E'burg Tri

Well, roughly six of us made our way to compete in the Emmetsburg Triathlon, dsm 911, burrito, Dogman, Brad (need to think of a name), Ben (need to think of a name) and yours truly. My sister also came along took a few pictures. Not sure how she captured the lightspeed that is dsm 911, but she managed. To the far left in the above picture is some random dude that decided to show up and drink our beer. The lovely lady in the middle is probably the coolest mom ever. Finally, I'm a little disappointed at my picture. I usually look a lot more gangstar than that, but the fact that I've got a few beers in front of me makes up for it.

The race was on Saturday, so everyone took off work a bit early to head to E'burg and the residence for the evening, the Wild Rose Casino. We rolled in around 7:45 or so and promptly checked in. One of the hotel keys wouldn't work, which I will get to later. So, on the way down, I had them re-whatever they do to the hotel keys and made the way to dinner. Obviously, since the race was tomorrow, we had to have Bud Selects. Since It's Mister to You! was buying, I went with the filet. Otherwise I probably would have had a couple of oyster crackers and sipped on a used tea bag, most likely white tea. Also, in the picture to the left, big surprise, I've got some cool technology that I don't know how to use.

After a few Bud Selects and trying to converse over the extremely loud band that was playing, we headed down to play some cards. By we, I mean burrito and I while the rest of the crew hung out around the bar. A few more Bud Selects and I had busted out, while burrito was on his last hand. As luck would have it, math as we know it changed for an instant and burrito was back in the game. Meanwhile, the nice gentleman outside, short, stocky, gray colored and bilingual was giving out money. I was back in the game. Right about 12:40 or so, burrito had come back to do pretty well while I had managed to break exactly even, well better than even as burrito bought me a beer.

RACE DAY

So, I won't exactly start with actual race prep, as it was about 1:00 a.m. on race day and I was making my way back to the hotel room. Well, the key wouldn't work. I trudge downstairs and the lady at the desk after discussing this for about 10 minutes, walked back up with me. She tried my key and then her master key. Neither would work. So, we walk downstairs and she's wondering what to do. I suggested the penthouse. Almost all of the rooms were booked, so eventually, about 35 minutes later, I got a new room. It was a suite. The jet tub would come in handy after the race. Finally, at about 1:40 or so, I was sound asleep. At 2:04, my college roommate, Jeff, decided to send me a text message from one of the most amazingly awful auto commercials from our days in Iowa City. Random.

5:45 came quick. That's all I've got to say about that. We rode our bikes about 5 blocks to transition and it was cold, about 60 degrees. I'll let you guys figure out whether it was F or C. There weren't enough bike racks and the racks could barely hold the bikes (rope tied across posts), but they were sufficient, especially for a $20 entry fee. The water was pretty cold (I did NOT wear a wetsuit, more on that later as well). Of note, Mister to You! dictates which way to swim back, not the course director. See below. He also decided he didn't need to wear the yellow cap. That's just how he rolls.

SWIM

In the water, everyone was warming up and the starter starts counting down from 10. What? She got to about 5 when she stopped and everyone got out of the water. Then the recount and I ran in. I was going to try and swim and bike really hard and hopefully gut out a run. So, I dove in and tried to do one of those dolphin dives or whatever they're called. This didn't work so well, as I got back up, didn't think I moved and had one of those "what in the sam hell's going on here" moment. Dove back in and started swimming. I went at a pretty good pace, at least it felt like it and kind of felt gassed at the turnaround. Not good, as this was only a 500 yard swim. Got the second wind quick and sailed in coming out of the water about 4-6 or so.

My transitions have always been terrible and this time was no exception. I forgot a towel and dumped a bottle of water on my feet to get the sand off. To the left is Dogman waiting for burrito to finish the swim and head out on the bike.

BIKE

I got out on the bike and started hammering. Note, hammering for me is entirely subjective, since some of those crazy bikers would probably laugh at this term in the context of how I was riding. I started passing people on the out and back 12 mile course and after about 7 miles I was in second, behind a relay team. I didn't know it at the time though. At about mile 10, I got passed by some random dude flying by. I held close for the rest of the way, and came into transition.

RUN
The guy in blue was the one that took over the lead on the bike and then went out like a rocket on the run. Just after I racked my bike and tried to put my shoes on, both of my calves cramped worse than they had ever before. I could barely lift my feet up and to make matters worse, my shoes were a little small, so it was tough to get my feet in. After about 100 yards of shuffling, I thought about calling it a day for a second. I stretched my legs and decided to hell with it and took off trying to catch the dude in first. Unfortunately, he held a lead of about 25-30 seconds on the run and I ran out of real estate after 3.1 miles. Overall, I ended up in second place overall, which I am pretty happy about. I'll take it, but could do away with the calf pain that I'm currently having, three days later. My office smells like biofreeze or whatever its called.

Below to the left is Matt and Brad heading out on the run. I would end with something extremely witty, but I'll save that for the next post.