Pleasant Prairie Triathlon - International Race - TriathlonOlympic

I knew this swim was going to be tough. I haven't been in the pool very much due to some ear infections and my knee being all scraped up.

I just made the best of it that I could. Swam my race. Couldn't find any feet to draft off of for very long. The feet I did find, couldn't navigate, so I passed them when they went off course.

I cornered like a pro at the buoys, and picked a few people off each time by doing the backstroke flip around turn. I also passed some other people who couldn't navigate well.

Race smart and you'll race fast.

Uhm, train for the swim more than a few times in the 6 weeks before the race?

Zippy T1. Got the suit off fast, even the feet came out on the first try. I rocked it. Even had to fish my sunglasses out of my transition pack. Originally I wasn't going to wear them, but it was pretty bright, so I decided at the last minute in T1 to put them on.

Ran past the mount like about 10 yards, and passed 2 people who stopped right on the mount line to get on their bikes. Did a flying mount and got up to speed with my feet on top of shoes before slipping my feet in.

Not much, maybe decide on sunglasses for the bike sooner.

I crushed it.

I've been doing some TT's lately, so I have my bike stripped down. All the water bottle cages removed, no seat bag, just a can of Vittoria Pit Stop taped up under the seat. For this race, I added a profile aero drink, as I needed some fluids during the day.

The first loop, not too many people were on the road ahead of me. Played cat and mouse with 2 guys on P3s. Alternating who was passing who with surges by all of us. Came through the first loop pretty quickly. Then we came to the second loop, and the course was loaded with the later waves as well as the Sprint racers.

Wow. It was packed. About 3-4 across. Apart from the slower riders all of the course, this lap was great. I spent the entire loop passing people by slingshotting around them. Ride in their draft and them go ZOOOOM right past. Average speed was higher, as was power. Really is a mental boost to hammer past people.

I was feeling good, so I just went with it. No thought to saving anything for the run, just go go go on the bike.

I flew past Schmize who had passed me on the swim, and gave him some grief for being so slow. :) He took up the chase and passed me back. I couldn't let that stand, so I went around again. He got me again about a mile out of T2, and I let him lead the way back in. I stayed back about 5-10" from him, as the course was a bit technical and didn't want to risk myself or him just to try and eke out the race to T2. We both executed great flying dismounts coming to the line.

That was a great feeling. I had an awesome bike, and Schmize and I pushed each other to go just that little bit faster than we might have otherwise.



Go even faster so Schmize doesn't catch me. :)

Not sure why this took so long. It felt faster than this.

Racked bike, put on socks, put on shoes, grabbed visor and race belt and took off. Schmize was a few seconds faster than me, I was hoping to snipe him in transition, but he was just a bit faster.

Move my bike to a closer rack, since there really isn't assigned racking spots at this race. Makes for a slightly faster T2, but eh, I wasn't *that* far off.

Came out of T2 about 20" down on Schmize. I was going to put on a good chase, but he's peaking for an IM pretty soon, so I was not likely to catch him. But I sure wasn't going to let it be easy.

We started off at a good pace around the lake. I grabbed water at every aid station, as it was a bright sunny day, and it was starting to heat up.

My legs were pretty cooked from the bike, but that was okay, that was the plan, to just TT my legs off, and hang on for the run.

The first part of the run was mingled with Sprint racers, so it was hard to tell how many people were ahead of me. After we split off from them, I realized how far up I was. There was quite literally nobody near me on the run. Only about 15 people on the road up ahead. That was pretty cool. It does help being in the 2nd start wave, but still, I had gone pretty quick to get there too.

I hung on as best I could, and managed to turn out just over 7 min/mile for the whole race. About evenly split over the whole course. Mile4 splits were long for everyone, so I think that was about the same as the others.

Saw Schmize at each of the turns, he was about a minute up on me at the last one, and looked pretty gassed. I was feeling beat up myself. Shouted encouragement at him, and kept plugging away.

Manged to keep effort raised over the 2nd half of the course, but this just meant keeping the same pace as my legs fatigued and form broke down a bit.

Was able to kick it up a notch on the last mile, and that really really hurt. Thought I had a chance to get under 2:15, but it clicked over as I entered the finish chute. Dang.

I ran all out for the line, and stopped just short to roll across for Blazeman.

Nothing, I ran the best I could on the day.

Roll across the finish mat.

Grab an ice cold gatorade from the big bin at the finish. Dunked my arms in deep to get cool as I was pretty toasty. That ice water felt goooood. Decided they probably wouldn't like if I dunked myself in it though, so I refrained from that.




Not an A-race, so I wasn't in peak performance for this. I'll take a 5 minute PR anyday though.


This is a fun race. It's a fast course, and has some pretty stiff competition. Decently sized race, but a bit crowded on the bike this year, since the Oly distance had to share the Sprint course.


A few minor things that I'd like if they did better/differently.

Less schwag ( I really don't need *another* cheap fleece or transition bag ).
Assign racks by AG/wave. There is an advantage to certain racks in transition, based on where the bike in/run out is located.
Better stickers. Cheap little paper stickers come off when you're pouring sweat onto the bike. Real bike numbers would be nice, if you're going to enforce the bike number matching race number/body mark. I fully support that, but make sure that you use bike stickers that don't come off. I was stuck with several people in the same boat, as the RD wanted us all to wait until every other bike was out of transition before we could leave. That would have been 3 hours standing in the sun! I finally took my helmet sticker off, put it on my bike, and then left.

The other gripe was a complete lack of officials on the bike. I didn't see a single marshall at all. Not once. Not before, not during, not after.

Overall, it's a great race, good organization, and most important a *SAFE* race ( roads closed, intersections manned by police and volunteers ). Just a bit shy of perfection in my eyes, but nothing that will keep me from coming back and racing again.