Swim course was good, started closer to the front and seemed to be able to find good water right away. I tried to focus on staying long, and having a quicker turn over than normal. My navigation was spot on, and I was able to stay close to the bouys for the entire race. After you got out of the water, you have about a 50-75 yard run, up hill, before you get to the timing mat, and about another 25 yards to the entrance of Transition.

This off season I need to have my stroke analyzed and get used to having a faster turn over and being more efficient.

Quick transition, it felt a lot longer than the 1:17, but I was focused on staying smooth, and not rushing myself. It is true what they say, "slow is smooth, and smooth is fast"!!

Learn to leave the shoes on the bike, which should make the T1 time come down a little

When I got on my bike I was only focused on pushing extremely hard for the entire time. I have never run a race this short, so I thought that I could push to the point of vommitting. The first 4-5 miles the wind was in our face and made it a little hard to get a good rythm going. At about mile 3.5 I picked off 2 riders. I did not know it, but at that point, but there was only 4 other racers in front of me.

Every once in a while I was able to get a glimpse of another rider ahead of me, but I was unable to real him in. I only brought water on the bike becasue from past races I know that when I am pushing hard, the sugar from Gatorade does not sit easy with my stomach. And while I was aiming to push hard enough to vomit, I did not want to do so on the bike, and would rather do so immediately after the run

At about mile 7 I started to do some figuring of time, and it was not looking too good. But the I realized that the forst section was against the wind, so I figured that I would be able to make up a little bit with it at my back for a few miles.

At mile 10, it looked like my time would be about 1:30 - 2:00 minutes shy of my goal, so I kicked it up a notch. There were times where I remember seeing my HR at 173-174, which is EXTREMELY high for me, but I wanted to shave more time off.

I came around the last corner and saw the 12 mile marker and knew that I only had 2 miles left to go, and now it looked like I was only going to miss my goal time by around 1:00 or so, so I was happy about that.

As I was coming back into town, wierdly enough, it felt like the Tour 'de France, as there were people in the bike lane that was blocked off. I even had to holler at a few of them as they were not paying attention to the way bike traffic was coming. They all got out of the way, and probably were not paying too much attention becasue of the few amount of bikes that had come by at that point.

With about a block left to go, I slipped my feet out of the shoes and hit the last corner before transition with a vengance. There was a little hill that we had to climb to get into transition, so I wanted to carry as much speed as possible going into it. I swung the corner wide, and ground out the last 50 yards up hill. My mom was there taking pictures and said she got one of me going up that hill, I am really curious to see the expression on my face...I am sure it will be ugly AND priceless! :)

This was another new PR for MPH on the bike, so not much! :)

nice and quick

nothing

This was something that I am not used to, running at the front of the race. It was hard to judge my pace because there was no one in view for me to gage myself against, so I just focused on pushing hard and monitoring my HR.

The first mile seemed like I was crawling! My legs did not want to move as well as I hoped they would, but I kept a high turn over, knowing they would come around after the first mile.

The first mile came by in 7:09 and I was pleasantly suprised at the pace. At the same time, the race leader passed me going the other way. I am not really sure what I expected, but it was a moral victory for me to not see him on the run until 2 miles left. It made me feel a little better about my race.

Shortly after that the trail straightened out and I could see the turn around, and the few people that were a head of me. I started counting them and realized that I was running 5th at the turn around. I knew there would be some faster people in the waves after me, but I still like my chances of finishing in the Top 10.

When I hit the turn around I saw 2 guys running fast, and knew that it was only a matter of time until they caught me, which happened shortly before mile 2.

At mile 2, I check my watch and it clocked in at 7:01, which almost brought a smile to my face, as I have not ever run this fast after getting off the bike. I knew that I would have a decent run time if I could hold onto this pace for another 1.1 miles.

At this point there was a lot more people on the trail which I think helped me focus a bit more on lengthing my stride and moving as fast as I could. I got to the point in the run where I could see the finish line and I tried to dig a little deeper, but I had nothing left in the tank. I did not slow down, but I did not have anything left in me for a faster finish, becasue I left it scattered across the course.

I hit the line at 1:08:25, as the 7th finisher to cross the line. Grabbed a water and a Gatorade and walked over to the side and was SECONDS away from vommiting. It was sitting in my throat, but it never came up. After I thought about it, I decided to drink a little more water to "wash" it down and walk a round a little so I would not focus on it.

After a few minutes I walked over to where the results were being posted and realized that 4 others had come in faster, and I had missed the Top 10 OA by 4 seconds!

Oh well, I pushed as hard as I could, had a great race, and came in 11th. I set new PR's in terms of Bike Pace and Run Pace, so I can't complain at all

Nothing

Walked around, talked to a few friends, walked back up the trail to cheer on a few of the racers coming in.


Current fitness level


This is quite possibly one of the best run races in the state of MN. If you get a chance to do this one, I would HIGHLY reccomend it