First Tri's for Jace and I

Well, my son Jace and I both did our first official tri’s over the weekend. Jace did his first du last week (The Apple Kid Du) and placed 3rd in the 8 year old division--this week he did the HyVee Kids Tri in Rochester and took first overall for the 7-8 year olds! It was quite a thrill! 2008 Olympic Triathlete Jarrod Shoemaker was signing Wheaties boxes there too so Jace got one of those. http://onlineraceresults.com/race/view_plain_text.php?race_id=7462

For myself, it was a different experience. I was thinking, while struggling in the shockingly chilling water, "Why did I go all the way to Palo, Iowa for my first triathlon?" Once we started, the first 50 yards were great—digging deep and moving right along. Then I found myself gasping for air. There were people (first timers?) calling for help, getting pulled out left and right. I think it was the cold water—I felt so constricted and my head felt numb. I just wanted to make it back to the beach and finish the dang thing. But when I got on the bike, my mind cleared and I wanted top 5 in my age group. I made up a lot of time out of the water and scored 6th in my age group in the end. I am greatful, thankful, and happy with that! Of all 606 individual participants that finished, including elites, my swim was 337th overall (not good), bike was 14th overall, run was 23rd overall which placed me 33rd overall—talk about lop-sided. Of the 59 in my age group (35-39) I was 44th in the water (again, not good), but on the bike I was 2nd, and for the run I was 2nd as well. Among non-elite men I was 226th in the water (you know, not good), 4th on the bike, and 10th on the run for 18th overall among non-elite men. You have to go down to the 68th guy for find a slower swim time! No offense to him, I'm just trying to show how tilted my result was. At least that guy was consistent. He was probably one of the guys just having fun doing the back stroke while humming and whistling. Piggy results here: http://www.pigmantri.com/pig108b.html

Its the Manitou Sprint Tri next week http://www.manitoutri.com/. I was only in the lake for about 5 minutes prior to the start yesterday morning so I am going to warm-up a lot more IN THE WATER next week and hopefully it won't be such a shock to the system.

Ride On!
Mario