Maple Grove Triathlon: Dare to TRI - Olympic Course - TriathlonOlympic

Swim was made more difficult by having to sight so much and not go off of other people. Felt more tired than normal during the swim but kept a good rhythm going. Not a lot of traffic after the first 200. Buoys a little closer together would have helped. Goggles didn't leak again so that's a plus.

There was a decent run from the beach to T1 which isn't included in this time. Did stop before T1 to take my wetsuit off. Pretty ordinary here. Already had my shoes clipped in so I slipped into them once I was up to speed.

Nothing much. Wasn't able to tape my gels to my frame so that cost me a few seconds, but it's a few seconds, big deal.

Pushed the bike hard and thought I'd be a little quicker than this but I'm still happy. Course was a little longer than advertised so my pace was actually about 21.1 mph. Stayed in aero for quite a bit of it. One intersection we had to go through gravel because of construction, so that was sketchy but otherwise it was good. Met up with the sprint athletes with about 3 miles to go so there was more traffic then but a confidence booster too. Took one bottle of Heed and 1 powerbar gel.

Slipped out of my shoes before hitting T2. Grabbed an extra drink from the water bottle after putting on the shoes and headed out.

Legs were pretty tired from pushing it on the bike so I decided to go at a "comfortable" pace for the run. Took off at a pace I was comfortable with and thought I could hold for the duration and was flying past people. Held the pace pretty well and then picked it up for the last mile. Took 1 Gel about 1.5 miles in.

Smile more and cheer for the volunteers. I wish I would cheer them on more and express my gratefulness but during the course of the race I just zone out. I did go for a high five to one of the older male volunteers but his phone rang and he ignored me :( At least I got to high five the 3 little kids wearing the hamburger helper hands!! Sorry to the volunteer who's cup of water I accidentally dropped.

Was actually pretty exhausted from how hard I ran the last mile and sprinting the end to gain another age group position. Grabbed a gatorade and found a place to sit and rest. After awhile I grabbed another gatorade and walked to transition. Hungout afterwards for awhile and got some chow and visited with a few people.


I'm not use to a whole lot of post race activity but this was nice with the vendors and food and watching everyone finish. As usual volunteers did a great job and thank you to all the policeman (and women) who close off the intersections for us. Great race and would love to do it again.