Dare To Tri Maple Grove Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

I had my trusty nose plug and a general disinterest in this race, which helped me to stay calm. The water was a really good temp and felt nice and clean, so I started to enjoy the swim. Sighting was a little hard and I encountered the usual off-course swimmers and even slapped an obnoxious guy that cut me off (boy, that felt good!). It seemed like a good swim and I could have sworn I was over 34 minutes when I hit the beach, but I must have read my watch wrong. There was a LONG run to transition where I hit another mat, which I thought would end up being in the 37 min area, but everything added up in the end correctly. I did have a pretty darn good swim.

I can always stay on course a bit better. Also, I get a little bored and allow myself to stop and look ahead occasionally. I need to work on staying focused and keeping swimming.

This was good! My wetsuit was a bit tight, but I did the whole step on the legs trick and it came off like a charm. I am confused still by folks that struggle. I passed a few guys running out of transition to the mount line, so I hustled pretty good.

My rank is unknown due to some current issue with results, will fix that when I had the good data. I am pretty sure I passed two girls from the AG here.

This was a mediocre ride. I was passed by a LOT of guys and a few girls, but I also passed the two girls (maybe a third of a different AG). There are a fair amount of drafting & silly riding in the lane of traffic antics, which I don't like. FOrtunately I was able to stay out of it. The roads were also quite rough in long stretches, just not a great course.

I managed really well with drinking my sport drink (100 cals), having one gel, and one serving of bursts. So, I got close to 300 cals on this ride. Not ideal, but a fair bit better than I have probably ever done in an Olympic. I pushed myself a bit, but also stayed within myself.

I am bummed this course is long. At this rate, if it had been a true 40k, I would have set an Olympic PR and probably gone just under 3 hours (my long time goal). So, I will consider this a success. I was joking with my husband as I solved for x to determine what my time would have been at this rate on a proper course. See kids, you will certainly use algebra in life. I use fractions all of the time!

More biking would never hurt. I had been making gains by the end of July, but then blew off several bike sessions in the weeks before this race. With Ragnar the weekend before, I hadn't been on my bike for a whole week. I did one very short ride last week, but nothing else.

I thought this was pretty good since I put on tight fitting socks. I wanted to wear my "fast shoes" today, but knew I needed socks for this longer distance. I did that quickly, grabbed my hat and belt, and I was off. I am happy with this.

This was WAY better than my average Oly run. I lucked out with an overcast period of the day here. I did have to use the potty and was worried about my opportunity for finding an unoccupied option, but luckily saw a guy running out of one around mile 1.5. I will admit the one piece trisuit was a challenge in this. I had to be totally zipped up before leaving the john, and finding a place to put my race belt was awkward. I ended up with it around my neck. BUT, totally worth it!

My next challenge was the first two water stops were only water. I hadn't planned to carry a gel or anything (bad on me), so I started to wonder if they'd have any gatorade or gel on the course. Fortunately a stop around mile 2 did have gel so I grabbed two. I ended up taking one right around mile 3.25 and just a sip of gatorade later.

The run was great. I liked the two lapper this time because the crowds were more concentrated. They are cheerleaders at several points that helped lift spirits. They also had a lot (4 or 5) water stops on the course, which is really amazing. I lucked up with overcast skies and some shady trails. When I ran this course a few weeks earlier it seemed really difficult, but I was on fire today. I did walk up the steeper hills at the end, they were well outside of my comfort zone. But I made quick work and started running right away.

I passed a LOT of people and heard comments like "you look great, really smooth, keep it up." This seems ridiculous to me! I guess I had a good day :) I also got a ton of compliments on my shoes, which made me smile (I love them). Most of the folks I passed were sprint racers, so the 2nd laps was pretty quiet. But even then the water stops were nice, lots of people cheering, and even passed a few people. I was so glad to reach the park, it seemed to happen really fast. The finishing chute was odd because you had to climb up a little ramp. I am sure there will be lots of awkward photos.

I sort of wished I had pushed it 38 seconds faster, but what can you do. I seemed really ahead of schedule but the last few hills slowed me down. I am thrilled with this result, based on other Olys I have done.

They corralled us into this food area and all I wanted to do was lay down or stretch! So, I walked in circles a bit and then grabbed lunch. In retrospect I could have walked out and came back, but I was a little out of it. I sat and watched the finishers for a while while I ate, but didn't see any BT friends - too bad. Then I got changed, packed up, and rolled my bike back to the parking a half mile away. I was really pooped, so I knew I had given it my all.


Overall this was a good experience. My only frustration was pre-race communication. It seems that the water temp situation is the number one question for the majority of races, so more info would have been nice. For the second race this season I had to learn the water temp from a co-racer, which isn't right. In general I felt left in the dark. I would have known even less had I not "liked" the race on Facebook, which is too bad for those not on Facebook...