First Tri of 2018 on the Books!

It’s mid-August, and I FINALLY signed up for my first triathlon of the year! I’ll be racing in Maple Grove in about 10 days:

I know little about this race, other than what I know by being friends with the race director. It has an olympic distance, a sprint, a super sprint, and even a duathlon option. I opted for the sprint, which is swim heavy and bike light: a 1/2 mile swim, 11.2 mile bike, and a 5K run. I CONSIDERED the super sprint for a moment (1/4 mile, 5 mile, 5K), but didn’t want to be “that guy” in a race that might be made more for beginners.

Being it will be my first time at this race (and my first real triathlon in 12 months) I have no major specific goals. Go hard on the bike? Shoot for top-10 overall? Top-5? Place in my age group? Yeah, maybe some or all of those. I don’t know what to expect, and most of those thoughts are based on who else shows up on race day. Again, knowing nothing about the course, I think I COULD finish around 1:07 overall. ?!? But who knows. My swimming is OK, but biking isn't great, my running is OK, but how will it all come together being my last multisport race was the beginning of May?!?

I've had a decent week of training, and I'll be back with some of that shortly. (It was first a recovery week after the USATF MN Championship 15K race, then this week of solid training, now a few more days of harder workouts, and then a few days of easier workouts leading up to the race in a week!)