Swim
Comments: Prior to start jumped up and down and waved to extended family who were spectating and also found the rest of my family triathletes and waved at them. Started in 2nd row from front...off we went...felt a little anxious but okay and made it well to first bouy where we started passing folks from wave a head of us that started 3 minutes ahead. I was probably MOP or even towards the front of the MOP at this time...very encouraged...calmed down and felt totally comfortable here. It was hard to swim around the folks struggling from waves before me as they were doing backstroke, breast stroke and were all over the place. About 1/2 way to second bouy a women doing backstroke whacked me and we had signficant contact....wow something was wrong...figured out she unzipped my whole back of my wetsuit with either her hand or foot...crude what do I do? I knew I had to zip it up otherwise I couldn't swim really as it would catch to much water and slow me down. I was able to manage to zip it back up, but sadly many slow swimmers caught me while this occured and I dealt with it. It shock me quite a bit so I had to regroup myself...but was able to do it. I ended up behind a big kick splasher which was a drag. Swam until my hand touched even though most around me were walking... Most folks thought the swim was long....give fastest in my AG were 2:00/100 yds I think they were right....pace not important...but hey almost top 1/3 in my AG....me who last year came out of the water DFL more than once....awesome! What would you do differently?: Given the contact, unzipping of my wetsuit, I was happy how I recovered and continued with a good swim. I'm sure I lost 1.5-3 minutes on the swim with the wetsuit issue...but overall happy. Transition 1
Comments: Fastest T1 in my AG Most folks were walking out of swim...passed lots jogging up to my bike spot. Saw hikergerb here...Steve looked so composed and organized. How he recognized me is beyond me...I'm do focused I don't see anything other than finding my bike and go off. What would you do differently?: Nada Bike
Comments: Started passing folks right away on the first gradual hill, passed people on flats, uphills, downhills, probably passed a good 50-80 people including men from 2 waves in front of me. It was sweet....some folks I just blew by and I even passed folks passing other folks....I had a blast and know that my training is paying off. Hills here were easy...for me to pass folks on uphills after struggling at Mooseman in the past was great. Pushed hard and by a mile in I was breathing heavy and my legs had that nice burn to them, but was able to maintain that pace and was comfortable with the hurt that pushing hard causes. Why is so much easier to accept the pain of riding hard than running hard for me? I kept looking for women in my AG...they labeled you with a letter...I thought I was letter F but really G so I kept looking to pass some F's all day...passed one toward end of bike....where was everyone in my AG? I wanted to keep riding after one loop....it was so fun...passed about 15 people in last mile. What would you do differently?: Top 10% of all women.....super pleased with this!! Transition 2
Comments: Had to run back to water around a cone and out transtion area to make it fair for everyone.... What would you do differently?: I was pretty quick, but the run down to the beach involved running so much of the time was that...not my strong suit. Run
Comments: I hoped to see my run work this season pay off as I wanted to push myself more and be okay with a challenging effort. Saw the lead women after about 5 minutes...cool. I was getting passed from the get go and passed no one, but pretty typical as most slow runners are behind me after the bike...was okay with it. After the first mile I felt better, and tried to push more. Ran with a local girl in 17-19 AG named Leah...lots of folks said encouragement to her...she talked, I grunted as I was not able to breath. She had a sister in Boston who is a runner and she is a swimmer. Turns out this Leah who is maybe 5'11" was 17 and placed 1st in Emily's AG....would have been much more fun to have had been running with Emily and had her come in first. Saw my brother after the turn around and was sure he'd catch me even though he started in the wave 3' behind me...then I saw my 15 year old Nephew followed by Emily (EmilyG) and then my son Kyle walking about 20 yards behind her...felt fantastic as I knew they all would finish and they had made it out of the water:) Pushed it up as much as I could and finished....felt I could have gone much longer but not really much faster. Why is is so hard for me to push myself on the run? What would you do differently?: I raced for fun and enjoyment with my family...one thought I had was that I hoped I'd run sub 10m/m...9:??....as the other courses I have been in the 9's were Firm races so I suspect the accuracy of the distance. So excited that I did it...made sub 10 even if it was just by 5 seconds....good progress. A year a go going sub 10 for any mile any time was a dream. Post race
Warm down: Finished, saw that my brother cross the line 20-30 seconds later, waited for the kids to finish...first nephew Will, then son Kyle passing 3 as he crossed the line, then Emily just a minute later.....super way to warm down celebrating with my extended family and 4 other family member now triathletes. Everyone was anxious to leave so we packed up and met for breakfast. Today Monday I learned Emily placed 2nd in her AG and we missed her getting her award...disappointed to take that away from her. What limited your ability to perform faster: I'm working on getting faster and proud that I am improving. Mentally I think I did well at adjusting to difficulties with wetsuit on the swim, pushing hard on the bike, and doing my best on my run. It is great to see that I'm improving this season at having fun and also getting faster...both are very very good! Event comments: Excellant race with super volunteers and great fellow racers...road for bike portion is very bumpy and patched maybe typical for Northern MN? Excellant lay out for spectators as well. Last updated: 2006-05-30 12:00 AM
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United States
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73F / 23C
Overall Rank = 62/190
Age Group = F45-49
Age Group Rank = 6/19
Very hectic packing for 8, 4 triathletes transporting stuff from island to mainland, pack car and head to Duluth to meet up with extended family coming from 5 different locations. Went to race site to preride the course with the kids to help me feel okay about them doing the race...not sure if it helped them, but it did me. This was all my idea to do this triathlon and others from my family were doing it 3 of them as their first triathlon...my 42 year old brother ex-swim team member and long time runner, my son Kyle 17, Will my nephew 15 and my daughter Emily who is 11 doing her first sprint with ows. I felt a bit of a burden/responsibility for everyone.
Ride of course went well...found it very bumpy but not hilly. We then picked up our packets and met some very nice friendly folks in line.
Stopped by at Autumn's parents house for quick visit and met some amazing MN BT folks...Kris, Autumn (cute kids and hubby), and Steve....wish I could have stayed longer to visit...but family stuff came up..only 24 hours I will see my brother and his wife all year.
Went to hotel check in, met up with extended family for dinner at Grandmas and then back to hotel. I took a quick dip in the hot tub and then went to bed. Slept horribly with 5 in our room with 2 kids fussying...got maybe 3 hours sleep...but felt ready to race.
Goal to have fun, enjoy this experience with my family, new triathletes, and go as fast as I can and be okay with it being hard/painful. Raced w/out HRM, watch, or bike computer as it tends to bring out the best in me to just go as fast as I can w/out anything that can give me negative thoughts.
Overall rankings are for how I compared against the women...still MOP when considering men too.
Ran 10' with a couple of accels, Bikes about 10' with a couple of accels, then met up with my fellow family members triathletes, put on wetsuit and tried to find family spectators..to hand off some stuff. Did some swimming while other waves were starting...felt good.