Good swim, felt pretty good the whole way and that I was able to swim at a fast pace, but not uncomfortably fast. Felt like I started to go a bit too hard about 1/3rd of the way into it and backed off, got my perceived heart rate back under control then picked up the pace again. I was in the middle lane of the pool so I was able to have a good view of any other fast swimmers that I knew about, and able to know that I was moving faster and lapping them in some cases.

Maybe I could have gone a bit harder, shaved 20 more seconds off my time, but at what cost?

I'm estimating my T1 time because this was not a chip timed race, therefore my "transition" time was included in my bike time. But it gets tricky, because my swim time didn't end until I actually left the pool building, but like everyone else it was so damn cold outside that I dried off, put on two shirts and my socks before leaving. So I probably spent two minutes on the pool deck drying off and getting dressed, then about twenty seconds to run outside, put my helmet and glasses on and go.

Freeze my tail off outside? Not put on warm clothes and get hypothermia on the bike? I guess nothing really. Overall score of below average due to weather conditions making this a longer than necessary transition.

Brutal, epic bike. Winds were so strong I had to get out of the aero bars for fear of getting blown over. My avg. speed on the way out was 15.9 mph and 24.2 on the way back.

Based on my run performance, I feel I didn't push it enough on the bike. In retrospect, I felt like I was pushing as hard as I could with my heart rate and breathing maxed out on the hills.

I learned that you can't rack my bike by the horns with the aero bottle in place. That took me 15 seconds. It was so windy I wanted to rack it that way for stability, but it didn't happen. So I lost a bit of time ensuring my bike didn't get blown off the rack. I also had the most bizarre cramp in my abs. As I reached down to get my right foot out of the shoe it hit me like a ton of bricks and I almost fell off the bike. So I lost about 30 seconds standing up and moving into a position to make that cramp go away before the run. I got my watch and shoes on, helmet off in no time at all. If it weren't for the cramp and the issues racking the bike, this would have been a 30 second transition.

Now I know I have to rack by the seat. I also know to be a little more careful getting my feet out of the pedals and not getting that cramp.

For all of you that have read any previous race report of mine, you know that I'm not a fast runner. This is the fastest 10k I've ever run, stand-alone or during a tri, or even in training. I don't know what happened but the imaginary speed fairy visited me and I killed the run. I felt good doing it too, not too winded or tired until the last mile when I pushed the pace into the high 7's.

I'm not sure what the results would have been if I pushed a little harder during the first 5 miles. If I ran 15 seconds faster per mile would I still have banged out that last mile at 7:49? Or would I have exploded and run/walked the last two miles at 10:30? I'm thrilled with this run and can't contain my smile.

Walked, stretched, at a slice of pizza and drank water. Then drove an hour home, changed, drove 2.5 hours down to St. Paul for a hockey tournament I was coaching at. Was surprisingly not too stiff, the high school kids I was coaching couldn't believe I was still standing.


Weather, lack of hill climbing ability on bike.


This is a well run, small local race. Not a very tough field of competitors, as evidenced by how well an average guy like me placed. I would recommend this race with the following caveats: April in MN can be good or very bad weather, this is a low budget non-chip timed race, the field of competitors is 80% first timers and recreational athletes. I said there were not enough drink stations because there were only two on the run with water and nothing else. But due to the weather I didn't feel thirsty or as if I needed more.
I'm happy with this race and will do this one every year because it's fun and a great start to the season and gauge of fitness level.