at Cherry Creek Reservoir before the big competition on the 1st. I had no idea what we were getting our selves into.

As it turns out Cherry Creek has a mean case of swimmers itch. The website warns you to wash off immediately after you get out of the water to avoid being infected with this nasty parasite. Ashley had to actually stop reading about the warning in fear that she wouldn't get in the water. Strike #1...

I, for some naive reason, thought we could swim in the exact same spot that the tri swim is going to be held. Turns out that you can put boats on the water so therefore you can only swim in the roped off "swim beach" area. The day was hot and beautiful so as you can imagine everyone and their mom and their children were catching the waves at the fake beach. The little roped off area was packed with people and children. We found that if we swam along the back roped off area people, for the most part, stayed out of our way. The frustrating part is we didn't know how far we were swimming. Strike #2...

The reservoir supposedly has a water filtration system. You actually have to pay $2 extra to get into the park to help pay for the purification system. Ashley and I couldn't see 2 inches in front of us. The water was greener and murkier than Pueblo. Strike #3...

On the last lap I swallowed an entire mouth full of nar-nar, Cherry Creek Reservoir, supposedly filtrated water. I about got sick right in the water. It took me a while to recover. All I could think about was swallowing geese poo, swimmers itch parasites, kiddie pee, and grease and oil from the boats. It was by far to most disgusting experience I have ever had. Strike #4...

We got out of the water and found a shower to wash off in. Next we went to the other side of the reservoir to practice the bike ride. We were under the impression that signs were posted marking the tri bike route. Defiantly no signs. The streets weren't even labeled even though our tri map referenced the street names. Employees didn't even know the names of the streets. Strike #5...

We hopped onto our bikes and I soon realized I had a low back tire. Of course we didn't have a bike pump with us so we headed over to the marina. The men were very nice and tried to help us. Turns out our bikes take a special tire pump nozzle that they didn't have. Strike #6...

A day later I came down with an ear ache, possibly swimmers ear. Strike #7...

After this adventure, I expect our tri experience will be great! Our expectation are pretty low and we now know what to expect!