Race Report: Hy Vee Triathlon

AKA: My first oly distance.

First off a HUGE thanks to Lizard's parents for letting us stay and doing all the driving around, and a HUGE thanks to my better half for playing my hair stylist/pack mule/photographer/ support crew and masseur, she's the best!
Ok, on to the show.

Pre Race:
Saturday BB and I arrived to DSM and headed to the race meeting to pick up my 'goodies' which is now known as my 'bag of crap' (see photos below for all they gave us). After the short and needless meeting we headed back to our host house before going back in a few hours to check in our bikes and see the lay of the land. Hit the sack at 10pm.

Woke up at 2:45am out of excitement and started waking up Britney around 3:30 (waking up Britney is a long process). After packing up the car we headed to the race site arriving about 5am. It was amazing to see the amount of athletes, volunteers and spectators already there, just a hint of who many people were going to be there by the peak of the race. I set up transition and surprisingly was really calm. Actually I didn't have any nerves at all, which can be a bad thing, but I was confident in my ability and training. It also helped that I didn’t have any expectations looming over my head. Not finishing was not an option, I'd finish no matter how long it would take me, but I wanted to be done under 4 hours.

Contents of the Bag of Crap:

(Reuseable stuff: Bag, hat, jersey, bottle, another bag)

(The paper promo stuff)

(The food/drink stuff)

(The other random stuff including a pair of shades!)

Swim:
The race started at 6:00am but I didn't hit the water until 6:48am. Although I had never swam a mile without a wetsuit I was still feeling quite calm and collected. The horn went off and I waded in. I started towards the back of the pack, which was my mistake. I ended up passing most of the wave before the first turn. I was feeling good and my arms stayed warm and loose. After the second turn I started overtaking the wave before me (males 45-54). (Why the race directors thought that that group would move faster than females 29 and under I do not know, but it was slightly irritating.)
I had to stop a few times to defog my goggles and got kicked in the face...was not happy about that, but I held strong and exited the water around 31 minutes, which was a time I was quite pleased with and with no AquaTux to wrestle out of, I was on my way to transition.


(Waiting for my wave to start)

T1:
The run up to transition from the swim was short and carpeted (the bright blue stuff), which was nice. I decided to take my time in T2 to gather my wits and breath and fully prepare for the long bike ahead. Everything went well and I was on my way on two wheels.

Bike:
Overall the bike was uneventful. It was a simple out and back course that was fairly flat with only a few hills. The rough thing was the head wind all the way out (and playing cat and mouse with a few bikers that would pass me then slow down). But I drank well and ate my shot blocks and was feeling good by I hit the turn around. The way back was AHMAZING. It was downhill the entire way AND tailwinds! My average speed on the way back was 20mph (we don’t need to know what the speed going out was…)! I felt really strong the entire ride, I kept my legs loose and my head strong.

T2:
I made it back to T2 after a boring ride and threw on my race number and my shoes sans the socks. So far 2 out of the 3 down and I was feeling great.

Run:
After passing my better half and some other friends I headed out of the park and on the run. My plan for the run: Survive! I started out slow and kept trucking until I hit the first (of many) hill. I ran up most of it but then walked a bit. I repeated this like 5 times for each hill: running the descents and flats and walking up some of the ascents. I’m not going to lie, I had several thoughts of insanity crossing my mind. I made it through the swim and the bike but while I was running I was seriously questioning my ability to make sound decisions because clearly I was not in my right mind signing up for this race! I some how survived the longest run of my life (I swear they kept moving the turn around further back for every runner!) and made my way back to the grand stands, after seeing my brother and his friends on tail end of the course.


(Finishing up but still questioning why I’m there)

Numbers:
Swim: 31:38 (not the best but I’ll take it)
T1: 2:18
Bike: 1:25:00
T2: 1:48
Run: 1:03:26
Total: 3:04:08 4th in Athena Division (not bad for first oly!)

Random Pictures/Post Race:

(Me and my better half after the race)


(The finishers! That’s Lizard’s dad, he finished 2 minutes faster than me, not bad for an old man…just joking!)

 
(Me and my brother, this was his first triathlon experience)

After showering and changing, we came back to the race site to watch the professionals in the Mixed Team Relay debut. IT WAS AWESOME! I’ll keep it short but basically I got to see the best short course athletes duke it out in a super sprint style distance. Here are a few pictures of the US 1 team:

Sarah Haskins and Matt Reed

Matt Reed

  
Jarrod Shoemaker

 
Laura Bennett

Random Thoughts:
I was very pleased with how this race went. I went in with very little expectations and really had a great time. I felt great the entire time and didn't have any problems on the course. I didn’t feel like I was racing for 3 hours straight at all. I feel really confident for my next race which is the Lifetime Fitness oly in under 2 weeks. Again I’ll go into that with low expectations since I’m still new at this distance.

I took the last two days off but will be back to training today…starting with a long run (hoping to hit around 7 miles), I gotta whip myself into shape for the half mary in September!

Peace out and stay warm (funky Iowa weather…again!)! I’ll post more pictures later this week.