Pre-Race:

I was itching all week to get out to Madison. Some folks were leaving as early as Wednesday and most folks I knew were travelling on Thursday. Not leaving until Friday had me all sorts of anxious and I couldn’t wait to bolt out of town and get down to the race site.

The drive out there was long, but registration seemed longer. Registration started inside Monona Terrace on the top floor, but the line to register was all the way down the hall, outside, and continued along the side walk! Huh? It was never that bad in the previous years? The line moved slowly and there was bottleneck upon bottleneck while getting registered. It took two hours from the time I lined up until I had my timing chip in hand! Unreal. This is definitely something that WTC is going to have to work on next year.

By the time I got registered, I only had time to go back to the hotel and drop off my bags before it was time to go meet up with our fellow bloggers. Stu was nice enough to be our gracious host, and I finally got to meet blogging celebrities Sara and my long lost twin, Wil. Let me tell you, these gals are as wonderful in person as you’d expect them to be from reading their blogs. I felt like I have known them for years. It’s a shame we don’t live closer together as I think they’d make great training buddies. I also got to meet Pharmie, XT4, Siren, RobbyB, Manitouba Guy, and several others. It was a really great evening and it was so great to meet everyone. I love putting faces to names. Great food, great company and just a great night all around!

Saturday was mostly business. I strolled around the farmers market on the way to the expo, and then went off hunting for some cold weather gear. The expo didn’t have any full fingered gloves, and the bike shop that was in walking distance from the expo had sold out of them. So I ended up with some short fingered gloves instead. Not exactly what I was looking for, but it was better than nothing! I went back to the hotel, got my transition bags packed, my bike adjusted and headed down to check everything in. I made it back just in time to make our early reservations that we had set for dinner. Then it was back to the hotel to get off my feet for the first time all day.

I went to bed early that night, but was up early on Sunday. I downed my breakfast of cereal, Gatorade, some dutch apple bread and a Gu while I checked the weather forecast - high temperatures in the upper 50s, windy, and a 50% change of rain. Lovely! I left for Monona Terrace around 5:30 AM, got body marked, and made sure my tire pressures were good to go. TriAl v2006 had stopped by before I got there and left a sticky on my aerobars wishing me good luck. Better than that, he must have just been there, because he came over soon after to chat.

We walked a ways before I went back inside Monona Terrace to sit down and relax a little. There were folks all throughout the building and the pre-race nerves extruding from the athletes was so high you could cut it with a knife! About 30 minutes before the cannon was going to go off, I made my way down the helix to the swim start. There of all places, I bumped into Jason who I just recently discovered stalks me reads my blog and is the husband of one of Carol’s co-workers. It was so bizarre. Of the two thousand people or so all waiting to get into the lake, I ended up right next to him in the masses. It’s a small world! Jason is an ultra-marathoner so this Ironman thing was going to be a short workout for him!

Getting into the water and to the start line took almost the full 30 minutes. It’s always slow going trying to get athletes past the timing mat and into the water. I swam up front and center for the start figuring I didn’t want to leave any time out there on the course. The pros got a 10 minute head start, but it would soon be time for us mortals…

Swim:

BOOM! The cannon went off and I sprung into action!

I was going to follow the same plan as last year of going out a little strong to get clear water and then dialing it down after that. It didn’t quite work the same, though. I was getting hit and pummeled left and right. For the entire first loop, I just couldn’t get any clean water no matter what I tried. The turns were especially nasty. For whatever reason, everyone seems to like to swim to a buoy and then stop as soon as they turn to spot exactly where to go next. Never mind the hundreds of folks that are swimming right on your butt! Those corners are always just chaos. At one, I got kicked in the face and it banged my goggles enough to cause one of the sockets to fill up with water. I thought my contact lens had fallen out, but luckily it didn’t. I dumped the socket out and kept on swimming.

The swim was a rectangular course. The length out wasn’t so bad, but on the length back the water was pretty choppy. If I wasn’t getting hit and thrown off course by rogue waves, I was swallowing lake water, or having water go up my nose as I picked my head up to sight. On the second loop, things finally started to thin out a bit. It didn’t really help my sighting which was awful that day, but it was nice not to get hit every few strokes.

Soon, I was making my way back to the beach ready to hit T1. I checked the clock at the finish, and saw that I had just done my worst IM swim ever! Well, my best was only two minutes faster and my other was less than a minute off so not all was lost. But it was still slower than I was expecting!

Time: 1:02:35 - 1:38/100m pace - 140th position overall

T1:

I exited the lake and made my way to the peelers. I checked quickly but couldn’t find who I was looking for so just stopped at the nearest person. Then I heard them, “Chris!!!” I looked over and it was Trimama and Trihubby waving their arms. I ditched the strippers that I had gone to first and made my way over to them instead. They were pros and had my wetsuit off in no time! They’re very cheery folks and it’s always a pick me up when I see them out there on the course. Thanks for the help!

I ran up the helix and into the transition room. It was much more crowded than I remember it being. A volunteer came over to help me with my stuff. I opted for a base layer under my tri jersey to try and keep me warm on the bike. It took me a little longer getting the tight fitting long sleeve top on with a wet body, but I’m guessing everyone was taking a little longer today.

Time: 9:11

Bike:

The plan for the bike was to ride easy for at least the first loop if not until mile 80. I wanted to get to mile 80 without feeling like I had done much work at all. But before I’d have that chance, I ran into other issues…

First and foremost, I realized that it was going to be a miserable day on the bike. I’m the biggest fair weather training person - I don’t ride when it’s wet and I don’t ride if it’s cold out. Well, Sunday I got to do both at the same time! I was sort of dry for the first half hour but soon after, the rain had completely soaked through my base layer and tri top and I was out in the early stages of the bike course completely soaked and riding in 52 degree weather. We had the wind at our back for the first few sections so it wasn’t that bad at the start, but I knew that tailwind was going to greet me as a headwind later on that day.

Somewhere around mile 30, a guy rides up as passes me telling me that my saddle bag was hanging on by a single strap. I second or two later, I could hear the bag rubbing my rear tire. I pulled over to the side of the road to fix it, but couldn’t really see what had gone wrong so I decided I’d just take if off completely and stick the whole thing in my back pocket. This should have been a trivial task but after an hour and a half or so in the wet and cold conditions, my fingers weren’t working so well. My fine motor coordination in my fingers had failed me and I lacked the physical strength to pinch with my pointer finger and my thumb at this point. It took a while, but I did manage to get it off and a minute or two later after the whole ordeal, I was back on my way.

Further up the road, around mile 40 or so, I had to pee. I thought about just peeing on my bike like I did last year. I figured, I’m already soaked to the core of my bones that if I pee on my bike, it’s all going to get washed off before I hit T2 anyway. But we had shifted from having a tailwind to riding into a rather strong headwind and I was just getting punished out there. I opted to pull over not only because it’s gross to pee on your bike, but also because I just wanted a break from the cold winds if just for a minute or two. I stopped and did my business and it was relieving in more ways than one! I wasn’t happy to get back on my bike and moving again, but I kept on.

Not too much farther, a guy goes to pass me on the road. He pulls up on my left and starts swinging back over to the right not even having cleared my front wheel yet. I yelled out, “Woah.. woah… WOAH!” but it was too close and I went onto the gravel shoulder. As I tried getting back on the road, my tires didn’t clear the asphalt lip and I went down. I suppose it was good that the roads were slick as I skidded down the pavement for a little bit before coming to a stop. A quick self assessment and I seemed to be OK. No sharp pains or bones sticking out from my skin. My hip was a bit sore, but I could live with that. I had some road rash on my legs and my base layer, tri top, and my toe booties now had a few holes in them. My shorts didn’t have any tears in it either, so I wouldn’t have to race around with my butt (or anything else!) hanging out all day. *phew* I hopped back on my bike not thinking to check it out first to see if it were safe to ride, but it was functioning normally. I could shift and the brakes worked so kept on my way.

The crash must have knocked the saddle bag that was in my pocket loose because another few miles up the road it fell out. I had to hop off my bike and run with it backwards to go pick it up. Have I mentioned that I’m still on my first loop of the bike course?!

Luckily, that would be the end of my misfortunes on the bike course unless you count my overall time which I haven’t gotten to yet. The crowds on the hills were awesome and I couldn’t believe how many folks were standing out there cheering their heads off despite the adverse weather conditions. It was just as awesome as I remember the crowds being and I was appreciative to have them there - especially for the first timers who hadn’t experienced the Madison crowds before. Verona was equally awesome! I saw Carol, my parents and my friend there who were cheering me on. I made it through the first loop and despite all that had gone wrong, I didn’t really feel like I had worked hard at all so that was mission accomplished.

I tried picking it up a tad on the second loop, but my body was just too cold to work as hard as I wanted it to. I’m pretty sure it had its own inner struggle that day of either listening to me and working hard on the bike or diverting resources to keep me from going hypothermic. I’m glad it over ruled my decision and chose the latter, for what it’s worth. On the second loop, I wasn’t going any faster, but folks around me were definitely going slower. I passed a lot of folks that I saw and remembered had passed me earlier that day. I like to keep mental track of folks who pass me early that don’t give the Wisconsin course it’s due respect. The hills on the second loop always seem substantially harder than the first loop. It seemed a little warmer, but not by much. I wasn’t shivering anymore, but I was still very, very cold. As I turned the corner onto the ~15 mile stretch of road that heads back to the transition area, I was greeting with a nice stiff headwind. Just what I needed when I was already down in the dumps. But it was the final stretch of the bike leg and I knew that every pedal was bringing me closer to home so I carried on.

All in all, it was the worst of my three Wisconsin bike splits by far. About 20 minutes slower than my first year and almost 25 minute slower than last year!

Time: 6:18:07 - 17.8 MPH - 431 position overall

17.8… ugh. I think that’s the slowest pace ride I’ve done all year including all my training rides.

T2:

It took a while to get my Polar HRM off my bike and ready to be used for the run. My fingers were still numb at this point. I eventually got it off and made my way into the transition area. I can’t tell you how happy I was to get those wet sponges off my feet and to put on dry socks and dry shoes! Ahhhhh! I was in heaven!

I chose to keep my base layer on. I was still cold and as the race went into the evening, it was only going to get colder.

Time: 4:19

Run:

My easy paced bike was supposed to set me up for a good run. Rich Strauss and Gordo Byrn always write about how folks over pace the bike and suffer for it on the run. That wasn’t going to be me today. I had also decided before the race started that I was going to take a one minute walking break per mile starting at mile one regardless if I felt I needed it or not.

The past two years, I’ve blazed out of T2 posting a 7:45 mile the first year and something like 8:00 flat the second. This year, I wanted to run as even paced as possible throughout the whole marathon so started out what felt extra slow. After having a high cadence on the bike for so long, I usually find it hard to slow down for those first miles of the run.

My parents, Carol, two of Carol’s co-workers - Nate and Stephanie, and my good friend T.J., were all out there again about half way into the first mile. They’re such troopers, standing out in the wet cold mess to cheer me on. T.J. reminded me to keep my pace slow which was hard to do because my legs felt great. I kept things nice and easy, letting folks pass me left and right. I wasn’t going to let poor pacing ruin my run.

Around mile two or three, I felt the ever familiar twinge in my knee.

“Oh, hello ITB! I haven’t seen you really since the early Spring! How have you been?”

Like clockwork, it’s always there to greet me the first week of September. It wasn’t bad for the first few miles, but the longer I ran the worse it got. I’d say the pain got bad somewhere around mile 5. Not good, considering I had 21 miles to go.

I managed the pain as best as I could but as the miles went on, it was harder and harder to pretend like it wasn’t there. Starting and stopping again was especially rough. I think walking gave it time to swell up and running again made that inflammation all that more apparent. I was bummed because I actually felt absolutely great at this point. My legs were fresh and my heart rates were still in zone 2 - something that I’ve never felt this late in the game. But that knee was threatening to ruin my run split.

My cheering section was there again at mile 6.5 on State Street. I was down in the dumps but seeing them cheering their hearts out really boosted my morale. Despite the ITB pain, I had been keeping pace, but my morale was dwindling. But, every time I saw them, they recharged me to the max and I was able to refocus and concentrate on forging on so I could see them again in another 6.5 miles.

Shortly before the turn around, I saw Tiffany from our tri club. She was all smiles and put some more fuel in my morale bank. At the turn around, I saw Trimama and Trihubby again and waved, “Hi!”. Except for my knee pain, I was still feeling great. It wasn’t until probably mile 18-19 that I really started to feel the effects of the miles before me.

“Nut up!”

I’m not even sure what that means literally (I suppose there’s a lot of slang that doesn’t make sense literally though), but it was something my friend told me that Rich Strauss had said in his pre-race talk in reference to getting tired on the run. I remember reading something similar in Going Long:

The race really begins somewhere near the end of the first half of the marathon. By this stage, everyone is feeling quite tired, and the race is starting to grind down people’s resolve. The second half of the marathon is where you will find out the results of your training, pacing, nutrition, and hydration efforts. It is also where you will discover whether you have the toughness to push well beyond your comfort zone. Athletes who are looking to achieve their very best should bring all of their mental strength to bear on the final half of the marathon…

So “nut up” I did and pressed onwards. Miles 20… 21. Time seemed to be moving faster during my walking breaks in the later miles and they weren’t long like they seemed like they were in the early stages. At these later miles, I knew I wasn’t going to break 12 hours like I had hoped earlier in the morning, but I had a shot still at a PR and a sub 12:10 effort if I kept on.

After my walking break at mile 23, my knee completely seized up. I’m talking like frozen solid; I couldn’t bend it in either direction. Try as I might to get myself to run, the pain was just too much.

“!@#$% What am I going to do now?”

I walked for another minute hoping that it’d get better but it didn’t. I was crushed at the thought of having to walk the rest of the way back. I only had four miles left and I knew I could will myself to run that far back no matter how tired my legs were. Another minute of walking and my knee seemed to loosen up a little. I tried running again and it was better than it had been the previous two times. I hobbled for a few dozen steps before it loosened up enough to let me run again.

“Woohoo! No more walking breaks for you! Suck it up for three more miles and you can finally stop moving for good!”

My legs were still tired but I just bore down and told myself, “Just a few minutes and you’ll only have two miles to go… That’s it! Come on, it’s just another two miles! You can do that in your sleep!” And finally, “One mile to go! Let ‘er fly!” Well, fly as best as I could at that stage in the game. I hadn’t given myself too big a cushion for that sub-12:10 goal time, but I knew I was going to make it now.

Those last few turns near the state capitol are heavenly. The crowds grow louder as you approach the finish. I knew that after a long, miserable day of terrible weather and internal suffering, that it was all be over in a matter of moments. I looked around and let everything soak in. I was ecstatic! Short of my planned walking breaks, I had run the entire marathon! Something that I have never done before! Floating down the finishers chute, I saw a big 12:08 on the clock and knew that I had made it.

Time: 4:34:14 - 10:28/mile - 549 position overall

Summary:

Overall time: 12:08:26. My fastest Ironman yet and while I personally still think last year’s conditions were harder, these conditions were extremely challenging in their own right. There wasn’t a time other than the swim and a couple of miles on the run course where I didn’t feel cold.

I swam a tad slower and transitioned a tad slower, but despite a 20+ minute slowdown on the bike this year, the energy that I saved out there gave me a 31 minute time bonus on the run compared to the previous two years. I’ll take that kind of trade any day!

I went inside Monona Terrace and can’t tell you how happy I was to change into some dry, warm clothes. It was totally the highlight of my day! I had been cold and shivering for the last 11 hours and the big, cozy warm sweatshirt that my mom and Carol had picked out for me was just what the doctor ordered! After the post race massage, I got my transition bags and went back to the hotel to get something to eat and sit in an ice bath for a bit. I then hobbled myself back to the finish line to see the remainder of the folks finish up.

As I write this, I sit here in my finishers t-shirt with stiff legs and a bum knee that still gets all sorts of pissed off when I try and move it at all. But it is true that pain is temporary and that pride is forever. There were many points during the day that I thought about throwing in the towel. While on the bike shivering, my mind tried to convince me that I already had two of these under my belt and I didn’t need to suffer today through another one. And during the run, I knew that I was going to be a full week at the very least with a sore knee and a few months of rehab before it would resemble being “normal” again.

“Is it worth it? I mean, really.”

You bet your ass it is!!! There is NO feeling in the world like finishing an Ironman! A HUGE thanks to my family and best friend who stood out there and cheered me on all day. You guys were what caused me to dig deep when I was struggling the most. And a HUGE thanks to all the volunteers that helped out on race day. I know that many of you would have rather been someplace warm and dry, but you all still stuck it out to help out a few thousands strangers who you’ll likely never see again. My deepest gratitude to all of you and to all the spectators to were out cheering us on when there were certainly more comfortable places to be.

I’ve got my hotel booked and my sign-up certificate in hand ready for 2007. The weather can’t possible be bad four years in a row, can it?! :) I plan on being there September 9th, 2007 to find out!

Pre-Race:

This is the race that almost wasn’t. I couldn’t decide until the last minute if I wanted to do the race or not. I took a day off work to do my long ride midweek, which forced me to do my long run this weekend. It was either run by myself in the heat, or do the race and eventually I decided on the latter.

I had a heck of a time getting registered. active.com wouldn’t let me register because it was too close to the race and the bike shop where you were supposed to drop off entries weren’t accepting them anymore either. I tried calling the number for the event series (which tells you to “call anytime”), but I got some girls voice mail and never got a return call. I finally winged it and saw that they had registration going on at the same time packet pickup was happening. I crossed my fingers hoping that it wasn’t full and made the 35ish mile drive out to Chisago Lakes to register. As luck would have it, they were still letting folks in. I figured, “Who in their right mind is going to sign up knowing that it was supposed to be over 100 degrees with a heat index around 110 today? Surely, there has to be openings.”

I got to the race area about 45 minutes before the race would start. I got setup in transition and said hi to a few of Carol’s co-workers who were doing the sprint tri that was also taking place. Then went to wait in the ginormous line for the porta-pottys. The minutes kept passing by and I knew it was going to be a close call. About five minutes before the first wave was going to go off (I was in wave two!), I was up. I did my business, grabbed my stuff quickly from the transition area and headed down to the beach.

Swim:

As most of you know, it’s been abnormally hot this July. I forgot the exact statistic, but it hasn’t been this hot of a month in Minnesota in a long time. As such, the water temperature was a warm 79 degrees. The race wasn’t USAT sanctioned, so you could wear wetsuits if you wanted. I opted to go without as I tend to overheat fairly easily. Most others that I saw heading to the beach weren’t donning them anyway.

Or so I thought. It turns out that pretty much everyone that was doing the half were all sporting wetsuits - it was the mass of sprint folks that were going without. I wondered how much time I’d be giving up without the floating crutch, but it was too late to go back and suit up anyway. Oh well.

The first wave of folks went out and I stood in position for the second wave. I started off in the front, but on the side since there were already people in the middle. The countdown comes and our wave hits the water! Folks were making a mad rush like there was some kind of prize to be won by the first person to swim the first 50 yards. I didn’t get it, but whatever. :) I think I was in a heat with fairly slow swimmers because it wasn’t long before I was out by myself. Normally I usually see one or two other folks around me, but really… this time it seemed really sparse.

I swam easily and comfortably. I reminded myself that this was a training day and a long one at that so no point in killing myself in the swim. The swim itself was more less uneventful. I managed to catch probably most of the folks in the wave before me. I got kicked pretty hard once in the shoulder. The guy was nice about it and stopped to see if I was ok. I think he thought he clocked me in the head. I assured him I was ok and not to worry about it.

On the last straight of the swim triangle, there was a bit more chop in the water. For whatever reason, it really messed with my ability to swim in a straight line? But eventually, the people on the beach started getting bigger and I hit sand.

I had a minor panic when I stood up and felt my timing chip fall off. I looked back and didn’t see it, but a second or two later I saw it float up. Phew! I didn’t need to waste time looking for that!

Time: 31:57 - 1:39/100m (1:30/100 yards) pace

T1:

The run up to the transition area was uphill, but wasn’t terrible. It’s always a little weird going from horizontal to vertical though.

I took my time in T1. I put socks on for the race. Got my stuff on and went off on my bike.

Time: 2:35

Bike:

Ooops! I forgot to take my HRM off my wrist and put it onto its bike mount (my HRM also acts as my bike computer). I stopped right out of T1 to fix that and kept on going.

The plan was to take the bike really easy as well. I really only needed to do a long run for training so everything else was just going to be filler. I took a good 15 minutes, but my HR finally did drop down into the 130 range.

“That’s where I’ll likely sit for Ironman so that’s a good place to be.”

So I ride for an hour or so and it’s nice and easy. But the course would turn and the tail wind would soon turn into a sidewind/headwind. I saw my speed slowly dropping and rode for a while at 15ish MPH. AND, I’m pushing harder to maintain that slower pace.

“I’m never going to get off this bike course if I’m riding this slow! This is going to take forever.”

I turned it up just a notch. I’m in the 140s now which is higher than I train at, and I really don’t want to be racing. But I didn’t want to be going 15 MPH either? I just told myself that I’d keep it up for a little while longer until the wind was more favorable. We did eventually turn again away from the bad winds, but the road we turned onto was terrible. It was hella bumpy I’d say for the next 15 miles or so. I’m going to need to see a chiropractor to put my spine back into place after that stretch of road. Bleh.

More pedaling and we turn again - it’s somewhere around mile 40 at this point? This time, the roads are smooth and we have what was that nasty headwind going in our favor now. Yaaahhooooooo!! I’d ride for the next 30 minutes or so around 25-27 MPH. I was in the big ring and the small cog pushing 85 cadence with HRs back down around 130 again. That was an awesome feeling!

Sadly, we didn’t get that tailwind all the way back to T2. There was about 5 miles more riding into the wind, but it wasn’t too bad. Soon enough, we were back to the base station and ready to hit the run. It’s start to heat up at this point.

Time: 2:46:32 - 20.2 MPH average

T2:

Again, I’m in no hurry. I changed shoes and tied my laces. My spectator friends stopped by while I was changing. I asked how their sprint went and they both had a good time. Maybe a couple more folks to be hooked on the whole triathlon bug. :) We said our goodbyes, I grabbed my race belt and visor and was off.

Time: 2:02

Run:

“Start off SLOOOWW. It’s going to be a long, hot day.”

So I start shuffling my feet, trying to go slow. It’s getting hotter at this point but not too terrible. Plus, it’s still quite windy and that’s helping to keep me cool. I approach the mile 1 marker and hit the lap time on my watch - 8:02.

“Gah! What part of SLOOOWW do you not understand? You can’t run your first miles this fast at IM because it’ll kill you.”

OK… lets try that again. Mile 2 - nope 8:25. Mile 3 - nope, 8:27. But just when I’m thinking to myself, “Self, maybe you can do something impressive here?” I start slowing down on my own. Similar HRs as I would see later, but just slower paces. 9:00, 9:12, 9:19 and so fourth.

I read someplace on their website that the run was flat. I need to hunt down whoever wrote that and have a talk with them. That run was NOT flat. Well, at least the middle miles were all rolling all the way. Not huge hills, but hills enough that it affects you.

There were lots of nice folks who turned their sprinklers on towards the street to give us some reprieve from the heat. It felt so good, but that eventually turns the shoes into sponges which isn’t so fun. I’d say my run felt pretty comfortable until mile 8 or 9. At that point, I was still holding pace, but it was just getting hot and I was ready to be done. I still had a decent amount left in the tank, but didn’t want to use it because I’d just get hotter. :P

“Just another 5 miles to go… Come on!”

I plodded along to mile 12. There was a guy on my tail that had been sitting there since the turn around. And there was a guy in front of me that was running faster than I was, but was taking walking breaks. He’d walk and look back and when I got closer to him, he’d start running to open a gap back up. He did that for about 2 miles. So with a mile to go, I decided to have a little fun and drop the hammer. I was willing to suffer for a mile and have the added benefit of being able to stop moving afterwards. :)

So I went. Went fairly hard and didn’t look back until I saw the finish area. I looked back and neither of those two were around anymore. I glanced down at my watch and had to do a double take. I’m almost positive that they didn’t measure that last 1.1 mile right because allegedly, I ran that last split in 7:01. No way. Something doesn’t jive. As much as I’d like to imagine that I could run that fast at the end of a 1/2, I’m too in touch with reality for that. :)

Time: 1:56:10 - 8:52 pace

Summary:

Overall time: 5:19:19. I actually was a little surprised at the time. Doing Ironmath on the course, I thought I was going to be a little over 5:30, so 5:19 was a pleasant surprise. I finished 42nd of 188 overall and and 8th of 26 in my AG. I’ll take all of those numbers for a long training day. One of these days I’m going to do a 1/2 to race a 1/2. Pushing harder on the swim and bike and not doing a race when it’s so hot… I think I have a sub-5 hour time in me somewhere. Given my effort and the race conditions today, I’m happy with my times in all three disciplines.

The heat was present but it wasn’t terrible. I finished just before the mercury hit 90 so I missed the 110 heat index - no complaints there. :) It was cool enough that the wind actually helped instead of feeling like a hair dryer, so that was nice.

Lastly, the pretty graph for Bolder and whomever else likes to see that sort of thing: :)

Well, we’re in the crux of things here during IM season and things are going pretty darn well. I had my first big volume week last week and my body is handling the load quite nicely. Almost too well? I would have expected to come off my honeymoon and really struggle through my first week, but I’m still here plodding along with no major aches or pains or major signs of fatigue. It actually has me feeling a little uneasy about this whole thing. I think once you lose respect of the distance, you’re setting yourself up for a harsh dose of reality. But I’m feeling relaxed and comfortable here and not stressed out at all. Either the past two years has prepared me quite well, or I’m in for a rude awakening come September 10th.

Really, the only thing that I’m struggling with is my diet and I’m actually doing well with that too. It’s a mental struggle more than anything else. I have soooooo been craving some Lay’s Kettle Cooked Jalapeno Chips for the past four days now. But I can’t buy a bag as they only come in single serving sizes of 1,260 calories per bag and once I crack open the bag, I won’t stop eating until I hit bottom. Better not to have it in the house, although it doesn’t stop me from asking Carol if she bought me any on her way home from work - I’m sure that’s driving her nuts by now!

I’m not seeing the pounds drop on the scale as quickly as I’d like, but my finger calipers tell me that I’m making progress so am starting to get some positive motivation with that. I don’t remember struggling as hard to get my weight down in previous years, but I never started this late either so I get what I get.

What else… I skipped out on Heart of the Lakes Triathlon this past weekend. I was going to slam the race publicly here, but whatever. I’ll just say that after hosting a race for 20 years, if you’re planning on making the race suddenly draft legal from non-draft legal in the previous 20 years, you should publicly advertise that fact. And I mean in big, bold letters on the front of your website; not have it mentioned hidden in the “What’s new in 2006″ link (who reads that for a 20 year old race anyway?). Oh yeah… and respond back to folks’ emails. My friend and I both wrote letters to them about the change and they didn’t have the courtesy to as much as respond to either of us. In any case, I won’t be going back to Annandale ever again to race or volunteer which is a shame because it was a fun race in 2005. But the whole thing left a foul taste in my mouth. OK… so I guess I did slam them here. But it’s my blog and I’ll whine if I want to? :)

I’ve been watching lots of the tour. I was really disappointed when all of the big contenders were cut out of the tour just a few days before the event. But it’s really shaping up to be a very exciting and interesting race. I loved watching Lance demolish the competition in previous years, but it’s turning out to be nice not knowing what it’s going to happen tomorrow. I can’t wait for the TT on Saturday!

Anyway, I’ve already gone and rambled on too much. It’s just about quittin’ time. Time to get home and get a few more hours in…

Pre-Race:

While I was at the wedding reception of our friends Larry and Grace the night before (congratulations, BTW!), I was seriously considering ducking out of the race. Waconia is rather far from my house for a “local” tri - it’s probably just under an hour to get there by car. But more important than distance, it rained nearly all night the night before the race and I woke up race morning to find that it was still sprinkling lightly. I teetered and tottered about whether to go or not, but finally decided that I had already paid so I might as well just show up. I knew it wasn’t going to be a fast race as my legs felt/feel really dead from my workouts this past week. I suppose any time is better than a “did not start”, though.

The entire way down, the rain continued to get worse and I kept debating turning around and going home. Or possibly just getting there and not racing, but just volunteering/cheering instead. By the end of the long drive there, though, the rain and died down and by the start of the race the sky had opened up and the sun was shining down. Maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad day after all.

Swim:

The swim was a two turn swim with an out, a straight a way, and a back leg. I lined up near the front again and tried to clear out my goggles before the swim start. The countdown begins and the announcer yells, “GO!” I run and dive into the water, but as soon as my face hits the water water gets into my goggles when then starts swishing around my eyes. There wasn’t a ton, but enough splashing around in there to be annoying so I swam a little further to get a small gap between most of the competition and stopped momentarily to let the water out of each goggle socket. Ahhh! Much better!

The water was quite choppy heading away from the beach. It seemed like every time I looked forward to spot or to take a breath to the side I was being hit by some rogue wave, but it wasn’t too bad. I figure, the choppier the better since I’m fairly comfortable in the water.

I’d say I did the whole swim at a moderate pace. It felt much more controlled and relaxed than my previous race. But it was definitely faster than my Ironman pace. I think I caught most of the folks in the wave in front of me and even a few in the wave in front of them. I hit the beach and just decided to head to T1 and worry about taking my wetsuit off there to save a few seconds.

Time: 13:01 - 1:29/100 pace - 2/44 (!) in AG

T1:

The moment of truth. I reached back on my newly retrofitted wetsuit top and unzipped the zipper while running to my bike. Once there, I pulled on the top and it came off like butter! Success!!! Much better than a couple weeks prior.

Time: 1:44

Bike:

“This is going to be ugly.” I just knew it wasn’t going to be a good day based on how my legs were feeling when I woke up. They didn’t hurt so much from normal walking, but if I extended them straight and flexed my quads, they were brimming with lactic acid still. I can’t remember the time in the last couple of years when they’ve felt like this.

But oh well! I was already out there and couldn’t do anything about that now. I started on the bike course and began reeling folks in. How am I reeling folks in when my legs are dead? Well, when you’re the 10th of 12 waves, you’re bound to have quite a number of slower folks ahead of you.

This year the race was sporting a new bike route. I hadn’t previewed it before and all I knew is that the course was two miles shorter than last year. I remember the old course being relatively flat and very fast, but the new route was nothing like that. It was rather hilly (for me, anyway). Lots of up on the way out and with a nice little headwind to boot. I tried not to think about it too much and just get as aero as possible and grind.

It didn’t feel good, but it was OK I guess. I knew I wasn’t going very fast, but the constant passing of folks ahead of me made it seem a little better. I only remember getting passed three or four times, which I was quite surprised at. I thought for sure folks would be flying by me at the pace I was riding at.

More hills and finally a nice tailwind to carry me most of the way home and I was soon rolling into T2.

Time: 42:07 - 20.7 MPH :( - 7/44 in AG

T2:

Also a new change from last year, this year’s course had us enter T2 from a different direction entirely. This was a great change from the past year where the bike course and run course all came down the same road. Meaning bikers were weaving around runners who were coming into the finish last year?! I remember that very vividly and it was quite horrifying.

But that was all well and fixed. I was dreading the run. Ugh. All the hills!

Time: 1:10

Run:

Spectators probably have no idea that there are any hills on the run. Right out of T2, you run down this road and then it kind of goes down a small hill and hurts to the left. It looks relative harmless standing on the beach. But the spectators don’t see the rather long hill that awaits right after that part. I hate that hill. Whenever I think about this race, I always think about that hill.

I paced myself up the hill telling myself again to keep my cadence up. Folks were actually already walking at this point, which was probably less than 0.5 miles from T2, so I actually got to pass people on the run! That’s a totally new concept for me! Haha!

I can’t say that I ran hard. I sort of half-assed the run knowing that I didn’t have the best of bike efforts, that I wasn’t going to place, and that there were more hills ahead. So I kind of throttled down to a mod/mod-hard effort and settled in. It was getting a little warm at this point, but I continued to pass folks which I found quite amusing. Honestly, I rarely get to pass anyone on the run so this was a novelty.

I hit the turn around and was pretty surprised to find out that I was just under eight minute pace for my effort. It didn’t feel like I had been running at a sub-8 effort which gave me a little more motivation to run harder on the way home. So I picked it up a tad. Back through a couple more hills and soon enough I was on the straight away back home. I took a quick peek over my shoulder and saw one guy, so kicked it in hard to the finish line. Turns out, he wasn’t in my age group anyway. :P

Time: 31:20 - 7:50 pace - 16/44 in AG.

Summary:

Total time: 1:29:19 - 7th of 44 in AG - 74 of 443 overall.

I was shocked to find myself that high in my AG. I thought for sure that I’d be somewhere in the middle of the pack given my effort. I’m thinking that maybe some folks didn’t show up that normally would have due to bad weather that morning? Although the bike racks were pretty full, so who knows?

The sixth place guy was just over three minutes in front of me which I was actually pleased with because even if I had pushed harder, I probably wouldn’t have made up those three minutes. :) Even more surprising, the eighth place guy was just under three minutes behind me so I was sort of in 7th place all by myself. A little odd to have a six minute spread like that in a sprint, no? Had I have known that eighth was so far back, I’d have slacked even further. ;)

My bike split was really disappointing. I’ve had pretty crappy bikes splits this year in comparison to previous years. Granted, I was exceptionally tired this race, but 20.7? I’ve done two half Ironmans, both of which I averaged 20.7 MPH on the bike. I certainly didn’t expect 20.7 for a 14 mile ride, but oh well.

The race was well run as it always is and the volunteers were great. I love how everyone has to run the same way through transition, meaning that you have to enter and exit transition at the same place regardless if it’s T1 or T2. It sort of eliminates the notion of getting there early for a “good” bike rack location. I really don’t like how this race puts the faster age groups in the later waves letting the slower waves go first. I guess it does allow more folks to finish closer to each other and probably allows them to close down the course earlier than they would otherwise. But it just doesn’t seem safe to encourage all that passing on the bike course that’s bound to happen, and I’m all about safety first. I suppose this debate is true for any race. Do you let the faster people go first and have a more open course, but have the slower (and probably older) people be left to finish alone and probably during a hotter part of the day? Or do you have the slower folks go first and be able to open up the roads back earlier at the expense of having many more folks having to use that open road to pass the slower folks in front of them? Arguments can be made for both cases, I guess.

I think this is my last year doing Waconia, though. I do like the race, but it’s a little farther than I’d like to drive for a sprint. And I really don’t like going off in the later waves which is how they always seed things there. I’ve actually thrown out the idea of not racing any sprints in the future and only doing 1/2 IMs or above. I’ve come to realize that it’s rather hard to train for an IM and have any kind of “sprint” speed at all. I remember thinking to myself at the end of the run today that I would place so much higher if we had to go do another loop. :) But I suppose this is all another post for another time.

This marks what is likely my last race until Wisconsin. I am still signed up for Heart of the Lakes, but that’s a draft-legal race that I’ll probably skip. I don’t have anything against draft-legal racing per se, but do have beef with how that particular race handled the change this year. I’ll sure I’ll post all my complaints for the world to read in place of my race report that day.

Pre-Race:

The Manitou Sprint Triathlon is a 1/2 mile swim, a 13.5 mile bike, and a 3.1 mile run. I was looking forward to the race because of the relatively longer swim in comparison to the bike and run legs. But with my wedding just a week before, I hadn’t really trained as much as I’d have liked to leading up to the race so I wasn’t sure what to expect. As I would come to realize later, the race was also a 2006 USAT Age Group Nationals Qualifier so there was a plethora of talent out there on the course. At least I’m assuming more than normal.

The day before the race, one of my friends was having his bachelor party which was fairly tame and consisted of basketball with the guys and a dinner of meat, meat, and more meat. So I was fat and protein loaded, but that’s pretty typical of my diet as of late. :P

I arrived to the race about 80 minutes ahead of the start time and got setup in the transition area. It was pretty chilly out, but I didn’t want to waste time in T1 with arm warmers or long sleeves or anything like that. I talked with some friends and met up with their families. I kissed my wife (!) goodbye, and proceeded into the lake.

The Swim:

(That’s me in the left most yellow cap in that picture, BTW :) )

I was in wave 4 with the elite wave, men over 50, and men 25-29 in the waves front of me. The swim is always the part I know that I’ll do the best in, but I always know that the first open water swim of the year hurts more than I expect it to. The water was a brisk 62 degrees, so I was happy to get going. Before I knew it, “BANG!” The gun went off and we were on our way.

I started up near the front of the group this time. I usually start in the back because I’m lazy and I usually end up getting to the start line late. :P But I figured I’d go right up front so I didn’t have to fight through the crowd too much. After just a couple minutes into the swim, the pack thinned out and I found myself around folks who were mostly swimming the same pace. Soon after, I started seeing some folks with green swim caps on… and red swim caps on. The good news is I was passing folks in the waves in front of me. The bad news is that I felt pretty flat during the swim. That and I was worried my wedding ring was going to go flying off into the murk of the lake never to be found again. Every few strokes, I had to hesitate and use my thumb to try and push my ring back towards my palm when it got too close to my knuckle. I probably could get it re-sized 1/4 a size smaller, but I anticipate being a little heavier during the winter months and don’t want my finger turning purple. :)

As usual, the swim seemed longer than I thought it was going to be - the turn around seemed to take forever to get to. On the way back, I couldn’t see where we were heading towards on the beach and people were swimming back in all directions. I just kind of stuck to the middle of the mass of people and kept swimming. Once I hit the shallow water near the shore, I tried taking my wetsuit top off but it just wouldn’t come off. Normally, the top just pops right off but for whatever reason (probably that I’m still fat for the season :( ), I couldn’t get it off. I probably spent a good 10-15 seconds messing around with it in the lake until I just said screw it and ran with it on into T1.

Time: 12:56 - 1:29/100m pace - 6/48 in AG.

T1:

I fought some more… and a bit more with my wetsuit top in T1. I was getting really frustrated and annoyed, wondering what would happen if I couldn’t get it off because I don’t think you can get assistance from anyone? I probably wasted a good 30-40 seconds just trying to get my top off.

(My top is current en route back to DeSoto to get a zipper retrofitted onto it so I never have this problem again. :P)

Time: 2:01

The Bike:

I remember the course from a couple years ago and thinking that the whole first half was up hill and the whole way back was downhill. I guess my memory was right because it seemed that way again. Someone said that we had a slight headwind on the way out, so I guess that probably contributed to that feeling some.

For pretty much the entire ride, I was riding all by myself which was a really strange feeling. The folks that were in front of me were way in front of me and the folks that were behind me were way behind it seemed.

Sadly, throughout the entire ride I felt flat. I was working, but I knew I wasn’t going very fast. I just haven’t ridden enough this year to post any kind of decent bike splits. :( The headwind out made for a nice tailwind back home and before I knew it, I was making my way back into T2.

Time: 37:04 - 21.9 ( :( ) MPH - 11/48 in AG

T2:

No wetsuit battle = yay! But without socks and with wet feet, my insoles were bunching up making it a bit difficult to get my shoes on quickly. I should probably put speedlaces back on my running shoes too. Getting my running shoes on right took a couple of attempts.

Time: 1:13

The Run:

After a weak showing at the GearWest Duathlon, I told myself I was going to run hard this time. There was this very minor uphill coming out of T2 that nobody would even normally call a “hill”, but boy did it feel like one just coming off the bike. I felt sluggish and tired, but kept telling myself to just keep my cadence up and just to keep moving my feet as quickly as possible.

I approached the mile 1 marker and realized that I hadn’t taken any splits on my own watch since the race started. Oops! So I hit the lap button for the first time at mile 1. The run course was nice and flat and ran right by the lake. It would have made for a really pretty run, but I was too busy gasping for air to really notice too much. I kept waiting to be passed by my friend who was in the wave behind me. Finally, at the turn around I saw that he was 10 feet behind me. He gave me his usual, “Already?” taunt and I told him that I saw someone in his age group pass me about 30 seconds ahead of where we were at and to go chase him down.

I clipped off my second mile in 7:0X and my third in 6:5X according to my watch. It seemed too fast to be true, and the official splits would confirm that something was, indeed, messed up. But although it wasn’t a sub-7 effort, it was still a good run for me.

Time: 22:27 - 7:15 pace - 23/48 in AG.

Summary:

Total time: 1:15:38 - 12/48 in AG - 94/542 overall.

Looking back, I expected my swimming to be considerably better, but I didn’t expect to be doing one arm drills during the swim, so I guess there was probably some time lost there. And my wetsuit top… that damn top. That’s only the second time that I’ve ever had a problem taking it off and the other was during a relay so it didn’t really matter. I definitely lost time and several places as a result of that.

My fitness is OK considering my lack of training in comparison to years past. At this point for the past couple of years, I bet I was already close to putting in 200 miles a week on the bike. I think my biggest week of the year thus far has been 150 miles and I bet my average week is probably closer to 60-70. As disappointed as I am with a 21.9 MPH average, I can’t expect to ride fast if I don’t ride my bike. :( That has to change soon. Hopefully, I’ll get a handful of 4-5 hour rides in before I leave for my honeymoon.

I’m happy with my run split. I was really hoping that I’d have run sub-7s, but even at 7:15 that’s the fastest pace I’ve ever posted in any kind of race, so how can you complain about a PR? My running still needs a boatload of work seeing that I’m at around the top 10% of my age group on the swim, the top 20% on the bike, but can barely manage top 50% on the run. Ugh… the run. That damn run. Slowly but surely, it’s getting better. I just wish progress happened a little more quickly!

Overall, it was a great day. The course was great and the volunteers were plentiful and helpful. We got a pair of shorts instead of a t-shirt which was a nice change of pace from other races. Mantiou is always a great season opener!

Sorry I missed you out there, Heather. Maybe next time. :)

As a former swimmer and someone who is (relative to the other two sports) a poor runner, I don’t know why I signed up for a race where I had to run not once but twice! But alas, this is my write-up of my first ever duathlon.

Pre-Race:

I’ve been quite the fair weather athlete this Spring, and while I’m happy with my current fitness given my training volume (or lack there of) this year, I knew that this wasn’t going to be a speedy day. That in conjunction with the fact that I don’t really enjoy running that much and that I really don’t like running hard, I honestly wasn’t really looking forward to the race.

It was a little chilly when I arrived. I had on warm up pants, a long sleeve fleece jacket, and even brought gloves so my hands weren’t too cold. I got my bike racked and transition area setup. By the way, packing for a duathlon is so much nicer than packing for a tri - no wetsuit, goggles, swim cap, body glide, towel, etc. to have to pack. Two pairs of shoes and a helmet and that’s more less it. Anyway, I stood around and chatted and soon we were on our way to the starting area. I would be in the third of four waves to start behind the elite wave and the women’s wave respectively. All the men 39 and under were going in this wave, so it was fairly crowded. My friend was wearing a yellow, long sleeve jersey and jokingly said something to the effect of, “Just so you know, I’m wearing yellow for a reason today.” That got a pretty good laugh from folks around us.

First Run (5k):

My goal here was to start out slowly and to not ruin my day by going too hard too soon in the beginning. Ideally, I wanted to negative split my run paces between the first and second runs. The starter yelled go and the race was underway. I settled in running easy for the first 1/2 mile or so. I started near the back and stayed there to ensure that I didn’t get caught up in race day madness and push too hard too soon. But after about 3-4 minutes, I opened it up a little and got settled into a steady rhythm. I soon started passing some folks in the waves in front of me and was getting passed fairly consistently too, so there was a decent mix of scenery.

The run course had a lot of up and down and was primarily held on grassy paths where there was one lawn mower width strip that you were supposed to follow. Having such a narrow path did make it harder to pass folks, but it wasn’t too bad. I stayed steady for the remainder of the run telling myself to keep it easy as there was still a bike leg and another run to come later. The end of the course has you run up a short but really steep hill which they so labelled “fun hill” on the course map. There wasn’t really anything fun about it, except that the finish line was soon after that hill.

Time: 23:45 - 7:55 pace - 214/355 (ack!) overall

T1:

Uneventful. Bike shoes on. Helmet on. Go.

Time: 0:59

Bike (17 miles)

This was the leg that I was going to work at. I figured I’d coast the first run, bike hard, and run with whatever I had left. So off I went onto the bike course. I managed to go at a pretty good clip and felt really good initially. The course was a little more rolling than I expected it to be and the wind always seemed to be in my face (but isn’t that always the case :) ).

I started getting a little tired after pushing for a while so checked my odometer on my watch to see how far along I was. It read “4.0″.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

I thought for sure I was farther along than that. I’m already getting tired and I still have 13 more miles here?! I’m not even 1/4 of the way there. Oh well. I throttled back a little bit because going on that clip that I was riding at for the first four miles would have totally caused me to blow up. I probably slowed down a little too much, but I didn’t want to roll into T2 totally exhausted. I played cat and mouse with a bunch of folks - I passed a ton of folks on road bikes going downhill and on the flats and most of them passed me going up hill. Tri bikes just don’t make very good climbing bikes.

Oh, and I guess I should mention the rather poor bike “etiquette” that was out there. I didn’t see any drafting really, but there were a ton of people riding in the middle of the road and riding on the left. So I ended up passing a bunch of folks on the right side and even crossed over the center line to pass folks who were riding side by side. Once, I even threaded the needle and passed right between two folks because I couldn’t go around - that was a little scary.

Pedal, pedal, pedal and I approached T2.

Time: 46:14 - 22.1 MPH - 56/355 overall.

T2:

Also uneventful. I changed shoes again and took off my arm warmers because it was starting to warm up (finally).

Time: 0:54

Second Run (4k):

“Why am I doing something where I have to run twice again? Tough. Suck it up and deal.” I headed out on the run course and realized that I have to run more less the same loop that I did for the first leg of the run. Ugh. It was like bad deja vu.

I pushed on, trying to focus on keeping my cadence high. My legs felt fine, but my body was starting to tire. By the start of the second run, I was already at it for over an hour and I hadn’t done anything intensive for that long yet this year. I kept plodding and telling myself that I was almost done and that in a few more minutes, I’d be able to finally stop moving.

More narrow paths and more hills. That “fun hill” was still not fun. Not even the second time through.

Time: 20:55 - 7:54 pace - 154/355 overall.

Summary:

I ended with an overall time of 1:32:45. 116/355 overall and 22/44 for my AG. I negative split my paces for my run, although barely. Looking back, I could have pushed a bit harder for both runs, but I doubt it would have changed that much. I probably could have run 7:30s if I wanted to, but 7:50 pace while cruising vs. 7:30 pace while suffering… I opted for the non-suffering. Yeah, I’m a wuss. :)

Sascha did the race, but signed up all stealth like so I didn’t get to plan ahead of time to meet her in person. She claims to have seen me there, but I think when she saw that I was wearing a tri outfit with arm warmers she decided not to associate with me. I don’t blame her at all - I felt pretty stupid, but it was cold! ;)

My “friend in yellow” ended up getting 3rd place in his AG. He missed first place by about 1:30 but beat the guy in fourth by just eight seconds.

The course was well organized and the volunteers were great, giving up their Sunday morning to direct traffic and cheer. All in all, it was a good day. I don’t foresee any other duathlons in my near future. I like having a swim and having a leg that I can feel good about. :) But I’m glad to have done the race.

Well, I made it. It wasn’t pretty, but despite “challenging conditions” and a race where most course veterans went slower, I managed to still I cut a handful of minutes off last year’s time and moved up the rankings by several hundred places. Without further ado, here’s the race report.

Pre-Race:

For the entire day before the race and the morning of, I couldn’t help but have in the back of my mind “this is going to suck”. Yeah, I know us triathletes are supposed to be full of positive energy and carry an endure all attitude. But I’m just being honest here. :) With Kona-like heat (as later confirmed by some athletes that have been there), this wasn’t going to be a standard Wisconsin fall day.

The morning started off with my incredibly healthy breakfast of two bowls of Basic 4 cereal and two Krispy Kreme donuts. Yeah, most people wouldn’t call that race fuel, but I needed calories in my belly that wouldn’t sit heavy in my stomach. Plus, my body really does seem to respond well to fat for whatever reason and it there was plenty of time before the race to digest.

When we got to the race site, it was already bustling with folks making last minute additions to their transition bags and pumping up their tires. I brought my own pump because the lines to have your tires pumped up by the folks there are always horrendously long. That inevitably means that everyone in a 10 foot radius around you says, “Dude, can I use your pump?” Whatever. I had to put my extra water bottle cage on (giving me four bottles - two of a 1200 calorie CarboPro mixture and two for water) anyway.

With the tires pumped and my transition bags all ready, all that was left was to don our wetsuits and head down to the swim start.

The Swim:

I positioned myself forward and to the left, giving me a pretty straight line to the first buoy. I really wanted to break an hour on the swim so I figured the less I had to swim distance wise, the better my chances. Wisconsin is an in-water start so you sort of tread water (well, just kick back and float with a wetsuit) until the cannon goes off. Right before the start, there was a helicopter that flew overhead that must have been a filming crew of some sort. That was awesome! How many times do you participate in something that requires helicopter coverage?!

BOOM! The cannon goes off and the washing machine begins. Actually, compared to last year, I didn’t think the swim was all that rough. I did start a little more steady than last year, so that probably helped me to have some clean water. But I throttled back sometime in the first length because I didn’t want to toast myself a few hundred yards from the start line. I swam pretty steady and fairly straight. I got kicked in the jaw twice, but that was half my own doing trying to pass someone without giving myself enough space.

The lake felt a little too warm for my liking. The water temperature was 74 degrees and I have a full sleeve wetsuit. I also have a tendency to overheat while swimming, so every 50-100 yards I’d take the top of my wetsuit (I have a two piece design) and flap the bottom of it to get some water inside to cool me off. That helped considerably although probably didn’t do good things for my time. Oh well, how many seconds could it really cost? Maybe 23? ;)

The lengths of the swim always seem really far. I mean, yeah it’s 2.4 miles in total, but the length of the rectangle seem to go on FOREVER! I kept thinking to myself, “Oh, we must turn here at this big orange buoy up ahead.” Nope. Not yet. Like every orange buoy I found myself saying that. Put I kept paddling along and finally I found myself turning the last corner and approaching the finish. As I was swimming towards the ramp, I took a look at the clock that was next to it and saw it tick from 0:59:59 to 1:00:00. !@#$%@ Oh well. Close enough. ;) Time: 1:00:22 - 1:35/100m pace.

T1:

The wetsuit peelers were awesome. They quickly got my wetsuit off me and managed to keep my tri bottoms on at the same time. I “quickly” ran up the Monona Terrace helix and I was inside to grab my transition bag and head to the changing area. One of the good things about being a fishie at Ironman is that there are plenty of people in the changing tent to help you out; you get the royal treatment. There was a volunteer working the changing tent that dumped out my stuff from my transition bag and placed everything very neatly on the floor so I could grab everything. After I was fully dressed and on my way to get my bike, there are volunteers out there calling out numbers of the athletes coming in while other volunteers further down the bike area go and grab your bike for you. Pretty slick. Ironman volunteers rock! Time: 7.22.

(P.S. Thanks for the T1 picture TriMama!)

The Bike:

It was a fairly comfortable temperature at the start of the bike leg. Still, I reminded myself that it was going to be a long day and to start out slowly. Or at least what felt slow? I was cruising nice and easy for the first hour or two. I don’t remember when it happen but I heard a ping followed by a thud. I didn’t hit anything but a quick check of my gear and I noticed that one of my bottles of CarboPro hit the ground. !@#$% That’s not good.

I should really go back and pick that up.

No, you can’t, you’ll lose time!

But I’m going to lose more time if I can’t eat. (A minute later…) I should really stop, go back, and pick that up.

No, you can’t. You’ll lose time!

Ok, but if I DNF, it’s your fault.

Ugh. So much for my planned day of nutrition. Later in the evening, I’d find out that my entire water bottle cage fell off. The welds just completely broke away on that cage and the cage on my left side also broke, but was at least still somewhat usable for the last couple hours of the bike. And these were brand new cages that I put on just a couple weeks before the race! Grrrr… the manufacturer is going to gear an earful!

But I digress! Onto plan B which I made up as I rode to the next aid station. It’d be Gu’s and Gatorade for me for fuel I guess. I never take any gels or plain Gatorade with me on my rides, but one of my better strengths is my cast iron stomach. It seems to be able to take whatever I give it without too much GI distress so I just went with it. What other option did I have, really?

The climbs actually weren’t as bad as I remembered them being for whatever reason. Maybe I’m a little stronger this year or perhaps it was just the power of the amazing 12-27 cassette? By the way, that cassette was totally AWESOME for this course. By far, it was the best investment I made in equipment this year. If you’re thinking about doing Wisconsin, I highly recommend whatever bailout gear you can put on your bike. Big cogs, compact cranks. I can almost guarantee that if you have it, you’ll use it over the period of the course. Hell, I’d have used a triple ring if I had one. :P But again, I digress. The climbs were covered with people on both sides. They were cheering and screaming like mad. And as you approached the top of one of the climbs, the road narrowed bordered by spectators in Tour de France like fashion. It was totally awesome! Ironspectators come in at a VERY close second to Ironvolunteers. Both are absolutely essential in making the race what it is.

Fairly soon after the climbs, you hit Verona where the crowds again were in full force. The streets were packed with folks on both sides cheering and making noise. It’s such a nice motivational lift after riding for hours with virtually nobody around. I checked my bike computer and saw that I had averaged either 19.3 or 19.5 MPH up to that point (I don’t remember exactly which). That speed was fast for me, but not too fast taking into account a full taper and aero gear. Alas all good things must come to an end. Verona isn’t that long of a town and before I knew it I was back alone on the road. And that’s when things got ugly.

I estimate around mile 70-80, I hit a bad patch. I mean like nasty, dizzy, cramping, I-want-to-DNF type patch. Alone on the bike course, your options are really limited on who you can lean on for support. So I went straight to the Man upstairs. We chatted for a few minutes and we got my nutrition back on track. A few salt tables, some water, fuel, and about a thousand “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” later, I started to pull through the patch. I really owe Him one here.

The last 20 miles or so of the bike was with the wind (finally! it had felt like I was fighting a headwind that entire second loop)! I was feeling considerably better, but still cautious and I didn’t want to start cramping again by pushing too hard. About an hour later, I was approaching T2. In my opinion, there are two great moments in an Ironman. The first obviously, is the finishers chute. The second is seeing the transition area after riding 112 miles. Monona Terrace was sure a sight for sore eyes. Time: 5:56:47 - 18.83 MPH.

T2:

This ended up being a little more crowded than T1. But soon after I dumped my stuff on the ground, there was someone was there to help me sort things out. I decided this year to go with a fresh pair of socks. I took my old ones off and went to put on my new pair. Cramp. @#$! that hurt! I waited a few seconds. “Lets try that again.” Cramp. Ugh. But the third time was a charm and I got both my socks and shoes on and headed out the gate. Time: 4:12.

The Run:

By now, it’s hot. I mean Africa hot.

The faster you move, the sooner you’ll be done.

Can you shut up here and let me run? You sit up there in my ice cooled skull giving me pointers. I don’t need your advice right now. Quit being a back seat driver and find some way up there to grow me a new pair of legs or something!

The first few miles went ok. I think I split something like 8:30, then 9:10… then 9:30? Then I started bouncing all over the place. 11 something, 9 something, 10 something. But I was still moving and for the first lap I had no signs of injury or anything which made my happy. I saw TriMama and her crew out there. I wish I could have mustered more than my weak smile and wave that I gave, but that was about all I had at the time. Sorry TriMama and crew! You guys were really awesome and while my actions may not have shown it, my pace definitely picked up after passing through your aid station. So a very big thank you for that! :)

I kept plodding. But I could feel myself getting more and more dehydrated and the cramps were ever present. Around mile 10, I pretty much had had it. I just flat out didn’t want to be out there anymore.

Come on. Just three more miles and you’re half way there!

Great. Half way. If the first and second best things about the Ironman are the finishers chute and the end of the bike respectively, by far the worst thing is coming approaching the finish line knowing that you have to run forgo it and go back out to endure another 13.1 miles of suffering.

For the second lap, there was considerably more walking. I was just plain tired. My run strategy changed from run to run until your calves start cramping, walk, and then run again when you feel like it. :P Pretty depressing strategy, eh? As I was walking on my second loop, I stopped to chat with a girl that was walking close to the same pace as me. Now, I talked to maybe… three different strangers while I was out there on the run course. This girl was one.

“Tough day out here, huh?”

“Yeah.”

(Pause as we stare at each other for a couple seconds… and in unison.)

“Why do you look so familiar??!”

As it turns out, this “stranger” actually was someone that was in my graduating class and that was a teammate of mine during my swimming days in college. How random is that? Of the thousands of folks out there, I randomly picked one who was part of just 30 of us or so that were the team. Until that day, we hadn’t seen each other in nine years. Crazy! We chatted for a bit. This was her first Ironman, but she had already signed up to do Lake Placid next year. Now she was having second thoughts. We chatted a bit more before I wished her good luck as I started another stretch of running.

About half way on the second loop, I start doing Ironmath. I calculated that if I wanted to suck it up and try and run 10 minute miles for the rest of the run, I could probably crack 12 hours. About 0.00015486 seconds later, I decide it wasn’t worth it and I didn’t care that much to have to endure that much pain. The new goal is to beat last years time. That still gives me some nice walking breaks but will still involve some running. Sounds like a fair trade off.

4 miles, 3 miles, 2 miles. Finally, we’re down to a mile left to go. Just a mile, but at the end of an Ironman that mile feels like it’s across the planet. But sure enough, I made it back to the capitol and got to be carried down the finishers chute purely by the energy of the cheering fans. If you’ve never experienced an Ironman at all, it truly is something special. If you’ve experienced it as a spectator, you have a small idea of what it must feel like knowing that those cheers are for you as you make your way down the chute. It makes the pain (almost) worth it. ;) Time: 5:05:31.

“You’re an Ironman!”

Summary and The Carnage:

“I’ve never seen so many DNF’s so early in the race,” said Marc Roy, the timer of today’s events.

Since he’s been timing Ironman events for close to a decade, that’s scary to hear!

I don’t know if my prediction of record DNF rates were seen on race day, but there was carnage all over the streets of Madison yesterday. I’d find out later that evening that one of my neighbors that I train with didn’t make it. Around mile 12 he stopped to sit in the shade and massage out some cramps. He woke up later to find himself on a gurney. The next morning, I’d check the results to find that my swimming friend didn’t make it either. I’m not sure what happened, but saw that she DNF’ed. The entire run course was filled with sirens blaring in the background. I don’t know how many ambulances I saw that day, but it seemed like everywhere I turned one was there. And I’m sure there are many more stories of folks who DNF’ed. Real people with real feelings and many folks who put in the time and training, but just didn’t have things go their way come race day. On any other weekend, they’d have likely made it. But the course was just exceptionally brutal that particular day. This was the first North American Ironman where the winning time was over 9 hours. If the pros have trouble getting it done, I guess it must be tough.

Ok, enough of the scary talk. Back to the positive. My final time was 12:14:14. I ended up more less being right on target with my swim and bike. The run was well… the run. I ended up with a PR, cutting 7 minutes off last years time (but really only 3 minutes if you consider last years time included a 4 minute mystery penalty) despite extra challenging race conditions. If my description hasn’t been enough indicating how hard it was, my seven minute faster time this year moved me up over 300 places over last year’s ranking. I ended up finishing 303 overall. I’m actually pretty happy with that. 303 out of 2200 or so athletes isn’t too shabby if I don’t say so, myself. :)

Looking towards next year, I think I may need a break. My first year, I remember saying on my run that I never need to do another one of these again. But a few months later, I had an itch that needed to get scratched. This year on the run course, I said the same thing. “I never need to do another one of these again.” Besides, Wisconsin isn’t a practical option for me next year with the wedding and all (but I will be out there cheering for you participants - right, Wil?). Still, that gives me another couple months before Florida registrations starts. Maybe by then I’ll have developed another itch that needs to be scratched. ;)

There’s not really too much to report about the race. I more less used it as a long training run and I successfully kept Ego at bay. Not that Ego didn’t try, but luckily I kept convincing him every mile marker that we were going to drop the hammer at the next mile marker. I finally caved into his request at mile 12, but he only had 1 mile of fun. :)

It was a gorgeous day. It was a gorgeous course. Thanks to Trimama for suggesting the race to me. Sorry that I didn’t see you out there. I arrived kind of late and between running to get my race packet, running back to my car (parked several blocks away) to drop off my goodie bag, running back to the venue to use the little boys room, and running to the start line, I only had a couple minutes to spare. At least I got a nice warmup in. ;)

Mile Splits:

1. 8:50
2. 8:42
3. 8:28
4. 8:35
5. 8:26
6. 8:22
7. 8:22
8. 8:21
9. 8:25
10. 8:28
11. 8:24
12. 8:26
13. 7:22 (! Go Ego !)
14. 0:42 (last .1)

Final Time: 1:49:51

Pre-Race:

Being in the middle of a base period for Wisconsin, my goal for this race was more less to not push too hard and cause any extended recovery for the days following the race. Tomorrow starts a new base week and I need to be able to go out and give it a solid, long course day. As fun as these sprint tris are, racing one can make me feel quite wiped for days after if I’m red lined the whole way. My goal was to leave my ego and pride at the door and go at around a 1/2 IM pace.

The race itself took place in Annandale, MN. It’s about an hour drive from the Twin Cities here. It was a fairly quick drive and quite uneventful. The days leading up to the race have been very hot and very humid. The forecast for today predicted temperatures into the upper 90s with the relative humidity probably not that far behind. But with a whole week of biking and running in that mess, I felt pretty comfortable racing in whatever conditions the day would throw me. We arrived at the race site about an hour before the race so there was plenty of time to pick up my packet and get marked and all that good stuff.

I got setup in transition without any incident. As this course would have it, the transition area was quite long and setup such that the entrance and exit to it were both the same. In other words, if you were assigned a rack close to the entrance/exit that would save you a significant distance of running each time in transition alone. It’s probably not a huge deal, and it seems that most local tris actually setup their transition areas this way. But it hardly seems fair. By virtue of where our heat was to rack our bikes alone, my T2 times were at least 30 seconds to a minute slower than those in the first heat. How hard is it to make everyone have to run through the transition area on one end and come out the other making it the same distance for everyone? Grrr…. I don’t know why more places don’t do it that way. It just doesn’t satisfy my OCD. :P OK, I’m done ranting about that. New rant! I was in heat 8 of 10 (or was it 12?). Another late heat and another crowded course in what is historically the most competitive age group category. More on that later.

I didn’t warm up at all. This was part of my plan to take it easy and trump the ego should it decide to make a guest appearance. I figured I had a good 15 minutes to warm up while I was swimming in the lake! I sat with Carol until about five minutes before I was scheduled to go.

Swim (0.5 mi):

Because of the recent heat wave that we got, the water temperature was 83 degrees!! And some folks were still wearing their wetsuits?! AND, some folks were wearing full wrist to ankle wetsuits!! I get hot enough when the water temperature is in the mid-70s and I’m wearing my wetsuit. I don’t know how those guys did it. They must have felt like they were swimming in a hot tub.

I lined up at the front of the pack, but as the horn went off I had little motivation to sprint into the water. I was taking this easy after all? By the time the run into the water ended, I swam swimming in the middle of the pack - not the best place for me. I ended up having to swim over a few people and sprint out a few short spurts to get some clean water. From there I just got into a comfortable rhythm and started focusing on sighting and just swimming at a nice steady pace. I ended up catching folks in the wave or two in front of me (it was hard to tell because they gave everyone the same color caps) and made my way around the swim course in no time.

Time: 13:17 (1:31/100 yards, 5/50 AG, 30/473 OA)

T1:

Again, to make sure I was taking it easy I slowed down to make sure I spotted Carol coming out of the water. I smiled for the camera (although I had my eyes closed for the picture :P) talked to her just briefly and went on my way. I also stopped to put on socks which I normally wouldn’t do for a race this short. “If I don’t care about my time, I might as well be comfortable!” I grabbed all my gear and headed out onto the run course. Time: A blistering 2:25! ;)

Bike (21 mi):

“Let your heart rate settle and just pedal at a nice, steady pace…” Or so the plan was anyway. It didn’t really like I was pushing very hard at all, but looking down I was in a relatively hard gear. “Bah. It’s just that tail wind cooking. Just ride by RPE.” I could tell I was taking it somewhat easy when folks started passing me within the first few minutes of the bike.

Ego: “What are you doing? Didn’t you see that guy go by? He didn’t even have race wheels and he passed you.”
Me: “Ego?! I thought I left you at home?”
Ego: “Nope. I’m here, and I’m not letting go.”
Me: “Well, shut up and quit bothering me today. I’m riding easy.”

A little further up the road, it started to get more crowded as we caught up to the waves that left before us. It was either settle in behind someone to avoid drafting, or start riding on the left and passing people.

Ego: “YEAH! Now that’s what I’m talking about!”
Me: “… I’m only doing this so I don’t get caught drafting. I’m doing back to the right side after I made this pass.”
Ego: “But… there are people everywhere! Why bother getting back to the right and behind someone else?”
Me: “*sigh* Fine!”
Ego: “Weeeee!!”

And on and on it went. I didn’t feel like I was pushing that hard and my heart rate was in the high 140s and low 150s the whole way. But somehow, I ended up with what was probably my fastest bike pace for the year despite feeling like I was pushing harder in my other races. I don’t know how it happened… I really don’t. Time: 55:10 (22.8 MPH, 15/50 AG, 72/473 OA)

T2:

The transition took forever for reasons mentioned above. For as long as I had to run, they should have included that mileage in the run distance. It was at least 1/10 of a mile all together. Time: 2:00.

Run (5.3 mi):

It started to heat up a little bit by now, but nothing compared to what I had been running in earlier that week. We also had a nice breeze the whole while out on the course.

Me: “Nice and steady… Just settle in and make it a nice little training run.”
Ego: “Haha! You just got passed by a girl!”
Me: “Shut up. I get passed all the time on the run by girls.”
Ego: “Touché.”

The volunteers were great and they had hoses and sponges out there for us to help keep us cool. That’s the first time I’ve seen anything like that in a race less than a 1/2. I took full advantage. I saw the second mile marker and checked the watch. It read 15:00.

Ego: “7:30 pace! Rockin! Floor it!”
Me: “7:30… wha? That didn’t feel like 7:30. The course must have been marked wrong.”
Ego: “PR! PR! PR!”
Me: “I’m so not listening to you.”

So I slowed down a bit more. I let people pass me and told them that they looked good and to keep on going! I figured that was a good way to make sure that I wasn’t pushing too hard. If I were still able to talk and not needing every possible precious bit of oxygen to keep me alive, then that’s a good sign! Another couple miles down and I was getting closer to town. I was still feeling strong and my stride must have looked pretty good because I heard someone on the side cheering tell her friend, “Man, that guy looks great!” Or it may have been that I was generally smiling and giving thank yous to everyone that was on the side cheering. It was a nice, happy run.

Ego: “You have less than a mile to go. And you still have all this energy. You’d better not get passed or else!”
Me: “Hmmm… Yeah, that would be bad.”
Ego: “I think I hear footsteps coming behind you.”
Me: “Wha? *checks over his shoulder* That guy is like way behind.”
Ego: “But closing in… goooo!”
Me: “OK. Going!”

I took the last half mile or so to the finish line in pretty hard. I kept checking over my shoulder to make sure that guy wasn’t going to pass me heading down the finishers chute and was happy to see that he wasn’t gaining on me anymore. I crossed the finish line happy that I was done and happy to still have plenty left in the tank. I felt like I could have gone around for a second loop if I needed to. Time: 41:32 (7:51/mi, 25/50 AG, 144/473 OA).

Summary:

Total time: 1:54:22 - 16/50 AG, 85/473 OA. That’s about 5 minutes faster than I anticipated going, but I didn’t really feel like I had pushed that hard so I was pretty happy as that was the primary goal here. The fact that I’m not really sore or tired this morning confirms my pacing yesterday.

Also, my age group is brutal! That time in the age group below me would have had me on the podium in second place and only out of first by 2 seconds! And I would have been in 8th instead of 16th in the age group above me. Six of the top nine overall male finishers were from my AG! Crazy.

But it was a great day none the less. Thanks to the folks in Annandale that came out and cheered - it was the 20th anniversary of this particular tri! And thanks to all the volunteers out there to donated their time to make the race a success! These things just wouldn’t happen without you folks.

Pre-Race:

This would almost be the race that never was. I didn’t sign up for this race until maybe two weeks ago. I usually choose not to do any races that have less than a 1/2 mile swim since the swim is my strong point. But with only three races on the calendar for this year, I decided to break up the monotony a little and do another short race.

Packet pickup for the race was at Penn Cycle on Thursday and Friday afternoon and evening at their Bloomington and their Woodbury locations respectively. Now, for those that don’t know the Twin Cities very well, MinneMan itself takes place in Oak Grove, MN, a very northern suburb of Minneapolis. Bloomington is a good 42 miles from Oak Grove if you head straight south. Woodbury, MN is 44 miles southeast of Oak Grove, almost in Wisconsin! If you’re going to hold a race and aren’t going to have packet pickup available on race day, you might want to consider having packet pickup somewhere closer than on the opposite ends of the metropolis! Ok, my ranting is done. I promise. :)

Having raced the weekend before, things seemed to go much smoother before the race. I packed up most of my gear the night before and slept in a little longer come race morning. We ended up leaving a little later than I anticipated so I was rushing to get there as quickly as possible. As it turns out, my timing was perfect as after parking my car and walking my bike to the transition area, I ran into TriMama (that’s obviously NOT TriMama in the picture on the left)! Actually, she ran into me and was nice enough to stop and say hi. “Do you ummm…. blog? Chivalry.net, right?” I was impressed that she recognized me from just the pictures that she must have seen on my website. I guess it helps that there probably aren’t as many Asian people at these races. ;) Anyway, I was too star struck by her to have thought to ask for a picture with her to show you all that I met a legend. So for now, you’re just going to have to be jealous and believe me. ;)

I got to the transition area, racked my bike, laid out my shoes, and debated with my friend of whether or not we should bother wearing a wetsuit for the 0.3 mile swim. I finally decided it would probably be a wash and opted not to. We met up with his family and my fiance and made our way towards the start line.

Swim:

This would be the shortest swim leg that I’ve ever done in a race before. I jokingly always say that if the swim isn’t at least a half a mile, it’s not even worth getting wet for. Looking out at the swim course from the beach, the buoys just seemed so close to shore. Add to that the fact that the people that were warming up could stand up quite a ways out from the beach and I was wondering what kind of swim was this actually going to be? The two waves in front of us had folks walking out a good 100 meters off the beach before they went horizontal and started swimming. With 100 meters out and 100 meters back, we’d only end up swimming something like 400 meters? Oh well, so much for my head start that I usually get from the swim.

My friend and I lined up and were joking around quite loud all the way up to the sound of the starting horn. I don’t know if we were being loud or obnoxious (or both?!) or if everyone around us was just nervous. We seemed to be getting odd looks. Anyway, the horn went off and the water ru… I mean swim got underway. I started out in the front unlike last week and there was a decent amount of contact I was getting from the folks behind me. All that contact soon ended a minute or so in when folks actually had to start swimming. The buoys came up very quickly and I was heading back to the beach before I knew it.

My only mishap in the swim was that well… I was trying to relieve myself during the swim leg so I wouldn’t have to go on the bike or the run. Try as I might, I couldn’t get relaxed enough to go while swimming. I tried slowing down a little bit to see if that would help, but just couldn’t manage. Oh well… hopefully I wasn’t going to be out there that long. “I’ll just hold it!”

It was awfully shallow coming back to the beach as well. I trotted in for the last 50 meters or so. It was nice not having to worry about taking a wetsuit off for once! I headed into T1… Time: 6:53 (1:19/100 yards, 4/42 AG, 17/347 OA)

T1:

T1 was kind of a blur. I remember it not being as quick as I thought it would be seeing that I didn’t have a wetsuit on. I managed to get everything on and headed onto the bike course. Time: 1:00.

Bike:

I got onto my bike and started pedaling hard right from the get go. This is generally where I try and keep too many folks from passing me before I get to my real weakness being the run. Basically, I’m racing scared the rest of the way and just trying to do damage control. :)

The course conditions were pretty much ideal. Just a little wind and the course was quite flat. Around the 4-5 mile mark, I got passed like I was standing still. It was some guy on a black bike with a Hed disk on the back. I was pretty much going as hard as I could and he just flew by me. Looking at the results, there was a guy who averaged 26 MPH (top bike split of the day) on the course and he was in my AG. It must have been him.

Around mile 8-9, I started to lose my ability to keep pushing as hard as I had been. My HR started to drop and I just tried hanging on. My friend passed me here giving me his usual, “Already?” taunt. :) He’s a very strong biker and runner and actually ended up winning our AG today! He just ran a marathon two weeks earlier, so it was good to see him recovered and having fun out there.

I eased up just a tad before approaching T2, trying to save something for the run. I had no idea what my bike average and split was like at this point. My HRM also acts as my bike computer which was fading in and out while I was on the course. I ended up being fairly happy with my results. Time: 34:55 (22.3 MPH [that's closer to reality compared to the 23.3 MPH that they over calculated last week], 7/42 AG, 21/347 OA).

T2:

It seemed like it took forever to run from the dismount line to my area. I rack my bike, get my running shoes on and go to put on my hat. Clunk! Oh yeah… my helmet is still on. I should probably take that off. Unbuckle helmet, drop sunglasses. Fumble sunglasses. Finally get sunglasses on my face. Start heading out of T2. Grrr… I’ll figure out this T1/T2 thing one day and not be so slow at it. Time: 1:03.

Run:

Ahhh, my nemesis. Typically speaking, running and I just don’t get along. We never really have. But it only had three miles to taunt me this time, so I sucked it up as best I could. My legs felt much better out the gate than they had last week. I was careful not to start out the run as if it were a 100 meter dash. I think that and the fact that there wasn’t a hill right out of T2 made this to be a much more enjoyable experience than the week before.

The run to the turn around was hard, but manageable. I saw my friend coming back from the turn around a minute or two before I would be there. I said, “Go get ‘em!” and he could barely muster a response. As it turns out, he was pushing pretty hard trying to catch the guy who ultimate ended up 14 seconds behind him and in 2nd place. I guess that’s a pretty good excuse. Anyway, I get to the turn around myself and I’m happy not to see anyone too close on my tail.

As I approach the 2 mile mark, my friend Mr. Side Stitches pays me my normal visit. Right on schedule today, aren’t you Mr. Stitch? I do my best to ignore him but did end up slowing down just a tad for that last mile. I got passed pretty close to the finish line, but looked down at his calf in the process - “27″ and not in my AG. No need to try and out sprint him to the finish line. I look behind me and I’m clear, so I have a nice relaxing trot to the finish line. Time: 22:00 (7:20 min/mile, 16/42 AG, 80/347 OA).

Summary:

Total time: 1:05:48. 7th out of 42 in our AG and 24th out of 347 overall. This really ended up being 5th out of 40 in our AG because the real first and second place guys normally race in the elite category and weren’t eligible for rewards for whatever reason? I think it’s some USAT rule or something? Anyway, that put me two spots just below a podium finish and moved my best friend up to 1st for our AG! Good for him. He’s been at the sport for five years or so now. He deserves it.

I’ve pretty happy with my effort today. I didn’t push too hard on the swim, but gave it a good go on the bike and run. I’m much happier with my 7:20 pace than my 8:00 run pace the week before. It’s still slow, but it’ll get better. It’s hard training for Ironman which is more less all slower paced, long distance training and then trying to crank out some speed at a sprint tri. I think a good winter of speed work will do me good for next year, though.

All in all it was a good day. MinneMan actually ended up being a very good and very organized race considering it was only its first year! Other than my gripe about the packet pickup, they did a superb job with things! My hats off to the RD and all the volunteers, who are the real heroes behind the races. It was awfully nice for them to give up a Saturday morning of a long weekend to help us out. A big thank you to all of them!