Buffalo Triathlon Race Report

The race was June 3rd in Buffalo, MN. This was my first tri ever 400yd Swim, 13Mi Bike, 3Mi Run and I finished in 1:26:59

First off this was a GREAT race. I enjoyed it immensely and will most likely do many more Tri's in the future. Thus I recently switched from coolrunning.com to BuckeyeOutdoors.com for logging because BuckeyeOutdoors has better tri logging capabilities (and built in linking to blogs!)

There were several people from my work in the race (the tall bald one is Ben who was the guy who talked me into doing a tri in the first place) As you can see from the picture everyone at my work was very happy pre-race (I am the one in yellow).

Pre-Race:
I woke up around 4:30 in the morning so as to arrive there early. Everyone told me how important it was to arrive early to do all the 'set up' and not feel rushed. I had a piece of toast and a cup of coffee and my father picked me up at 5AM to load my bike and take the hour drive to Buffalo. It rained most of the way out there, but we were expecting (or at least hoping) it to clear up.

We arrived around 6:15 (the rain had stopped) and I set up my bike and got my packed and was marker-ed up with my numbers (745). I was one of the earliest ones to arrive and had no lines and any place I wanted to put my bike. then I basically waited about 2 hours, but didn't feel too bored as the rest of my friends arrived we talked strategy and such. Mostly I just wanted to get things started, I was a bit nervous and must have gone to the bathroom about 5 times while waiting for the race to start.

with about 15min before the first heat was to start we headed down to the lake and got acclimated to the water. It was a good thing too as the water was freezing until I got used to it. someone had some anti-fog and I desperately needed it because my goggles were fogging up like crazy although I have never noticed it before. Probably because I always swam inside. The water felt real good after a few warm up strokes and then we were told we had to get out as the really good people were on their way in.

I lined up waiting for my heat to be called (14) and waited...

The Swim (7:32):
I was told to start in the back and just wait until people were out of the way to start to avoid traffic. This is not something that I can do very well. I mean is this a race or not? So I did the worst thing I could have done and started smack dab in the middle because I was afraid of getting trampled if I started in the front. I will not make this mistake again, but it's not as if I was in danger of my life or anything, I just would have been better positioned in the front as I am already better than a majority of triathletes at swimming.

Just before the gun (or whatever it was, I don't really remember) I herd someone calling 'FRANK!' I turned around but saw literally hundreds of anonymous people and couldn't focus on any one of them. 'My wife and kids were running behind and they can't possibly be here yet so it must be another Frank in my heat' I thought. and re-focused on the start. It turns out it was my fetching wife who arrived just in time. BANG! off we were. I ran for a little ways, just until I had enough watter to swim in and started swimming. This too was a mistake. someone was running right next to me and for several strokes we kept the same pace. I thought that this was really stupid that I am swimming while he/she is wadding at the same pace. Next time I'll do dolphin dives until it is too deep.

The rest of the swim was fine except I had to strain to keep my head up to breathe and figure out where the heck I was supposed to be going. for the next few days my neck would be sore because of this. I ended up catching several people from the heat before mine (they left 2:00min earlier) and did dolphin dives once it was shallow again.

T1 (5:00):
Once I was out of the watter I felt light headed from the swim and quite a bit more tired than I thought I would. I sort of ran/jogged up, up, up, to the Transition area and on the way saw the Wife and kids cheering me on. That was real cool. Once there I proceeded to get my biking/running gear on in a hurry. While I started doing this Ben (who left it the heat before mine) arrived and told me to slow it down and take a breather. I knew he was right and I would have little energy for the bike if I didn't get my heart rate down. So I sat down, washed off my feet and got ready for the bike.

Bike (49:31):
Man were there a ton of hills on this. I was going 25-35mph down and 6-10mph up. This really surprised me. I knew that the race was hilly, but I was not prepared for the number and size of the hills. Biking is my weak point anyway and the hills were no help. Ben passed me early on the bike and we went back and forth a few times until he passed me for good around mile 8-9. about mile 10 my left calf started acting up and I knew I had to relax a bit or there would be nothing left for the run.

As I rounded the corner of the final stretch I saw the family cheering again.

T2 (1:27):
Getting off the bike and running to the bike spot was difficult, but I caught up with Ben in the transition and we started the run together. This transition went smooth and fast.

Run (23:32):
This is probably my best part of the tri. I moved ahead of Ben early and saw him shortly after the turn around (it was an out-and-back run) I did not expect to run this as fast as I did after the first two events. Although it was by no means easy. My legs kept screaming at me to stop but I was determined to go as fast as I could until I died or they fell off. Fortunately neither happened and i finished with a 7:50 min/Mi pace

Post Race:
After waiting at the finish for a few minutes for Ben to finish my family found me and congratulated me. again.. cool. Ben went to the water to cool off, but I didn't feel too hot and stayed with the family. I was going to find the rest of my co-workers and wait until the slower ones finished the race, but then the rain started pouring and with the baby and the rest of the kids that was not going to work so we took off early and went to get something to eat.