Chisago Kids and Sprint Tri

I know both of you have been anxiously awaiting a race report for the Chisago Lakes Kids and Sprint Triathlon. Well here it is. Saturday was an early morning as I had to get everything loaded up (including the dog) for both the tri and the weekend at the cabin. Then I had to run it all up to the lake, drop off the dog and the non-tri stuff, load the fridge and drive to Forest Lake to meet Doc and the kids. Anyhow, we got to the transition area with plenty of time for the kids to mug for the camera: Zach finished in the top three the first year he did the race (this is his third). The event wasn't nearly as big, but it's set the bar pretty high. At first they put him in with the 10 year olds because of his size. At the last minute he told them he was 9 and moved up to that wave. Unfortunately it was too late for him to get to the front of the wave. He's a good swimmer and would have rocked it. He came out of the water way behind the leaders and had no chance to podium. Fortunately he has a good time whether he places or not. (A lot like his dad that way!)
Jenna wants to win a trophy like Zach's and was pretty disappointed when she didn't.


I recognize this look. The pain at the finish. Plus, they're too young to have a Leinie's Summer Shandy - the unkindest cut. Zach crashed TWICE on the bike. The first time he clipped some one's rear wheel and the second time he got squeezed into the curb. Knowing how crazy it can get in the adult race, I can only imagine what it was like with kids flitting around.

Here's a short video of Jenna coming off the beach, washing off her feet and heading into T1. She needs to work on her turnover!

And one of Zach dismounting the bike. The doc says he'd been practicing. I wish I could get down that technique.

Sorry about the size. I know Youtube embedded videos are bigger, but I wasn't able to get the full code blah blah blah.

We went to the Swedish Inn in Lindstrom after the race to kill time before I could get my packet for Sunday's sprint. Sorry no pictures. If you want to see pictures of postrace food check out http://iwannagetphysical.blogspot.com/ for Steve in a Speedo's race report.

Chisago Sprint Report

The Chisago Sprint - also known as the Golden Globes of the Ex-Neighbor Tri Battle
(it's nice to win it, but everyone only remembers the Oscar (Turtleman) winner. New bike course this year - shorter and less hilly. In previous years, the longer bike course has helped me. Jim and I are in the same wave - which is nice. Stomper Rob signed up the day before the race so he's a ways back.

We're the ninth sprint wave to go. Standing waist deep in the water looking out at the swim course it looks like there was a shipwreck. I've never seen so many heads just bobbing in the water. What the heck people, it's 1/4 to 1/3 of a mile - keep it moving out there. The tattooed guy next to Jim starts talking about needing his space. We joke with him a bit, but I'm not sure he's kidding.

The gun goes off and I take off fast, not wanting to get caught up with the space needing tatman. I feel somebody hit my right side a couple of times. I figure it's Jim - sorry - turns out it was probably tatman. Almost immediately I'm dodging to bobbers, sidestrokers and backstrokers from the earlier waves. I stayed waaaaaay to the outside and it wasn't too bad. It took me a while to recover from the fast start. My watch said just over 7 minutes when I hit the beach. It took a bit to get up the hill to transition.

The Bike

I feel bad about the bike. I think I may have ruined some one's day. There were 4 of us riding at about the same speed. One guy was doing the half and had the full aero kit. He was faster on the downhills but in trying to keep his watts down was slower on the uphill. He had a guy on a roadbike drafting off him in the most blatant fashion I'd ever seen. We hit a flat stretch so the aero guy started pulling away from me slowly. I watched the other guy sit 6 inches off his wheel for at least 2 miles. We got to some hills again and I started to pass them. I commented to another guy that we were all passing that it was the shortest 3 bike lengths I'd ever seen. As I passed the aero guy I told him "he had an achor" - what I meant was a remora sucking on his tail. I think he thought I was pissed that he was going slow on the hill or something. Right before the sprint turnoff he passed me and said something I didn't catch. I hope he didn't fry himself passing me. I had two other courses of action - both of which would have been better than my passive aggressive actions. 1. Shrug it off. If some guy wants to suck wheel in a race that's his deal. 2. Take it up with the drafter, not those around the drafter. Hopefully aero guy had a great race and doesn't even remember me.

Running Scared

Spent most of the run doing math in my head. As I was coming out of the park I saw Jim riding on Stinson heading towards the park. Looking at my watch it read 2:24 into the run. I figure I have about 3 minutes on him. Can I hold him off for 3.1 miles? At the turn I check my time, and then when I see Jim again I do some quick calculations. He's gained a little. I pick up the pace knowing he's going to haul trying to catch me. Not today!

The numbers:

Me Swim 8:29.9 T1 1:39.6 Bike 47:06.3 T2 40.7 Run 27:13.8 Total 01:25:10.5

Jim 9:45.7 1:20.2 49:33.9 1:23.7 25:00.4 01:27:04.2

Stomper 10:13.9 2:28.8 50:33.8 01:28.3 25:51.5 01:30:36.5

It looks like Stomper Rob may have a tough time defending the Turtle. We'll know in two weeks.

If you've made it this far in the post - wow do you have a lot of spare time!

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