By Steve Morris

It was the night before the second annual Chisago Lakes Triathlon when disaster struck -- my swim goggles busted.

After a few choice words, I quickly told my wife I had to make a Wal-Mart run. With a 15-year-old exchange student from China in the passenger seat, I hustled down the road before realizing K-mart was open and only half the distance to Wally World. Minutes later, I had a pair of fresh goggles for the next morning's event. That was a close one, I mumbled to myself.

Morning came quick, but I was ready for my big event. I gobbled down half a banana, a granola bar, some water and hit the road with my wife, our exchange student and my friend from the Maplewood Community Center in tow.

Before I knew it, I was at the beach and ready to go. However, I had to wait for almost an hour because I signed up late. As a result, I was assigned to the last swim wave. To pass the time, I visited with North Branch locals Chuck Kartak and Kevin Liens for more than an hour.

For the swim, I relied on my God-given swimming talent. I decided to not train at all and used my youthfullness to my advantage. I used every stroke known to man to get me back to shore. In the midst of it all, I invented my own stroke, called the doggie-freestlye. It didn't look good, or work well but got me back to shore in 13 minutes 28 seconds.

Off to my bike I ran, or jogged. In the transition area I gave my wife, Amy, a smile and a wink to show her I was still alive and put the pedal to the metal on the bike.

The bike ride went well, except for the time my friend Linda passed me. I tried to catch up, but failed. Triathlons seem to always be a reality check of how much better shape people are in than me. An hour and seven minutes later, I finished the bike ride and was off to the last leg -- the run.

Again, I saw my wife in the transition area, and gave her a hello before running off to complete three miles on the road.

About halfway through the run, I began to feel a great sense of accomplishment because I ran up the hill toward the finish line. Total elapsed time: 1:52.05.

Overall, I was happy with my time. After all, I shaved off more than 10 minutes from last year.

The next day, my youthfullness paid off as I felt like a million dollars.