A Pair of Dueces the Tri-ing for Children Tri

Again, sorry for not posting recently and for not returning any e-mails. I guess I've just been letting the real world get in the way of my play. I'll try to stop that in the future. We'll see how that works for me. I will get a few e-mails out tomorrow, but some will have to wait until Thursday evening. Sorry again.

Anyhow, here comes my Tri-ing for Children race report:

First off, how did I wind up doing this race that I was not planning on doing? Well, my wife, Julie, had planned on doing this race since the beginning of the year. I was going to bring the kids and cheer her on. A couple of weeks ago, my cousin volunteered to watch the monsters, err kids, get up really stupidly early in the morning, and allow me to race with Julie. So, onto the race calendar it went.

The morning came around bright and clear. I walked into transition with no real expectations other than to push myself past my comfort zone. I left the heart rate monitor, bike computer, and spare tubes at home. I was just going to go all in and see what the cards had in store. I was going off in wave eight which is not where I usually would want to start, but I had no expectations.

Prerace I saw a bunch of the local fast guys and figured, because they are real athletes, that they would be doing the Olympic distance race. That might just leave us mere mortals to race the sprint distance. As a side note, I saw Scott Bowe's new Trek Speed Concept that he got from Emery's. And, I have some serious bike envy going on. They have one just like his in my size at the shop now. Maybe Santa will find me on his nice list this year. A guy can dream you know.

The swim started and, like I usually don't do, I went out hard. I made no attempt to find anyone's feet. I just swam hard for the first buoy. That actually seemed to work. At the first buoy someone passed me, but for the rest of the swim I was just weaving though the previous wave's members. Whilst I was a weaving one of my competitors shucked when I thought they were going to jive. The result was a right goggle without a rubber gasket. Rather than fight trying to fix it in the water, I just did the last bit of the swim like Popeye. Note to self: sighting with one eye is harder than Popeye makes it look. Sorry to the lifeguard who asked if I needed a floaty thing after getting knocked in the face. I think I just backstroked over her. I really should have said, "No thank you." I don't really know because she approached from my, then, blind side. And, as soon as I felt I was alone in the water, I went back to freestyle.

Sidebar (OJ trial flashback): The guy (Paul) at Sable Water Optics is setting me up with new gaskets for my goggles. If you have not tried these goggles, you are missing it. I have been using this particular pair of 101's for more than three years. They are just the clearest goggles out there. And, as I just learned, their customer service is more than excellent. You can get them right over at Emery's (surprise, surprise). If you don't like them, I'll buy them from you. Really, they are that good. I have two pairs and Julie has a pair too.

T1 was a little slow. My helmet just did not want to go on, but on it went and off I went for a bike ride.

On the bike I usually wait to get my breathing under control before hitting it. This time I just went right from the mount line. Other than the larger than usual volume of snot on my face (haven't seen the pics yet, but they will be good) from the summer cold I seem to have found, I would say it only took another minute to a minute-and-a-half to get my heart rate down to biking levels. I proceeded to pass a lot of people on the bike. I thought I could see the guy in a blue tri top that passed me in the water, but I could not catch him. Overall, the bike was pretty good. The course is not as flat as some would have you believe, and the wind was definitely more than I would have expected standing on the beach. Anyhow, no one passed me on the bike and I only wondered what way to go once while on the course. I only had cadence information while I was riding. No clock, no speed, no average speed. I have to say it is nice to not have a computer sometimes.

T2 went well. Nothing to report other than running is my favorite thing to do, but is not what I do the best. I had run two miles on Saturday morning at 6:36min/mile pace. So, I had an idea what I wanted to feel like while running. The question remained whether I could do it for three miles.

I got on the run course and promised myself to not look at the Garmin until it told me I was at mile number one. I did that and was happy to see it saying that I was going at about a 6:30 pace. By then I was out on the nice flat and fast road. Other than being a little on the warm side, I felt pretty good going the speed I was. One nineteen-year-old passed me on the run, other than that I was just out there on my own. There were a lot of others on the road, but either I was passing them easily or they were going in the other direction. Before I knew it, the finish line was there. Who would have thought that running faster got it over with sooner? That must be science or something.

Swim came in at 6:29, T1 1:04, Bike at 38:14, T2 1:01, and the run at 20:04. Not too bad for an old guy. 2nd overall and 2nd in my age group. Unfortunately, the other old guy that beat me, beat me by 4 minutes. Translation: I need to go a mile-per-hour faster on the bike and a whole minute per mile faster on the run. Not bad goals to set for one's self. Again, we'll see.

After the race I was able to go cheer Julie on as she got off the bike and through her run. I have to say, as much as I liked racing, seeing Julie do her thing was a lot of fun. Cheering on all the triathletes that I don't know was really fun. I hope all those (other than the one crabby guy with some fracture excuse) that I convinced to stop walking and resume running were able to set PR's.

After Julie finished we had a nice lunch with the guy who beat me (maybe crushed my dreams is a better phrase, but he may have set a few dreams too) and his friends and family. Heck, maybe he'll let me tag along on some of his training so I can grow up to be as fast as he is. It turns out we have some mutual friends and our wives actually know each other. We'll see (that seems to be a motif).

While hanging out waiting for the awards (which were so big they don't fit on the shelf dedicated for such things) many new friends were made.

Overall, Julie and I had a great time. If anyone accidentally took a pair of 11.5 neon yellow Nike Lunar Racers, drop me an e-mail. They are mine.

Pewaukee Triathlon Race Report

Well, the Pewaukee Triathlon was this past Sunday. It is a good sided race that brings a fairly competitive field.

I've been crazy busy with work and at home, so I apologize that this comes a little late and that I have not responded to any one's e-mails for a bit. I will get to them over the next couple of days.

Back to the race.

I picked up my packet on Friday evening to find out two things. One, I was going to be in the second wave (this did not make me happy initially). And, two, the race was to start at 6:30am.

Now, the wave thing I had no control of, and it was not worth complaining about. I had asked to be in the first wave, and thought that was going to be the case. But, it really isn't that big of a deal and the last thing a race director needed two days before the race was me asking questions about a wave assignment. I just don't like swimming over people who mistakenly find themselves in the first wave.

The 6:30am thing did shock me. A half of an hour earlier is not much, but when you have to wrangle two three-year-olds, a seven-year-old, and (most importantly) a grumpy (age omitted for my personal safety) spouse at 4:30am so that Daddy can go do his race, things can get a little grumpy very quickly. So, after a little (very little) deliberation it was decided that I would go solo to this race. I would miss looking for them all, but not having to deal with family stuff would be nice too.

The day dawned bright and clear. The house slept as I left, and the only people on the roads all had bikes with them. I got to the race with plenty of time to get transition set up, body marked, and a little BSing with other OCD athletes. It was great to see some of the Emery's folks from Menomonee Falls that I usually only get to see at Pewaukee and during the winter. The iPod randomly selected the Dead Kennedys and I agreed with its choice. I was also able to speak with a tri-newbie, Kait, about what to expect.

Side note: Kait did well and is now very much hooked on her new to her road bike that Brent and Steve set he up on. Thanks, guys.

Just before the race started I was able to "warm-up" the lower half of my wetsuit. This was to insure the lightest possible race weight and to prevent lower body injury. That is my story and I am sticking with it.

The swim was uneventful. I was into the first wave's people within the first 100m, or so. There were a lot of people going off course, to the inside of the square course, but I was able to not follow them and just went on by. I swam the outside for the rest of the swim as there were too many people to go around and I was unable to find any feet not going slowly. I think I was one of the first people in my wave out of the water due to the number of bikes still on the rack. Had a good 43 second transition and onto the bike I went.

Now, Pewaukee sits in a valley (duh, there is a lake there) so to get out of town you have to go up some hills. As I was going up the first set of hills, I noted that I was now well into the first wave. I tried to settle into my own pace. At first it was crowded and there was a lot of back an forth amongst about five of us. Once that got sorted out, I was able to go at the pace I wanted to. I was feeling pretty good. I had gone with only a 20oz bottle (with about 12oz of Gatorade in it) between my aero bars. In hind sight, a full bottle would have been better. I was out of fluids at about mile 11 or 12 and would have liked a last drink before starting the run.

Transition two went into the books at 47 seconds. Coming through the crowd after T2 I was putting on my watch and clipping my race belt. The crowd was cheering and my feet just went with it. I was able to get right into a sub-seven minute mile pace right away. I figured that I would just go with the flow and see where it got me. Well, it got me to the finish line without having to slow. I'll take that.

Overall, I was 22nd and 5th in my age group. I'll take a 23.5mph bike ride and a sub-seven minute mile run pace any day. It sure beats being dead. And, let's face it, there are those that would like to, but are unable to do a triathlon. Thirty seconds here and a minute there are nice goals. But, maybe a moment or two to reflect upon how blessed we are to just be able to do this silly (it is a little, and you know it) sport.

For the next few weeks, I'm going to do a little extra running. Let's see where that gets me.

As always, shoot me an e-mail if you want to meet up for a ride or run in the morning. Bally's pool is closed this week, so if you want to do an open water swim somewhere, I'd be up for that too.