The triathlon went really well today. Mare and I left at 4:30am (waaaay too early after the crazy week in portland) to pickup up her friend Jen. We started driving up to Chisago at about 4:50. We were almost to Forest Lake when I realized that I had forgotten my helmet! I have never worn one so it just totally slipped my mind. Thankfully, we were 3/4 miles from Forest Lake and I thought they had a wal-mart. I refuse to shop at walmart but today I had no choice 
I found a $16 helmet and was ready to go.
We arrived around 5:45 and got all checked in. Gus, Christy, John G, Aaron, Peggy, Honl, and Kara all showed up and we parked and went down to the lake. They race was _very_ well managed and we were all provided a number (according to how we signed up) and a chip that goes around your ankle to clock your time. Everyone got setup in the staging area and we headed down to the lake. The half-ironman’s got started at 7:00am. There were nearly 1000 people there so it was crazy! I was number 7xx so I went in the 15th heat. Honl and I were in the same heat. Aaron had signed up early but decided to stay back and go with Gus, and Mare (which added 18minutes to his “official” time).
We started off with the 1/4mi swim. 50 peoples went every two minutes so the water was PACKED with simmers. I didn’t have the chance to pee and I had to go so I thought I’d pee in the water…which I totally forgot to do…
The wind was moderate so the lake had some waves. I breathed in a little bit of water and had to stop once or twice. It was hard to your bearing with the waves and so many people around. I kept hitting Honl’s foot with my arms. hehehe…it was actually nice to have someone to swim with. I finished the swim ok and jogged up to the transition area right behind honl. I was pretty tired but felt pretty good but still had to pee. I put on socks, shoes, a jersey, a helmet and went running out of the transition.
The bike was really, really nice. The roads were fairly smooth and my legs felt good. I felt great at the beginning and Honl and I were pushing 22-26 mph for a few miles. Honl took off and I just kept trying to chase his bright yellow jersey. I forgot to reset my computer and didn’t make a good note of mileage so I just tried to keep a pace around 20mph. I hit mile 5 and felt good. Then there we started heading into the wind and things got harder! It was amazing to be out on the country roads though and I felt confident everytime I passed someone with a higher number than me I got passed by a few crazies who were totally haulin’ but I let that go. I didn’t see the 10mi marker and had NO idea how far I was. Eventually I passed a guy and asked if he know what mile we were on. He said we were at 16.7 so I was STOKED! I felt great so I thought I’d pedal hard through the rest. Unfortunately, there were some tough hills into a strong wind that really slowed everyone down. I was sooo happy to see the town in the distance! I hit the transition area as honl was leaving. I put down the bike and mare reminded me to leave my helmet (hehehe, thx mare) and headed out. I immediately stated getting a cramp in my right calve. I was bummed because running 3.1 miles on a cramp is super hard. Fortunately, I drank some water and Gatorade and even though it gave me a side ache, the cramp went away. At this point, I _really_ had to pee! I had only run on the treademill so running “for real” hurt a lot more. After about 1/4 mile I thought I would have to stop and walk. I ran by a water station and they were giving away some of that Power Gell stuff. I asked if I could take one and the guy said “Yeah man! They give you an AWESOME caffeine kick!” I chocked it down without any water (which sucked). My gut started hurting shortly after. I finally got some water and felt better. After another 1/4 mile or so either the caffiene or the placebo effect kicked in and I felt SO much better. I passed a few people and continued uphill. I saw the 1 mile marker and was encouraged, but exhausted. I was still chasing Honl and saw him near the halfway point taking a break to walk. I yelled “c’mon honl!” and we rounded the half-way point together. Honl was hurtin’ and said “I’m dieing man” and fell behind. The downhill part of the run was sooo much easier. I crossed paths with Gus, Aaron, JohnG, and this guy named Tony who was in our heat (who then gave me a high five). I was breathing hard and was sooo sick of running but I eventually made it to the turn back to the lake. I was close to the staging area and was excited to be done. I saw Peggy, her mom, and Joan cheering at the entrance and smiled. I was looking for the finish but quickly realized that I had to run around and up a hill….which wasn’t cool at this point in the race! I was tired but was SOOO close! I made it through with a time of 1:40:49. I beat my friends and ended up #84 of 311.
I felt SO good afterwards. I think I burned up every endorphine in my body and was just flyin’! Finally!, I got my chance to pee! Oh man…it was _such_ a release! I found Mare and Christy and cheered with them. Honl came in about a 2.5 minutes later. Then Gus, Aaron, Jen and JohnG made it in. It was great to be done!
The women did a great job. Mare had a 7-someting minute swim (she’s an awesome swimmer) and was just bummed that it wasn’t longer so she had a better chance to pass. Christy was amazing on the bike and Jen did well on the run. JohnG finished strong but was hurtin bad. He did amazing though considering he hadn’t trained for it!
Here are a couple of photos of the event.
I was very pleased with my time and can’t believe it went so well after an INSANE week as OSCON! I guess staying up until 3am every night for like two weeks is the key to training
