This race was big, in more ways than one.
I was nervous, even though I didn't need to be.
We got to Milwaukee on Friday, went through packet pick-up (fairly fast and well organized, they could have had some signage to make finding packet pick-up easier, but it was fine), and put the bike in transition.
Transition was amazing. Probably the largest group of the nicest bikes I have ever seen. About 3100 bikes.
The first set of pictures, below, is from Friday afternoon when we dropped of my bike.
The rest of Friday was stopping at a Target to pick-up supplies, go out for dinner, and back to hotel.
I actually fell asleep, and slept pretty well.
We got up and ate breakfast. On the way out of Minneapolis we stopped at Glam Doll Donuts and picked up some of their gourmet donuts. So, that morning I had a huge bourbon bacon apple fritter. It had a lot of bacon on it. It was good. It was huge, sorry no picture. Also had yogurt, Naked Juice (no small bottles of oj at Target), and a banana
We went down and easily found a parking garage nearby. I went in and setup. Transition was tight, but they didn't allow bags, so that helped reduce the amount of clutter. I set everything up, and realized I left my goggles in the car, so I walked back and got those. I had plenty time. I didn't start until 8:48, and I think I was setup by 7.
The weather was nearly perfect. Sunny, low humidity, and some wind. The wind was the only thing that made it less than perfect, but I really cannot complain.
I hung out with Jackie, and waited, somewhat nervously, for my start time. I am really glad that Jackie was there, not only to wait with me, but to have someone there to watch\cheer.
The area around the start and transition was crowded, lots of racers, and lots of spectators. I was in the 9th wave, so we could watch some of the waves take off and some people get out of T1.
The swim is in sheltered area off the shore, there is a breakwater sheltering the swimmers from the open lake. The swim goes along the Summerfest grounds.
You stage at the top of a ramp, then they walk you down a dock next to the Discovery Museum that is next to the water. You jump in the water from a dock, and get set in the water. It is an in water start. The reported water temp was 71, it was colder than that, but comfortable. There was 219 people in my AG, it seemed like there was plenty of room as we treaded water and waited to start, but that changed once the race started. I don't think I ever got banged around so much in my life. I was getting hit, kicked, climbed over, from all directions, it lasted more than halfway through the swim. Luckily, I did not get my goggles knocked off. The swim was much tighter than it looked. At past the halfway point, it thinned out, and it was a little easier to get in a groove. I really think I need to seat myself more towards the front of the pack. In a shore start, where we run in, I am slower. I don't run in as fast, but I think with a treading water start I am faster. I think if I had started out front, it would have been smoother. I cannot complain too much, it was my fastest Olympic distance swim ever. Hooray!
The ramp out of the water was steep, that had 4-5 people on each side helping people out of the water. The run to transition is a bit of a hike. I made a mental note of what aisle I was in, they were marked alphabetically, but I still went down the wrong one. It was my slowest transition of the year, partly because I ran halfway down the wrong aisle, and had to go back around. Otherwise, I got through ok. Off to the bike.
The bike is mostly north-south, right along the shore. You go north, turnaround and head back the way you came, then go further south, jogging slightly west, and then back the way you came. Between our wave and the previous wave there was a 20 minute buffer, to let the racers thin out, it seemed to help. The first part of the bike, going north, was the shorter part, about 3-4 miles to turnaround. Right before the turnaround is a short, steep hill, and then back down. Once you get back where you passed transition, you go up onto the highway (794) and over a large bridge. Steep climb. Then down the other side. The course after the bridge is flat, false flats, and a couple of short climbs, nothing too bad. It was windy, and at times it felt battering. At the second turnaround, it seemed like I was behind where I would like to have been. I was trying to concentrate on maintaining my form and position on the bike and not get sloppy, and not think about my time. I got back to the base of the bridge, transition was immediately on the other side, and I realized I was ahead of time. Going north over the bridge is a much longer, less steep, climb. I got back into transition, checked my watch, and saw that it was my fastest Olympic bike split by nearly 2 minutes. Hooray again! I would argue it was not the easiest bike course, and there was a decent amount of wind, mostly cross wind. So, I was pretty impressed with myself getting in so quick.
I had written in a previous post that I wanted to go under 2.5 hours at this race. Coming out of T2 I think I was about 3 minutes ahead (!) of schedule. I tried not to think about it, but I think it also helped push me on the run. The run was mostly flat. You run out along the lake heading north, go out to a point, turnaround and go south, then go a little west to the road along the lake, then head north again to another turnaround, and head back south to the finish. There are no hills on the run, there are false flats, long low incline portions. I checked my time 2 miles in, the very flat part of course, and I was setting a pace well under 8 min/miles. Basically, if I went under 9 min/miles I was going go under 2.5 hours. I was feeling pretty good. It was sunny, low humidity, temperature was not too bad, probably in the 70s. I finished the run in my fastest time for an Olympic distance run!
My time was 4 minutes faster than my previous fastest Olympic distance and I was under 2.5 hours. I guess my training, and resting, had worked out very well. I accomplished my only goal for the race, and two of my goal for the year, go under 2.5 hours in an Olympic distance race and do a 10k off the bike in under 48 minutes.
It was great to have Jackie there at the finish with me. I was so happy she could be there with me. I think it really helped. I was pretty emotional when I got done. When I got my timing receipt and saw my official time, started to get choked up. I was on the verge of crying, I actually did cry a little. It was surprising. I think that racing hard, and completing big goals, in a big race, was just overwhelming.
The competition was insanely good. As Jackie observed, at most triathlon you see people of the different shapes and sizes. At this triathlon, everyone looked very fit. My AG was insanely fast. I was 157 out of 219, there are races in MN where I would have finished in the top 3 with my time.
Below are my results for this race and then comparison to my previous best four Olympic distance triathlons for comparison, click on table to enlarge. Below all those results are some more pictures.
Hopefully, I can qualify for AG Nationals again. If not, I feel very fortunate that I did get to experience this race, and have the best performance of my career.
2014 USAT AG Nationals Results
Swim (1640 yards) = 25:38 (1:33/100 yards)
T1 = 4:14
Bike (24.85mi) = 1:07:16 (22.2 MPH)
T2 = 1:31
Run (6.2mi) = 47:56 (7:42/mi)
Total = 2:26:36
Overall = 1368/3061
AG = 157/219
Pace = 4:36/mi
I was nervous, even though I didn't need to be.
We got to Milwaukee on Friday, went through packet pick-up (fairly fast and well organized, they could have had some signage to make finding packet pick-up easier, but it was fine), and put the bike in transition.
Transition was amazing. Probably the largest group of the nicest bikes I have ever seen. About 3100 bikes.
The first set of pictures, below, is from Friday afternoon when we dropped of my bike.
The rest of Friday was stopping at a Target to pick-up supplies, go out for dinner, and back to hotel.
I actually fell asleep, and slept pretty well.
We got up and ate breakfast. On the way out of Minneapolis we stopped at Glam Doll Donuts and picked up some of their gourmet donuts. So, that morning I had a huge bourbon bacon apple fritter. It had a lot of bacon on it. It was good. It was huge, sorry no picture. Also had yogurt, Naked Juice (no small bottles of oj at Target), and a banana
We went down and easily found a parking garage nearby. I went in and setup. Transition was tight, but they didn't allow bags, so that helped reduce the amount of clutter. I set everything up, and realized I left my goggles in the car, so I walked back and got those. I had plenty time. I didn't start until 8:48, and I think I was setup by 7.
The weather was nearly perfect. Sunny, low humidity, and some wind. The wind was the only thing that made it less than perfect, but I really cannot complain.
I hung out with Jackie, and waited, somewhat nervously, for my start time. I am really glad that Jackie was there, not only to wait with me, but to have someone there to watch\cheer.
The area around the start and transition was crowded, lots of racers, and lots of spectators. I was in the 9th wave, so we could watch some of the waves take off and some people get out of T1.
The swim is in sheltered area off the shore, there is a breakwater sheltering the swimmers from the open lake. The swim goes along the Summerfest grounds.
You stage at the top of a ramp, then they walk you down a dock next to the Discovery Museum that is next to the water. You jump in the water from a dock, and get set in the water. It is an in water start. The reported water temp was 71, it was colder than that, but comfortable. There was 219 people in my AG, it seemed like there was plenty of room as we treaded water and waited to start, but that changed once the race started. I don't think I ever got banged around so much in my life. I was getting hit, kicked, climbed over, from all directions, it lasted more than halfway through the swim. Luckily, I did not get my goggles knocked off. The swim was much tighter than it looked. At past the halfway point, it thinned out, and it was a little easier to get in a groove. I really think I need to seat myself more towards the front of the pack. In a shore start, where we run in, I am slower. I don't run in as fast, but I think with a treading water start I am faster. I think if I had started out front, it would have been smoother. I cannot complain too much, it was my fastest Olympic distance swim ever. Hooray!
The ramp out of the water was steep, that had 4-5 people on each side helping people out of the water. The run to transition is a bit of a hike. I made a mental note of what aisle I was in, they were marked alphabetically, but I still went down the wrong one. It was my slowest transition of the year, partly because I ran halfway down the wrong aisle, and had to go back around. Otherwise, I got through ok. Off to the bike.
The bike is mostly north-south, right along the shore. You go north, turnaround and head back the way you came, then go further south, jogging slightly west, and then back the way you came. Between our wave and the previous wave there was a 20 minute buffer, to let the racers thin out, it seemed to help. The first part of the bike, going north, was the shorter part, about 3-4 miles to turnaround. Right before the turnaround is a short, steep hill, and then back down. Once you get back where you passed transition, you go up onto the highway (794) and over a large bridge. Steep climb. Then down the other side. The course after the bridge is flat, false flats, and a couple of short climbs, nothing too bad. It was windy, and at times it felt battering. At the second turnaround, it seemed like I was behind where I would like to have been. I was trying to concentrate on maintaining my form and position on the bike and not get sloppy, and not think about my time. I got back to the base of the bridge, transition was immediately on the other side, and I realized I was ahead of time. Going north over the bridge is a much longer, less steep, climb. I got back into transition, checked my watch, and saw that it was my fastest Olympic bike split by nearly 2 minutes. Hooray again! I would argue it was not the easiest bike course, and there was a decent amount of wind, mostly cross wind. So, I was pretty impressed with myself getting in so quick.
I had written in a previous post that I wanted to go under 2.5 hours at this race. Coming out of T2 I think I was about 3 minutes ahead (!) of schedule. I tried not to think about it, but I think it also helped push me on the run. The run was mostly flat. You run out along the lake heading north, go out to a point, turnaround and go south, then go a little west to the road along the lake, then head north again to another turnaround, and head back south to the finish. There are no hills on the run, there are false flats, long low incline portions. I checked my time 2 miles in, the very flat part of course, and I was setting a pace well under 8 min/miles. Basically, if I went under 9 min/miles I was going go under 2.5 hours. I was feeling pretty good. It was sunny, low humidity, temperature was not too bad, probably in the 70s. I finished the run in my fastest time for an Olympic distance run!
My time was 4 minutes faster than my previous fastest Olympic distance and I was under 2.5 hours. I guess my training, and resting, had worked out very well. I accomplished my only goal for the race, and two of my goal for the year, go under 2.5 hours in an Olympic distance race and do a 10k off the bike in under 48 minutes.
It was great to have Jackie there at the finish with me. I was so happy she could be there with me. I think it really helped. I was pretty emotional when I got done. When I got my timing receipt and saw my official time, started to get choked up. I was on the verge of crying, I actually did cry a little. It was surprising. I think that racing hard, and completing big goals, in a big race, was just overwhelming.
The competition was insanely good. As Jackie observed, at most triathlon you see people of the different shapes and sizes. At this triathlon, everyone looked very fit. My AG was insanely fast. I was 157 out of 219, there are races in MN where I would have finished in the top 3 with my time.
Below are my results for this race and then comparison to my previous best four Olympic distance triathlons for comparison, click on table to enlarge. Below all those results are some more pictures.
Hopefully, I can qualify for AG Nationals again. If not, I feel very fortunate that I did get to experience this race, and have the best performance of my career.
2014 USAT AG Nationals Results
Swim (1640 yards) = 25:38 (1:33/100 yards)
T1 = 4:14
Bike (24.85mi) = 1:07:16 (22.2 MPH)
T2 = 1:31
Run (6.2mi) = 47:56 (7:42/mi)
Total = 2:26:36
Overall = 1368/3061
AG = 157/219
Pace = 4:36/mi
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