Waupaca Race Day

I love the Waupaca Tri. It's a small town that doubles it's size for the race. The lake is right in town where you swim. The bike goes around the outside of town in a very rural farm area, and you finish the run in town among beautiful old houses that look like there out of a movie from the turn of the century, finishing in the park.

There were Just under 600 individual racers this year, and the conditions could not have been better. The morning was maybe 50 degrees at 5:30am. It really didn't feel any warmer come race start at 7:00. The Swim felt good this year. It looked much shorter than it did last year due to the amount of training we have been doing this year. It's amazing how mental tri racing is.

The bike was much improved this year. It has become my strong point, much to my surprise. There is always faster and always more efficient. That is one of the great things about tris. I think there were two dozen racers over forty and fifty that finished in front of us.

Here is my new "race" hair cut. If it doesn't look good, it feels great. The run was good but could have been better. I had herd in conversation that you should never take more than one "goo" energy packs during a "sprint" tri because you don't need it, but I thought it would give me a faster run. WRONG! I took a second "goo" at the end of the bike and for the first mile and a half of the three point two mile run I was challenged to keep it from coming back out of my body the way it came in. It is very difficult to maintain pace and your breathing when your body is trying to eject something from it's stomach. I was able to settle it down and just before the second mile I started to get my legs under me and was able to pick up the pace. By mile three I had a great clip going and the last point two I was at a full out run. Very pleased but frustrated from the "goo" blunder. Lessons learned!



I will have more pictures form other cameras later. Here are my comparisons from the 06' race and this years. Training matters!

06'
153rd overall...17:16mn swim...63:23 bike w/18.9mph average...24:47 run w/8:00min mile
Total time of 1:49:37

07'
68th overall.....15:15mn swim...55:15 bike w/21.7mph average...23:19 run w/7:31 min mile
Total time of 1:37:45