This is my first time doing this race.
I had been watching the weather, since it had been so bad over the weekend, and they were predicting more bad weather. I got up in the morning before 4AM, since the drive was an hour+ and I had not been there before. I checked the weather and the rain was going to go through St. Cloud and be gone by 7AM, according to weather.com website. I ate my usually banana, yogurt with frozen fruit and granola, and then headed out. The drive was good until about 30 miles from St. Cloud, and then the sky exploded. The rain was coming down in sheets and it was extremely hard to see. I pulled off to get my usual coffee and donut, pre-race, water and gatorade, pre-race, bottle fill, and post-race. When I got back in the car the rain had calmed down a bit. By the time I got to the race site, after getting slightly lost, it was totally done raining.
I got there a little later than I wanted, but the race was delayed half an hour. So, instead of starting at 8AM it started at 8:30AM. I learned this when I pulled over to check directions, and I also checked my email where they sent out an email to announce this, and that we should check FB for updates.
Transition was in the grass. Grass was wet, and sloppy in places. I found a spot not too bad at the end of the rack. Packet pickup was at the race site, it was quick and easy. Setup in transition was quick and easy.
So far, so good.
There was no rain prior to the race.
The swim was around a small lake in downtown in St. Cloud. Nice little lake. My warm-up was a swim in the lake prior to the start. I had my wetsuit on, and it still felt cold. The rain prior to start must have cooled it down a tad. I was in the 6th wave, both sexes age 35-39, so I had about 15 minutes to wait.
The swim did not feel too bad, not great, but not bad. There was some banging around with competitors at first, more than usual. Very straightforward swim. After the fact, I learned I was third in my AG out of the water. I was a little slow out of transition. I wanted to get socks on before the bike, and I soaked one of them as I was getting it on. Also, a little helmet trouble. This time I brought my wife's Oakley's with clear lens. It was nice having these on cloudy day with the possibility of rain, and wet roads.
I had a number of problems on the bike. First, the course. Course is pretty nice. Not a lot of turns, out and back course. Mostly flat, no steep climbs. One problem, about a mile into the bike, I felt like I was digging myself out of hole, in terms of my energy level. I felt depleted from the start. Other issue, I hit a bump, pothole, that jarred me. When that happened the part that holds the shell of the helmet to the cage part, that sits on your head, came lose. The part is at the front of the helmet, so my helmet slipped down towards the bridge of nose. I made the decision to not stop, and just adjusted it one and off during the bike, really annoying. Then there was the wind. There was a pretty decent headwind on the way out. About halfway to the turn around, I passed 3 people from different waves, not long after that, they passed me, and I started catching them again. I decided that I did not want to do this back and forth, or be stuck trying to adjust my spacing behind them. So, I gunned it and got out in front of them. I stayed out in front of them for the rest of the race. I was taking the fact that I passed them, and then they passed me, that I was going too slow, so I picked it up. I am not sure hammering it into the head wind was such a great idea, based on how my legs felt on the run.
At the turn around, it was nice to have the wind at my back. It still felt tough.
Got off the bike, ran with the new Saucony Kinvera 3 for the first time. They were just fine, no problem. The run was a slog. I knew it was going to be based on the bike. The run is flat, maybe some false flats, but nothing I would call a hill. I think I got passed by 4-5 guys in my AG. My run time was actually not as bad as I thought it was going to be.
By the time I got to the finish the sun was out and it was heating up.
The advertised distance was 1/3mi swim, 15mi bike, and 3.1 mile run. The bike was actually longer and the run shorter. They did not correct it anywhere, but they did correct it in the speed and pace. The speed and pace recorded did not match what they should be for the distance, so I backed the distance out, and it is below. I figured the bike was longer, based on the fact I passed the 15mi marker and still had about 5-6 blocks to transition and the run seemed slightly short.
I liked the course, and the race was well organized. I did not have a great feeling race, my results were not terrible, but that is not the fault of the race, or the course. I would definitely do this race again. I think on a good day, a day were I felt good, I could have a fast race.
2013 Graniteman St. Cloud Results
Swim (587 yards) - 9:49 (1:51/100yards)
T1- 2:07
Bike (15.7 mi) - 45:17 (20.8MPH)
T2 - 1:10
Run (2.9 mi) - 23:57 (8:16/mi)
Total - 1:22:19
Overall - 50/211
AG - 10/21
Overall Pace - 4:21/mi
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