Lake Mills Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

...as summarized by the Excuse Generator XB49000.

It being cold, the water was cold which made racer Ratay cold. Despite "warming up" with a quick swim prior to the race, racer Ratay found his breathing restricted and he never got comfortable in the water. Also, he did a swim TT the day before, which meant he was still a little sore. And finally, he didn't really want to swim, because it required him to get even colder and wetter on a really cold and wet day. And racer Ratay does not like to be cold and wet.

While racer Ratay admits he's had some lousy swims before, this one had to rank among his lousiest. But it wasn't his fault. The water was too cold and too wet. Oh, and did I mention too dark?

Racer Ratay would prefer that future swims for this race be held in warmer, drier water.

Ha, ha, ha... 3 minutes... ha, ha, ha!

Racer Ratay would like to describe what happened during this transition, but he can't fully remember because apparently he was knocked unconscious, had X-rays taken, went through weeks of rehab and only then returned to the course to resume his race.

Actually, because his hands were so cold he couldn't feel anything-- couldn't get his socks or shoes on, couldn't get his helmet on and couldn't get his arm warmers on. It was kind of like watching a drunk trying to play "Operation".

Order a bacon, egg and cheese biscuit to enjoy with the large coffee I apparently sat down to drink.

The Excuse Generator XB49000 reports...

In addition to the weather being cold and wet, it was also windy. Sneaky windy, not gusty windy. But enough to slow things down on the exposed course. Despite the utter unfairness of the presence of such wind, which obviously affected racer Ratay more than the other racers because of his ample girth, racer Ratay felt he had a fairly decent ride.

Still, he was planning on only riding the scheduled 15 miles for this race. Instead, Race Organizers negligently and maliciously extended the course by a full .8 miles, completely throwing off racer Ratay's planned cycling energy expenditure. Really, it is to racer Ratay's credit that he managed to finish this course at all.


I would ride the scheduled 15 miles only, and immediately begin running despite not having returned to Transition.

Even the Excuse Generator XB49000 can't come up with a reason why this took so freaking long.

Go faster.

Because this run represents (by FAR) the fastest 5K I've ever run during a tri, the Excuse Generator XB49000 will not be needed for this portion of the report...

I'll just say this straight out-- I've never run this well before, ever. Yes, I've done a stand-alone 5K :10 faster than this, but that's a whole other animal. I have no idea where this came from. Coming right out of transition, I set an aggressive pace and my legs instantly responded. I felt none of the usual tightness or cramping coming off the bike. My legs just felt strong and I felt I was really pushing off the ground well.

I was BLAZING past other runners and only one other runner passed me throughout the run. Being a very mediocre runner, I've never experienced anything like this before. It was like having an out-of-body experience, or more accurately a it was like being put into the body of a Kenyan for 20 minutes. I felt so strong, so in control-- it was indescribably awesome.

It even made the rest of my crappy race seem not so bad.

Not a damn thing.

Did I mention it was 50 degrees and rainy? I went running to put on warm, dry clothes.


The fact this wasn't a real high-priority race and that I didn't taper or focus during my transitions.


As always, it was a great race for hanging with fellow Donks and just shaking the legs out.

My swim and transitions were terrible, but it ain't no thang. It just didn't matter that much to me. But that run is one I won't forget for a long, long time.