Hy-Vee Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

They had changed the buoy's after we saw them the night before - so the route was actually a bit shorter than anticipated in terms of looks.

Felt good at the outset - swam over someone bobbing in the water only 50 yards from shore. Not sure what he was thinking.

Did not get into a groove until 1/2 way through the long back stretch. Started catching the first wavers and really began enjoying the swim here!

Turn the last corner into the bright sun - just followed the pack in towards shore. Really grooved hard for 50 yards then realized I was off course by a small amount - corrected - and BOOM - into the finish!


Focus on getting into my groove and site better on the long straight away

Had a good transition. Would be easier if I did not have to pack everything up but oh well.

focus on no socks - took me 30+ seconds just to get them on!

I biked better than I thought on this course. My wife caught me on the first hill - was shocked as I thought she would swim over me but pleased.

Put my mass to good use on every downhill and then tried to keep low into the headwind. Once I made the turn I picked up the pace. Loved the return trip until the first of two hills.

The "devil" group was out cheering everyone on - gave them a little wheelie and go some cheering in return.

Some gal stopped for a red light on the closed road and I got a nice cheap pass off of her.

My pace was good - kept the cadence consistently in the 82-87 range.

Starting to regret the whole wearing socks thing. Feet feeling hot and arms are really tired from the swim - but I finish off nicely into the dismount line and right into a slow painful jog.

UGH - LOST IN TRANSITION. Followed all my memorized directions right except for one item - so my T2 time is HIGH.

write directions on arm when dealing with two different transition areas

Hate the run - but gotta do it. My best 10K pace was 1 hour 26 minutes in training. So I knew I would need to push to finish in under 4 hours (my goal).

I missed the 3rd mile marker - felt very defeated as I knew that mile 2-3 was taking me almost 30 minutes .... SALVATION - mile marker was actually MILE 4 - WOOT!

The insane continual looping was mentally tough - but I never once stopped or walked on the run.

Some dipstick of a gal was cheering us on and said, "LAST HILL - C'MON!!" Mentally I KNEW we had 2 hills left but I still believed her - fricking pissed me OFF. Someone running behind me just gave in and walked it - not me.... kept plodding along.

First - for the confusion and flooding the folks @ HyVee did and AWESOME job! I made sure to thank everyone I saw who was a volunteer! It was great and I am glad they worked it out so it was a true triathlon. As running is not my forte I would have hated a Du!

What worked:

Initial swim strategy - felt comfortable letting the lead pack jump in and run away while I settled in. Got the breathing down pretty well - handled that initial surge of panic and BOOM started enjoying the swim. I was surprised by this. I never really swam in an open water race before and open water training was not the same. It helped to see the guys hanging on the buoys and know - hey at least I can out swim those folks!

6 Nutrition strategy - peanut butter cliff bar and coffee @ 3:30 AM - water bottle before we leave the house. Water bottle on the trip down. Gu before we hit the beach. 2 gu's on the bike with one water bottle and one Gatorade bottle. UGH not enough water. Needed a water bottle exchange - but no water even coming out of the transition. Water and Gatorade at every other stop. Made sure I splashed water

Bike Strategy - just stayed with what I planned. I really got into a groove though and had a nice bike ride. Surprised at how tired the arms felts. My bike MPH was higher than I had previously done in training rides (15.73 v 15.2-5).

What did not work so well:
Not enough body glide on my neck - horrible hickey there!
T2 - got lost - ugh - write down notes on body - need to be smart about it!
Mentally toughen up in the run!

My goals:
1 Under 4 hours
2 Don't finish Last in Clydesdale division
3 Don't stop without a purpose(ie transition getting on stuff)
4 Don't stop swimming
5 Try to relax and enjoy the experience
6 Take mental snapshots

RESULTS

#1 - woot - under 4 hours - really thought I had a BAD swim - but I ended up doing better. Wish I would've pushed more in the run now. Though 2 days later and my legs just laugh @ that statement.
#2 - 55/58 - woot woot - did not even check to see how many were DNF or DNS even.
#3 - Only stopped ONCE and that was when I was lost - took one deep breath and did not panic - so it was a positive - otherwise I moved the entire TIME. Felt great.
#4 - most worried about this - I was pushing forward continuously! Never once floated or stopped - and only breast stroked twice - once to get back into line of swim and another time to get my bearings going into the finish area. Otherwise it was heads down the whole way. I really think I can improve here a lot!
#5 - This started on the swim and did not stop until I went to sleep that night!
#6 - Some cool images - the number of bikes still racked when I left the swim, the sun rise over the water - the little rainbow during the national anthem, the co-worker @ the exit of T2 - the smile my wife gave as she passed me (going up hill) - the fellow - YMCA class members cheering me on during the bike - the snapping turtle getting corralled by the older volunteer on the bike course - the dude biting it on the bottom of the hill on a sharp left (yet I still did not break) - the encouragement on the run - the sight of my wife cheering me down the finish chute - the blue carpet - the Y group - the ice bath (THANK GOD)..... so many!

What a great FIRST race - wow!