Pre-Race:
Woke up at 4:30am and took a shower. I like to be clean before a race. Most of my stuff was packed the night before but I had a few odds and ends to pack. The race is site is only 10 minutes from the house. I packed an extra set of clothes and a rain jacket for after the race. I ate a honey stinger bar and drank a bottle of Skratch Labs to top off my electrolytes. Since it looked to be very humid, I went ahead and took a Shark salt as well. By the time I loaded my bike in the back of the truck, it was time to head out. Transition opened at 5:45am and there is a small parking lot next to transition that fills quickly. As long as you get there before transition opening, you can get a spot. I pulled on in and the parking lot was almost full at 5:30am. Grabbed my stuff in my transition bag and got in line for body marking and transition set up. When I made it to my rack there were about four bikes racked and three of them were on the aisle. Not perfect but it would have to do. I brought some big zip lock bags to put my bike and running shoes in to keep them dry. It was sprinkling already so that was my original plan. My aero helmet and race belt would go on the aero bars on the bike. Trudging back to the truck, I changed my mind. The wind was really starting to come back up. I unloaded everything out of my bag and went back to transition. I decided to put the shoes inside my transition bag with the zipper on the top of the bag open, a double layer of protection against a bad storm. By the time I got this done, hit the bathroom one last time and picked up my chip, it was about 15 minutes to race time at 7am. Time was flying. I thought about a quick warm up swim but decided to wait and let it rip at the start. This is the fourth time I have done this race. There is a guy who has beaten me every year. It started as a fairly large gap and it has been shrinking through the years. I lost by 8 seconds last year. It is a nice carrot. It helps to do a race with some sort of goal in mind. We swim close to the same speed and once again we were next to each other in the swim line. They seed you (bib number assignment) by your estimated swim time. I estimated 4:45 for the 275 yard swim and was number 143. There were over 600 registered but only 483 showed up to race. The weather must have kept a lot of people away. My Sunday running crew showed up to watch and it was nice to see those guys. The support helps when your out there.
Swim:
They line you up in the gym by number. There was some number jumping but most everyone follows the rules. The race organizers don't give you a swim cap so any cap will do if you want one. I used the Hamline University my daughter was able to get for me from their swim coach. Unfortunately, before getting in the pool, I tore off a piece but it was still functional. The swim was one of the best pool swims I have ever had. You are spaced 5 seconds apart so there can be chaos at the walls and trying to pass in a 25 yard pool. The people in front of me and behind me were right on pace. All I had to do was swim. My guy behind me passed me with about 75 yards to go so I drafted on him the rest of the way. I passed one person as well. That was it. The timing mat is on the way out the door. My time was 4:50 which includes climbing out of the water. This is very fast for me. I didn't really feel winded or tired either. Really nice.
T1:
Upon leaving the pool, I was hammered by the winds preceding the storm. There was light rain at that point. The bikes on the rack were all swinging back and forth wildly. My helmet and race belt used to be on my aero bars. They were now scattered all over the place. My aero helmet has an eye shield that is attached magnetically. The rain was coming and I knew I had to have something covering my eyes. I found it in the next row and put my helmet on. Shoes were in the bag so no problem there. My race belt was MIA so I didn't bother spending any more time looking for it. My buddy racked next to me left at the same time so we were together. A slow 1:57 in transition.
Bike:
I was ahead coming out of transition and the sky's opened up. The rain was coming down hard. I mean stinging hard. The wind was whipping everywhere. Gusts had to be mid 30s at the least. My guy passed me within the first mile so I decided to just stay with him since I am a better runner. We worked our way to the east on the first loop and my legs felt great. I was worried about the 3+ hours on the bike yesterday but it was no problem. I decided to pass my mark and let the chips fall where they may. We made a right turn to the south and it was brutal. The wind was just nuts. Somewhere in here and around the warehouse area for the return, we got some hail. The concrete around the warehouses was slick with oil and very slippery. You really had to be careful. I saw several people go down hard around the warehouses. The entire first lap reminded me of Lieutenant Dan in Forest Gump on top of the mast of the shrimp boat. After finishing the first lap, the rain subsided some but the roads were not trustworthy with a lot of standing water. The winds were still brutal. It would have been far better to have waited until later to swim. The weather was really bad for those who started early. I thought my time was going to be really bad but I finished the bike in 46:44 which is 18mph. Not bad considering the conditions. If were nice, I think crushing the 20mph mark was definitely possible.
T2:
After getting off the bike, I saw my boys at transition. Good to see them. I was very happy to survive the ride without crashing. When I got to transition, one of the bikes racked next to me was off the rack and laying on everybody's transition gear. Nice. I was able to get to my stuff. I put my helmet in the transition bag and grabbed my running shoes. I beat my guy to transition and when he got there, his stuff was not accessible. I helped out with the bike that fell down and re-racked it for him. I took off running at that point and spent 1:25 in T2.
Run:
It was cool but the humidity was very high from the rain. There was still a little rain but not much. The route was new this year and was a winding path through the park to the east of the CAC. I looked at my watch a few times but knew I was off pace from last year. No chance of hanging on to that. I tried to get my legs moving as fast as possible. My training has been more endurance related for Ironman Boulder so my short distance speed is not quite up to par. The out and back followed the same path with a few derivations. I told the aid station people to just throw water all over me. I didn't drink much of anything. I made a mistake at one aid station and poured Gatorade on myself. I felt good and didn't really need any hydration. On my way back, I saw Joe, Fred and the Matrix one more time and really kicked it in. I ended up a few minutes ahead of the guy I was using as my carrot. My run was 25:32 and averaged 8:14 minute miles.
Overall, very memorable due to the weather. The race is right next to the house so hard to pass up. Sprints are not really my focus for this year so I wasn't really trained to kill this event. I ended up 8th in my age group and 80th overall. Not really all that important in the big scheme of things but it was enjoyable. Nice to be racing again. It's been at least six months since my last triathlon.
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