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 Swim
Comments: Started in 3 second intervals. The first few hundred yards felt pretty good with the exception of the guy who started right after me swerving around the course like a drunken sailor. After he burned out I had clear water most the rest of the way. At about the halfway mark, I started to work more inside and stay right up against the small marker bouys which began the game I like to call "Tag The Bouy". Of course, I'd shoot to go just left of the bouy and would invariably donk into it. I must've done this 5 times or more. At one point a fast female who started after me swam right over me and it felt very intentional. I know she must've seen me. There was no way she couldn't. It pissed me off so much that I decided to return the favor and swam right over top of her. That'll teach her to intentionally mix it up on the swim. A bit after that, some guy grabbed my ass twice. He didn't even stop to ask for my phone number. Jerk. As I came out of the water, I was feeling pretty gassed. I'm having a hard time remembering whether I ran up the beach to the transition or not. I think I did... All in all, I was just OK with the swim. I beat last year's time by about 20 minutes but it felt like it should've been more than that. Perhaps I could've pushed it harder? What would you do differently?: Train more. Hit the drills a lot more and work on building speed.  Transition 1
Comments: This was a pretty crappy transition. I was getting distracted because the pros were in their T2 and they were right by my rack and the volunteers were going bezerk. I forgot to put my skullcap on before my helmet because it was sitting on my shoes. Stupid. Had to take the helmet back off and on. Stuffed GUs and Endurolytes into my pockets and was off and running. HUGE transition area so it was a long trot in bike shoes. What would you do differently?: Lay out my T1 stuff properly.  Bike
Comments: Today was a great day on the bike. The first half of this course is wicked fast. I was feeling relaxed, not pushing too hard and was still averaging over 20 mph. Somewhere in here I picked up a lady on a silver Litespeed. We'd be playing tag for the rest of the ride. The St. Paul side of the Mississippi is a little more uphill and rolling so it slowed me some. At about 40 minutes, I was feeling pretty gassed. The last third of ride has some rollers that sapped me pretty hard. My low back was also starting to get really achy which was a new feeling. Not sure what I'd done differently but it was really bothering me. At the end of the ride, however, I was really pleased to see an 18.7 mph average. I was hoping for 18 and would've settled for 17 so it was a great day on the bike. Transition 2
Comments: This transition went relatively smoothly. Its just that the run start was a LONG way from my rack and I didn't feel like running hard right away. That'd be a theme that would carry forward... What would you do differently?: Suck it up and haul a$$!  Run
Comments: Oh, man. This run just freakin' stunk. Sure, it was ridiculously hot. Like fry eggs on the pavement hot. But I know I had way more in me. Today I most certainly let my head get the best of me. I don't quite know why but I just stopped running a few times, especially during the first half. Part of the problem was that I had to pee SOOOOOOO badly from the second I got off the bike. Had I been thinking clearly, I'd have stopped to pee and could've turned in a lot better time. A guy came blowing by me about mid-way and said something like, "you're looking good but you gotta keep up. Let's go". Of course, he was quickly gone but it gave me motiviation to keep moving. At one point, I was running with a woman named Christine (I think) and some spectator was offering encouragement to a loved one behind us: "You look so great honey. You're doing AWESOME. I'm so proud of you and I love you". I turned to Christine and said, "I just pretend they're talking to me". With the love from that racer's lovely wife, we were able to kick it down for the last quarter mile. As usual, I got the Team Dork Rocket shout-out from the race announcer and finished with high fives and big smiles. God it felt good to be done! What would you do differently?: SUCK IT UP, BUTTERCUP!!! Post race
Warm down: Got my official ice towel (brought to you by Toyota), water (Dasani), sports drink (PowerAde), bread bites (French Meadow Bakery), and cookie (Baker's Breakfast Cookies). Everything at this race is sponsored or branded in some way. Somebody needs to fund the fat professional purse, I guess. Milled around trying to cool down and waited for Greg and Betsy to finish. A highlight was watching 88 year old Mary Stroebe finishing. She's nearly a century old and is completing triathlons in nearly 100 degree heat. Absolutely unreal. What limited your ability to perform faster: Heat, my current limitations, my head getting in the way. Event comments: Aside from cost, this is a great race. The atmosphere's awesome with the top pros racing and 2500 some odd amateurs competing as well. The race runs like a well oiled machine and the 1300 volunteers were wonderful. If you don't mind paying $125 for a race, I'd HIGHLY recommend this one. Profile Album Last updated: 2006-02-01 12:00 AM
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United States
Life Time Fitness
95F / 35C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 709/978
Age Group = M30-34
Age Group Rank = 99/126
Woke up about 5:15 to the smell of coffee brewing. The best part of waking up... nevermind. Had a quick shower to wake up and a bowl of oatmeal. Greg and Betsy arrived at 6:00, we loaded up my bike and bag and we were off. One of the best parts of of this race is that we live about 10 miles away so we don't have to get up all that early. We were about a block away from our parking spot when Greg yelled, "Mother F--ker!". Aside from scaring the heck out of me, I was certainly interested to hear what was wrong. He'd forgotten the keys to the bike racks. DOH! Fortunately for me, MY bike was on MY rack to which I had the key, of course. So I unloaded my bike and hoped that Greg didn't have an aneurysm or get a speeding ticket.
I finally got to the body marking area to find my little sister doing what she does best. She says to the guy she's marking, "OK, now flex your bicep for me". He flexes. She says, "Seriously. Flex for me." He busts up laughing and is going to be just a little less stressed after that exchange. She's so awesome and I was loving that she volunteered for the race. She marked me up and we snapped a couple of pics and I was off to set up my transition. After getting my transition set up, I waited, waited, hit the porta potty, waited some more, waited some more again. You get the picture. Its a long time between when they kick you out of the transition and the start. I was lucky to only have to way an hour and 15 minutes but Betsy had to wait more than three hours. That's a real b*tch when its hot and humid. Finally, at about 7:45, they made the announcement I'd been dreading. The OLY course was being shortened for all AG participants because of the heat. They cut 3 miles of the bike and shortened the run to 3 miles. I get the run shortening but why they only took off 3 miles from the bike didn't make sense. After being a bit pissed and disappointed I decided it was out of my control and I was going to have the best race possible.
Managed to get in a couple hundred yards to loosen up. Of course, I had to wait another 15 minutes in the start corral for the start...