MinneMan MinneVictory

MinneMan Triathlon was yesterday.

This is the second year I've participated in the event. It's a great tri -- well organized, nice course, fun people.

The really good news is that I had a seven minute PR over my 2006 finish time, crossing the line at 1:42:29.

The not so good news is that my swim was horrible. Really horrible. Horribly horrible.

Last year it took me 13:58 to finish the swim portion. Now, it was also a weird year last year in that the weather was very dicey. It was grey and thundery, which caused the race to have a delayed start. The bad weather also screwed up the lane markers for the swim and the course was actually shorter than 0.3 miles.

This year, the weather was clear and the markers were in their appropriate spots.

The water was only 69 degrees, so wetsuits were allowed -- but the extra buoyancy provided by wearing mine sure didn't help me.

I was fine for a while -- getting my stride in, feeling okay, when all of a sudden I was having big problems breathing.

I have a touch of asthma, which has never been an issue while I've been swimming. Yesterday was the first time that my airways got pinched, breathing became difficult and I panicked.

Combine that with being in water over my head, my swim quickly became a problem. I rested a bit with a couple of guards; kept going forward. Got around the buoy, saw my next rest target, swam up to him and it was Dave , my swim coach.

Talk about feeling like a schmuck. I've been taking lessons from him; getting better and here I am, freaking out in the water, needing a break.

I was holding on to his floater, when someone yelled "help". The real kind of "help", not the wimpy kind of help I call out for. Dave turned, pulled the floater away from me and was gone in a flash.

I just swore under my breath and started paddling for shore.

I got out of the water in 18:54. A full 4:48 OVER last year. Bad news.

The GOOD news is that my bike and my run were good and really good respectively.

I biked the 13 miles in 47.29 (last year it was 52:38).

My run ROCKED. I ran the 3 miles in 29.38. Less than 10 minute miles AFTER the other two sports. Last year I ran the 3 miles in 37.04, so my time this year was significantly better.

My transition times this year were slightly longer than last year, but after all was said and done, I ended up with a respectable PR.

I have another tri on the 4th of July and then the big one -- LifeTime -- on July 14th.

I'm very concerned about my swim portion for LifeTime. Fortunately, I have about two weeks to get ready. But, the truth is that I have not been putting the time in the pool and this may come back to haunt me on July 14th.

I have a lot more updates to blog, but it is getting late, I'm very tired and will have to continue this tomorrow.