Hy-Vee Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

The water temp was 86 degrees on Saturday, but had cooled down to 82 by Sunday morning due to much more seasonable overnight temperatures. So no wetsuit. Gulp!

I positioned myself in the second row and soon enough the horn goes off. I charge into the water and start stroking, kind of surprised at how open it is. Sure, there's some banging and jostling, but for the most part I'm swimming uninterrupted. Rounded the first buoy flawlessly and continue on. I'm surprised at how good I feel, despite the absence of the wetsuit. Soon I start picking off people from the wave ahead of me. Not just a few, but a lot. What is going on here?? Don't think about it just keep swimming.

Not only am I swimming well I'm swimming straight too, something I've struggled with in all my races this year. I go from sighting every 6 stokes to 9, then 12, then more. I spent the rest of the swim navigating around buoys and slower swimmers. I did nail some guy HARD in the head as we got real close to the beach. I felt really bad about that and actually stopped to sputter out a "sorry dude" to him.

I got out of the water and started running to transition. I'm one of those people that's running hard out of the water. I think I passed 5 or 6 people on the way to transition. Hehe :)

Not much, that was a good swim for me. Initially looking at my watch I was disappointed. It felt much faster than 30 minutes, but looking at how I finished in my age group, this may be considered one of my better swims.

I had an easy route to my bike, which was nice. I had one of those moments where I lost my balance trying to put my foot in and had to steady myself. Grabbed the bike and had to yell "Coming through!" at 2 guys in the middle of the aisle putting on shoes. Thought about ramming them, but no sense bending a perfectly good race wheel. Crossed the mount line, hopped on and started pedaling.

be quicker

Ok, the bike. How I love this part. 6th wave, plenty o bikes to catch. I start hammering out of the park and not more than a few miles in do I start to feel some discomfort downstairs. I've determined that I tend to swallow air during the swim while I breathe. This leads to gas and bloating if the swim is long (Oly and greater). I combat this by popping a couple of gas-x when I get on the bike and presto, problem gone. I only mention this now because I forgot the gas-x. Oh, boy this race is about to get interesting.

I played the normal leapfrog with a few people. One guy really pissed me off though because I swear he would slow just as he got past my front wheel. Sorta like that idiot on the interstate that doesn't know what cruise control is. What's the point in working your butt off to pass me if you can't hold the pace? Decided to put some extra effort forth and drop the dips%&t for good.

There were a couple of long climbs, but for the most part the course was flat. Passed a couple of my friends from our tri group and offered words of encouragement. Had a nice smooth 180 turnaround for a change so that was a bonus. Surprisingly I ran out of fluids at the 25k mark. I did not plan that well at all, but I wasn't real worried. Pedaled my way back to the park and actually had a good smooth flying dismount.

Remember gas-x. Definitely a little uncomfortable

Ran one rack past mine, but luckily I was able to cut back without adding too much distance. Put the running shoes on, grabbed my stuff and took off........the wrong way. Apparently swim in was also run out. I had assumed run out was the opening just north of the swim in, but in reality they fenced that off so it was nothing. So I had to correct for that, probably costing me 10-15 seconds.

Know transition exit. There were no signs and we didn't get a map. I guess I should have asked. I saw swim in, I saw bike in and out, and I assumed the other opening was run out. That'll teach me

After the T2 debacle things got going pretty well. I started passing people. Yea! My legs are working! Still some discomfort downstairs so that limited my pace a little. The first hill up Fuller Rd. just about did me in. It was a loooong climb and everyone was suffering. All in all there were about 3 big climbs. The downhills were nice, but I knew we'd be coming back up them on the way back. I was well past the midway point before I felt like I could really push the pace. Played leapfrog with a guy the entire run that I had done the same with on the bike. We had a good laugh about that.

I felt really really good the last mile. It's sad to think about how slow I must have been running early on. The Hy-Vee triathlon is cool because of the finish line. Basically they set up a huge grandstand for the pro race the day before and you get to run down the same blue carpet that they ran on. The stands are full of spectators and everyone is cheering loudly. I turned on the jets with about 100 yards left, passing 6 or 7 people (including one in my age group) in the homestretch and eliciting some good cheers from the fans around me. I was a little disappointed that an all out 100 yd sprint felt so easy after an Oly, meaning I could have expended more energy on the run, but oh well, it was a fun finish.

gas-x, run harder. I'm not sure how much my training this week may have affected things. I ran 40 miles during the week and did a 40 mile ride the morning before. The legs felt good going into the day, but you never know. It was a conscious decision though. I'm focusing on the HIM in August. Olys will never be my strong suit.

Walked. A lot. Had to look all over for the food tent. Geez, you'd think I'd be able to sniff that out quick enough. They had ice cream though so it was worth the extra walk


GI issues, training?


Hy-Vee puts on a great event that attracts a lot of talent. This was my virgin triathlon last season so it was fun to race it again, even though the course had changed. We'll have to see if I can win a free entry for the third straight year next year.