Life Time Tri RELAY Race Report

I did 2 races on Saturday: I first did the Life Time Fitness Triathlon Sprint Relay (as the swimmer), and then I jumped back in the water about 45 minutes later to do the SUPER Sprint as an individual. This race report will just be about the Sprint Relay.

I got to Lake Nokomis nice and early and took care of some business before the lines got long:

Tradition.

Just outside of transition, I found where they were corralling the relays:

Basically, only the relay biker was allowed in transition, and that was to keep transition from being clogged by relay members standing around (which was a good idea). So I would run out of the water and give Devon the chip in the relay pen, he'd run into transition, grab his bike, ride the course, come back into transition, rack his bike, run into the relay pen, and give the chip to Jeremy so he could do the final run. It kept transition from being a crowded mess, but the edge of this relay pen got to be kinda messy at times. But at least none of it affected the individual athletes.

It was going to be a good morning for a swim:

The sun coming up over the start of the swim course.

I started to worry... transition was going to close at 6:30 so they could start the Olympic Distance racers at 6:45, but we didn't start until 8:00. Well, THAT part didn't worry me, but it worried me that it was 6:30 and I hadn't seen Devon or his bike.

Where are you, biker #1279??

Luckily, he showed up with about 10 minutes to spare, looking as good as ever. Then a few minutes later, Jeremy showed up, and our handsomeness was complete:

Team "Handsome, Hairy, and Here to Win" all ready to race!




Devon has many long body parts. His arms, for example, are longer than mine,
so he got a selfie of me taking that selfie 2 photos up. So meta.

Jeremy followed me to the water, and I did a quick 50 yard warm-up swim. (Basically, I just peed myself in my wetsuit.) Then I found my wave of green caps.

Photo from Shannon of me waiting for our wave to be called to the line.

It was a "time trial" start where we went off 2 at a time. I was at the front, so this skinny fella and I led out the Sprint Relay wave:

Following the skinny fella into the lake.


That's my head in the middle. Skinny fella is already out of the frame to the left,
and other relay swimmers (who started in 2-3 second intervals) are right on my tail.

• 0.47 MILE SWIM:

You've heard me say over and over again how I like to swim to the far outside for "clean" water and so I don't run into many people. Well with this time trial start, I could just take a straight line because there was hardly anyone around. (The last wave in the Oly distance started 15 minutes before us, and the only Sprint wave in front of us relays was 1 guy in the "para" wave [he lost an arm as a child], so it was a good, quiet swim!) And this seriously was one of the straighter swims of my life:

My route from my Garmin. NOT BAD FOR ME in open water!
Look at how straight I swam back to shore!

We started almost straight into the sun (see 3rd photo in this post of the sun coming up) so it was a little tricky to see the buoys at times. The back stretch was fantastic with the sun at our backs. I had a few swimmers near me, but it was still pretty quiet. Nice.

Check out my first five 100 yard splits from my Garmin at this half mile swim vs my first five 100 yard splits at the Lake Waconia Triathlon 2 weeks ago (this shows how much more consistent and how much stronger I was swimming at this race in the name of my relay and friendship):

Life Time Relay: 1:03, 1:41, 1:38, 1:28, 1:32 = 7:22
Lake Waconia Tri: 1:15, 1:36, 1:51, 1:36, 1:51 = 8:09

On the final turn back to shore, I caught a mouthful of water a few times, but all was good. I swam hard until the end. I didn't stand up until my fingers brushed the sand. Then I booked it up the beach. Devon was waiting in the relay pen, and Jeremy snapped this awkward blurry photo of us:

Devon just secured the chip, and then he majestically arose to battle the bike course.
(Am I picking seaweed out of my teeth? What's happening here?)


#Swiftness #SpeedInSocks #GoodForm #MyAnacondaDontWantNone

• 15 MILE BIKE:

Devon "I think 'married people sex' is gross" Palmer was off riding. Jeremy and I saw him shoot down the road out of transition in the distance. It was majestic. I couldn't stick around and see him finish or see Jeremy run, however, because I needed to get back down to the water's edge to get ready to start the SUPER Sprint race. So Jeremy went to warm up as I hit the water again.

I'm sure Devon looked fantastic on his bike. I have no photos to share. Sorry.

Not Devon - just a cool shot from Robert on twitter from the race on Saturday.

• 3.1 MILE RUN:

Jeremy "I'm fast but as flexible as a brick" Reichenberger ran. And he ran WELL. He finished the Afton 50K trail race in 3rd overall just a week before, and just 2 weeks before that he ran a 2:49 at Grandma's Marathon. So he was worried about fatigue in his legs. (He noted that his legs just started to feel a little "back to normal" the day before our race.) But they didn't seem to affect him. He ran 5:16 pace, to finish his 5K in 16:20. Yes. Really.

SIDENOTE: I first mentioned Jeremy here in 2012 as "former student Jeremy" (he was a student of mine at the U about 5 years ago). I spotted him running down River Road a year after he was my student, I and emailed him. He was training for a marathon, and I got him into the MDRA "Grand Prix" series that year, and he did the final 10 races in that series with me. At the New Prague Half Marathon where I set my 1:20 half marathon PR, Jeremy finished with a great PR of 1:35. He ran well all that year, but I beat him at every race - it was no contest. Now, he's running 200+ miles a month and is on an official running streak (at least a mile a day) since sometime near the end of last year, and he's just killing it. He's blown past all my PRs. For example: my best Apple Duathlon finish had 2 5Ks of 18:04 and 18:39. Jeremy did Apple this year with 5Ks of 16:47 and 17:19. My OPEN 5K PR is 17:11. Wowza. KILLIN' IT!

Devon's pic of Jeremy finishing. Nice running, Jeremy!




Results right now. Our transitions don't exist, and the times listed add up to more than 1:07:00.
I had 13:26 for my swim up to transition, so I think T1 is part of the swim time, and T2 is
part of the bike time. Run time seems to be right. Can't make full sense of this right now.

So it looks like I had the 5th fastest swim time of the 38 relays. (Roughly 12:54 at the edge of the water, and 13:26 up to transition, which was 1:37 pace.) The skinny fella who started with me seemed to take off and was never seen again. Then (no surprise), Devon had the fastest bike and Jeremy had the fastest run of all the teams. Devon moved us into 1st, and Jeremy just extended the lead. We ended up winning by over 10 minutes.

After I finished my individual SUPER Sprint race, the fellas came to find me to let me know that we won. Awesome. We celebrated with an awkward post-race photo, which has become tradition this year:

#AlwaysHumble #BestFriendsForeverForNow

SIDENOTE: The post-race awkward photo tradition this year started with this great pic of Lisa and I after our indoor triathlon battle. And guess who took that photo? It was Devon. It's come full circle.

Devon had to take off and couldn't stick around for awards. So Jeremy and I appeared a little less handsome without him as we accepted our trophies:

Back with my individual SUPER Sprint race report soon! Thanks for the fun race, Life Time Tri!