Saturday was busy. My plan was to do the TriRochester Mock Triathlon then call it a day. However, the tri wasn't until 10am (then delayed a bit longer) so I decided to do the Stride for Fitness 5k prior to that as they were only a couple minutes from each other. The turnout wasn't very big at the Stride and the winning times weren't too hot, relative to course records, but for me, it was a good run. I PR'd my 5k time with 6:03 pace for a final time of 18:48. The winning time was 17:57. I was 3rd overall of 63; 3rd overall of 27 men, and 1st of 9 men 30-39.
From the Stride I headed over to the mock tri. I have never entered a tri, nor have I ever swam(?) in any event. I've never even timed myself just for fun in the water. My goal, when in water of any kind, is usually to be able to get out of the water alive. To top it off, the only water I have been under since early July was in my shower. I have a wetsuit, so I wasn't too worried about drowning, but feared that the water would be pretty cold since the temp dropped into the 30's and was only in the 40-50's when we started. Believe it or not, the water was pretty nice!
There were only about 30 participating, 5-6 in the Olympic distance (.9 mile swim, 25 mile bike, 6.2 mile run) and the rest in the Sprint (1/4 mile swim, 10 mile bike, 3.1 mile run). I did the sprint, of course. I did the swim in a slow 10:57. I think I was one of the last 5 out of the water, but was excited to get on the bike. The bike was an out-n-back with the turn around at 5 miles. I caught most riders prior to the turn around then got the last two just after. The run was where I messed up--thank goodness this was just a 'mock' and not the real deal. I got off the bike, ran about 1/4 mile, stopped for a pee. Then started running again when I saw Sara Kolpin (womens overall winner at the Treadman) coming around the corner. She was about a block back. I was following the orange arrows as they said, but followed a couple of the wrong ones. So did Sara. So did a few others. I stopped when I ran out of trail, turned around, met Sara just a little ways back, then met another guy about a 100 yards back from there. We were heading back and saw a couple more people, but they were only a few feet beyond the turn we missed. They got back on track, Sara went with them, but myself and the other guy headed back. I am guessing that I probably put in 3.5-3.75 miles by the time it was done (my run time ended up about 24 minutes--I was slower than the 6:03 pace from earlier in the day, but not that slow). It was good to get the experience in as the first 'new' type of race can be a little intimidating. Not sure which venue will be my first 'real' tri, but at least I won't feel like a total newbie.
The 'real' tri is titled The Rochesterfest Triathlon and is planned for Sunday, June 29, 2008. See other MN tri's and du's at www.trifind.com/mn.html
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