The Double - The Croixathlon and the Waconia Triathlon

Two Tris- Two days

The Croixathlon

This past weekend I decided to try and knock out two shorter triathlons, why you ask, I am not sure. mostly because my good ole buddy nate was doing the waconia triathlon, and my good ole buddy mark and his sister Betsy were doing the croixathlon. Betsy a new tridonkey was doing the croixathlon for her first tri and I wanted to be there for support. I also wanted to try and better my last years performance of 2nd place. the croixathlon is a very low key event that hosts many a first timer. This year however it drew out some studs, most notably my friend dan cohen who is a local bad ass and pro duathlete. He has been a bit under the weather so he came out to show us a little thing or two about swimming and biking and running.

It was a rough day, storms, lightning, thunder. The race was delayed by about an hour due to the storms, we thought for a while it was not going to go down. but alas it did. The swim was supposed to be 1/3 mile but it was more like 1/2 mile. The bike was supposed to be 13 miles and was more like 15 miles.

The race finally started and off we went into the st. croix. it was wavy and windy and I was one of the few without a wetsuit (last year when the swim was 300 yards it was a big advantage to not have to get out of the wetsuit). and it was a rough swim, but I came out of the water 6th, I had some issues getting my shoes on and heading up the bluff climb in 5th place, I tried to run the entire thing, but was demoralized when some young buck cruised by me and took a few long walking strides before running to the top. I was hurting when I got to my bike from the run, but got out on the bike still in 6th place (some guy was nice to tell me where I was in the field - which actually made me work harder knowing I was in the hunt). the bike was wet and into a 20-30 mile head wind for the first 9 miles. I felt like I was going backwards, I was in my big gear in the back and just kept my head down. I passed the guy who passed me on the hill about mile 8 and tried to put some room between us.

I got in and out on the run in 5th place since I passed the guy on the bike. I was running pretty hard and the same guy who told me I was in 6th on the hill climb told me I was now in 5th. I made the mistake of asking him how far ahead the others were.....about 2 minutes he said. I pretty much backed it down when I heard that, I was not going to make up 2 minutes on a 5K trail run on some guys that are obviously not weak runners. I figured I had a good 30 second lead on the guy behind me and also a race the next day.

I got about a mile into the race and looked back to see the guy coming, and coming HOT, I picked it up a bit to try and hold him off, but realized he was not going slow. he passed me at a 90 degree turn and completely whiped out and slid into the field, I helped him up and said "whooh buddy" and he apologized for almost taking us both out, he felt bad I could tell, but not bad enough to let me beat him. I ran at about 80% effort the rest of the way but made sure that no one else caught me. I jogged into the finish in what I thought was 6th place, but it ended up being 5th because the guy helping me out obviously can't count.

I was hoping I saved enough to make it through the next day.

The waconia tri

After a night of psuedo partying with some close friends of M&M and Mine for her birthday party,  I made it over to nate doggs with 4.5 hours of sleep and tired legs.  We drove to waconia which is right next to north dakota if anyone doesn't know where it is.  Again it was windy as a mo fo but no storms or lighting.  We got ourselves situated and said hi to some other tridonkeys at the race.  the lake had some white caps and some healthy chop.  I will save you the pre race fun,  but I felt like ass,  and my stomach was not loving the cheese cake, beer, wine, whiskey, chimay, cookie, strawberry, chips and salsa nutrition that I (oh yeah indian food) put in it the night before.

and if that wasn't it,  it might have been the eggs, yogurt, and oatmeal I had race morning.  

We hit the water at 8:30 into the bullshit called lake waconia.  as george castanza said famously,  "the sea was angry that day"  I was drinking water and trying to time the waves with my breath.  I went way left, then way right,  then around the boey and started heading east.  I couldn't see jack due to the sun in my eyes,  I made the next turn and thought I was heading in towards shore when I realized I was heading east towards wisconsin and was way off course,  I took a hard right and headed back to the pack,  I intruced myself to the pack by kicking someone in the hip bone 2x as I tried to get myself going in the right direction.  I later found out this was nate dogg, and it was his forehead not his hip bone....whoops.  I figured the 20 seconds I gave back to him by going off course was worth the kicks in the melon.  nate dogg and I came out 6 seconds apart and he was in and out of transition on his bike while I was jacking around trying to get going.  

the bike was another slugfest into the wind for 10 miles and then 8 miles of 32mph love on the way back.  I was only passed by 1 guy,  and passed a few ladies and this guy nick that I knew from team time trialing with him last year.  he is fast on the bike.  not sure how I passed him,  but passed him and was tracking the next guy.  I caught the next guy just as we turned from being in the head wind.  I realized it was nate dogg,  and unfortunatly he realized it was me.  he then decided that I was not going to catch him and he slowly pulled away from me on the back stretch.  I was suffering but felt decent for how bad I felt in the AM and due to the fact I did a race the day before.  I came in 30 seconds after nate on the bike and got out on the run in reasonable time,  but again slower than nate.  the run was into the wind for 2 miles and it was tough due to the bike legs and the hill and the wind.  but as I turned the corner to run back to the finish I had just about caught nate dogg.  I noticed that nick and another guy had just about caught me.  so I put the preverbial hammer down to try and keep some distance.  I passed nate at about 2.5 mile mark and told him to run with me,  I had him on my shoulder as I turned towards town,  I was then passed by nick,  and was going to just let him go when I thought to myself,  why don't you see what you have and run with him.  It is a bit of a lame move,  but I just ran off of his shoulder for the next mile,  the last mile is a bit hilly and nick would pull away from me on the downhill and I would catch him on the ups.  which is weird because he is much skinnier than I.    we came up to the last hill before the finish and I was just off his left shoulder.  I decided to make my move.  I got some speed and ran by as fast as I could to try and take the wind out of his sail.  I think it worked, I put 20 feet on him by the top of the hill.  I was pushing down the hill,  but the finish was about 200 yards further away than I needed it.  nick repassed me and had it been for 3rd place not 15th I might have made a pathetic effort to try and repass again.  I decided to leave the pain cave and see how the weather was outside and let him go,  it was nice out of the cave,  but now I regret not putting forth that extra 15 seconds of effort to see what I had.  

it was fun to be in an actual race even if it was for 15th.  I did much better in the field than last year,  so that was cool, and I had something in the tank for the run after 2 swims, 2 bikes and a 2 runs in two days.

I am tired as hell now,  but glad I did it.



davies,  have at it.

Donkey Down...  Again...



A Donkey has to learn it limits!

I found these online,  You look pretty happy on the bike.