Chisago Lakes Triathlon - Half Iron Course - Triathlon

This was my first 1.2 mile swim. Though I didn't expect it to be all that different from my Oly swims. I was in the last HIM wave and I started near the back as I usually do in my races. Congestion wasn't too bad and I didn't have to deal with any significant contact.

Heading out to the first turn, the lake was fairly calm. I had to swim through just a little bit of weeds. The second leg of the swim (furthest out from shore) got a little choppy. It felt like we were probably swimming mostly into the waves as I felt it more on the top of my head. It made sighting a little bit harder, but not too bad. I also felt the waves moving me up and down just a little bit. On the last leg of the swim, we were swimming through weeds pretty much the whole way through. I can't say I enjoy weeds. But this was a bit different from other experiences where the weeds were high enough to be brushing against my face from time to time. So that added an extra element of ick.

But I finished off the swim and felt fine. When I checked my watch, my time was within the ballpark of what I was expecting. I made it through my first leg and my cold residue didn't seem to be affecting things yet.

Nothing. I was satisfied with how this leg went.

I fairly swiftly walked from the water into transition. I wasn't going for a certain time, and my main goal of T1 was to try and get my HR lowering and to make sure that I didn't forget anything for the bike.

I got out of transition without forgetting anything and with breathing under control. So I met my goals.

Nothing. I did what I wanted with the transition.

The time that I listed here is different from the official time as I stopped to help someone who had a flat, and I subtracted that from my official time as it wasn't me having the mechanical problem. It was about an 11 minute stop.

My game plan for the ride was to take things very easy and to ensure that I was taking proper nutrition/hydration. I think I succeeded in those goals as best as I could. But mother nature made things more difficult. It was windy to begin with and it only gained strength as the ride progressed. The wind was mostly a factor at the very beginning, and then for a good chunk of the final 1/3 of the course. That ended up making things more difficult as I naturally tired a bit from the distance. We also got sprinkled on a handful of time. But so significant precipitation at least.

It was about the half way point where I stopped to try and help with a flat tire. Although it was unsuccessful. The replacement tube (which didn't seem quite the correct size) popped when filling it even though I checked both the inside of the tire and the rim for any cause to the blowout and didn't feel anything. A course marshal had stopped as well and headed out on my way after the failed attempt. Hopefully the guy was able to get going again.

I ended up bringing my own fuel that I had been training with. I ended up drinking most of 4 bottle of perform and also supplimented with some granola bars as I had done in training. I probably averaged about 300 cal/hour.

Coming off of the bike, I was glad to be done. The wind had knocked me down a few pegs and I was starting to tire out. I'm guessing a lack of training and my cold were starting to catch up with me. But my time (not including the stop) was still in the ballpark of where I was hoping to be. So I was still moving ahead as expected.

Train more. I probably should have had a couple of more full 56 mile rides under my belt. But life and sickness got in the way of that.

After racking my bike and switching into my run gear, I made a stop to go pee. This was the only time during the race that I used the bathroom. Based on the output, I was probably a little dehydrated. It was probably due to poor hydration in the days leading up to the event rather than my race day intake. I was taking in good amounts during the race and the cooler weather was keeping my perspiration down.

Nothing again. I wasn't going for speed and I didn't make any mistakes.

Here is where things fell apart. My goal for the run was to actually run the whole time except for water stations. I can't seem to run and drink from a cup at the same time without swallowing a bunch of air.

Coming off of the windy bike, and my cold, I wasn't sure how this was going to go. But at a minimum I was determined to finish. So I started off at an easy pace and knocked off the first mile at about 10 min, which is not far off of my normal mile time on my long runs. So I was a little optimistic. But the subsequent miles were slowing down, and soon I was hitting close to 12 minute miles.

At this point, I knew that running the full distance was probably not going to happen. But I thought at least I can run to the half way point. So I did. At the 6.5 mile mark, I started walking. For the next few miles, I switched up between walking and jogging. But each time it was harder to start running. I could feel it in my legs and I could feel the cold in my chest. So with about 4 miles to go, I walked the rest of the way. But I made sure that it was at least a brisk walk. And my brisk walk was only about 1.5 minutes slower than my jog/walk combo per mile. So at this point, why push my body beyond what is wise just to save 6 minutes or so?

So I watched lots of people pass me up on the way back in. But most of them were encouraging me as they passed and I was giving them "good job!"s as they passed me. The volunteers at the water stations were also great. Especially this late in the race as they had probably been there 4+ hours already.

As I made my way back to the park where the finish line was, I saw my family waiting for me. My poor wife had to deal with keeping our 3 and 5 year old kids entertained there for much longer than she was expecting to. But it was good to see them. My son evidently was pretty excited with all of the racers and he wanted to accompany me through the finish line. So we started jogging in through the park. He saw another racer a little ways back making his way into the park and that made him kick it up a notch. So I ended up running the last 100 yards or so to try and keep up.

So I finished with my son and they put my medal around him. I guess that's one benefit of being that far in the back of the pack when there's almost nobody around you. They make allowances for something like that. My son actually thought the medal was his because he finished in front of me. It was pretty cute.

Not be sick would have been a real help. But also training more would have helped as well. My longest run leading up to the race was 10.5 miles. I wanted to do more, but I let thing go too long and there wasn't enough time to ramp up without making too big of a jump week to week and I didn't want an injury. It would have been interesting to see if I could have done it if I had been healthy.

They were just about to start closing down transition when I finished, so there was no warm-down. I just grabbed my stuff and we headed home so my youngest could get down for a much needed nap. I also needed one myself.

I was disappointed that I didn't do better. I've never come off of a race thinking that I'm not sure if I ever want to do that again until now. I'll be taking a week to recover and hopefully get well again (my cold came back thanks to the big exertion) and see how I feel about it after that. I have another HIM in 5 weeks. If I can get back into the swing of training and get better prepared, I'll give that a shot and then see if HIMs are in my future next year or if I keep it to sprints and Olys.


My cold and my lack of sufficient training. It's hard to know which was the bigger contributor to me not being able to run the entire last leg.


The race was done really well. Everything was pretty clear and there were plenty of volunteers to keep things running smoothly. There were also lots of racers. But where I was, congestion wasn't a significant factor.

I would recommend this race to anyone and it will be at the top of my list for subsequent years.