Some Instagrams and Links

Last week I posted about a great weekend bike ride. I was in short sleeves and shorts. Sweet.

Then, 2 days later, my drive to work looked like this:

F*ck you, Minnesota.

Saturday, Henry and I went for an easy long run together. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I took this photo LITERALLY 10 seconds into our run:

The dude was tired. He passed out ASAP.

We ran 11+ miles, and my sore butt cheek that I've had recently felt OK.

Then we got home and had to compost our jack-o-lanterns (they were getting squishy and moldy). Henry hugged his pumpkin from Grandma goodbye before we tossed it:

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaadorable!!

Sunday, we played in the yard, and Pharmie checked Henry for loose change:

Also, I've been posting more Examiner articles lately. (You can always "like" the St. Paul Triathlon Examiner on Facebook for updates in your news feed.) Here are a few recent articles:

• The Apple Duathlon is a World Qualifier once again.

• Photos and results from the Minnesota Multisport Awards 10 days ago.

• "Dome Running" is back THIS WEEK! (It must be winter.)

• Life Time Fitness has a new 3-race tri series that is trying to save triathletes money.

• The Metro area is going to host it's first ever "Midwest Cycling and Multisport Expo" in a few months.

• What pro cyclists do in the off-season (as well as his 3 tips for us "normals" - this is a re-post from 3 years ago, but still have good advice).

Have a good (hopefully SHORT) week, everyone!

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Long July 4th Bike Ride (with New Garmin!)

I got up at 2:45 a.m. on Wednesday July 4th. I've actually been getting up at that time on Wednesday's since the first of the year because our Church is doing "Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration," and I signed up for the (UnGodly) hour of 3-4 a.m. every Wednesday. It's been interesting to have an hour to sit in silence at Church, flip through the Bible, and contemplate my religious beliefs. I don't need to go into it, but it's made me a better person. Maybe this surprises some of you... I don't know. I have my faith, I'm happy with it, and I don't try to force it upon anyone. We all have the right to believe what we want to believe. I'm a liberal Catholic: I wish women could be priests, I wish priests could marry, and I wish the Church didn't treat gay and lesbian couples the way it does. But I don't talk about it much because I don't want to "start something." We all can have our own religious beliefs, and we don't need to fight about it. There. That's my religion in a nutshell.

"No, this is me in a nutshell. Help! I'm in a nutshell! How did I get into this nutshell? Look at
the size of this bloody great big nutshell! What sort of shell has a nut like this? This is crazy!"
Anyone remember this? No? OK... moving on.

So I had some breakfast, got "geared up," and was ready for a long ride! I usually don't have the chance to really fit in a workout early Wednesday mornings because Pharmie has to get up early to get ready for work. So if Henry wakes up, it's my duty after a certain hour. But it was the 4th of July and she didn't work. Now was my chance! (Plus, the roads would be extra quiet because it was a holiday - who's up at 4 am on the 4th of July?!?)

As I was getting all set to go, I snapped a self-portrait with my cell phone outside:

Yeah. There it is. Apparently, it's still quite dark at 4:30 a.m.

I set Goldilocks outside and grabbed a photo of her:

Those 2 little parallel reflections in the middle is her saddle. I think.

The sky was just starting to lighten, so I grabbed a photo showing a tree in our front yard against the dark blue sky as it was starting to lighten a bit:

Beautiful. Invisible. Pointless. Sorry.

Off I went. I had to turn around about 4 miles in because the cops had a road closed near a park by the Ford Plant. It looked as if they were looking for someone "on the run," so I didn't want to go riding through there. I altered my course and kept at it.

I stopped about 12 miles into the ride to refill my water. I grabbed another photo now that it was starting to get lighter:

Around 5:30 or so.

I forgot to mention... I stopped to refill water that soon because it was 85 degrees and as humid as my balls. It was THICK and yucky out there. It was all week. Anyway, I dropped a Nuun in my refilled bottle and took off.

I looped up into downtown St. Paul (which was DEAD [as it usually is]) and crossed the Wabasha Street Bridge. I rode by a Mexican Bakery where Pharmie and I had some DELICIOUS rolls on a bike ride about 5 years ago, and made my way to a trail along the Mississippi.

Riding on the levee at mile 16ish with the stank of slaughterhouses to my right.

I crossed the river, got along Hwy 61, and headed back towards downtown St. Paul. I rode along side of a doe near 61 and Warner while riding through some low-lying fog. Beautiful.

I told myself I'd go "a decent pace" through mile 35, and then I'd ease up. I over-shot home because I was headed to the finish line at the "Red, White & BOOM!" Half Marathon (shortened to a 5-mile because of the heat). As I was cheering in the finishers, I snapped a photo of my new toy:

Yep. Pharmie got me the "Garmin 910xt" for Father's Day!! It's my FIRST Garmin! I enjoyed having it on the ride, but I haven't downloaded my data yet. Their website says the "Garmin ANT Agent" needed to download files from my Garmin to my laptop works on Mac OS X 10.4.11 or later, and I run OS X 10.4.11 on my 6 year old laptop:

But when I tried to install it, it wouldn't work as it told me "Must be OS X 10.5 or Greater." I contacted Garmin, we went back a forth twice, and as of Thursday afternoon, this is how it was left by the people at Garmin:

It looks like there is a glitch. We are looking into this to see if we cannot find out what is going on. Our current version of ANT Agent will not work on 10.4.11 so we are looking into seeing if we have the version that will work for it. At this point though I cannot promise that we can get it to work.

I think by "glitch" he means "typo on our website that screws you over once you've purchased our $400 product, Steve Stenzel." I'm pretty pissed. I pretty much have a large expensive watch. But let's move on.

Anyway....

I cheered on the runners as they cross the Stone Arch Bridge to finish the "Red, White & BOOM!" 5-Mile race. CLICK HERE to see a slideshow of photos I took with my cell phone. I cheered for a half hour, and then rode back home. Here was my final map of the day (mapped out with mapmyrun and not my Garmin):

Basically an ugly figure-8 with an added little out-and-back to the NW.

That was my longest ride in over 2 years! In April of 2010, I went on a 44 miler with 2 of my brother-in-laws, and we posted the same 18.5 mph average as I did this last week.

So we'll see if I can get my Garmin fully connected to my computer one of these days, and I'll try that out on more workouts. The Life Time Fitness Olympic Distance Triathlon is next weekend!! I won't be gunning for any sort of PR - I'll just be racing for fun.

Oh, and here are a few recent Examiner articles of mine:

- A slideshow of photos from the "Red, White & BOOM! Half Marathon."
- A love story made itself apparent in the results of the MinneMan Triathlon.
- My interview with former Olympian Carrie Tollefson about her upcoming running camp for kids.
- Slideshow of photos from the Lake Waconia Triathlon.
- Clinic dates have been set for those interested in becoming a USAT Official.
- Minneapolis has introduced free weekly open-water swims across Lake Nokomis.
- And as always, you can "like" the "St. Paul Triathlon Examiner" on Facebook for updates in your News Feed.

Happy weekend!

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Friday Funny 351: Shot Put Face

Poor guy.

Kurt Roberts, a Ohio teacher and shot-putter, recently moved to the finals in Eugene at the Olympic Trials (he finished 5th in the finals). Unfortunately, he looks like this when he throws:

Again I say: poor guy.

Related: Here's an article about 3 Minnesotan Track and Field athletes who made it to the FINALS in their sports at the Olympic Trials, and here's my article about how they all fared in the finals - ONE of them will be representing us in London next month! "Like" me (as the St. Paul Triathlon Examiner) on Facebook for updates in your news feed.

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Not Gonna Last...

Here are the Grand Prix Standings after the Brian Kraft 5K 3 weeks ago:

I'm still in the lead, and my lead has grown from around 800 points after the half marathon to nearly 1200 points. I'm getting more and more hopeful that I'll do well in the entire 14-race series, but it's still WAY too soon to REALLY get my hopes up. We're only 6 races in. I'm a Minnesota Vikings fan, and I can recall plenty of seasons where we were "bound to win the Super Bowl" after 6 games. But alas.... no Super Bowl rings...

As I've mentioned before, only your best 10 results count out of the 14 races, so that's one big reason for my negativity. For example, look at Nathan Campeau in 23rd place. How could he win?... He's in 23rd place right now. But he's missed the last 3 races. Before that, he was a mere 33 points behind me. Let's say the series comes down to ONLY him and I - if he finishes out the series and beats me a few times (as he's done once already), then he'll win. And this whole scenario is true for at LEAST 4 other runners as well (Ben, Patrick, Michael, and Scott).

AND this is all contingent on me staying healthy!! And that's a big issue... one I'll talk more about in the next few days.

So for right now, I'll stop being so negative and start enjoying my 3rd straight race at the top! Yay me! ;)

In local news, here are some of my recent St. Paul Triathlon Examiner links:

- The 2nd annual Twin Cities Triathlon was just cancelled.

- Photos from the first Trinona Time Trial.

- Results from the Trinona Time Trial, where the winner had an 18.1 mph average over the 3.5 mile TT (big... f*cking... hill).

- My photos from the Trinona Triathlon.

- My photos from the Buffalo Triathlon.

- Some official photos from the fun and hilly 'Hillfest' bike ride.

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Long Run SUCCESS and Some Links

A week ago, I was bitching about this hot run where I bonked pretty hard. This week, things have changed.

Pharmie worked all weekend, so I had Henry for 13 hours each day (her weekends are long!). Saturday, we headed out for the same long run that I bonked on the week before. It was sprinkling when we started, but Henry didn't care:

I snapped this photo, then "sealed up" the stroller to keep him dry!


Damp trail along the river near the Shriner's Hospital (around mile 2.5)

It rained, then it drizzled, then it stopped, then it rained, etc. And Henry slept for all of it. I warmed up for 2 miles, kept more of a moderate pace for another 3.5 miles, and then hit the next 6 miles a bit harder. Again, this was similar to what I wanted to do last weekend, but I tried to keep the harder miles a BIT easier so I didn't kill myself.

I did the harder miles in 6:32, 6:33, 6:34 (then turned around), 6:09, 6:18, and 6:01. That was 38:09 for those 6 fast mile, or 6:21 / mile. AND UNLIKE LAST WEEK WHERE I ONLY GOT THROUGH 3.5 MILES BEFORE STOPPING TO DIE WALK, I HAD JUST RAN 6 MILES HARD AND FELT GREAT!!

Well, I FELT great, but I was pretty sure I looked like hell. I stopped for a few seconds to snap a wet, chilly, gross photo of myself after 11.5 miles (just after my 6 hard miles):

I run because it's sexy.

And then I immediately snapped a contrasting photo of Henry all warm, cute, dry, and sleepy in the stroller:

I did my remaining 2 "easy" miles home in 14:30 total (fast-ish miles for feeling "easy!"), for a grand total of 13.53 miles in 1:32:43. That was 6 minutes faster than last week!! AND I had the stroller this week! Last week, I was over-heated and felt sick/dead, and this week I felt just fine and could have easily gone another 6 miles.


Unrelated to that....

I've been writing more Examiner articles lately, and here are a few from the last 10 days:

WORKOUTS / GENERAL:

• A run workout from the first US female at the Chicago Marathon called Killer Hills.

• Matt Fitzgerald's speed workout called 600 Meter Breakdowns that he claims is good for ALL distance runners. (I still have to try this.)

• Five thoughts from Sam McGlone about preventing overuse injuries. Number 2 is the big one most "smart" people can forget (I'm getting better at it), and I swear by number 3!


LOCAL INTEREST:

• Lake Minnetonka will be host to the USMS 10-Mile Open Water National Championship later this summer (check the slideshow for photos from last year).

• World Champion triathlete Julie Dibens will be in town in a few days!

• Popular local magazine the "City Pages" just came out with their "Best Of" for 2012. Here are some "bests" that local sporty people will want to be aware of.

• Photos from Goldy's Run 10 Mile.

I tend to write more "article-like" articles (that was a genius phrase) on my Examiner page, so feel free to subscribe via e-mail or LIKE my Examiner page on Facebook to get links to my articles in your Facebook feed. Oh, and if you're thinking about becoming an Examiner, use this link when applying and I'll make a few bucks. :)

Thanks everyone! Back with my race thoughts for Saturday's race shortly!

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4 Injury Updates

I'm posting this for 2 reasons: First, so I can look back and have notes on where I was at this point. And second, so maybe if you've been in a similar spot, you can give me your feedback.


Here are the 4 areas worth noting:

LEFT I.T. BAND:

It's been a little tight a day after some long runs and some bike rides. It really hasn't been a big issue for YEARS (since IM WI training 5 years ago). I do different versions of the pretzel stretch quite often, and I foam roll it now-and-then. The rolling helps! Need to do more of that.

LEFT ACHILLES TENDON:

This was what KILLED me just over a year ago. It kept me from running for 6-8 weeks, and it kept me in this "night splint" for months:

After building a big base this winter (lots of longer, easier runs with Henry), things have been going great this spring. Sure, I still feel it after some workouts, but I make sure to give it PLENTY of rest after harder / longer workouts.

Oh, and I also still count footstrikes on about every workout. When I first saw a P.T. about a year ago, she noted that I was striking about 160 times / minute. That needed increase so I would stop heel-striking. By upping my strike-rate, I don't "reach" so far out in front of me with my heel, and I won't heel-strike as much. Now, I've gotten myself running around 175-183 strikes / minute without even having to think about it. (She told me 180 is optimal, so I'm happy with where I'm at.)

RIGHT-SIDE INTERCOSTAL MUSCLE:

Something gave a weird twinge at the Human Race 8K about a month ago. Here I am with my right side in pain just before the finish:

It acted up a bit the next weekend at the Lake Johanna 4 Mile (that I ran with Henry) too. But "belly breathing" helps. I laid off the core work for about 10 days, and slowly started that back recently. I CAN still feel some "weirdness," but it's soooo minor. I'm not worried... I'm just keeping an eye on it. Or a rib. Whatever.

RIGHT FOOT:

So I was trail running on a Wisconsin Island in late July of last year, and I turned my ankle. I THOUGHT I just hurt my ankle, but my foot was achy the rest of the summer. And it's just gotten a BIT better over the last few months. I may have tweaked something deep in my foot. Early last fall, I was pretty sure it was a stress fracture... I'm still not sure what it is. I can run FAR on it (I can easily do half marathon runs), but if I do some speed work, it might be sore the next day. (Oh, and it would get really sore after swimming a few months ago, so I stayed out of the pool for a while. I think it was sore from kicking. But now, after a few recent swims, that's not an issues anymore.) There's just ALWAYS a bit of a dull ache there. I make sure to ice it after harder / longer workouts, and that's been keeping it in check.

I noticed something in 2 photos from the Lake Johanna 4 Mile race... my sore right foot is landing with the toes pointing out quite a bit. Look at these 2 images:

Right foot on the ground just after the start


Right foot on the ground in my final kick

Since I've seen these 2 images, I'm trying to run with a "straighter" foot. I don't know if that was any of my issue at all, but I'm trying to watch my form.


Luckily, right now all my injuries are all staying in check. I can FEEL most of them, but they are "cooperating." I need to start doing my P.T. prescribed leg exercises more often so everything STAYS in check. (Here are most of the P.T. exercises that I still do, but there have been more added in.)

So, with all these little aches, I think some down-time at the end of the season is called for! I'll need a rest and some time to heal.


p.s. On this note of injury-related-things, I just wrote a little Examiner article about "overuse injury prevention" with tips from pro triathlete Sam McGlone. CLICK HERE to check it out.

p.p.s. I've just joined Instagram. Search for "stevestenzel" and follow me. You'll get funny images, photos of my kid, and athletic-related things. Here are 3 of my first Instagram photos:

Henry found the stairs and bookshelf!


In a good mood after a snack!
(Sorry for the snot, but check out his 4 bottom teeth!)


A VERY appropriate sign to see on a run WITH MY SON on Thursday night.

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"21 Workout" and Links

Saturday, I did the Crossfit workout called "Twenty One." I've done it a few times in the past (maybe 4 or 5 times) when I only had a little time for a quick workout. I cheated a little, and those "cheats" are noted with the asterisks below.

"Twenty-One"
Complete the following for time:

• 20 push-ups/1 sit-up
• 19 push-ups/2 sit-ups
• 18 push-ups/3 sit-ups
• 17 push-ups/4 sit-ups *
• 16 push-ups/5 sit-ups *
• 15 push-ups/6 sit-ups *
• 14 push-ups/7 sit-ups *
• 13 push-ups/8 sit-ups *
• 12 push-ups/9 sit-ups
• 11 push-ups/10 sit-ups
• 10 push-ups/11 sit-ups
• 9 push-ups/12 sit-ups
• 8 push-ups/13 sit-ups
• 7 push-ups/14 sit-ups
• 6 push-ups/15 sit-ups
• 5 push-ups/16 sit-ups
• 4 push-ups/17 sit-ups
• 3 push-ups/18 sit-ups
• 2 push-ups/19 sit-ups
• 1 push-up/20 sit-ups

Push-up standards: Body stays planked whether you are on your toes or your knees. Chest touches the deck. Arms to full lockout.

Sit-ups on an Abmat with feet unsecured**, all the way up.

* I had to finish some of these push-ups on my knees (usually the last 3 of the 5 sets marked with a "*").

** I locked my feet under our entertainment center once I was doing 12 or more sit-ups.

It took me 15:11, which is a PR for the 21 Workout. It's more killer than it seems. Pharmie came down from upstairs just as I was wrapping up the workout, and she grabbed this photo of me doing one of my very last sit-ups:

Working hard with a lazy cat in the background
(and there's the "vein of approval" on my forehead coming out to say hi!)

In other news, here are some links to some of my Examiner articles recently:

• 8 tips from one of Minnesota's best runners (along with my "2 cents" as a perennially injured runner).

• Chris "MACCA" McCormack will be coming to Minnesota to race this summer! This is huge!

• Local race director is a cover model on the "Swimsuit Issue" of Triathlete Mag.

• Grandma's Marathon (in Duluth) was this weekend, and it was the closest finish EVER to the race. Click the link to see a photo of a 26.2 mile race decided by only 2 tenths of a second!

• Starting later this week is a series of 7 open water swim clinics at Lake Nokomis.

• And I'm working on 2 more articles that will be published shortly: one on the best local trails / routes as voted on by City Pages readers, and one on local bike laws. Become a fan of the St. Paul Triathlon Examiner on FB to get links to my articles in your Facebook news feed.

Oh, and one last link: I promised that I'd link to my wife's story on Henry's birth, and she just published that the other night. If you'd like a little more detail on the birth of our cute little Hankopotamus, click here to go to her blog post. (And if you missed my write-up on Henry's arrival, scroll down a number of posts or click here.) Thanks!

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More Photos from the Apple Duathlon

Erica, the wife of "racing buddy" Chad, was at the Apple Duathlon taking a lot of photos. She got some great photos of the elites that I used in this article, but I wanted to show some of Matt, Chad, and I racing.

Ben, Chad, Matt, and I heading to the start.


The start of Wave 2 (Chad and I are in there).


Me on the far left, Chad on the far right, Diane's hubby in the middle.


Jeez... it looks like I'm leisurely waltzing out of T1.


Chad leaving T1 just behind me.

Look at the last photo. CLOSELY. Right in the middle on the street. There's a biker heading up the hill. When you wear the things that I wear at a race, it's easy to say with 100% conviction: "Hey, that's me!" Even if I'm just a tiny speck of a blur in the distance.

Close-up of the last photo. Absolutely me. ;)

Behind Chad (in the next Wave back) was Matt. Here he is coming into T1:

Getting in from the bike.


Tracking down Julie Hull right near the finish. Damn heel-strike.


That's better. Just don't look at my face.


That woman loves my shorts. Apparently.


Talking with Chad moments after finishing.


Chad, me, and Graeme. Sorry about my exposed chest. I was actually
trying to get the zipper to open FARTHER on the hot final run!


Matt coming to the finish - about 20 seconds before puking.

If you want to see more of Erica's photos, check out the slideshow in this article. And click here for my Examiner write-up on the Apple Duathlon.

(And if you missed previous race photos in previous Examiner articles of mine, click here for photos from the Gear West Duathlon and click here for photos from the Oakdale Duathlon.)

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The Gear West Duathlon

Or, "'Team Happy Pants' Goes For Two in a Row."

Or, "A Romp in the Mud."

Matt, Angela, Pharmie, and I headed out to the Gear West Duathlon yesterday. Matt and I were coming off our come-from-behind win at the Oakdale Duathlon a week ago. We were going for another relay win: we've placed 2nd the last 3 years in a row, and we were HOPING for a win ONE of these times!!

Matt and I (Team Happy Pants) pre-race


Me and 37-weeks pregnant Pharmie!

We got a LOT of rain in the 2 days before the race, so the normally "cross country" run was going to be NASTY. It was the talk of transition pre-race.

We chatted with a TON of old race buddies, and worked our way to the starting line. Wave one was the male and female elites:

The "team" wave was wave 2, and I liked that. The elites had a 2 minute lead, and I knew I'd be able to chase some of them down on the first run. They'd be a good "pull" for me out there. One of my goals for the race was to GO OUT HARD. And chasing those elites would help me to go HARD.

"ON YOUR MARK, GET SET,..... GO!"

5K RUN:

I took off with a "guy who looked like a runner" right on my tail:

I chatted with the runner in the yellow tank for the short stretch down the road. He said he just wanted to keep me in sight on the first run because he wasn't sure about all the twists and turns. We ran past transition to a few people shouting "GO HAPPY PANTS!!"

After some time on the road, we turned onto gravel. It was "puddle-y" and a bit nasty. Then we hit the grass which had BIGGER puddles. Nasty. The other runner was on my tail. I missed the first mile marker, but I hit mile 2 in 11:42 - I was pretty happy with that considering the squishy, muddy, uneven conditions.

I started catching some elites just after mile 1. I ran past a lot of females that I knew, and that was fun! I said "HI" to those who I could. And I tried not to splash any mud their way.

I pushed it into T1, and I realized that the new run course was a little short. (Well, not "new," just "adjusted" because of the horrible conditions.) If the run wasn't short, I ran a 5:12 for the last 1.1 miles in with poor footing. Nope. Short. But I'm not complaining.

T1:

I was the first relay team into T1, and the other runner was only about 30 seconds back. I came storming through T1 towards Matt:

Sweaty boobs running towards Matt


Matt taking the timing chip


Matt heading off on the bike


The 2nd place relay team heading out after Matt
(with Suzie and Kortney throwing on their helmets)

17.4 MILE BIKE:

Matt was out there working. He said he got caught by the biker in the last photo after a few miles, but then Matt passed him right back after a few miles. They went back-and-forth a bit.

I was back in transition talking with my wife and some friends. I had to get a photo of my sweaty boobs:

With mud-splattered arms


And a muddy and sweaty back

I jogged JUST a LITTLE, stretched a bit, drank some Gu Brew, and tried to stay loose. We watched the first 2 elites come into T2 just 2 seconds apart!

Patrick Parish and Dan Hedgecock

Just a few minutes later, the biker of the OTHER team came riding in! AND MATT WAS JUST 10 SECONDS BEHIND!! IT WAS GOING TO BE A RACE!!

Ready to dismount

T2:

Here's kind of an awkward photo, but it shows what was going on at that moment: The first place team is changing chips to the far left, Matt's girlfriend Angela is watching him run into T2 in the middle, and I'm taking his split while waiting for him to run up to me:

Grabbing Matt's chip

I took off HARD after that other team!!

4K RUN:

Last weekend, I caught the runner that Matt and I were behind within the first mile. I went out to get THIS runner as soon as I could! I ran the first run faster than the other team, but maybe he saved TOO much for this final run and was going to SMOKE me. I needed to reel him in QUICK.

I took off down the 400 meters of paved road before we hit the gravel, and Nick was at the bottom of that hill to grab a photo:

I turned onto the gravel, and counted that I was about 7 seconds behind the first place relay. Every time I tried to "surge" to gain on him, it seemed like he surged too. I hit mile 1 in 5:44, and just had to GO. At this point I was about 3 seconds behind him, and I knew he could hear me breathing.

I was able to pull up along side of the first place relay runner as we looped through the grassy sections near the swamp. Tiffany may have gotten a photo of that. But then the other runner pulled ahead again. He went thought THEE puddle near the swamp, and he went DEEP. I didn't know where else I could go to make it easier, so I just followed him.

Finally, before the last loop through the trees, I passed him on a gravel section. I was really afraid that he'd be able to out-kick me, so I tried to put as much space between him and me as possible! I ran slick, uneven, and soupy mile 2 in 6:11. I came up the nasty gut-busting hill, and then had to do 1 lap around a gravel track before heading to the finish. (We had to do that loop at the end of the first run too.) I was WORKING HARD! Here I am with about 500 meters to go:

The other relay runner JUST behind me

I tried SOOOOOO hard to NOT look over my shoulder to check where he was, but I gave in at the far end of the track with about 300 meters to go. He wasn't far back, and I knew I still needed to "dig deep." Here I am coming off the track, and you can see him back there:

Trying to hold off the relay team in yellow!


Pushing to the line!


Hitting the line


Feeling dead, congratulating the other team
(there's lots of carnage in this photo)


Hannah watching me not puke

"Team Happy Pants" had FINALLY done it! WE FINALLY HAD A RELAY WIN AT THE GEAR WEST DUATHLON!! And only by 13 seconds!!

Results:

Team Happy Pants = Steve Stenzel & Matt Linder
2.83 mile run: 16:54 (5:59 pace), 1st team overall, 7th individual
T1: 0:31, 1st team overall
17.4 mile bike: 44:15 (23.1 mph), 3rd fastest team, 25th individual
T2: 0:32, 2nd fastest team
2.51 mile run: 14:58 (5:58 pace), 1st team overall, 4th individual

Total: 1:17:08
1st out of 8 "male / male" teams
1st out of 20 teams overall

Note: the race was listed as having 5K and 4K runs, but the results had the "correct" distances listed, which were 2.83 and 2.51 miles.

Pharmie grabbed a photo of me chatting with Charlie while covered in mud:

Muddy butt


Nasty shoes


Kerry walking through transition post-race.
I love the line where his chip was!


Nasty socks once I took off my shoes

Oh, and regarding THEE puddle that I mentioned earlier..... yeah, a few people completely wiped out in that puddle. My racing buddy Chad fell on his hands. A few people lost their shoes. Seriously. And this guy fell and landed face-first. Well, more like "everything-first:"

I put up 2 slideshows of photos that Pharmie and I took at the Gear West Duathlon. CLICK HERE for the first slideshow (that goes through T2), and CLICK HERE for the second slideshow from the finish.

Thanks for reading everyone! Have a great week!! (Oh, and scroll down to Friday's post to enter a giveaway if you'd like.)

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