Burnsville 10K Recap

Heart of the City 10K

 September 6, 2014 

Triathlon season and summer have come and gone.  I’ll say it was a success.  After the Lake Marion triathlon I had to sit down and decide what was going to be next.  The fall schedule ends up looking like this:

                Heart of the City 10K,        9/ 6/2014

                Surf the Murph,               10/25/2014

                Moustache Run,               11/29/2014.

I chose the Heart of the city 10k in Burnsville to make-up for the 10K race that I dropped in May (due to injury and illness).  I can’t say it was a big deal of a race, but I wanted to check the 10K of my list of races.  Surf the Murph is a 25K trail run that takes place 2 miles from my house.  It sounds fun; it’s really close; I couldn’t resist.  It’s listed as having 25K, 50k or 50 mile race options.  The length depends on if you do one, two or three loops of the course.  The distances actually work out to be about 16.7 miles, 33.4 miles and 50 miles (25K=15.5 miles, 50K=31miles), but I guess 25K and 50K just end up looking better.  The Moustache Run is a half marathon.  It seems like a good next challenge.  I’ll have to pack on quite a few miles in the next couple months, but this will bring me closer to the races that I actually want to run. 

I don’t think I’ll ever be fast.  Also, I don’t care if I’m ever fast.  Instead of working towards increasing my speed, I have chosen to shoot for increasing my distances.  I’ll shoot for the half marathon this year, maybe Olympic triathlons next year and sooner or later hit the long races (marathon, 70.3…).  It’s a lofty goal, but I’m not on any time limit.  Maybe it will be a few years before I hit a marathon; maybe it will be five or six years before a 70.3 triathlon, but it’s something to shoot for and it’s something to keep me engaged. 

Leading up to the race, I was averaging runs of about 3.9 miles with a pace of about 8:50.

My time breakdown and predicted reactions were as follows:

                Over 1:00             Failure
                0:58-1:00              At least I did it.
                0:56-0:58              Good enough
                0:54-0:56              Happy
                0:52-0:54              Awesome
                Under 0:52          Able to retire as champion of the world

Pre-Race

The t-shirt for the race was a black long sleeve run shirt.  It’s pretty nice. I’ll probably wear it a lot because it says 5K/10K, and it’s not going to be often that I am on the long course for a race.  I drove the course after picking up my packet the day before the race.  The first mile is all downhill and the second is pretty flat.  After that, there is a gradual uphill that runs for quite a while, and the last couple miles are mostly flat with a finishing downhill.  The race is about ten minutes from my house, so the 7:30 start time made for a leisurely morning and commute.

Race

Goal:     Don’t leave anything in the tank.
Actual:  I didn’t time it quite right.
I knew the first mile was all downhill, so I decided to try to light it up and see what kind of mile split I could hit.  My Garmin said I went out in 7:46.  I was actually hoping for a little quicker, but I shouldn’t complain.  There were only 78 people signed up for the 10K, so it felt like I ran much of the race on my own.  The race was largely uneventful, which isn’t a bad thing.  It was a nice quiet run. 

At one point, I was running down a curved street and I could hear someone coming up to pass me.  It just so happened that I was running by a “No Passing” street sign at that moment.  As the runner came up on me, I pointed to the sign and said “Obey the rules of the road!”  Once he got past me, I noticed that he was wearing ear buds.  I’m assume he didn’t hear me.  To him, I probably just looked like a crazy person waving their arms running down the street.  It’s a shame when a good joke goes to waste.

Anyhoo, my full mile splits were

                Mile 1    7:46
                Mile 2    8:21
                Mile 3    8:43
                Mile 4    9:03
                Mile 5    9:08

                Mile 6    8:32

Around the final corner and on the downhill to the finish line I kicked it up a little, but it was too late.  I should have picked it up sooner; I had a lot left in the tank after the finish line.  My Garmin had the last bit as 0.34 miles.  That seems like a big difference from 6.2.  Anyhoo, my pace on the last bit was 7:51. 

Race Time:  54:17 with an 8:44 pace 

Post-Race

I was a little bummed that I didn’t break 54:00, but I was close enough to be happy.  Surf the Murph is up next month.  I’ll have to add some distance to my training.  I’m going to try to stick to adding no more than 10% to my run total each week. That’s what a lot of the sites use as a guide.  We’ll see how it goes.

Lake Marion Sprint Triathlon Recap

Lake Marion Triathlon

Antlers Park August 17, 2014

0.25 mile/ 17.3 mile/ 5K 

I had been looking forward to the Lake Marion Triathlon since February.  I signed up exactly six months before the August 17 race date.  I thought it would be fitting end to a year of exercise; my first run (in seven years) had been on August 19, 2013. 

Leading up to the race, I was averaging the following during training.

9:00 pace on runs that averaged about 3.4 miles

16.7mph on bike rides that averaged 13.4 miles

1100yd training swims split two or three ways 

My time breakdown and predicted reactions were as follows:

Over 2:00             Failure

1:55-2:00             At least I did it

1:50-1:55             Good enough

1:45-1:50             Happy

1:40-1:45             Awesome

Under 1:40          Able to retire as champion of the world 

It’s probably obvious by my listing of the training averages above that I purchased a new watch.  I got the Garmin Forerunner 10 and quickly became obsessed with time, pace, speed, distance, elevation and the splits thereof.  I teach in the math department at a local community college so it’s easy for me to get obsessive over the numbers.  For example, if my transition times don’t change and I swim, bike and run at the same rates as in the Chaska Triathlon, then I would end this race with a time of 1:47:20.   Similarly, if I maintain transition times and hit my training averages with a cut equivalent to three minutes off my embarrassing Chaska swim, then my total race time would be 1:42:40.  I was feeling good going into the race; I had no aches or pains holding me back. 

Pre-Race

I picked up my registration packed on Saturday afternoon (Sunday race).  The t-shirt for this race was awesome.  The other ones I’ve received throughout the year are a little too “Look at me!” for my taste.  This t-shirt is a darker green and is going to get worn a lot.  Also in the packet was a tri race belt for your bib number.  I was thinking about buying one of these, so that was a nice surprise.  I didn’t use the belt for the race; I went with the same two shirt combo as in the Chaska race. 

The race takes place only about 20 minutes from my house.  I ran the 5K loop for practice a couple days before the race, and I drove the bike course after I picked up my registration packet.  Flat, flat, flat!  This was so much different than the hills on the Chaska course.  The bike only has about three short climbs, and the run similarly only has three short uphill sections.  On my practice run, I even broke twenty seven minutes (just barely) on the 5K.   

After the swimming debacle in Chaska, I did get in one open water practice before the Lake Marion Tri. On the practice swim (in the same lake as race day) the first go was a mess, but the attempts after I warmed up went smooth. I decided that the key to race day was going to be getting in a little practice swim before the start of my wave.   

On race day I got up early and got to the park just after transition opened up.  When I was topping of my tire pressure, I heard a sudden hiss sound and my heart skipped a beat before I heard the accompanying cussing from the fellow whose tire had sprung a leak.  Poor guy, I’d say a flat tire is my biggest worry going into race day.  Maybe it was lucky that he had it happen to him in the parking lot and not on the ride?  Nope.  I unpacked my stuff and headed to transition.  After I was set up, I took off for a short warmup jog.  When I got back to transition the same guy was changing another flat tire.  That’s some rotten luck; it couldn’t possibly happen again. Could it?  Yup; I saw him walking his bike back when I got on the bike course later.  I felt bad for the guy.

Anyhoo, going down to lake for the pre-race meeting I saw the buoys for the Olympic swim.  Wow, that is a long swim.  I had actually sent an email in the spring with a request to be change my registration to the Olympic race.  Luckily, no one got back to my until race week, and by that time I was only training and ready for the short course.  I thought about dumbing it up and trying for the long course, but I was able to work myself out of that stupid decision.  After seeing the length of that swim, I was very happy with my decision.  The sprint swim, on the other hand, looked short and quick.   

It was humid, warm but not hot and there wasn’t much wind.  It was race time.

Swim: ¼ mile

Goal:     Don’t embarrass yourself.

Actual: Awesome.

After the pre-race meeting I got in the water and did a little swim.  The water was chilly, but not cold enough to be uncomfortable.  It was probably similar to the temp of the lap pool at the Y.  When the waves started to go off everyone got out of their way, but there was still a little area off to the side where you could get in the water.  I waded in and took a few strokes here and there right up until my wave was about to start. 

I lined up in the back of the pack for my wave, and walked into the water when we got the starting signal.  This swim went great!  This was everything the Chaska swim was not.  Once I dropped in and started to swim I had no problems.  I got kicked and accidently kicked others a couple times, but nothing that threw me off too much.  It was easy strokes and easy breathing.  It was a triangle course, and I stayed out wide most of the swim.  That probably added a little extra time, but that’s where I ended up being comfortable.  Rounding the last buoy, I picked up the pace a bit and even passed a couple guys from the heat that took off before us.  Getting to shore I looked at my watch and it said 8:15!  What a change from Chaska.  After the swim in Chaska I wanted to quit, and after this swim I felt like the king of the world.  My official swim time was a little slower due to when I started my watch and checking the time before crossing the mat to T1.

Swim Time: 8:33 with an average of 1:57 per 100 yards

Chaska Comparison:   an average of 2:31 per 100 yards

T1

Goal:     Less than three tries to put on my shirt.

Actual:  Three tries.

The run up to transition was a little further than I would have liked to jog without my shoes.  I suppose that’s probably always the case.  My idiot thing about T1 was that I messed up the timing on my watch.  First, I reset the timing, so I wasn’t going to get an accurate total time for the race.  Second, I noticed that I had the watch set to “auto pause”, so my stationary time in transition was not going to be recorded on my watch either.  Nuts.  Otherhows, T1 went off without too many problems.  It is tough getting my shirt on when wet.  I’ll have to figure out a better plan for T1 next year. 

T1 Time:              3:35

Chaska Time:     3:07

Bike: 17.3 miles

Goal:     Less than one hour on the bike.

Actual:  Less than one hour on the bike.

The bike went well.  The course starts off riding through Lakeville, then you head into the country and finally you loop back around to the lake.  The course is mostly flat and fast.  I’ve never had an average speed as fast as I did on this course.  The flats had to be the key.  By my watch, this bike course had about 300 ft of elevation change, and my typical 16 mile training loop has about 450 ft of elevation change.    

At least I thought I was fast.  I must have been passed by 20-30 people on the bike.  Every time a group passed me I would check my watch to confirm my speed, and it kept saying I was ahead of my goal.  It didn’t look like I had any reason to try to speed it up (it’s not like I was holding back anyway).  So, I figured bully for those fast folks, and I stuck to my pre-race goal of getting off the bike within an hour.   

I had a water bottle on my bike and I brought a gu packet of the type that I had been using on my longer training sessions.  I took the gu about 45 minutes into the bike.  I was sipping water throughout the bike, but I didn’t end up taking down much of my bottle.  Coming back to the lake, I saw my family waiting at the last corner before the turn into transition.  My oldest boy (Cooper, 3 yrs) was pretty jazzed to see me, as I was to see them.

Bike Time:  57:21 average speed 18.1mph

Chaska Time:        average speed 16.5mph

T2

Goal:     Quick

Actual:  Quick

T2 has been quick for both races.  I suppose my T1 is too slow and my T2 is fast, so it balances out.  I had pinned my bib to my run shirt again, so with the rack of my bike and a quick change I was off.

T2 Time:             0:44

Chaska Time:     0:42

Run: 5K

Goal:     A minute faster than Chaska

Actual: Missed it by that much.

As I left T2 I saw the family again and the cheered me on my way.  My wife is a trooper.  It’s not easy trying to corral two little boys in a big park with lots of people while dad runs around and has fun.  She did it both races this year without any complains, and it wouldn’t have been the same if they weren’t there.  She’s an amazing woman, and I love hear dearly.   

I had run the 5K course as practice a few days before the race.  I knew it hit the same hill twice on the out and back and that there was an incline on the turn around.  I decided that I was going to take the first half mile a little easier that balls out; I didn’t want to have to stop or walk.  My splits ended up being 8:50, 9:30 and 9:10.   

The run was mostly uneventful, and for the most part it felt like I was running alone. I know there were racers around me, but I just wasn’t noticing them.  I did see one fella ditch into the trees to relieve himself (vomit or potty, I don’t know).  And, there was another guy who I traded leads with about four times.  In the end, he pulled away toward the finish.   

In the last few hundred yards, the course winds through a wooded trail.  I’m sure I was alone in there.  It was darker, cool and quiet before you run back into the sun and the finish line.  It was a great end to the race where I had lots of fun. 

Run time:            28:39 with a 9:15 pace

Chaska Time:     29:36 with a 9:32 pace

Post-Race

The clock at the finish line read around 1:49:00.  I had reset my watch after the swim so, again, I wasn’t sure of my total time.  I went off in the 5^th wave so I figured that I was around 12 minutes behind the clock.  It looked like it was going to be a really good time, but I was going to have to wait until I could find a results board (never did) or some internet access.  Great race!  Good weather, good event times, great to see my family at the finish line.  Without a doubt, I’ll be a Marion again next year; maybe I’ll try the Olympic length.

Total Time:  1:38:51

Time Comparison



Packing up after the race.

Pic from the race's facebook page.

Chaska Sprint Triathlon Recap

My first triathlon!  The Chaska River City Days triathlon is a 1/3 mile swim, 16 mile bike and 5K run.  I signed up for this triathlon as a back-up plan.  Originally, I had only signed up for the Lake Marion sprint triathlon in July, but I figured that I should do a couple races in case one had bad weather or I monkeyed things up. 

Leading up to the race, I was averaging the following during training.

9:00 minute pace on standalone runs of 3-4 miles

9:30 pace on brick runs of 2-3 miles

16mph speed on bikes of 9-16 miles

1100yds split two or three ways for training swims 

My time breakdown and predicted reactions were as follows:

Over 2:00             Failure

1:55-2:00              At least I did it

1:50-1:55              Happy

1:45-1:50              Awesome

Under 1:45          Able to retire as champion of the world

Packet pick-up and pre-race

I picked up my race packet on Friday afternoon (Saturday race).  There was a sign noting that, due to flooding, the bike course would be altered and the distance would be 15.4 miles instead of 16 miles.  Since I hadn’t participated in the race before, I didn’t really care.  Also, I figured my time would have to be a bit faster, so this had to be a good thing.

I had bought a bike rack off Craig’s List that was supposed to fit on the trunk of my car.  I tried hooking it up, but I can’t get it to a point where I trusted it not to fall off on the drive to the race.  So, the night before the race I took the car seats (2) out of the family car (Dodge Journey) and flipped down the back seats to lie my bike in the cargo area. 

I bought Zoot triathlon shorts for the race, but I don’t have any sort of tri shirt/jersey.  I decided to go with a sleeveless compression run shirt for the bike and a sleeveless loose run shirt for the 5K.  If I wear the loose shirt on the bike I can feel the parachute effect, and I didn’t want to wear the tight shirt on the run because it makes me look / reveals that I am scrawny (6’5” 195lbs).  I packed everything up, didn’t forget anything, I set my alarm for 5am and had a good night sleep.

In the morning I got up, filled the water bottle, had a couple waffles with a banana and hit the road.  It’s only about 30 minutes to the race site from my house.  When I got there, I unpacked, topped off the tire pressure (my bike is an amazon.com brick, 30lbs) and set up transition.  I had been looking forward to and planning for this for so long I was a little surprised that I wasn’t more nervous. I got my timing ankle band and my numbering without any problems.  This was all new to me so I didn’t know that they write your bib number (225) on your arm and your age (35) on the back of your leg.  The pre-race meeting had a moment of silence to hope/pray for no rain, they played the national anthem and said a few cheeky jokes about the hilly nature of the course. 

Swim

Hope:    Don’t embarrass yourself.

Actual:   Embarrassing

I waded into the water before the swim to check out the temperature.  COLD!  Maybe it wasn’t caps lock cold, but it was cold enough to be uncomfortable.  When the elite wave started, everyone got out of the water and stood around waiting for their time trial start.  The starting order was by bib number which meant that I had about 220 people ahead of me and about a 12-20 behind me.  Everything says that you should be sure to get some open water swims in before you try a race, and they are all correct.  I, however, did not do any open water swims before race day. 

As soon as I hit the water, I couldn’t breathe.  I don’t know if it was the cold water or just being over excited/nervous, but suddenly I couldn’t inhale deep enough to exhaling under water.  After a couple minutes, I tried to calm myself by turning over to my back and taking some deep breathes.  That didn’t work.  I couldn’t catch my breath to get in a normal stroke, and when I did try to exhale underwater seeing the weeds was freaking me out.  I ended up swimming the entire thing with my head out of the water.  I might as well have been doggy paddling.  At one point, I was swimming past a lifeguard and she offered me her floater for a rest, I felt like an idiot.  Just a little bit later, a racer swam by me and asked if I needed help.  I almost quit right then and there.  Luckily, at that point quitting and finishing the swim were about the same length, so I finished it out.  Coming out of the water I was tired, and a little dizzy.

My posted time was 13:53 with a 2:31per 100yds average.  I did start off with a watch, but it didn’t like being in the water and it was not working by the time I returned to land.

T1

Hope:    Don’t forget your helmet.

Actual:  Mission Accomplished.

As I reached my first transition ever, I first noticed that there were nearly no bikes left in the transition area.  Again, I almost felt like quitting.  It would have helped if I had remembered that only 10-20 people started after me, but that didn’t register at the time.  I splashed some water on my feet to get rid of the sand and got my shirt to slide on after only three tries (I need a better plan).  I wore socks and my running shoes.  I’m told some people go without socks, but I’m pretty sure they must be crazy.  The MC announced some people by name as they left the transition area (maybe he was using a referencing sheet with bib numbers?), but I wasn’t lucky enough to hear my name.

T1 Time:  3:07

Bike

Hope:     No flat tires and 16 mph

Actual:   No flat tires and 16.5 mph

The bike course was nothing but hills.  I overheard someone saying before the race that this was the most challenging sprint bike course in the state, and without any frame of reference I would say that he was correct.  About half a mile into the bike, I met the leader coming back to T2.  I suppose that could have been discouraging, but I actually thought it was pretty funny.  I know it's unlikely that I will ever be competitive in a race; I’m only racing my expectations. 

At the first turn, the hill is very steep.  It’s so steep that at the pre-race meeting the MC told folks to pull over to the side of the road if they need to walk up the hill.  Yikes!  I made it up without walking, and I believe I even had one gear left on the bike.  I don’t know if I was amongst slower bikers because I was slow on the swim or because I started late in the time trials, but I ended up passing a lot of people on the bike.  I don’t know if anyone I passed was in my age group, but it felt good to keep saying, “On your left.”  I think I saw two people with flat tires, but I got through it without any problems.  I only brought water for the race.  I had a few drinks on the bike, but otherwise I tried to go the whole race without any fueling (might have hurt me in the end).  The bike started out uphill, so at least you end of the loop with a screaming fast downhill.
My posted average speed was 17.1mph, but that was based on the previous 16 mile route.

Bike Time: 56:13 with an average of 16.5 mph

T2

Hope:    Quick

Actual:  Quick

Coming into T2 I could hear my wife and oldest son (Cooper 3yrs) cheering, I racked my bike, changed into my run shirt with the bib pinned to the front, waved to the family and took off. 

T2 Time: 0:42

Run

Hope:    28:00 No Walking

Actual:  29:36 One Stop

I was so looking forward to the run.  I love to run; I wish I could run farther; I wish I could run faster; I wish I could run for ever.  The first mile of the run is a pretty steep up hill.  At this point I was having a lot of fun.  I passed a couple walkers and a couple runners passed me.  It felt like I had a pretty good pace up the hill, but my watch was dead so who knows.  The second mile is mostly flat.  At about 1.5 miles I was passed by a 51 year old lady who was moving at an incredible speed.  As she passed I said, “Wow, that’s fast.”  She said thanks and was on her way.  I looked up her time later; she did a 23:30 5K.  Awesome. 

The second mile went fine.  On the third mile I started to get some terrible stomach cramps.  The third mile is mostly downhill, so I hoped I could tough it out for a strong finish.  But, in sight of the final turn, I had to stop and take a breather.  It wasn’t long, a few seconds, but it helped a lot and I was able to run out the rest of the race.  As I approached the finish line the MC called out my name over the mic, noted that I was tall and asked if I could dunk a basketball.  I waved him off, finished the race and felt a great sense of accomplishment.
Run Time: 29:36 with a 9:32 pace

Post-Race

Total Time:  1:43:32

My watch had stopped working during the swim.  I had no idea what my total time was.  The clock at the finish line was only a reference to when the elite wave went off.  I didn’t know how long I went off after the elite wave, but I guessed had been about 10 minutes.  With that estimate, my time was going to be around 1:55-2:00.  I was a little bummed, but my wife and kids were at the finish line and seeing them made my day.  We walked around a bit while I had some water and post-race snacks.  We snapped a few picks and the family left; they had to take a separate car with the car seats and no bike in the back.  I changed into some less smelly clothes and got some more post-race snacks (great food, and lots of it).  At that point, I noticed there was a results board and anxiously went to check my time.  I think I actually did jump up and down when I saw that I had broke 1:45, but that’s hard to confirm. 

Fletch on the left 1year old

Coop on the right 3 years old