Tri for Kid's Sake - Triathlon

Swim went pretty well. Was a little worried coming into this one I would be stuck behind some slower people like last year but I was bib number 3 and the two guys in front of me proved to each be a little faster than I was so it all worked out great! I drilled someone's hand/head on the first 100 with my left hand but otherwise I would say the swim went well. I could have pushed it harder but I decided at about the 200 yard mark that I needed to back off a tad to really start pushing the bike. After you are done swimming you hop out and run out of the pool area all the way to transition. Guess about a 60-80 yard run give or take a little. I'm guessing the swim total time for me was probably right around 5-5:15.

Not much. Not sure how much I like this new tri-suit for swimming though. It doesn't cling to me nearly as well as the 2xU brand one does, but hey, this new one has my club name and everything on it so what do you do :P Guess I can invest in a speed/skin suit.

Everything went well up until I had to mount my bike. Had to go around the second place guy at the time because he was having problems getting on his bike due to the curb. Kinda threw me for a loop as well because it just threw a pipe wrench into my whole flying mount I have done in the past. Had issues getting my left foot into the shoe because the Velcro strap had strapped itself so I had to unstrap in and slide my foot in. Really was a pain and cost me a good 10-12 seconds of non-pedaling to get in. I did have the fastest T1 time over everyone as well though.

Dunno much. Practice a little more I guess but, "It is what it is.."

Ok. Here's where it gets nuts. My real time during the bike that they had me at was 41:xx whatever.(if you take into account my average mph from computer though at least 22.6)..Ok so after about a two miles or so I had passed both the second and first place guys who were faster than me in the swim. Here I am now leading the race and kicking arse Thor style! First corner they had volunteer's at telling us to turn. Ok easy enough. Well I did this race last year and didn't remember where the next turn was suppose to be at. I come up to the next left we could do and there was a cop about 50 yards past it sitting in his cruiser. I slowed way down and yelled "is that the turn?"!! He finally nodded so I had to do a U-turn and go back and make that turn. WTF!! So now I am a little rattled but still in the lead. I get going really good now as well with a tailwind so my lead is getting extended. I come up on another cop who is blocking the intersection where I thought maybe the turn left was at. He was literally parked right across the whole road going left and I throw up my arms like is this it? No response so I kept going and while looking back see the 2nd place guy continue to follow me. Well I guess that bung hole cop was blocking the correct road. Someone further back I think probably 4th or 5th place yelled at him and got him to move out of the way. Meanwhile me and 2nd place guy realized about 3/4 of a mile down the road we were screwed now. We took the next left we found and had to go through town(stopping at stop signs and such) and trying to find our way back onto the correct road course. Well we found it finally but I was FURIOUS!!!! Still am upset about the whole ordeal but hey. It's over now and there is nothing I can do about it. I really went hard as heck on that second loop to try and make up as much time as I could but I figured then my race was toast. Came into T2 PISSED! Oh and during this whole ride it had started to rain but it had let up and I couldn't feel my feet and one other appendage at that point!...hehe

Dunno. Guess that can happen when you are in the lead and they don't have anyone there telling you which way to turn. The cops botched this whole thing up. The people who yelled at the second cop said he was on his cell phone talking away before he would finally move for them. When I came around the second loop he was out of his car directing people which way to go.

I know I had the best bike time out there. Bike computer said I did 15.2 miles and I think it was at least 1.8 if not a tad more that me and the other guy biked because I didn't hit new ride on my bike till after a minute or two of biking. 22.6 mph average on there as well....timing had me at 18.9!...grrr

Well coming into T2 I was Mad...Real mad! Like I will punch a kitten mad!!!(I would never punch a kitten!) Feet were entirely numb from the wind/rain/cold so I went a tad slower than I usually do getting off the bike barefoot. I didn't want to scuff a toe/cut myself because of having no feeling. Curb about screwed me up but otherwise I made it to the rack with no problems. Had issues getting socks onto the froze feet then a little extra time getting into my shoes as well. I was dropping f-bombs this way and that way pretty profusely so if anyone overheard me I am sorry!

Got my race belt on as I was running and as I was running out of T2 they told me that there were only 2 people ahead of me! I couldn't scarcely believe it. My wife, sister, and brother in law were right by there with a bunch of other people cheering me on. They had thought I had gotten a flat/wrecked. I yelled that I had been leading everyone and the cops sent me and another guy the wrong way and we had done almost two miles extra! They were all pretty shocked. My wife took some photo's of me and if I can I will upload them onto here so you can see how pissed of a look I have on my face. Even the guy next to them said "Man he looks F*&king pissed!" I took off like a bat outta h e double hockey sticks!

Not much really. Feet were numb and I was frustrated with the cops on the bike course!

Did I mention I was mad yet? Well starting the run every step felt like an ice pick into my feet. They didn't "thaw" out till probably the 1 mile mark or so. I looked down at my watch and couldn't believe how fast I was running. I was right around 6:20ish and though wow! The first volunteer I went by I asked again how many were in front of me and how far. They said a man and a woman and that they didn't think to far maybe 1/4 to a 1/2 mile. I thought crap!!! Well after about a half mile of running I finally saw them. They were over a 1/4 of a mile away at least but I was gaining on 2nd place pretty quickly. I finally caught him on that one hill spot and talked to him about the cop screwing me. He was in third at that point and said the person behind him did the screaming at the cop and he had started to follow us but looked back and did a U-turn and was able to follow the correct course. I told him good job with his race so far and continued after the woman! Well I remember last year passing her during the run and it was kind of funny because this year I passed her about the same area again. She had heard about the cop screwing things up as well and said she was there when the cop had finally moved. Told Suzanne good job and went on ahead of her. I couldn't believe I had made up all that time/distance on the run! I came around the corner and could make out the finish line area ahead. I was the first to cross the line and my wife/ rest of the family couldn't believe that I had made all that up.

Run harder. Think the last half mile I could have went even harder. If I had just went 38 seconds faster on the run/bike I would have still ended up winning the entire thing outright even with the extra 1.7 miles of bike.

Walked a tad and started telling the volunteer's/timing guy what had happened out there with the cops. Told the RD and he just said sorry and not much else. I hung around to see others finish and congratulate them as they came across. Found out about 5-10 minutes later that I had been beat by 38 seconds by the 38th guy to jump in the pool...(go figure). Everyone told me good job on winning the race and that I had pretty much destroyed everyone. I knew I won in my heart and it seemed so did everyone else.


Nothing really on this leg.


Well overall I had an awesome performance. I should have won my very first triathlon. Everyone kept telling me good job on the win and such but really it's still a sore subject. The race is for a good cause which I am happy about. I was upset that at the awards segment nothing was said by RD about it or the cops screwing it up.