Twin Lakes Triathlon, Palatine, IL
1:33:31 ...60/329 overall ...3/10 AG
(corrections from FB posting, which was based on race site data (placement list I saw was male only) and info (a posted number of participants - relay, too?))
I was really nervous about the swim early in the week, but I caught the pool three times, which helped a lot to get my rhythm back, and I saw a video from a prior year showing swimmers starting 2 or 3 at a time every few seconds ...so no mosh pit start. Plus we'd seeded ourselves by estimated swim time, which makes so much sense. The race started at 6:30 a.m., which meant a very early morning, but it also meant race completion before the day heated up.
As expected, I didn't sleep well, and the alarm got me up at 4 a.m. Not too bad, though. I immediately ate (banana and small bowl of oatmeal), took care of a few loose ends with the packing, then took care of business. On the road by 4:50 a.m. I was incredibly calm during the drive to the race site. Arrived there around 5:25 a.m., so plenty of time. I was a real pee-pot this morning, so caught a porta-potty right away. The transition area was really spread out. I found the ropes for my block of numbers, dropped off my bike and gear, and headed over to body marking and to pick up the ankle tracking strap. I followed that with another porta-potty trip, then jogged around for a bit to get the HR going. About 6 a.m., I pulled on the wetsuit over my trisuit and calf sleeves and went down to the lake for some warm-up. Did a short out-and-back, which felt very relaxed, stood in the shallows for a bit for another good pee (pulling on the arm holes of the wetsuit to let in lake water to 'flush'), and wandered back to my bike for a final check. During the walk over to the swim start, I again needed to pee! But in full trisuit and wetsuit, the best I could do is stand casually and ...go. Ahhhh. I waited for a trickle down and out the bottom of the wetsuit, but it never came.
The absorbency of the suits, apparently. Ew.
Swim - 14:01 ...142/329 ...5/10 in AG
Surprisingly and nicely easy-peasy. Virtually no contact throughout the swim. We swam straight out, made a 90 degree turn just past an island, another turn at the other end, and a straight shot home. My rhythm was smooth the entire time, and I was comfortable sneaking peeks on where I was and who was ahead of me. No surprise for a short swim, but this all went by very quickly. On the stretch toward home, I thought of
@JAA's advice to crush the last few hundred yards, but I ended up not doing so. I kind of let myself off the hook because we were going right into the sun and I couldn't see if I had traffic ("pincers") in front of me. Could I have found two seconds ...or 10-15? I'm sure I could have. But I was thrilled to see 13
x as I stepped out of the water...
T1 - 3:15
...but then I gave a lot of that back on a rather slow transition. I knew it'd be somewhat slow due to the wetsuit. But I could have approached this with a greater sense of urgency.
Then a big error: Exiting T1, instead of pushing the 'lap' button, I instinctively pushed the 'off' button, which I realized halfway through the bike. So I was flying blind during the bike and on into the run.
Bike - 42:16 (19.9 mph) ...86/329 ...3/10 in AG
The mount and dismount (of the bike!) weren't too graceful, but the ride itself was strong throughout and enjoyable. I typically stay in the big ring and shift between what I'd call gears 3, 4, 5, and 6. Most of my riding is in gears 4 and 5. I was a bit worried through the first half that I was having to drop into gear 3 several times on a rather rolling course. But as I found out halfway through, the whole first half was essentially rolling up, which meant the back half was generally rolling down. That meant I unexpectedly spent quite a bit of time in gear 6 and was flying along. Throughout the bike, I was very pleasantly surprised by the number of people I was passing. Probably as a smaller, more neighborhood'ish type of race there weren't as many fancy bikes (like last year's Half IM). But I didn't expect to be doing this well. I know to switch to a faster gear rotation at the end to get the legs ready for the run, but I started this too early. I could have picked up the 16 seconds somewhere in all this.
T2 - 1:22
I didn't have to do much but drop the bike, grab my fuel belt and bib belt, and go, but this still seemed slow. In total, the transitions were 30-60 seconds slower than I expected or would have liked. I did restart the watch so I'd get run data.
Run - 32:40 (7:16/mile) ...35/329 ...1/10 in AG
Speaking of the run ...I was kicking butt and takin' names.
I'd scoped the course via Google Maps, so I knew exactly what was coming. The start felt awkward, of course, but I knew the feeling was not a true representation of pace. So I just ran ...and kept picking off people the entire time. As mentioned, I had a net 46 kills (47/1). After the race I talked to a guy I'd met before, and whom I passed with 3/4 mile to go, and he said he was going to say something but I went by too quickly. Even walking back to the car after the awards, a young woman biked by and commented on my run. Run splits for the four miles and final half were
7:27, 7:21, 7:12, 7:08, and 7:01. That surprises me. I did float in and out of some mantras over the back half, and that probably helped. As hard as this was, the run leg went by very quickly.
So that's it! I feel really good about the effort and balanced race. Super pleased to medal in a triathlon (4th place was 90 seconds behind). This is a race, and race effort, I'll remember for a long time. The training paid off throughout, and it helped me accomplish my big goal of using the winter to cross-train and not overdo my running for these couple of years. I don't know what is next. I'll have a sixteen day vacation in early July, but won't be able to take my bike (though I will do a number of lake swims over the first nine days). I could consider another tri, or I could just enjoy the training and then select running races and do some medal mongering. For now, I'll enjoy this one!
forgot how much the 2.5-3 hour mark on the saddle sucks. 
The lake sets up very well for the 700m swim (head out, circle a small island, and return), so maybe with that more-than-a-sprint swim, they just made the whole thing a bit longer than a sprint. The event was extremely well run, and each leg was laid out very well.
I'm sure all the soccer moms hate her. Unfortunately, she doesn't seem to be on Strava. 
Trying to figure out how I can chat her up and maybe gain a new running partner.....I'm sure my wife would really love that. 
