Rochesterfest Triathlon: Race Report

getting my game face on before the race

I accomplished my most important goal in this race--I didn't drown. Without achieving that goal, the rest would have been impossible.

giving Laura final instructions for what to do in the event that I drowned

 It was a nice day for my first triathlon: sunny and warm, but not too hot. The water was cool, but not cold. After a nice warmup, I headed down to the water to wait my turn for the swim. All the long course athletes were going first, so I got to stand on the beach and wait to face the dangers of Foster Arend Lake. There were some noodles and lifeguards on kayaks to save us if we needed a rest, but I said, "death before facing the humiliation of taking a rest on a quarter-mile swim."

Laura was watching me from the safety of a lawn chair. She was going to do this race to, but a knee injury has knocked her out of commission for the time being. When it was our turn to swim, I hung towards the back of the group, knowing I was going to be in the "trying not to sink to the bottom of the lake and have my carcass feasted upon by the stocked rainbow trout" division.

My swim was hard. I was next to this same guy the whole time, in between him and the buoys. It was nice because when I started swimming off course I would either run into him or the buoys. I'm proud to say I made it the whole way without taking a rest and exited the water safely (albeit slowly).

Then it was time for the bike. I'd biked about as much as I'd swam (hardly at all) and so I didn't have too high of aspirations for my bike time. I'd told Laura I was hoping for about 40 minutes. I felt like I was going at a pretty good clip, and though I got passed a fair amount (especially at the end), I also managed to pass a couple riders myself, and managed to finish the 10 mile bike in less than 35 minutes.

After the bike the fun began. I think I was a little woozy because on my way out of the transition area, Laura yelled at me that my helmet was still on. Oops. Good thing she was there, otherwise I may have ended up being the first and only runner in the 5k helmet division. After I threw my helmet in Laura's general direction, I headed out on the 5k course. At first my legs felt really goofy from biking and I was afraid I was going to run much slower than I was planning. My legs, however, loosened up and I was able to run at a pretty good clip. I think I passed about 70 runners over the 5k, and didn't get passed at all, so that made me feel kind of good.

My final time was 1:04:13. I was 32nd out of 238 athletes and 3 out of 8 in my age group. My swim time wasn't quite as bad as I thought, or, it was a slow group of swimmers in general. My 8:38 placed me 92nd. My bike time, 34:45, which I actually thought wasn't too bad, ranked me at a whopping 109. It was only my run time that made my first triathlon fairly respectable. My time of 17:26 was the fastest time, unless the girl who's listed as having run a 5k in 58 seconds actually did run that fast.

Laura was awesome for coming out, cheering, taking pictures, and stopping me from wearing a helmet while running a 5k.

Tomorrow I'm running a track meet in St. Louis Park. I'm going to try and hit my yearly goal of breaking 4:50 in the mile. Then I might run the 800m just for the heck of it. My legs actually felt decent this morning, so I think I might actually have a chance of hitting my goal.