A lot of folks at Weatherby Lake swim, and swim lots, hence the 1200 yard swim in a sprint distance Triathlon. So I was content to just go out easy in the first 200, then pick it up as I saw fit. I swam a little wide to the first bouy, then swam even wider to the far bouy where the turnaround was. But It was a relaxed swim without trying to navigate around people. On the way in I did swim in between a couple of swimmers and I couldn't tell who was swimming in a Z-pattern! I'd swim for while, then we'd collide, swim away and the process would repeat. That lasted for a couple of minutes then I put forth a harder effort and swam ahead. Was feeling mightly speedy there for while.

The swim finish is great, you swim under the boat dock to the beach area where you run up to transition.

Oh yeah, it was spinkling at swim start, it started to rain harder during the swim. As I was swimmming I thought I was on somebody's feet but when I looked up there was nobody there, The bubbles I saw in front of me was created by the rain!

Sight better, hold a closer line so as not to swim a longer distance than necessary. But it was so calm out there!

When I got to my transition spot everything was soaking wet! So it took a little longer to put my shoes on. I think removing the wetsuit bottoms went as good as expected, you've got to pull it off over the timing chip which adds a few seconds.



Not sure.

let's see, the last time I rode in the rain I crashed and broke my collar bone. A friend of mine came out of the water and decided not to ride at all (he has HyVee next week, didn't want to risk it). I decided to go easy on the bike and not "race" the bike portion. I pushed hard on a few occasions, where it was flat or uphill. I slowed way down on turns and applied breaks going downhill. About midway through I saw the neon yellow of Patrick and right with him was this other rider. I was wondering if the other guy was on a relay team because I knew Patrick wouldn't have much company coming out of the water. They were moving pretty fast too, much faster than I was willing to risk.

There a a couple of parts of the course that are flat and you can get down on the bars but I never did. I just wanted better control throughout the race.

I ended up with a 19 mph average which was faster than I felt I was going. In dry conditions I'm sure I could average 22 mph or faster on this course.

Ride a mountain bike? Not sure if I could average a higher speed though.

Got back to my soaking wet running shoes and visor. Don't know why I still put the visor on, it was still raining, no sign of sunlight. But it was the stylish thing to do!

Maybe lay a plastic trash bag over my gear during T1....Nah, it's just a sprint!

Came out of transition in soggy shoes but feeling pretty good. I think the relaxed atmosphere of this race can help performance a little. Felt my typical sluggish self coming out of T2 but I was able to achieve a good pace since the bike wasn't so taxing on the legs going so slow on the wet roads. About 3/4 mile into the run this teenage boy just cruised by me. He looked fresh and dry so I knew he was part of a relay team. Probably a HS XC runner, heck he looked pretty young, might have been in middle school! That was the only character passing me this day. Next I was Pete with Patrick right behind him. I was thinking, did Pete rock the swim and hammer the bike? My gut told me Pete skipped the bike and just ran with Patrick as Pete had HyVee the following week and is not one to risk injury on a fun race like this. Turns out he did skip the bike, I might have done the same in his shoes, but probably not as I lack wisdom in that regard.

My next victim was Ryan the RD! I could see that he was conversing with the volunteers on the street corner ahead of me so when I passed by I asked them if there was a penalty for passing the RD. She said "Oh no I think there's actually a bonus, go get 'em!". Eventually I caught up to him, chatted for a few steps, told him how great this event was going etc. and went on my way. When the RD can run the race that says a lot about his planning, staff and volunteers behind him.

Part of the run is out & back so you see runners heading out as you're coming in and I saw Brandon who told me Bob was just down the road. Bob was on a relay team so I thought I'd pick it up a bit to see if I could catch him. He was still at least 150 yards ahead so I wasn't sure there was enough real estate to make it up. I did pick it up a bit but fell short about 30 yards or so at the finish. The finish was great, a good amount of spectator noise given the small event.

I ended up with a PR for a sprint run leg, first time averaging sub 7's, heck my previous best 5K split was 7:20's so I smashed my previousl mark. I suppose going easy on the bike helped this as I usually hammer the bike before any run.

Absolutely Nothing.

Walked to transition, drank the rest of my gatorade, walked back to the finish to cheer on the other members of our group. The young piglet of the group, Kaylee, got second female overall! Whohoo! It was a good day for the swimmers of Prairie Life Fitness!

Warm down concluded with four cups of Boulevard Unfiltered Wheat beer, Ahhhhh!


Um, the rain maybe......


This race is top notch. The team that puts this together and the volunteers really make it a worth while event, esspecially the great cause behind it.