2011 Chaska Sprint Triathlon Race Report

I woke up about 3:30AMish and it was raining hard, with thunder and lightning.  I went back to bed until 4:30.  First thing, check the weather, since it was still raining and lightning in South Minneapolis.  Weather.com indicated that the storm was passing and would pass Chaska.  I got ready to go.  I had only about 4 hours of sleep the night before, my brother and girlfriend got into town about midnight for a weekend visit and I stayed up to greet them. Thursday night I went to the Twins game and did not get a lot of sleep, and not much good sleep.  I was not expecting much today.  I did get two days of rest in from working out, because I did not workout Thursday and Friday, so maybe that would help me a bit.
On the drive out it was raining pretty hard, but as I headed west and got past 494 the rain subsided.  It still looked pretty nasty, but never turned into anything but a humid day.  Thankfully, the sun did not come out and make it miserable.
This race turned out to be more competitive than I thought and a pleasant surprise to me.
I setup and checked out the area around transition.  I had not done this race before so I wanted to get an idea of the transition enterance and exit, swim finish, and run path through and out of the park.  I did a short warm-up to checkout the bike.  I made a decision to go without a wetsuit.  It was very humid, I was just standing there sweating before the race.

The swim is short and the time improvement with a wetstuit would be offset by the time it takes me to take it off.  Also, the water temperature was in the 70s and the air was humid, so I thought no wetsuit would keep me cooler and I did not need to be overheated getting onto the bike.
The AG swim start is a time trial and I was in the last dozen or so people in the entire race field.  The wait went by fast.  When I got out in the water it was crowded and there was some bobbing and weaving to get around people.  I took an aggressive line and I think it helped me get through pretty fast.  I think I literally passed a hundred people on the swim.  At least if felt that way.
I had no idea what the bike course was like.  I had heard it was filled with rollers, and it is.  It is a good bike course.  I took the first 5 minutes or so "easy" on the bike, so I could get some fluid and get organized on the bike.  I then picked up the pace and started to go hard.  I felt pretty good overall.  I passed one person in my AG initially, and then maybe 10-15 minutes in I was passed by a guy in my AG.  He did not pull away from me like I expected.  We went back and forth for awhile and then both of us were passed by a third guy in our AG.  Then the three of us went back and forth.  I was minding my distance so as not to draft and I believe the other two guys did the same thing.  It dawned on me that I might have been racing for the top three spots in my AG.  If this was the case, it was the first time for me in my racing history to be knowningly racing for a top 3 spot.  I had finished 3rd in my AG twice before, but I had no idea where I was with regards to my competition.  It was kind of fun to be in this position, to know where my competition was in relation to me. 
I think the other two guys knew the course, because within the last 2-5 miles they took off on me, one guy took off, and then a little later the other one did. 
Into transition I was only a little behind one of the guys, the other guy was out of sight.  I passed the guy in sight at the first water stop, so briefly I was in 2nd in my AG.  I started the steep hill and long hill at the beginning of the run.  It is the longest and steepest hill I have encountered in a race, I think.  I could see the guy who was 1st in my AG running up the hill.  Not long after I started the hill, the guy I passed, passed me.  I was in 3rd in my AG.  As we progressed up the hill, I started making ground on the guy who was in 1st and the guy in front of me was also making ground.  As we got to the top of the hill and onto the flat portion I could see I was making time catching the lead guy and so was second place.  By the time we started to head downhill, about a mile out, the guy in 2nd was now in 1st and I was moving on the guy now in 2nd.  On the steep downhill in to the finish, I passed the guy in 2nd, I was not going to catch 1st.  I was hurting, in a good way, and my legs were starting to feel like they were not going to give me much more.  I was not sure I how much space I had put on the guy I passed, apparently it was not enough.  With the finish in sight, he sprinted by, cheering me on to stay with him.  Props to him for being a good competitor and looking to have some fun.  I tried to turn it on to stay up with him, but my legs would not have it.  I think I used to much to catch him.  I could not get them to sprint enough to catch or stay up with him.  Should I have stayed on his tail or matched him to the finish for a sprint?  Maybe.  You have to race your race at the time. 
In the end, I lost 2nd place by 13 seconds and first by 40 seconds.  In a race that has 4 sections, swim, bike, run, and transition there are many areas that I could have taken that 13 seconds back, and 40 seconds, for that matter. 
After the finish I congratulated both guys on a great race.  It was a lot of fun.
It was a great race and I put up my fastest 3.1mi/3mi pace and one of my fastest run paces of all time.
Unfortunately, this is one of the only races where only 1st and 2nd get trophies.  That is a little disappointing.  It is always nice to get hardware.  Again, I am super happy with my race and the race as a whole.
It is a challenging course, reminds of the Eau Claire triathlon course in many ways.  Both have short swims, rolling bike course, and challenging runs.  My average speed on both bike course was the same.
As I understand it, if I do this race next year I will be an "Elite" because my race time this year is under 1:25.  Not sure I will do it next year, but if I do it, being put into the "Elite" wave would be interesting.

2011 Chaska Triathlon Results
Swim (587yards) - 9:40 (1:46/100 yards) no wetsuit
T1 - 1:32
Bike (16mi) - 44:33 (21.5MPH)
T2 - 0:56
Run (3.1mi) - 22:49 (7:22 min/mi) - Fastest 3.1mi/3mi pace off the bike, fastest pace for run greater than 3 miles
Total - 1:19:29
Overall - 21/259
AG - 3/18
Overall Pace - 4:06 min/mi

Next weekend will be the first annual OptumHealth Performace Twin Cities triathlon.  It will have the Mississippi swim and the run through downtown Saint Paul.  It should be a very interesting race.