Spirit of Racine Sprint Triathlon - Triathlon

Well, the water was glass smooth this year. Which was good. Seeded myself to the front of the pack and when the horn sounded, I did a good job of staying running till I couldn't lift my knees anymore and dove in. This time, though, I knew what to expect with the cold, and took a big breathe OUT before I hit the water. It worked. I was able to hit, turn, breathe in, and keep going. At that point, I knew I was going to rock this swim.

It wasn't the best swim I've ever had. That still belongs to Pleasant Prairie, but it was good. Sighting was solid, while the rest were weaving in and out of the buoy's, which made them have to swim further over all. I wanted to find someone to draft off of, but I kept passing them. So I thought, screw it, let them try to keep up with me.

So I kept passing people. Some of them were walking. WALKING! Forget that. I think I must have passed at least a dozen guys, if not more. I'm writing this before I know my time, but it had to be good. No idea what my placement or time was at this point, but I think it was a pretty good placement in my AG.

More OWS?! This was only my second one of the year and my first one in the wetsuit. If I do more OWS practice I think I might be pretty happy.

I can't believe how quickly that suite came off. I don't know what my time is in T1 yet, so I'll add more later when I know that time, but it was fast. I'm hoping less than 2:00. And I haven't even practiced with a suit this year yet.

Umm... probably nothing. It was as good as I've done so far.

I pushed it this year. Really pushed it. Hit that first hill, made it up to the top, and dropped into aero and only got out of it a couple of times.

I don't remember it being as rough as this last year. Bone jarring a few times. Made it hard to drink out of the aero bottle. Got more on me then in me a few times. But I pushed it. Every time I looked down and I was under 21, I dug deeper and pushed it back over 21. I knew I had to make up for the first hill and some of the turns which would drop me down on the average. If the calculation is right, I hit 21+mph on the average.

On the last turn, right, back down the main stretch, I almost lost it. Took the turn a bit too tight, too aggressive, and the back wheel started to fish tail out to my left, let go of the brakes, straightened out and got control. Glad there wasn't a course marshal there because I went over the center line and would have gotten a penalty for it.

As I was going down the last main stretch, I got passed by a peleton. Yep, a peleton. 6 guys, all working together, in a pack. Not stretched out, but literally on each other's wheel's. WTF!?! About 100 feet behind them was another guy and I said "Where is a Marshall when you need one!" He said they have been like that almost the entire bike. And some of them were in my AG. Really made me mad. So I pushed it harder. Good motivation.

Got the feet out about a 1/4 of a mile from the end, and still kept a good speed up. Turned to go down the hill and hit the line off the bike and in bare feet.

What a great ride.

T.I.T.S. Still need to keep working on getting my speed up. Even though this is a big improvement from last year, I still need to go faster.

Helmet unbuckled, bike on the rack, helmet on top, visor on, shoes on (took a few extra seconds to adjust the tongue's), grabbed the belt and number and took off.

Make certain I pull the shoes on with the tongue in hand so I don't have to re-adjust.

I thought I was pushing it. But the time doesn't reflect that. As I look back on it, I should have pushed a little harder on the out which would have picked me up on the way back.

Passed a 77 year old woman that was still on the course from the women's start and gave her a shout out. She laughed, said thank you and told me to go get 'em. I hit about 0.75 miles out and the eventual OA winner went the opposite direction! Hey, that's good. Last year, they were already done by the time I hit the run.

Passed 2 guys in my AG but then had 2 others pass me. Hit the last hill, thought I was going to puke at the top of it an had a good pace going. Went down the other side, used gravity to get my pace up and kept it up. Had a great finishing push an saw Raytownpete, maggyruth and ami9296 all on the way back in and got a high five from the first two. Awesome.

Hit the final shoot, was already pretty close to top speed and thought, let's show off the guns. Did the flex as I crossed the finish line (I really hope they got that on the camera) and hit the stop on my watch.

Push it, push it, push it. I so can do better here.

Walked around. Talked to Beth, mum, Dan, Larry and Ellen. Got some food and sat down to recover. Felt pretty good. Then they started to post results and I finished in 1:16:29, a 16 minute improvement from last year!!!!!

OA I was around 36-37 (people were still finishing) and I was 8 in my AG but only about 2:00 from 3rd. That's right. 2:00!!!! So there were 5 of us that were separated by all of 2 friggen minutes!!! Well, that is more motivation to put it all together at Pleasant Prairie and see if I can get sub 1:15.


Good question. I really don't know. I think it is still a mental thing. Still trying to become more comfortable with being uncomfortable. Especially on the run. Lots of soul searching till the next race.


Things seemed to be a bit less organized this time. From a last minute venue change for the expo, a hectic expo, not knowing when the waves were going of, misprints in the packet information (bike cutoff 1 hour from the beginning of the start of the waves) and then not a course official anywhere on the bike, not one. Which was disappointing.
Food was better this year, or at least I finished early enough to get some (they were running low last year). Not entirely certain I will come back next year. I might just to break that AG placement.