RACE WEEKEND RECAP: HOLT and the Good Neighbor 5k

Byron Good Neighbor 5k
Early Saturday morning I awoke with 'race nerves'. You know the feeling--stressed out because you have to get everything in line for a race, time out your breakfast, try not to forget anything, etc, etc. Ok, maybe some of you don't get like that, but my stress level is usually around DEFCON 2 or so. However, Saturday I was stressed for my son's race. Jace was racing the Byron Good Neighbor 5k. This was going to be his second 5k of the season. He raced a couple last year including the Good Neighbor race. He was pretty excited about the Mac Attack last month, but due to getting sick halfway thru, he walked the rest of it. For this race, there wasn't going to be any chugging of Gatorade prior to--which was the cause of his demise that day. Jace is very mellow before racing--he shows pre-race stress by not wanting to eat and just getting really quiet. Maybe he's not stressed at all...? He did eat a little breakfast though. Half a bagel and some juice (enough to carry him thru the race). We got to the race with about 30 minutes to spare. Getting an 8 year old to warm up is not the easiest thing in the world to do, but I pushed Sofia around for a bit in the jogger while Jace ran along side. He was warming up and didn't really know it. This was the first 5k that he was running without me next to him, so I was a little worried. However, my worries were for nothing when at about 22 minutes into the race I saw him coming down the path to enter the track area. All that was left was one lap of the track. He finished in 23:45 (7:39 pace per mile). He was 1st in the 8 & under division. Not sure of the overall as they don't have them posted yet. RESULTS

Heart Of the Lakes Triathlon
The Heart Of the Lakes Triathlon (HOLT)is one of the races that is one of my faves. It's just short of an olympic in all 3 sections and the bike and run sections are fairly flat. However, it draws the AG'ers and this year a lot of Elites with the podium in mind.

There were a few TRI-Rochester folks going, but nothing really organized for camping or meeting with the group except that Patti & Jeremy Ekman and I did end up camping. Patti reserved the sites at Olson's about 10 miles away from the race venue. I made the drive myself and met them there. Of course, I had to forget something--my sleeping bag. So, Target made $25 bucks from me on the way up. Camping was uneventful except for the domestic family problems of a drunk couple and sibling rivalry of 40 year olds. Then the M-80's or whatever they were. Timing is everything when you are going to disturb other campers. They waiting till precisely the time we turned in for the night to set off their explosives. Other than that, camping went fine.

At the race, I set up and did some pre-race running. The porta-potties always had lines so I jogged to the Holiday Station in town for their facilities. Ok, I jogged there a couple times.

As for the races, Jeremy and Patti had great finishes! Both improving their times from last year by over 10 minutes each! I only talked to Jeremy after the race for a bit. I'm sure they are pretty excited about their times. I never did see Patti afterwards. I was going back and forth packing up my stuff so I could head out right after the awards. There were several hundred people watching the awards and waiting for the prize drawings so I never found them again. I chilled out, almost napping, in the lawn while not hearing my name for the small prizes or the Zipp wheels or the bike : (

For my race, I was 1 min & 2 seconds faster than last year at 1:43:44 (faster swim and run this year, but slower bike). I dropped 1 spot in my AG from 2008 and finished exactly the same overall (45th / 450+). I felt like I worked harder on the bike than last year, however, by chance, the road in the first few miles of the race was really packed with what seemed to be small pelotons--as Jeremy called them. The first few miles of the bike course is shared by short course and long course riders so it was not good--very congested. The wave starts were huge so there were many people converging on the road and bunching up. I hit the rumble strips 3 times while passing people. I had to weave in an out, announcing "on your left" too many times to count. I should have just rode in the lane until things cleared. Running felt slower than last year and started with some stomach burn, but I ran a 6:13 pace so I was very happy in the end with that (6 seconds per mile faster than my '08 run). A guy that I caught at mile 3, who was also in the 35-39 AG as his number bib was one digit from mine, ran me down with about 200 yards to go. I looked back with a quarter mile left and he was about 100 yards back. I guess I relaxed a bit--next thing I know he was passing me. I had nothing left! He took 5th in AG 35-39--I was 6th. My swim says it all though. In my AG there were 42 guys. I was 27th in the swim, 1st on the bike, 4th in the run. One more day in the pool per week… Woulda, coulda, shoulda.. It was still a great race.

For the Elites, the field was much deeper at the top with 6 guys finishing under 1 hr 30 min--last year there were none that fast. Also, pro David Thompson won with a course record 1:25 and some change which ended up to be more than a 2 minute gap on the next guy, Devon Palmer. 3rd overall went to Sam Hauck, who won the Rochesterfest Triathlon (oly) two weeks ago. Only 14 seconds separated Palmer and Hauck.

Well, unless I add something to the schedule, HOLT was my last tri of the season. Couple runs and some du's left and it will be fall. Why'd I just say that?!?!