No splits as this was a manually timed event. I heard someone call out 2'52" as I came out of the water. I came out fourth overall! Sweet!

I started just behind Brickey. I drafted off him for about 100y, giving him a smack in the rear a couple of times. When he drifted to the right a little, I shot up the bouy line and made a pass.

Great swim, easy sighting off the rope bouy line, and the water was super clean. I wish it would have been longer to play to my strengths though.

Nothing.

Slow T time with a sand run, and stairs coming out of the water. My suit stuck and I nearly tumbled.

Slice the lower legs of my suit.

I don't have placement data on the OA or Age group. I rode very hard though.

Coming out of town, I had all sorts of sand and gravel on my feet, while they were still on top of my shoes. I tried to scrape some of the excess off before I slipped into my shoes. As I tried to get my right foot in, I popped my strap out of my shoes. When this happens, I can't get the strap back in, while riding. So, I had to stop and fix my shoe. This cost me, big time. I went from fourth out of the water and I think third out of T1, to at least twenty or more back. This is also when Brickey passed me. I was never able to get back to him.

I fixed my shoe and put the other on, while I was there. I had to pedal like crazy to get back up to speed. I'm not a powerful rider. I depend on cadence for speed. I had to got through two race pace accelerations within a couple minutes and my legs were already hating me.

I got passed by a couple disks as I was getting up to speed and out of town, but generally, I was picking off some of the better swimmers as I was going out. I passed all but two of the women on the bike too.

My heart was racing for about the first 6 miles or so. Once I got my breath back, I shouted a lot of encouragement to the ladies and men on the tough uphill sections.

Once I hit the turn around, it was mainly downhill and time to really let it loose. I hit 40+ on one section and was hitting 35 on many of the downhills.

With about five miles to go, I never really saw anyone else on the bike. I had made up a lot of the lost ground, but I could have been so much faster without the shoe problem. I don't think I could have held off Brickey, but I would have liked the opportunity to try.

I came into T2 without any problems.

I need some new Tri shoes. These are somewhat crappy and the strap is not only facing the wrong way for tris, but they don't fit all that great. I'll get a new pair.

My heart was thumping something fierce at first. I had a super high cadence and short steps to start out. It took a while to get into a better stride. I had the second place woman just in front of me on the run. She paced me pretty well to start out. I passed her once on a slight decline and she passed me pack at the turn around point. I paced along behind her for a bit, then passed her for good with a mile to go.

I really struggled to keep it up mentally. I was ready to be done. I hope to learn to fight this feeling with more races, but in the grand scheme of things, I'm still pretty green at racing.

Oh yeah, I have to step back a little here. I saw Brickey after the turn around and knew that I couldn't catch him. He had minutes on me, and I wasn't going to ruin Tawas, just to try to kill myself to get him. He ran a great race and finished 1st in his AG, ninth overall. He rocked it. Great Job Dave.

Not much. If I ran any harder, I would have been taking something away from Tawas, IMO. This was supposed to be a tough training day. That, it was.

Catch my breath! I am always left gasping, extremely hard at the end of hard finishes. Initially, I thought it was Exercised Induced Asthma, but I don't think it is. I think its just pushing myself to my limit in the final kick. It kind of freaked my mom out. :)


shoe problems, otherwise, it was a great race.


Grand Marais is a great town to just chill. I love the town and the atmosphere just for that. This is not a race that will impress you with gear bags, and shirts and all sorts of extras. However, its exactly what I expected and wanted. Besides, the race only cost $27 or something obscenely cheap like that! You still got a tshirt too!

I'm still pumped at the fourth overall swim and finishing with 20+ mph on the bike despite the shoe problems. This is a big confidence booster for the coming weeks. Also, having Dave beat me, helps to motivate me for solid training before Tawas.