Steve in a Speedo?! Gross!: RACE REPORT! The 2024 Square Lake Sprint Triathlon!

Yesterday was a great morning out at Square Lake. I signed up within the week to race the Square Lake Sprint Triathlon, although I was thinking about it for the last few weeks - it lined up with a race at the end of an easy week of training in Coach Jen's TC 10 Mile training plan from 2010, and I've been doing the same workouts this year, so I figured it was meant to be!

The day before the race, the boys and I went to "Farming of Yesteryear" for the entire day. It's basically an old-time threshing show that shows farming ways from a 100 years ago. My in-laws are big parts of the event.

Cousins.

My niece with a big work horse!

I drive to southern MN for Chinese food... who doesn't?!?

5 mins later. Perfect pre-race food????....

We got back late the night before the race. I got the boys to bed and laid out my race gear. The next morning, I was headed east as the sun was starting to rise:

Pre-race tradition. In a hoodie, as it was about 50 degrees.

Set up, with my wetsuit on top of my bike.

QUIET lake! Nice!!

Hazy sun coming up... hopefully not TOO bright because otherwise
we're sighting straight into the sun heading back to shore in the swim.

Part of transition...

... and the other part.

Swim buddy Julia!! We used to swim at this lake ALL THE TIME together before Henry was born!

I had a Roctane GU, Julia and I zipped each other into our wetsuits, and we walked through ankle-deep water over to the start as our "warm-up." We were ready to go! It's a "self-seeded" time trial start where you just line up where/how you want to. I think Julia and I were around 30th to start the race.

• SWIM: 0.5 miles:

I started wide to the right. I was solid in my first 150 yards or so (something I mentioned I'd have to do to to have a good swim in Saturday's pre-race post). But then I veered TOO far right near the end of the first straight-away. Oops. I teased with Julia pre-race that I'd be aiming for the stand-up paddleboarder to the far right, and I DAMN NEAR RAN INTO THAT PADDLEBOARDER. My bad. #CalledIt

Veered off on the way out, and then veered INSIDE on the way back. Sheesh.

On the way back, I spotted that big green buoy near the shore, and I was happy to see I was heading right for it. But then I realized it was the one AT THE START and NOT AT THE FINISH. Oops. I was starting to cross the swim course. I corrected and made it back to shore.

• T1:

This felt decent. Not great, but far from horrible. I was out quickly.

• BIKE: 18.5 miles:

I didn't have anyone right in front of me like last year, but I took off hard. I passed Julia on the start of the "big climb" less than a mile into the bike. I passed maybe 5-6 people up that hill. And then shortly after, one of those guys was back on my tail - I had someone sucking my draft from about mile 2 until about mile 5. It was a little annoying, but I don't think it's "illegal" at this race. But he was stuck on me. He swung wide at one point, stayed out there for 30 seconds, but then we came upon another cyclist so I ramped it up to get ahead of the drafter and then swung out to pass the cyclist. That was about the end of the drafter. I checked over my shoulder a few times (through the middle of the bike leg), and he was always about a block back. He was pushing me to make a gap, and I didn't know if that was good for my race or if it was going to make me blow up. But I was very aware that he was having an effect on me! I sometimes had good runs or rides when I'm "running mad" or just a little pissed off, so I was also aware that that could be happening.

Half way through, I was done passing people. I saw someone up ahead, but I just couldn't close the gap - they were always about 2-3 blocks in front of me.

I checked my overall average every 1/4 of the ride. As I mentioned in Saturday's pre-race post, I looked back to previous times I'd done this race, and I was aware that last year, I started with a 21.0 mph average and got it to 22.0 just before transition (before it slowed down to 21.9 mph rolling into T2). I was HEARTILY beating that this year!! I saw it at 23.0 mph around the half-way point before making a turn!! I was biking hard!

- 21.3 mph at mile 4.5
- 22.7 mph at mile 9
- 22.9 mph at mile 13.5
- 23.1 mph at mile 18
- 23.0 mph rolling into transition!

The last 3 years at this race, my Garmin had me at 21.3, 21.6, and 21.9 mph. And this year, I bypassed 22 mph COMPLETELY and ended with 23.0 mph!!

Always going up or down some hill. Notice my HR was higher
at the start when I was trying to lose Mr. Drafter.

• T2:

Hey, I didn't see anyone out running yet! I realized I was near the front of the race! (Again, this was a time trial start, so that doesn't mean much, but still... I'd passed a lot of people to work my way up here.) I was PRETTY quick here, but nearly pulled something trying to get my bike shoes off quickly.

• RUN: 3.1 miles:

A woman was in front of me, and she was heading out fast. I worked my way up that dang hill coming out of transition and set my sights on her. I passed her right as we exited the park, and we gave each other some cheers. Again, I was aware of last year's splits where I ran hard to catch people and started with a 3:13 half mile. I beat that this year with a 3:07 opening half, and then THE REST OF MY HALF MILE SPLITS WERE SUB-3:00!!

- Mile 1: 6:06.9 (3:07 + 2:59)

That's a fast opening mile! I was running all by my lonesome in the country, and I looked for the water stop to appear which was the turn-around. I grabbed a cup and stopped for a split second so I could throw my cup in the trash and not make this solo old man working there walk for my trash. The woman AND ANOTHER GUY were side-by-side just a bit behind me, so I was now running scared! I saw Julia a bit farther back (9th overall at the moment) and she said "JUST GO HARD! DON'T LOOK BACK!!" I didn't know if that meant someone was closing on me or that I was running away from everyone.

- Mile 2: 5:50.9 (2:57 + 2:53)

Good splits again!! Climbing that hill with about 0.8 miles to go, I gave in and glanced over my shoulder. I didn't see anyone. I was running away. And mentally, I did well here because I still was able to keep working hard and not ease up because "this was in the bag." Again, TIME TRIAL START so who knows where I REALLY stood!

- Mile 3: 5:33.3 (2:51 + 2:42)

I booked down the final hill to lots of cheers. It was great! First to the line.

Out-and-back run.

I kept getting faster, and my heart did too!!

Ouch.

OFFICIAL RESULTS:

Steve Stenzel, 43, M, St. Paul

- 0.5 MILE SWIM: 12:20, 2nd in AG, 20th overall
- T1: 1:09, 2nd in AG, 6th overall
- 18.5 MILE BIKE: 48:09, 23.1 mph, 1st in AG, 1st overall
- T2: 0:38, 1st in AG, 8th overall
- 5K RUN: 18:02, 1st in AG, 1st overall

1:20:16 total
1st out of 10 in age group
2nd out of 151 overall

[Garmin: 12:20 for 753 yards swimming (1:38/100 yd), 1:08 T1, 48:08 for 18.42 miles biked (23.0 mph), 0:39 T2, 18:02 for 3.10 mile ran (5:48/mile) = 1:20:16 total]

7 POST-RACE NOTES:

• I did NOT end up winning - I was 2nd overall. The 19-year-old running not far behind me at the turn around must have started a ways back. He had a swim that was 2 mins better than mine, and then a very similar bike split. I nearly gained back those 2 minutes on the run, but not quite. Even though he crossed the finish maybe 2 minutes behind me, his overall time was 0:13 faster than mine:

Me in the red. Poorly ranked swim, but nice bike and run.

• I had an over 3:34 PR at this race! I had my best swim, T1, bike, T2, and run ALL AT THIS YEAR'S RACE! I was on fire at this race. I didn't think my transitions were THAT good, but they beat all previous years.

• My Garmin had the swim being a little short. It's still the pace I've swam for all these races: 1:38 or 1:39. But I didn't really take 0:58 off my swim split - it was a bit short compared to the last few years.

• I broke my perfect descend of bike splits over the years, but in the best way. The last 3 years, I've taken about a minute off each bike split: 52 mins, 51 mins, and 50 mins. I was hoping to keep that up this year with something around 49 mins, but I dropped down to 48 mins! :)

• Third year in a row of perfect descending half-mile run splits! I LOVE that I'm doing this, but I can't promise to keep this up! And EVERY split this year was faster than the corresponding split last year!

• Here's a random stat: I had the 4th best combined transition time. This was found in the official results:

That's me in 4th, with the 19-year-old winner just behind me.

• Speaking of the young winner, the race director (Judi) said something fun at the awards ceremony. She started with overall female and male winners, and she wanted to give me some credit (I think). So she said something like "Guys, listen to this... I love this. The overall winner was Sean who's NINETEEN YEARS OLD. Just a few seconds behind him in 2nd was Steve who's FOURTY THREE YEARS OLD. I just think that's so cool!" Thanks Judi! Happy to be an old guy doing decently at your races! :)

Here are some more pics from shortly after I finished: