Yesterday I raced the Pewaukee Triathlon for the third time. This was my first ever tri in 2004 and I like using it to measure my slow progress in this sport. Working from memory, I think I finished in about 1:50 my first year (wearing baggy swim trunks and riding a road bike sans aero bars) and 1:33 last year. This was a “C� race for me this year, as I am now in the toughest stretch of training for ironman and did a 76 mile ride in 90-degree heat the day before. Still, thanks to an ice bath and a good night’s sleep, I woke up feeling OK on race morning and decided to just let things rip and see what happened.

The Race. The race starts and ends in downtown Pewaukee. It is a ¼ mile swim, 15.7 mile bike, and a 5k run. This seems to be a very popular race for beginners, and sold out this year with around 1200 racers. The race organizer is Midwest Sports Events, who have a reputation for putting on some good quality events around the state.

The Swim. The course is a ¼ mile in Pewaukee Lake and follows a rough triangle. You finish about 20 yards down the beach from the start. Waves go off every 2 or 3 minutes. I took a pretty good kick or hit to the face in the first minute—something caught my goggle so hard that it drove into my eye socket and things went black on one side. I pulled my head out of the water long enough to pop the goggle back into place, realized I felt OK, and kept going. I swam this leg much harder than I normally would, and there was definitely a lot of contact in the water. The waves are set up more or less by the order in which you register, so everyone is mixed together except for the elites at the very front. This means that you definitely run into swimmers from earlier waves. At any rate, I checked my watch at the exit from the water –7:00 minutes on the nose, which was faster than I expected by around a minute.

T1 – I am a sock wearer who has still not tried to master the whole “shoes already on the pedals� strategy, so my T-1 was roughly 2:20. I say roughly because the official times for the race reveal that the swim timing mat must not have been working. Every competitor was given a 1:00 T1 time and the swim was calculated as time at T1 minus 1 minute (so my swim time appears as 8:20, which I know is not accurate).

The Bike. The bike course circles Pewaukee Lake and has a few elevation changes and couple of hills. There was a decent headwind on the longest “flat� stretch that kept speeds down, and my ride from the previous day was definitely being felt. I chose to go without a heart rate monitor, because I was sure I would get some crazy readings based on fatigue, the heat, etc., and really just wanted to race by feel. I’m pretty sure I went anaerobic for stretches of all 3 events. I finished the bike in 49:09, only slightly faster than the year before.

A few observations from the middle of the pack: Although there were draft marshals out on the course, there were still quite a few people riding in the draft zones. There were also others riding on the left, sometimes so close to the yellow line as to make a pass impossible. Coming into T-2, 2 guys in front of me failed to dismount at the line and rode right up to the transition gate. I chalk all this up to not knowing the rules more than anything intentional, but it does get annoying. What was really annoying was the rider who was wearing an iPod and not only did not seem to hear my “on the left� before a pass, but actually swerved further left just as I was coming up. No contact, no crash, but not cool. Please, leave the iPod in transition next time.

T2. It took me 1:24. I will give one piece of advice in case you are looking to do the race next year and want to seriously compete: sign up early. The spots in transition are numbered (nice touch), but because of where the entrances & exits are located, the last 2 years the early waves (which are assigned mostly in the order you sign up) have a shorter net distance to cover in transition than the later ones. We’re talking maybe 50 yards total, but every little bit helps.

The Run. The run course has 1 notable climb about ¾ of a mile in, then is mostly flat or downhill the rest of the way. What I noticed about the run was that it was hot. At least there were plenty of water stops and some friendly locals left their sprinklers pointed at the road in 3 or 4 spots. I finished the run in 26 minutes and change--giving me a final time of 1:26:17. I was pretty happy with the result, as it was 7+ minutes faster than last year and put me in the upper half of my AG for the first time in a race. Must have been the Trifuel socks! :D

Overall, I would recommend this race. It’s very good for beginners. If you’re more experienced and can grin & bear some beginner-style riding on the bike course, it’s a fun race.