This swim went so well. My performance in the swim was the highlight of my race. Not being so confident, I thought about starting off to the side or in the back, but found myself in the front of the group when the horn sounded. The ows clinic I went to for the Minnetonka Tri on Thursday was a help. Being shown how and practicing dolphin dives was a big help. I even did a couple past the first pontoon. When I started swimming I found myself in the front of the pack. As I didn't feel like I was pushing too hard, I kept up the pace and by the time I caught up to the last people in the previous wave, I didn't see any more light blue swim caps.

I was really hoping to have somebody to draft off of, but with my wave behind me and catching up to the previous wave, I didn't really have the opportunity until somebody blew by me about 2/3 into the swim. I hung onto his (her?) toes for about 10 seconds, but couldn't keep up that pace. Must have been from the wave behind me.

I found that I was drifting a bit off course, but nothing serious. There were always people on either side of me and at times I had to do a little zig zagging to get through a pack of people, particularly once I got to where the sprint course rejoined the oly course.

As I approached shore, I kept swimming until my hand touched the sand below. I'm glad I did that 'cause I passed several people who were wading through the water at that point. Did a few dolphin dives and came out of the water. It was an excellent swim, over two minutes better than my goal time.

Nothing, really.

Though I felt like I could have pushed a little harder in the swim, I was still a bit tired and struggled to even jog for a bit on the path to the transition area. Forgot that I needed to start taking off the wetsuit until about half way through the sprint transition area. Oops. Suit came off pretty easily, but I was still tired and had to sit to put my socks on. Elected not to put on gloves or my jacket and then took off with the bike.

Had a pretty easy time getting on the bike, up to speed, and putting feet in the shoes. That is much easier with some bodyglide on the inside of the heels of the shoes.

Practice T1 with a wetsuit a few times.

Found myself passing quite a few people early on in the bike and was puzzled by this until I realized that some of them were doing the sprint course or were part of a team. Had a gel about two miles into the ride and it seemed way too sweet. It was almost hard to eat.

Kept pushing, but not pushing really hard. I think I was still the first person in my wave until about 1/3 the way through the bike course before I got passed by somebody with a 30-something on their leg. That happened four or five more times on the bike course. The bike course was difficult with the east wind and the rollers. I don't think I could have ridden much better (aside from my lack of training this last month). Actually, I think I rode pretty smart.

Meeting back up with the sprint course was a little unwelcomed. I went from riding completely on my own to riding with bikes all over the place. Choked down one more gel with about five miles to the finish. For the most part I was able to keep to the left and passed people with east. There were a few times (particularly as we were coming back into town) when I had to dart through a pack, though, and that was uncomfortable. A couple times, I even had to cross the yellow line to pass people. Didn't like that at all.

Bettered my goal average speed by a half mile per hour, so I was pleased with that. Could have been better with more riding in May, I'm sure.

Train. Not have to deal with a constantly sore back.

The mechanics of T2 were good. My hamstrings were painful. After I got my running shoes on, I was barely able to hobble out of the transition area.

Nothing, really.

The tops of my hamstrings really hurt and it was all I could do to take short pathetic running strides for the first quarter mile. I slowly loosened up, but they were painful for probably the next mile. At that point I knew I was tired so I made it my goal not to do any walking at all. I slowly picked up the pace a little bit and was able to pass a fair number of sprint course runners. After I passed their turn-around, though, I didn't pass anybody else except one guy I went back and forth with. While I was no longer plodding, I certainly wasn't blazing a trail to the running hall of fame either.

At the turn-around by the cemetery, I was feeling better and was able to pick up the pace going down the hill and keep a faster pace in general. With a little more than two miles to go, I looked at my watch and saw that if I kept a good pace I could still finish in 2 hours 30 minutes, my race goal. That was a little hard to do as I was coming back into town. That little rise before town wasn't very nice at all. Seemed worse than the big hill. Slowly picked up the pace over the last mile until I was running a decent pace.

As I came to the finish line, the announcer said that I was in the lead for the tall man's division. HA! I felt pretty good, really... until I crossed the finish line. I've collapsed after races in the past from being really tired. This time I collapsed because my body couldn't hold me up when I tried to stop running. On top of that, I was having a hard time breathing. It was a little scary. A couple volunteers helped me to my feet as I struggled to breathe, and one of them kept me upright and slowly walking. I was really grateful for him. I was so overwhelmed with my exhaustion that I cried a bit as I propped myself against a tree. After a couple minutes with the volunteer nervously watching over me, and with my wife at my side I was able to breathe normally and I staggered off to get some water.

I beat my goal time for this leg of the race by almost four minutes, so despite my hammy pain, I am very pleased with my run.

Can't think of anything aside from training.

Stagger about. Attempt to put clothes on without toppling over. Sarah suggested I get a massage. Best suggestion ever.


Back pain in May. That absolutely sucked.


Aside from the gobs of bikers and runners along the sprint course, this is a great race, one that I am really looking forward to doing in the future.