Minneman Oly Tri: Race Report

Two weekends ago, Mike and I raced the Minneman Olympic distance triathlon. A few weeks before, I had raced the first two legs of the Liberty Tri but this was my first full race of the season. When trying to decide which races to do, it’s tempting to keep signing up for the same ones since they are familiar. I had read that Minneman’s sprint distance race was well run, so when I saw that they added an olympic distance and that the timing fit with my training schedule, I decided to give it a try. I’m glad I did.

Race morning was warm and the water was calm. One of the best features of this race was the small wave size. Some of the waves only had a handful of racers. My wave was the largest with about 20, still a manageable number. The lake was the shallowest I have ever seen, so I decided to stay in the back and I walked out a good 25 yards before I started swimming. I probably could have stood up in the middle of the lake if I tried. I was never bumped and had plenty of room to swim. I kept my head down and tried to minimize the number of times I stuck my head up to sight. Hitting the beach after 29 minutes, I was excited. It was the best race swim I’ve ever had and I enjoyed it. How the race director supposedly found a spot that was cool enough to make this race wet suit legal is a mystery, but I’m thankful. After a calm swim, I headed towards transition ready to bike.

The bike course was flat but with lots of turns. I don’t like to ride aggressively on the turns, so that slowed me down. The course was also about a mile longer than it was supposed to be, but overall I really liked the course. It was two loops and the racers were spread out enough that avoiding drafting wasn’t an issue. I biked the course in 1:23 and at almost the exact same speed that I biked Liberty’s course. Although the Liberty course was about 2 miles too short, it was also a little more difficult and I didn’t have the run to worry about that day. I fueled up on the bike and came in ready to run.

Heading out of T2, I took one last big drink of my sports drink and I’m glad I did. It was getting hot and humid and I wanted to have a good run. The course was two loops, so when the first aid station only had water, I was a little concerned because this was also the water stop for mile 3. When I got to the only other stop on the course and it also only had water, I was very unhappy. An Olympic Distance race in heat and humidity is too long to not have sports drink on the course. I only had one GU with me, so that left me with no electrolytes. This is my only complaint about this race. While not having sports drink effected my attitude, I still ran well. My run time was 51:31, and although the course was a little short, I was thrilled with my time. I ran all of the miles at a consistent 8:50 pace and was able to pick it up to 8:30 for the last one. I couldn’t have run any harder given the conditions and crossed the finish line in 2:49:53.

Technically this was a PR by 17 seconds for me at this distance, but triathlons are hard to compare. Even the same race from year to year can be radically different. Even so, I’m happy with my time and did my best. My next full race isn’t until September. With the way the summer is flying by, it will be here soon!