Trinona Triathlon 'Pre-Race' Report

NOTE: This will be a 2-part race report. I don't have time right now to write about the actual race, so this post will lead up to the starting gun going off. I'll be back with the full race report tomorrow.

This race weekend was a true ADVENTURE. My wife had to work, so I had to watch Henry. But I wanted to do a race that was 2.5 hours away... so I picked up my wife's 14-year-old cousin on the way to the race and her, Henry, and I stayed in a hotel in Winona on Saturday night.

Grace (my wife's cousin) was SUPER IMPRESSED that we had a TV in our bathroom at the hotel:

I watched golf as I pooped.
It literally bored the SHIT out of me.


This photo is for my wife: see honey, I cleaned Henry's bottles.

We got settled and headed to the Trinona Time Trial:

Grace and Henry!

I posted some photos of the first Trinona Time Trial in my last post, and you can CLICK HERE to see a number of photos from that nasty, short, 3.5 mile TT.

Then we went back to the hotel for the night, and Henry gave kisses:

Sorry future occupants of Room 123: my babies ass has been wiped across the floor.


Happy bath time!

Henry went to sleep well, but being he was in the "Pack and Play" just a few feet from my bed, he kept me up most of the night. Whenever he'd make a peep, I'd wake up. I got about 2 solid hours of sleep early in the night, and then Henry woke up 3 times and kept me up a while. All-in-all, Henry slept pretty well, but I only got about 4 hours of sleep.

I got up, ate oatmeal in the bathroom (a pre-race record of 4 packets!), and got as much packed up as I could before getting Henry up. We woke him up around 5:40 am, got him dressed and fed, and drove about 2 miles to the race!

About 1/4 of transition.


Some GUs strapped to my aero bars.


Henry trying to breast feed. No, not really... He was just giving boob kisses.




Henry's breakfast by the lake.

Grace would laugh at just HOW many people knew me at the race. We kept bumping into ALL KINDS of "race buddies," and Grace thought I was Mr. Popular. It was a fun race to be a part of!

One last pre-race photo with my little guy!

Henry was ready for a little nap just as I was getting ready to race. So with about 15 minutes until my wave started, I gave him a quick diaper change in the middle of the park:

I hit the water for the first time SINCE MY LAST TRIATHLON 10 months ago:

As I walked back up the beach, I accidentally walked through some little burrs. I realized it about half way through them, so I sat down in the lake and pulled them out of my foot. Dang. Smooth move with about 90 seconds before my wave started.

I RAN over to get set with the rest of my wave, and an official said "You haven't checked in! You need to head through the chute and over the timing mat!!" So I booked it around the barricades. The announcer was talking over the PA system, and she said "Is that Steve Stenzel causing havoc running around back there?! Does everyone know 'Steve in a Speedo'?" A number of guys in my wave or in the wave behind us started saying "YEAH! Steve in a Speedo!" It was pretty funny. Then I realized that it was Jen on the PA system. I saw her, and she gave me a hug. She said "RACE HARD, STEVE!" And I said "Nooooooo... I'm just going to have fun!"

I got lined up a mere 15 seconds before my wave started. I was ready to have a good time and suffer a little! Back with the full race report tomorrow!

(Oh, and I'll have a lot more photos from Trinona in an Examiner article shortly...)