Race Coverage

Lemon Toast & Playing Yo-Yo...

Saturday, 21 October 2017 23:10

By Joe Adrieans (triadrieans.com)

Maple Grove Olympic Triathlon was the first time I have ever raced a true Olympic distance triathlon.  I wasn't sure what to expect other than to just let it all hang out.  Absolute red line the entire day.  So that's what I did.

Lead Up
I had been building some really good bike and run fitness for Ironman 70.3 Worlds prior to this race, so I was feeling pretty good on that front.  The only issue was some nagging lower back pain from ramping up the bike volume after Chisago.  Thanks to Dana at Podium Sports and Dr. Michael at Premier Sports and Spine, I was able to tow the line!  Thank you both so much for keeping my body race ready!

The strategy was simple: swim my arms off, bike my legs off, and hang on for dear life on the run....

Race Morning
I was up and at 'em at 4:30 am to get some food and throw my gear in the truck.  Cuisine of choice was a quinoa fruit bowl with almond butter and a piece of Great Harvest lemon toast, delicious!  After I fired down those calories, I tossed my gear in the truck and Emma and I were off.  This race was really convenient as it was only 20 minutes from our house.  Emma wasn't racing this one, so she would be sherpa-ing.  What an awesome wife!

The weather for this race was absolutely miserable.  The forecast called for periods of heavy rain and a high of 59 F.  Cold and wet!

Emma and I got to the race at 5:30 am as the race was slated to start at 6:50 am.  We milled around the transition area as late as possible to stay out of the rain!  I got all my gear set up, grabbed my swim gear, and then headed over to the park gazebo to stay as dry as we could.  After about 15 minutes, I threw on my wetsuit to stay warm and geared up to head to the swim start to get my warm up in.  READ MORE