Team Firefighter

Race report from Waconia HITS full Tri. 

     I went into this race with the mind set to actually race and not just do it to finish so I had no idea how it would turn out. Rachel Zambrano you inspired me to do this n you will remember when I explain. In Austin when we ran the Marathon Rachel had gut problems from pre-race dinner. Well she was talking with my wife at some point when I was not around n asked my wife if I was holding back n had more left. Not sure what my wife said but I believe Rachel said his race results never reflect that. Which is true. So I decided to race it. Thanks Rachel for helping me PR. I PR'd by one hour twenty two minutes.
     August weather here can be brutal n humid so when I got up n got to be time for swim start it was cloud cover n fairly decent temp. Swim went well. Nice clean lake n calm. It was a two loop swim n they had us come out of the water n run a ways on the beach n back in at the start for our second loop. The half started at the same time. My swim time was 1:17:58. 9 minutes faster then IM WI last September. I was very happy with my swim. T1 3:12 n off on the bike.
     The bike is my strongest leg. It was a four 28 mile loop coarse. Went out hard and kept it going for two loops. Third loop was still hard but toned it down a bit. A few of the roads were bumpy n had no shoulder so traffic had to go around you. Roads kept rattling my bottle cages loose and I lost a full bottle of nutrition n almost lost my second one but noticed it had fallen out n went back about 100 yards to pick it up. This happened on my third loop so I really needed that nutrition as miles were adding up. Nice thing about 4 loops you went by your special needs bag three times which was nice. Other than having bottle cage issues bike went well. 5:20:14. I ranked 19th in the swim and 1st on the bike. I had no idea out on the coarse because they ran the full n half together. Wish they would have had a way on bike n run to identify half n full athletes. Passed a lot of people n never got passed by anyone. I was nervous I had gone to hard on the bike n would have nothing left for the run. My running is not fast n I need to work on that.
    

T2 2:30 and off and running. As soon as I got off my bike the sun came out n it got hot n humid. Run was brutal. Out n back twice for the full. 6.55 miles. I decided to not wear my fuel belt like I did in WI. The aid stations were not as often as Ironman events n I needed more at some points in the race. Quads started cramping about two miles into run n I thought oh well swim n bike went well. Kept running n that went away. Pounded water n coke at every stop. Crammed ice in my Tri top n used the sponges to wet head n neck down. I always try not to get my feet wet but it was impossible not to. I had a fresh pair of socks n shoes in my special needs bag half way. That felt awesome for about 4 miles n they were soaked with everything dripping off me from trying to stay cool. Was in third place till around mile 22 then got passed. Finished run in 4:57:04. Need work on my run. Ended up 6th overall n 5 th in the males. 1st in my age group. Total time 11:41:01. Very happy with my race.