Pokagon State Park Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

Water was cold at 62 degrees, but not too bad. Pretty sure Racine was colder last year. Since it was a smaller tri, all the men started at the same time. I started out front with a couple of guys. One guy was too fast to draft off, but I was swimming shoulder to shoulder with another guy and after 100m of that, I decided drafting off him made more sense. I slowed the pace and stayed on his feet for the rest of the trip.

About 500m up, my guy (who actually is in my tri club, has the same coach as me, and we have the same swim threshold, but I didn't know this until the race was over. And the kicker, is he won the whole race) stopped abruptly. Turns out a kayak was trying to go through our path and we T-boned him. We both looked at each other and said WTF?? And then I tried to take the lead for awhile, but he didn't like that, so back to the feet I went.

Once you get out of the water, you still have to climb a huge number of concrete stairs and stones. Much like IMWI, except stairs instead of helix. The cool thing is they were anouncing names...and said, and the 3rd male out of the water is Scott schmeiser from Cary, IL! That was a good lift.

Not much. Had a draft, and was working. Could have pushed harder w/o the draft as I was saving my kick so I wouldn't keep tapping his feet. But, it wouldn't have gotten me a faster time.

Was very quick here, and actually passed my guy out of T1. So, I was sitting second overall and on my bike. Pretty freakin' cool feeling. Was actually the 3rd fastest T1 of the day.

Nothing. Very smooth. Calm, cool, and collected.

Got out on the course and the roads were wet from the previous night's storms. And it started to drizzle, as well. Kind of glad I took the bike out the day before in the same conditions. Got the shoes on and started to hammer. A few small hills around the park and then some rollers the rest of the way. Had the little bit of wind (5-10mph) behind us for the first part, which was misleading.

After about a mile or 2, Chris (swim guy) passed me. Noticed he had 29 on his AG and was probably going 1mph faster than me, so I just let him go, although I kept him in my sights for as long as possible.

The rest of the ride was uneventful, but definitely lost time on turns as I wanted to stay upright in the conditions. And there was one area on the road that had 10 inches of standing water. The RD told us about it at the Race talk, but it definitely required some effort at keeping the pedals at 9 and 3.

Around mile 20 after the turnaround I got passed again, by the guy that ended up getting 2nd. He was flying pretty good, too.

Finished strong, feet out of shoes, and into T2.

Not much, it was the 7th fastest split of the day (2nd AG). However, I need to get stronger on the bike, though. Worked pretty hard getting the run in good shape over the winter. Need to do the same thing with the bike.

Again, pretty fast here. Put on shoes, grabbed hat, belt, and garmin and off to the crazy run. Pretty cool thing as I got out of transition, they announced my name again! And there goes our 4th place racer, Scott Schmeiser.

8th OA T2

The run starts out net downhill, but it is a trail run. A very difficult run in that you are either going down (not fast b/c of the debris, mud, leaves, roots, etc.) or climbing up some very steep climbs. After the first half mile, I had to stop looking at pace b/c it was too depressing. I just kept going at a pace I thought I could keep for 6.2 miles.

It was mentally tough, too b/c you are in the middle of thick, thick woods and you can't hear anyone else around you. Every 1/2 mile you would see some chalk lines to follow and there was water a couple of times. I did take a wrong turn, but luckily a volunteer saw me and got me back on the right track..probably only lost 10 seconds there.

I pushed through this run, as hard as I could, knowing that I needed to pick up the pace or I would get caught. Around mile 4, I looked down after climbing one of the hills and saw this dude who looked like he was flying. He caught me, and I tried to run with him but only lasted about 20 strides before he dropped me like a bad habit. I kept him in sight b/c it was the only way to make sure I didn't lose any more spots (the last guy was in my AG).

I ended up keeping a good gap between me and the 6th place dude, though.

Run Splits, HR:

1m: 7:11, 148ahr
2m: 7:24, 153ahr
3m: 7:33, 153ahr
4m: 7:27, 156ahr
5m: 7:20, 159ahr
6m: 7:30, 162ahr, 174 Max
0.24m: 8:54, 165ahr


Probably do some trail runs. Even use trail shoes instead of the race flats I did use. No matter what I did to prepare, it was going to be tough. Same for everybody, though.

I talked with Chris (winner) and then got my stuff out of transition. Packed the car up and grabbed some clothes/shampoo. Went down to the lake to ice my legs. Took a shower in the locker rooms they had, and then got my athlete's breakfast (pancakes and strawberries).

Went to the award ceremony and got my hardware!


More time in the saddle, some trail runs. But this was pretty close to my best effort for this race, for sure.


Very, very, unique and fun race. The RD is detailed and takes care of his athletes. The venue is great. Lake is clean, and the park is beautiful. Tough run to get a rhythm, but kind of cool in its own right.