Race Preview

It's funny (or not) how race week seems to get complicated.  I tested my bike last night after having the chain replaced...sure enough the front derailleur didn't consistently advance the chain from the small chain ring to the big chain ring...remain calm, I'll simply get it adjusted tomorrow at the bike shop!
In the meantime, I had a very weird dream last night.  I went to the bike shop and found that they had replaced my back tire with a mountain bike tire...by the time I got everything straightened out with them (in the dream) someone had stolen my bike...that jumped to my racing an obstacle course...but I couldn't run!! 

Chalk it up to race nerves! 

The good news (or not) is that when I visited the real-life bike shop today to check the derailleur all seemed to work nearly perfect...go figure!

Here's  a pre-race snippet from MN Tri News...how come they don't profile us old guys?

The men's field in the Liberty Half IM will be awesome. Thunder Bay's Jon Balabuck hopes to do some serious recidivising. He won this race at its Lake Independence venue in 2009 and has long been considered one of Canada's premier amateur long distance guys. Are we picking him to win? No. But we're not picking him to lose either. Why? He'll be racing Matt Payne who has emerged as one of America's best amateur 70.3 guys. This battle is too close to call and we fantasize about these dudes coming over the final hill side-by-side then breaking into a puke-on-your-shoes sprint.
Jon and Matt, who's coming off a 2nd place finish at the Best of the US National Championship last weekend, should get a nice push from guys like Andy Schiesl and Scotty Penticoff. FYI, Buffalo Sprint winner Jared Smith will be making his LD debut. We think he'll surprise a lot of people, unless they read this post. In that case, they won't be overly surprised when Jared rocks his socks off on Saturday.
The women's half should be awesome, too. We think that former Chisago and Pigman Half champ Julie Hull, and Diane Hankee, who set a 70.3 PR in Texas in April, will lead the way.
As with Smith, there are a number of women who will be losing their LD virginity at Lake Rebecca. We're anxious, for instance, to see how Angie Hop and Jody Mullet fare.
A full turnout is expected and according to Accuweather.com, climatological conditions in the Lake Rebecca area on Saturday should be groovy. Sun and clouds and temps during the race ranging from 56 to 74. Of course, few long-range forecasts in Minnesota hold up.