First race ever while wearing a wetsuit.
I only swam in the suit once before raceday. I know this was not the best plan but timing was messed up with delivery and returns of wrong sized suit.

I had a plan… but I messed up the plan race day morning. I wanted to wait to put on my suit due to the time between transition closing and my wave start. It was 1 hour and 16 minutes between the two. I accidently left my wrist watch on and used my time poorly between the race meeting and my swim warm up. I was running to the swim start as the were counting down the start. I was the last one in the water of my wave.

Oh yeah even with all of that... I PR'ed the swim!

As for the Swim:
It felt good. I tried to take it easy the first 1/3 and just find my rhythm. It was super easy to sight off of Sugar Loaf Bluff, it was directly above and behind the first turn buoy… this is very helpful since my wave was wearing the same colored swim caps as the turn buoy. The first turn was to the right then a straight shot to the second turn buoy. I was still trying to take it easy during this section. It was the longest leg (distance wise) of the swim. I was sighting well using the bluffs to the north of Winona as a reference for the second turn. At what I thought was the midway point I started to pick up the pace. I thought I was going too slowly so I started to push it. I think this is mostly due wearing the wetsuit and the lack of sensation of moving through the water. After a few minutes I realized I was working too hard to keep this pace so I slowed down a bit. After the last turn buoy it is a straight shot to the beach and swim finish arch. The sun was directly above the swim exit so it was hard to see and hard to sight but lucky I wore my tinted goggles. Bumped into a few of the fast swimmers from the wave behind me during this portion which surprised me. What surprised me most is that I am usually passed by those swimmers earlier in the swim. As the beach got near I swam until my belly hit the sand. It still amazes me how many people start walking so deep in the water. I passed several walkers as I was still swimming in. Swim exit was up onto the grass then a short run of 30-50 feet to Transition.


Watch the time. Leave wrist watch at home. Warm up close to the swim start and relax!

2:11
Not bad for first race with a full wetsuit. It did get hung up on my left ankle and timing chip. Other than that it went well.

Wrist watch left in Transiton or at home

I really enjoyed this ride. Coach said to take the up-hills easy and hammer the downs. When I started the ride I did my best to follow this advice since I was not sure how hard "the bluff" was really going to be. I wanted to save myself for the Garvin Heights hill and anything that might exist after it. I have been doing a lot of long hills on HWY 35 between Prescott, WI and Lake Pepin which has helped me a ton for this race. The first few miles on the bike are mostly on a gradual uphill. It was great to hit the turn around and cruise back toward that looming hill. Before I made the turn on to Garvin Heights I made sure to shift to the granny gear.
Once I hit the timing mat for the “king of the bluff” contest I settled into a nice steady pace/effort. I know the hill is about 1.1 miles so I kept my eye on that odometer. I had planned on trying to stay seated for as long as I could. I kept the pedals cranking and kept my breathing to a nice steady rhythm. This was working well so far. I passed a few riders and a few walkers. My computer was saying I was averaging 7.0 MPH. I wanted to save some gas for anything that lay after and found myself still in my saddle even as I came to the top of the bluff. I was happy and yet a bit sad because I had lots of gas left. I never even got out of the saddle. One volunteer even said “come-on! You’re not even breathing hard!” I was but I must of looked too good. My Heart rate did hit 158 at the top but average was 147BPM. My time was 8:33 this put me at 71 out of 178 Males. I know the next year I am going to give this hill all I’ve got. I know I can do better.
The rest of the course was awesome! After climbing up Garvin Heights and a going uphill for a few miles I was looking for a downhill. Yes! Here comes the downhill… I mean DOWNHILL! It was great. I hit 41.7 MPH during the long smooth road descent. The rest was just fun with a few turns. There is one turn close to the end that a few people crashed at. It is labeled as a hairpin turn… more like a very tight “s” turn. Watch out for that one next year. It is around mile 22ish.
Got my feet out of my shoes on the straight-away before transition. Jumped off the bike and ran to my rack… nice and close to the bike exit/entrance.


Push a little hard on the uphills

I was happy with this T2

nice PR for me. I went easy the first mile. I wanted to keep it easy for a while and then kick it up toward the end. The next 2 miles were good. the path wraps around the lake and on the west side it is nice and shady. At mile 3 I saw David Thompson. He was the overall winner and was out saying hi to people at the turn around. I started to push it from here till the end. I wanted to finish with nothing left. Around mile 5 & 1/2 i really kicked it up. Looking at my data from my GPS I did a 6:50 for the last mile. I was Very happy with that. It was a nice PR for the entire run as well


Hydrate a little more on the bike to peak on the run.

Walked for 5 mins. Ran for 10 minutes and stretched.


Lack of Knowledge of of the bike course.


I know why it was voted the best race in MN. It was very organized and on time. Plenty of Bathrooms, water stops, and great volunteers!