Brewhouse Triathlon Race Report

Race Date: Sunday, August 2, 2026 – 8:30am

I had so many excuses to not show up for this race. The day before, I woke up quite early to work. I really wanted to get a few hours running on the trail after that, but was tired and hungry. I got a two hour run in. Good enough. I had no motivation to clean and prep my triathlon bike and get my gear from the closet. Another year had passed without really riding my tri bike, swimming, or thinking about triathlons besides signing up for Brewhouse in the winter. I was shocked and frustrated to see my favorite race, the short course, was no longer an available option. The Buzz Ryan Sprint Tri (which was historically a couple weeks before Brewhouse) was merged into the Brewhouse event, which dropped the short course distances down quite a bit. The bike was most noticeable, going from maybe 12 miles to 8. Why even get out of bed? I opted for the long course.

My tri bike literally had cobwebs on it. First off, that’s just a bad sign. But also, why are there spiders in my house? I just did the bare minimum to get my bike operational and tried to think of all the steps to get to the finish line. I need goggles in the water, bring a spare. I need my wetsuit, and a towel for transition. I need my helmet and glasses for the bike. Bike, bike shoes, bike pump. On the run I need shoes and a race belt. Nutrition planned, all good. I got to bed nice and early and the next day when I woke up, my first thoughts were to skip the race, take the DNS and go back to bed. I just made myself take each step one at a time. Don’t think about the race, I told myself, just think about getting into the van. I got a bit of cereal in me, a couple sips of coffee, and loaded up my vehicle and started driving. When I got to the race site, I picked up my packet and started seeing friends from days of yore. Brewhouse is kind of like a homecoming, where I see people that I hadn’t for a year, and plenty of other friends as well. The energy is electric, and the morning was perfect. I followed my tried-and-true race morning formula. Get my body marked, rack my bike, and place my stuff. Then I went for a little ride to make sure my bike was shifting nicely. My bike was is prime condition and felt fast. I thought about how I should hammer the bike at all costs. Then I did a little pre jog. I wanted to test my carbon supershoes barefoot and on the rough trail/gravel section on the last half mile of the run course. My legs felt a little crusty and creaky. I tried a few little accelerations and peeked down… my watch said 6:40 pace. I figured that if I could hold 6:40s for the 5 miles, that would be amazing. I went through each transition in my head a couple times, and it helped to be in the very last row of bike racks – I didn’t really have to practice that or make sure there were landmarks to look for while in transition. I dreaded getting in the water. The swim. The swim was going to be so hard, so unpleasant. There was a light chop on Island Lake, and the buoys looked so dang far away. It was a fairly chilly morning and getting in the water didn’t sound too appealing, but I sauntered down to the beach, got my wetsuit on and got into the lake. I immediately had to pee and just let ‘er go in my wetsuit. That’s kind of a gross and nice feeling at the same time. Warmth all around me! I tried to scoop water into my wetsuit from the neck collar as if that would make the situation less gross. A few freestyle strokes felt smooth enough, but my goggles were finicky with water coming in. A strap popped out, I got it nice and tight while treading water. I remembered that since I was in the long course, I didn’t necessarily need to jockey for position and try to hammer the swim. I knew I wasn’t going to be in true contention for the win like I always kind of expected at the short course, and told myself that I could ease into the swim and keep it relaxed and smooth the whole time. That put my mind at ease a little. I stopped swimming because I didn’t want to burn my arms out and doggy paddled into shore. The mile swim would be a big ask on the body no matter how you slice it… just two or three open water swims leading up to the race would be immensely helpful, I couldn’t fathom why I wouldn’t consider this in July.

Other racers started getting into the water and before long race director Matt Evans was giving us the spiel. We heard “30 SECONDS” through the loudspeaker as race MC Ted Schick riled the crowd up. They started chanting: “10, 9, 8″…. heart starts palpitating, stomach drops, grimace adorns my face, here we go!! “3, 2, 1, GO!”

I was in the front. Why was I in the front? People swam over me but then I ended up by myself on the right side right away. I tried bilateral breathing which worked out well. I just kept the swim feeling smooth and easy right from the bat. Nice long strokes, controlled movements, a steady and strong kick was what I needed to make the swim and continue on with my day. My goggles held the water back but were pretty foggy from the very start. I could make out the buoys and felt like I was swimming in a straight enough trajectory. The sun was bright in the east sky on my left side, and halfway to the turn around I suddenly felt panicky. I had to take several breaths on my left side and collect myself. I few confident sightings, a couple nice easy strokes, maybe some light breaststroke with my head up and I was back to it. I encountered a few people – I tried to perhaps find a draft partner but didn’t like touching someone’s feet repeatedly so veered off. I got bumped into a few times, and almost collided with a racer who did collide with the middle buoys. I was kind of frustrated. Like, how did you not see that massive buoy? They swam off and I felt like I was making good time to the turn. There was a fair amount of swimmers at the turns but I navigated them just fine and was excited to be on the return trip with no problems at all. Hell yeah. I truly felt like the worst and hardest part of the day was complete. Time to crank. I told myself I could breathe on my left side only if I wanted to. I could tell that my line was much less straight than when I was able to breathe on both sides. I felt my left shoulder getting sore, having not used those swim-specific muscles for approximately 365 days. I had to sight frequently as I knew I was pulling to my left, but I had a decent view of the buoys and it was more a matter of remembering before I got too far off course. I could tell there were watercraft all around me, which is typically a concern, and I noticed other caps overtaking me nearby as well. I thought back to my registration – did I sign up for the fast racer wave or the fast swimmer wave? Big difference. My friend Blake was in a different wave and I was a little surprised he wasn’t in the fast wave. I thought his swim was probably his weakest leg as well – should I have been back in the regular wave? Oh well, too late now. Usually I race to win the short course, but there have been many years where the winning long course pace was faster than all three of my short course paces. I had no expectations today.

I saw several small buoys and knew the shoreline was imminently approaching. There were a few other racers around me, and when I stood up I felt very unsteady. I tried to get moving up the paved path from the beach my legs felt so creaky and stale. Yikes. I got going though, and it was fun to run through the gauntlet of cheering fans along the path. I got passed in transition. Yikes! That’s not right! But when I finally arrived at my bike it was go time. Wetsuit off, get it off! I stomped on it to get it off my ankles. Tossed my goggles, helmet on, glasses on, go. I was out in no time, but felt pokey as always trying to get my bike shoes on. I was worried about my small, cramped bike shoes because just 7 days after Voyageur 50 Mile my right foot was still feeling a little damaged. I was able to get strapped in before the turn, made the first turn, and experienced pure joy hammering my bike down the first hill towards the Boulder Lake Dam. Weeeee!

I was appalled to realize I didn’t split my watch after the swim or to start the bike. Crap! I hit the button twice in rapid succession and punished myself for the error by pushing down on the pedals as hard as I possibly could. I passed a group of 10 people right away and spotted some faster-looking cyclists up ahead. Chase them, I said. I took a couple big sips of my mix and wondered if I should drink more or space it out a bit. On one hand, I didn’t want stomach sloshing on the run, on the other hand I didn’t account for any fuel on the five mile run at all. I was already half way done with the bottle before the first turn at 4 miles. The Boulder Dam road section was really fun and I enjoyed the gently curving road and the one punchy hill. I reeled in one faster cyclist and made a pass. There were a few other slower bikers that got passed up real quick, and I was feeling good. I noticed my velcro bike shoe strap was undone, which doesn’t really have a performance impact but I wondered about the aero impact. The first 180 degree turn went fine and by no time I was back to Rice Lake Road preparing to turn right. I hammered past the Island Lake Inn and saw a couple cyclists up ahead that would be fun to chase. However, I questioned whether they were pulling away from me. Just push. I came up with a mantra: “push”. I just said it over and over as a way to make myself focus on outputting as much power as I possibly could. My second five-mile watch split was in the 12s, but my third was in the 13 minute range. Crap. I had some trouble on Rice Lake Road and just felt like the slightest uphills were draining my energy. I tried to stand up on a few and my legs felt kind of crampy or like they’d give out. I sat back down in an attempt to keep my cadence steady. I kept steadily sipping mix. I had figured four scoops and a little extra electrolyte powder would do the trick. That equates to about 120 grams of carbs, which I figured would fuel me just fine on the bike and the run. The potent mix was going down great.

A right turn onto Emerson Road was a little dicey as a volunteer or county worker was blowing rubble away from the turn lane with a leaf blower. I slowed quite a bit and was bummed to see fresh chip seal on the road. The shoulder was nicer, and actually smoother riding than Rice Lake Road. I was kind of in no man’s land. There didn’t seem to be anyone behind me. I couldn’t really see anyone up ahead. Race leader Josh flew by, way up ahead and second place wasn’t even really close. When I got to the turnaround at mile 16 there was a little bit of clumping up with two other cyclists, and I counted about 10 people ahead of me. Hmm. I tried to keep my mantra alive and hammer but could tell that my legs were getting fatigued. I didn’t have that same mega power from the first 8 miles. An 8 mile bike wouldn’t have been that bad after all, I reckoned. Back to Rice Lake Road and I got frustrated with the bumps. I was making time on another cyclist and pushed really hard to get the pass. I was catching up so slowly, I should have known better that a 30-second surge of power wouldn’t be sustainable. They announced they were passing on my right, and that they knew it was illegal but I didn’t really move over. Yeah yeah yeah. I tried to hold it together but another 5 mile split in the 13s let me know that I wasn’t getting faster over the course. I drank my last bits of carb mix and was excited to round out the triathlon with the run. I made it another one. Yes. Into the bike dismount area with cheering fans everywhere, I made a smooth dismount but the first few steps into the transition zone were rough. So creaky. Why was I so creaky today? How would I be able to run? Whatever, I can walk it in at this point. My muscles got used to it quickly but it was kind of a pokey jog to my area. My body felt like the tin man. I got my bike racked, helmet off, glasses off, race belt on, shoes on. I expected they wouldn’t slip on super well, and it was not the smoothest T2 I’ve had in my life. But, I was off in no time and the first few steps onto the run course felt surprisingly good as I got up to speed.

The run course was clogged with runners, which was fun. I peeked down at my watch and was pleased to see 6:40. I wondered if my watch was stuck on 6:40. I was immediately pleased with my choice to wear my carbon supershoes, which felt fast, bouncy and shock-absorbing. I got into a rhythm quickly and just tried to keep it consistent and smooth and controlled. Machine-like. The first mile clicked off right on track. Yes. My body felt amazing. This was perfect, I told myself. I couldn’t ask for a better race so far, and if I could hold some steady sub-7 minute miles it would be the icing on the cake. Once the short course split off from the long course, I tried to see who was up ahead. I saw race leader Josh heading in for the win, and he put even more time on the rest of field. He could have walked it in from where I saw him and won handily. My second mile was good. My breathing was heavy but I felt totally in control. I dumped water on me at the first aid station, and wondered if there was some type of gatorade mix in there. I thought it smelled a little sweet but didn’t feel sticky or really taste flavored. Oh well. I counted fifth or sixth place when I got to the turnaround, but knew that could be including relays. The way back was fast, and I was able to really get into a zone and move well. I saw a 6:26 mile split flash on my watch screen. Yes. I passed one relay runner, but then was passed by another individual long course runner moving super strongly. I wondered if I could stay with the kid, and knew immediately that the answer was no. Once we got back onto Rice Lake Road/County Road 4, it seemed like he was maybe slipping a bit. At the water stop, there was a legitimate slip as the water cup handoff went bad and the kid stopped and turned around. Ooo, not exactly the slip I’d hope for but I wondered if I could capitalize anyways. The answer was no. I saw him turn left into the woods and I didn’t seem him again. I wondered if there was anyone behind me. Blake didn’t seem too far behind and I had a head start with the earlier wave so if he got even a little bit close to me by the finish he’d place ahead of me. I weaved around a few short course runners to get into the woods section. My marshmallow-like marathon racing shoes felt fine on the uneven ground. I tried to announce my pass on the narrow boardwalk but the girl in front of me didn’t hear it twice and I kind of contacted her to sneak around to her left. I felt awkward but just kept running. The last stretch was really hard. I felt a hot spot developing on the top of my left foot from running barefoot in my shoes. I could tell I slowed down a bit and simply didn’t feel strong coming through the finish, but was pleased to get it done all the same. I ran through the finish line, relinquished my timing ankle strap, and got some sweet root beer to celebrate my accomplishment.

I had so much fun chatting with all my triathlon friends, swimming in the lake, eating some tasty treats at the end, and staying for awards. I was able to keep my mug streak alive by getting second place in my age group and collecting another prize for the mug collection. 5th place overall made me very happy, and I was pleased to put together three decent legs. I was especially pleased at my bike split and being able to run fast off the bike. I hadn’t run that fast since April, really, and the five mile run leg put me at my largest weekly running mileage (excluding mileage from Grandma’s Marathon and Voyageur) since April. Besides sore shoulders, I didn’t seem to have any damage done to the body, and it was genuinely a mental boost to Superior just six weeks away.

Garmin Data

Race Results

Place: 5/108
Time: 2:07:59
Swim: 31:11
Pace: 1:55
T1: 0:55
Bike: 1:01:58
Speed: 23.2
T2: 0:51
Run: 33:06
Pace: 6:38

Shoes: Saucony Endorphin Elite 2 size 12
Bike: Specialized Transition
Wheels: Profile Design 78