Green Lake Triathlon results

I am now officially a triathlete. I finished my 1st ever mini/sprint triathlon yesterday in Spicer, MN. My wife, I and 3 other neighbors took part of this years'  Green Lake Tri. One of neighbors (whom has a summer home out near Spicer) told us about this race many months ago and said she wanted to do it. Asking some of that were around at some point, several of us volunteered. We trained for about 3-4 months doing various aspects of the race: swimming, biking and running.

The day of the race was chilly. It was a balmy 51 degrees when we took the short 4 miles drive to Spicer from the cabin which we stayed 2 nights beforehand. We got out 'station' setup with things we would need - towel (for drying off), shoes and socks (after the swim),  bike and helmet (for the biking portion) as well as water, sunglasses, etc. The first wave of the race took place at 8am sharp.

I was the 1st to go out of our group which was heat/wave 3. I was put in with the 34 yr old men and younger group so I was mixed in with all the young ones; guys ranging from my age down to 15 years old. We started out with the 1/4 miles swim. The swim was bad, except for all the people! I could have kept up with a front crawl stroke, but as we neared the first turn, the constant bumping and lack of space kept me from keeping a crawl going; I resulted in doing other strokes to keep some distance between me and the other competitors.

I was tired after the swim but I completed it in 9 minutes or so. I then had to run from the beach back to my transition station to get into my clothes for the biking portion of the race. I dried off my feet, put on my socks, shoes, shirt, sunglasses and helmet and ran out of the transition area to the road. I was breathing pretty good and realized by bike was not up to the competition as far as weight and streamline-ability. I was passed up by many people throughout this portion. I think I only passed one other guy...who was also on a 'off road/mountain bike'. The bike was 12 miles around Green Lake and I finished that in about 43 minutes.

The end of the biking portion landed you back into the transition area where you would park your bike and then do whatever to get ready for the last leg of the race which was the run. I dumped my bike and helmet, stretched my legs a bit (which in hindsight, maybe I shouldn't have done as it ate up precious time) and headed out the for grueling part. The run was 3 miles total; 1.5 miles out and then back. The run was almost all hills which made me feel like I wasn't running at all but rather walking with a running form. On this portion as I was heading back towards the finish line, I saw the other folks in our group. I ended up finishing the run portion in about 28 minutes...3 minutes slower than my previous 5k races this year.

Overall the race was as expected. I wasn't shocked by anything. I am fairly pleased with my time. IF I do this next year, I may want to reconsider what I ride for the biking portion...oh, and get better at running of course ;)

View the results of the Green Lake Tri here.