Race Coverage

Big-Ass Bouncy Houses & Pseudo-Consistent Splits...

Monday, 18 February 2019 23:10

By Steve Stenzel (iwannagetphysical.blogspot.com)

Yesterday (Ed. February 10) was my first race of 2019: the Minneapolis YWCA Indoor Triathlon. I had signed up for the longest distance: 600 yard swim (in a 25 yard pool), 8 "miles" on a spin bike (NEW bikes where resistance matters!), and a 5K on a 200 yard track (25 laps).

The evening before, we went out to my wife's aunt's house for a skating/taco party. I ate lots of crap, and the boys played out on the ice even though it was -2 with -15 windchill.

The ONLY (and tiniest) bit of pre-race drama took place regarding my goggles. After getting back from Mexico, they started leaking a bit. On Friday's swim, they were just gushing water. I think the little "tabs" that hold the goggle straps as tight as you set it got loose from me playing around with them as I kept loosening/tightening them while playing in the pool in Mexico. They don't hold them as tight as I'd like anymore. And being I still felt like these goggles were "new," I didn't have a back-up pair. So I ...

borrowed a pair of my wife's for the race. TRYING SOMETHING NEW ON RACE DAY IS ALWAYS WHAT YOU'RE SUPPOSE TO DO, RIGHT? Oh wait... no? Oh. Shoot.

I hopped in the pool and did 200 with some STRONG push-offs to make sure they didn't leak. And they held up like a charm! Whew.

I shared a lane with the only other "long" distance racer in my heat. There was another random guy in our heat as well, and then a family of 4: Mom and Dad doing the middle distance, and their 2 kids (boy 14, girl 11) doing the mini distance. We got a countdown, and we were off right at 7 a.m.!   READ MORE