Race Report: SHOWDOWN at the Indoor Triathlon

Yesterday was the day. After challenging Lisa to a race at the YWCA of Minneapolis Indoor Triathlon (with CHILDCARE on the line for the victor!) it was time to crown a winner. I got to the race early, and saw Lisa was already warming up. We all met around Devon (my Best Friend Forever for now [BFFFN] who was announcing the race) for a photo:

We got changed and ready to race. I handed my camera to Laurie, one of the trainers/coaches at the Y who did a 10 mile race the day before AND THEN did the indoor tri in an earlier heat! Laurie took all the rest of the photos from the beginning through nearly the end of the run. Thanks Laurie!

Thumbs up for Laurie!


Lisa and I were just 1 lane apart.

SWIM: 600 yards:

We took off swimming. I tried to keep it a BIT easier for the first 100 because I knew I'd go out "hot" and die before the end. I kept my effort where I should have, but was pleasantly surprised to see a 1:23 as my first 100. I knew that'd slow to around 1:30, but I wanted to try to keep it strong near the middle.

A lovely photo of me swimming...


... and a lovely photo of Lisa swimming.


BLATANTLY reaching over the lane lines to attack me! I call foul!


Laurie told me after the race that she made sure to get photos
when Lisa lapped me. Thanks Laurie. Thanks.

I was lapped just after the 250 mark, so I figured I might be able to keep Lisa from lapping me again because she'd be climbing out just after my 500 mark, meaning I'd be about 80-90 seconds behind her out of the pool. That was what I had about figured the difference would be going into the race.

BUT IT DIDN'T HAPPEN THAT WAY! I was paying attention when I had just over 1-lap left because I was expecting to see a kick board being waved in front of my face as I came to the wall to signify 1-lap to go. I hit the wall, didn't see the kick board, and got ready to push off for (what I had HOPED) would be my last lap. But the race director was waving a pool noodle screaming "YOU'RE ALL DONE!"

Taking a breath, trying to figure out what the commotion was...


... and getting ready to go under and push off for my "final" lap.

It registered that they were saying "GET OUT - YOU'RE DONE" right as I pushed off. So I turned around quickly and climbed out:

I didn't think I was off on my lap counting. I was pretty sure I needed to do another lap. Oh what would Lisa have to say about this?...

T1:

Normal T1 stuff. But I was less dizzy. Huh, I wonder if swimming more has helped with that?

Socks on, shoes on, off and running to the bikes.

BIKE: 12 "miles:"

"Miles" is in quotes because these spin bikes basically go by RPM. Lisa and I agreed to set our bikes to a resistance of 12 (right in the middle of the 0-24 scale) so it would be a LITTLE more like "actual" riding, and not just crazy free spinning at 150 RPMs.

Devon showing that his alliance was truly with me.


Showing it even more. (With Joshua R in the background, who later had nice things to say about me.)


Trying to recite the first 40 digits of Pi, and having a little trouble around 35.


Butts.

I noticed I was actually catching up to Lisa on the bike. In all possible scenarios, there was never one where I was off the bike before her. (But there as also no scenario where I only had to swim 550 and everyone else had to do 600.)

I looked through my swim splits and fessed up to Lisa and Devon: "Hey guys, look at my splits: 1:23, 1:30, 1:31, 1:32, 1:31... 0:50!" Lisa's first reaction was thinking that I swam an EXTRA lap and that I was still very close to her. But I said "Nope, Kym pulled me out of the pool when I thought I had 1-lap left, and it turns out I DID have 1-lap left." Oh the drama. Lisa joked that I should give her a 2 lap "cushion" on the track for that.

Sweatiness at 140 RPMs.


Our final wave of the day, all on the bikes.

Sidenote: Devon often brought up the fact I'm a (part-time) stay-at-home Dad, or trophy husband, or house Dad. (One time he referred to me as a DILF, but that didn't happen at the race yesterday.) His best comment yesterday was "It's so nice to see a good house husband out of the kitchen."

T2:

I jumped off my bike, NEARLY turned my already weak ankle on the spin bike frame, and was off and running.

RUN: 5K: (25 laps on a 200 meter track)

I took off and felt FAST and yet EASY. I kept a cool head and didn't blow it up right away.

1-lap in (I think).

Lisa hopped off the bike when I nearly had a 2-lap lead on her. I was pretty sure the race was in the bag. But being I was "forced to cheat," I was hoping to have a decent margin of victory so no on would cry foul.

Passing Lisa. I have more questions about this photo than I have answers. Whoa.


Shaded smiles.

Early in the run, I thought my lap counter told me I had 19 laps left when I only had 18, and my internal reaction was "Yeah, that'd be fair. No biggie." (That would actually about perfectly make up for my missed lap in the pool.) But I mis-heard my lap counter, and everything was spot-on for the run.

I passed Lisa twice more, and finished about 4.5 laps (over a half mile) in front of her. But before the finish, Pharmie and the boys appeared at the edge of the track!! I saw them come in with 5 laps left, and then I got a high-5 from Henry on my final 4 laps:

My cute family.


Henry ready to give a big slap!

I REALLY didn't think I could run sub-6 pace, but I was able to! I took splits every half mile, and I got 2:53, 2:59, 2:59, 2:58, 2:56, 2:52, and a final 0:40 for the last lap. (That's mile splits of 5:53, 5:57, and 5:48.)

Henry ran over to give me some more high-5s and a hug after I finished:

A sweaty guy, and me and Henry.


Thanks for the cheers, big guy! (I was trying not to fall over.)

Lisa had a few more laps left, so we cheered her on:

Every woman likes to have a photo of her butt put on the internet, right?


I thought she was excited because she was done, but it turns out she had one more lap.


Post-race sweaty hug / awkward handshake.
One of the 2 things I like about Lisa is that she's just as awkward as I am in photos.

Here are our official results:

Officially a win by 4:03. (Well, "winning" over Lisa. Probably 2nd place overall.)

FOUR POST-RACE NOTES:

• My 8:15 swim was for 550, so that'd be right at 9:00 for 600, or 1:30 pace. That's 2 seconds faster / 100 than I swam last year at the indoor tri when I only swam 400!

• My 19:08 bike was right where I predicted it'd be off my time from last year. I predicted 19:35 in this post last week. (This is 37.63 mph. JUST like road riding...)

• I gave no prediction of my run because I REALLY didn't know what to expect. I've done just a few speed workouts since September, and NO brick workouts. AT BEST, I think I was hoping for around 6:00 pace (18:38). So to have run 5:54 pace was THRILLING!

• After the race, my sacrum/hip injury felt OK. I cooled down for a bit and stretched a little. I didn't mention anything here on my blog, but it acted up a little after a shorter, moderate run with no big effort last Tuesday. So it's been achy since then. We'll see how it feels over the next few days. NO running for me for a few days, and then I'll pick it up slow.


Lisa was gracious in defeat, and didn't seem to make it a big deal that I ended up swimming 1 less lap. But really, it would have felt better to beat her legally. I feel like Devon might have to weigh in on the "1-lap too few" controversy ("Pool-gate?" Lap-gate?" It needs a title), so keep an eye on his blog to see if he does.

Oh, and just for Devon, here were some of my "house husband" duties post-race: at home, I made sausage patties, a spiral-cut ham, broccoli, green beans, a baked German apple pancake, wheat rolls, and about a dozen pancakes:

Frying sausages, cooking broccoli, and glazing the ham in the upper left;
and the ham and baked German apple pancake in the upper right.

(Pharmie helped with the broccoli, green beans, and buns, but the rest was mainly me. We like to cook a lot of food on Sunday so we can eat good leftovers for most of the week. Obviously.)

Back with more photos shortly. Lisa, as per our agreement, get ready to babysit the heck out of my boys as Pharmie and I enjoy a night out! Or a long workout. Or a "long workout." **wink wink**