B's Olympic Distance Triathlon Report...

Last Sunday K & I did a Olympic Distance Triathlon in Pleasant Prairie Wisconsin as payback for the Steelhead Half Ironman turned Duathlon...plus we had a group of 8 friends racing the same event also so it made for some good fun.

For Kristen this was only her second triathlon event and first time racing this distance. For myself the last time I raced an Olympic distance triathlon was way back in July 1994...The distance for this race are Swim 1.5k - Bike 40k - Run 10k...which is in miles - Swim .93 of a mile - Bike 24.8 miles and Run 6.2 miles...much less daunting than a half Ironman ;-)

The big challenge for K & I was the morning before we ran 17 miles with our respective CARA Chicago Marathon training groups so we didn't know how we would feel on tri-race morning plus we raced a half marathon the weekend before and the half ironman duathlon two weeks earlier...thats alot of training & racing in 3 weeks time!

Anyways on to the triathlon stuff now as we drove up to Pleasant Prairie on Saturday afternoon and loaded our bikes in transition that afternoon so we won't have to worry about that aspect race morning. We stayed about 4 miles away from the race event area right next to the morning shuttle bus pick-up area. Early Sunday morning arrived much too soon as we headed to the transition area when it was opened at 5am to get everything organized for the race. The first swim wave was set to go off at 6:30am and every wave after that in 3 minute increments so we had plenty of time to meet up with all our friends and watched the first couple swim waves start. As my wave 8 was called up I hugged (& kissed) K good luck as she was in swim wave number 10.

My AG had 60 racers that finished so at the start of the swim I hung off the back before going over the chip mat with clear running in front of me because swimming is my weakest link in tri's. The course was a triangle formation with nice large corner buoys so spotting was easy for me. I'm glad to say from the moment I hit the water till the time I exited the water I swam a very constant freestyle pace. I was amazed at how comfortable I felt out in the lake especially with my full-body 2xu wetsuit on which I only used my legs about 5% of the swim time, saving them for the bike & run ;-) I passed people from my wave plus the waves before as the faster swimmers from the waves behind me passed me as only a few people got near me in the swim. I exited the swim in 34:35 with energy is reserve now for the bike and run...not lighting fast but I survived the swim :-)

My T1 transition was ok at 2:45 which felt like forever but I took my time get set for my favor discipline...the bike! As I ran/trotted in my bike shoes & bike to the allow get on your bike area I realized I forgot my garmin 305 in the transition...oh well. My legs felt ok on the bike but I was feeling some fatigue from the long run the day before but that didn't effect my desire to do well on the bike as I was passing alot of riders out there on their first loop of the international distance course. I did get passed by a couple riders on the first loop but the sprint distance triathletes started after our wave 11 so these were the really fast guys! On my second loop I'm proud to say that no one passed me here as I pushed my fatigued body toward the dis-mount area for transition number two. I did the 24.8 mile bike course in 1:02:01 which translates to a 23.99mph average rate of speed...

As I racked my bike in T2 I changed into my Newton Motus running shoes, grabbed my coolmax hat & fuel belt and off I was thru the chip mat in 2:36...not blazing quick but good enough for me. Right from the get go of the running my running legs were there which is a really good sign for me ;-) In the opening couple miles of the run I was able to pass people whom were struggling after the bike portion of the race even with my sore legs as maybe only a handful of people passed me on the whole run duration. Just as I passed the mile 3 sign heading out to the turn-around point my buddy Jim who started in the wave in front of me high-fives me heading the other way. It was a pursuit at this point to catch him before the finishline so I turning up the pace as much as my legs could handle. I saw Kristen headed out on the run just as I passed the mile 5 sign and she told me to go get Jim :-) I did my best but came up about 300 feet short of catching him as I sprinted the last 200 meters into the finishline with a total time of 2:31:21...my run split time was 49:26 for 7:58 mile pacing.

As I congratulated Jim on holding me off on the run we cheered on all our friends as they came into the finishline area especially Kristen as she finished in an outstanding time of 2:57:31...way too go honey!!! Afterwards we all hung out at the post race party sharing racing stories for the day. K really enjoy the event...I think she's hooked ;-)

In my AG I finished in 23rd out of 60 racers as my proudest accomplishment is being 7th quickest bike in my AG...Overall I finished 189th out of 625 racers and once again my proudest point is having the 54th quickest bike split :-)

K finished 29th out of 44 finishers in her AG...Overall she finished 472nd out of 625...very well done Kristen in your very first olympic distance triathlon & 2nd ever tri :-)

I'm happy to say that K really enjoy the triathlon racing as a new challenge plus now I'm re-addicted to it also!

Thanks for stopping by and reading the long winded report :-)

b

International AG & Overall Results:
http://www.pleasantprairietriathlon.com/raceresults/index.asp