"Change Things Up" - SiouxperMan Triathlon Race Report, May 5

Sioux Center, IA is a beautiful place for a triathlon in NW Iowa. This race has an indoor pool swim of 400yds. then a bike of 15 windy miles and a 5K run. I did this race three years earlier when I was a young spring chicken at only 52 yrs. old. I'd gotten 7th overall in that race and was surprised by the fast guys who came to this race. This year was cool, foggy and we were all waiting for it to start raining, which, it never did.

Had an OK swim, hammered the bike hard through bad cross winds and took off on the run. I was interested to see how much faster I could run this 5K than at Lake Havasu. Well, I cut a minute and a half off going 20:45 I think. Very happy with that and a 4th place overall and first in my age group finish. Lesson learned in this race - at the 2 mile point in the run my left hamstring started to tighen up...badly. I thought I might need to stop and try to rub it out. Instead, I slowed my pace and tried to change my stride. I started praying hard for the Lord to help me, and, as I kept after it, more slowly, it actually loosened up vs. getting tighter and tighter. SO thankful for that. So I learned to change things up - if you start to cramp up or a muscle tightens up, before stopping, change your pace, chance your stride, change something...maybe it'll allow you to keep going and maybe, it'll loosen up! I was able to finish the run, running hard which, a few minutes earlier, I would have not guessed was possible.