Elkhart Lake Tri Tragedy

Condolensces and prayers to the family left behind.

I grew up in SM, but she dates me by about a decade...

Prayers are with her family.

I was there. I had noticed a little "activity" at the SWIM OUT portion. Most of the OLY swimmers were focused on the start of the race, but a few of us had noticed there was something going down. To be honest the EL EMT were really calm and collected and there was not a sense of panic/screaming, etc. Not a lot of people even knew what was going on. An aquaintence of mine was in the boat that pulled her out. At first, she said she was fine and didn't need help, but fortunately a fellow racer and the boat pulled her in against her judgement.

The RD was really devastated. He never had anything like this happen before and you could tell he was shaken from the event.

My prayers are with the family.

Race safely everyone...

I'm okay, a little freaked after the race since it was a major topic of discussion. I have to admit. I talked 16 people from work into doing the triathlon and the thought "what if" crossed my mind. The reality is that we all put stresses on our body on race day. Makes you think about all the variables and take nothing for granted.

Wow that's really sad. Such a fun day turned so tragic.

This just breaks my heart. I was thinking about it on my run. If I am going to go. Let me go doing something I love like triathlon. I had heard she drown. I am so glad that is not true. I was racing that day and did not have any clue until Lara and I were walking through the bike staging area and overheard that she had died. This was 3.5 hours later.

So sad. My heart goes out to the family.

Has the cause been confirmed? If it has I may have missed it. Glad it wasnt a drowning, that would seriously put a damper on the entire thing.

Crazy things happen at the craziest times, sad deal all around.

Speaking of going doing what you loved, when I wrestled in High School a friend of mine from a different city was pretty damn good. One day after he won his match he stood up to shake hands and the ref raised his hand, he fell to a knee and regained composure. Stood up again, his hand was raised in victory and he fell again this time never to move again. Was a heart condition in a young man that had been physically fit his entire life. He truley went out a winner.......

Julie's obit: http://www.jsonline.com/news/obituaries/48117632.html

The obit quotes the local coroner saying it was "...an accidental drowning..." The obit further states that "...she swallowed too much water during the swim..."

I wrote in my race report seeing 8 turkey vultures circling the water while i was swimming. very strange and eery....... she was so young!

That is very disrespectful IMO....    a good friend of mine was there helping get her out of the water and getting her wetsuit off.

x2