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 Swim
Comments: Very calm at the start. It was at this race two year's ago (when I did the sprint) that I had my last OWS panic, and I am always grateful that I am calm now. My goal was just to complete this and do it faster than last year if possible. Both goals accomplished (1:30 faster than last year) Seeded my self at back of pack and to the outside. Tried to swim as soon as water got deep enough for that to happen (took a while) I spent a lot of time off course. Next year I hope they pick a different color for swim caps. Buoys: orange. Swim caps: orange. I kept asking myself, is that a buoy or someone's head. Was passed by many in waves behind me. Then about 15-20 minutes in it happened: I passed not one, but two people. (ok one was doing the backstroke, but you gotta take what you get) Once I made the final turn, pushed my pace a little. I was happy as always to hit that beach and head up the hill to transition. hit the beach at 47:20. What would you do differently?: Really with where my swim skills and endurance are, not much. This is about as good as I can expect. Oh I guess I would sight a lot better. For shorter distances I plan on getting more aggressive, but for today, this suited me just fine.  Transition 1
Comments: This was a little quicker than last year. wet suit came off pretty quick. Guy next to me wanted to chat with me, I tried to be polite but get down to business. Trouble is I have a lot business to do. I decided to put on sun screen even though weather said clouds would be rolling in at at anytime. What would you do differently?: Not sure...I guess that is the problem.  Bike
Comments: This started out very promising. My goal was between 17.5 and 18. First hour my avg was 17.8. Then the wind starting picking up. It got stronger as the ride went on. There also seemed to be more hills than I remember...mostly up. These hills are by no means monsters (not counting the first one) but there seemed to be a lot. I tried to push my pace a little to hit my goal, but didn't want to completely burn up my legs (probably should have anyway) Stuck to nutrition plan pretty well of drinking Perpetuem every 10 minutes and a gel every 1/2 hour. Gels were not going down real well so one of the times I switched out and took Clif bloks instead. I had one 24 oz. bottle of water that I knew I would have to get refilled at of the the bottle exchanges. they had a station at 32 miles and one at 45. I decided to stretch it out to the 45 mile. I was running short, but ok. EXCEPT, when I got there they were out!! I was pissed. I did my best not to take it out on volunteers. Us back of packers get thirsty too! This really distracted me for a while (like three miles) I finally convinced myself to get over it and just continued to drink my perp. I did manage to enjoy this ride. Very scenic with lots of views overlooking the lake. The weather was sunny the whole time. Wish it had been cloudy, but grateful it never rained during this ride. What would you do differently?: My biking has really just been one big disappointment this year. More base, More hills, More speed, you name it. Transition 2
Comments: Not sure what took so long. Had to 'remind' myself to get my azz moving. What would you do differently?: no more fiddle diddle in transition.  Run
Comments: My whole goal and focus of my training in the off-season revolved around this run. Just to recap, I had a massive melt-down of my IT band and ended walking about 7 miles of this last year, most of it in serious pain. So as each mile passed this year without pain, I was very pleased. However those miles passed very slowly. I was tired and bloated. Still I tried to keep drinking, because I was thirsty. Took one gel and some animal crackers (that's right) that I had in my fuel belt. Took some walk breaks, but tried to keep moving in some-what of a run fashion. Saw some friendly faces out there and that was a nice pick-me-up. However, I just could not get my pace up. I finally started to feel tightness and some pain in my glute and hip (this is were things start with the IT Band) at about 9.5 miles. However it never really progressed down to the knee area. The only time it really hurt was going down hills. With about 2 miles to go the skies finally opened up and it poured cold rain on me. Initially this felt good, but soon after I got the chills. The good news is that the finish was right around the corner and I was able to RUN the few miles in (unlike last year). What would you do differently?: Get more base on the bike, so this isn't such a struggle. Not run so scared that my IT problems will ruin my day. Post race
Warm down: get my medal and stagger over to the food tent and found a chair before I fell over. Bonus, last year when I finished there was no food left. This year there was still some spagetti left. What limited your ability to perform faster: I trained this race to finish it (without injury). That is what I got. Nothing more. If I want to race this distance again, I am going to need to do more than train to finish. Event comments: I have done lots of Midwest Sports Events races and they ususal are well organized and run well. However there is no excuse for running out of water on the bike course. Last updated: 2008-04-16 12:00 AM
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United States
Midwest Sports Events
65F / 18C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 386/422
Age Group = m40-44
Age Group Rank = 64/65
Arrived the night before and stayed in the beautiful Days Inn in Neenah. My room had a microwave and Fridge and a Jaccuzzi tub. I used the fridge and micro, but just kept looking at that giant tub, thinking gross thoughts about its prior use. I then proceeded to watch as many weather reports as possible to determine if the race was going to get rained on. Narrowed down to rain coming between 10am and about 12:30. All had forcast a cloudy and cool morning (Forshadowing warning!)
Woke up at 4 after getting a pretty restful sleep of about 5 hours. Breakfast was 3 mini-bagels, banana and some sips of Perpetuem. Arrived at race site about 5:45, plenty of time to not be rushed (foreshadowing!) Went over right away to get race packet, pick up chip and get body marked. When back to car to get stuff and head over to transition and...my keys are gone. So I spent the next 1/2 hour tracing and re-tracing my steps. My third trip to registration tent found them on one of the tables. Thank God! Except now it is 6:20 and I still need to get my stuff out of car, pump up tires, etc. Got everything out of car and headed over. Got everything set up with no real no time to worry, no real time to go look at the swim course and fret over the distance. Finally ran into some of my Donkey friends who wondered where I had been. Slipped on the wetsuit and headed down to water.
None, unless you count the pacing back and forth looking for my keys. Good news: this would be the worst panic of day.