Timberman Triathlon - Olympic - TriathlonOlympic

High winds made for rough swim, but I'm glad we started when we did because it got much rougher by mid-day. Not much to say for the swim. Ended up taking in quite a bit of water due to poor timing of hitting waves. Satisfied that I was able to stay in the mix. Training buddy Tom Krenz put 2.5 minutes on me on the swim - sh*t.

Swim faster :)

A little slower than normal but not bad.

Not worry about being neat about where to put my wetsuit - deal with it later.

Vickie told me I was down to Tommy by 2.5 minutes after the swim so I decided I needed to just hammer the bike to minimize any further losses or even gain some time back. They changed the bike course this year due to road construction. Not many pure flats on this course. You're either going down long gradual hills (except for a couple steep downhills where you can reach 39 mph), or were going up some long grades. One long section of uphill with some false flats was 2.5 miles long. Headwind was tough in some sections. Tommy put another 30 sec on me during the bike.

Hammer more.

Got out of my shoes about 1/4 mile before dismount line. Smooth transition. Sometimes I'm so fast in T2 that I stop to think because I feel like I'm forgetting something.

Don't think.

About 1/4 mile out of T2 I heard another racer coming up from behind me. This was freaking me out because I never...I mean never...get passed on the run (the local pros and young elites are usually already ahead of me). All of a sudden this 18 year old kid passes me like a bat out of hell. WTF??? So I ask him "are you on a relay team?" "Nope". Then I ask him "Are you short course??" "Nope..I'm long course". I muttered "holy shit" and he kept going but his form looked more like a football player than a triathlete/runner. He got about 75 yards away from me and then the distance between us stayed constant for a while. He kept looking back at me. Then I started reeling him in and finally passed him at about the 2.5 mile mark. Punk. I met Tommy on his return (multiple Kona podium finisher Greg Taylor was hot on his tails) and when I got to the turnaround cone I figured he had 1:40 on me. Crap....not enough real estate left to make up that difference, but I hammered as hard as I could. Managed to pass 3-4 other racers. Started getting a side stitch at about 4 miles but managed to work it out. Finished strong - hamstrings held up nicely. Beat Tommy by a minute on the run, but it wasn't enough to make up for the swim and bike deficits. So I'm up 2-1 on him for races this year.

Push harder.

Went for an 18 minute warmdown run.


Strong winds made for a tough swim and some sections of the bike were windy.


This is our tri club's favorite race of the year and we make a nice weekend out of it. Wild River Triathlon Club took 8 AG podiums on the day. I had a few strangers come up to me and ask who we were and they commented how strong our team looked out there. Cool. Already have the reservation for next year at Ruttger's Resort where the race is held. Although, next year I'll be recovering from IM CDA and maybe even WS100 so I may have to give a go at trying to win the Sprint. Highly recommend this race to everyone.