Hy-Vee Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

First time trying to do 1500 meters straight. Longest in pool was I think 800 yards. First buoy was probably 200 meters out. I did great in that stretch, all freestyle. Probably made it between 500 and 600 before I started to switch strokes to breaststroke. I would do about 25 meters freestyle followed by about 50 breaststroke. I gave up the freestyle completely at the turnaround buoy, breaststroke the rest of the way. Goggles were fogging up during the last quarter of the swim. I just tried to follow some of the other swimmers. I could see the kayaks and boats on both sides of the course fairly easily, so I knew I was a little bit wide but still somewhat on target. I stumbled a little bit as I was trying to stand up, but I imagine a lot of people did that. I guess that 2:12 per 100 yards isn't too bad, considering the distance. In training I can do about 1:50 for shorter distances.

Train more, slack off less. I'd like to improve my swim time to about 30:00 by the end of the year.

Was 67th out of 116 for T1 times. Felt like I was fairly efficient.

Learn how to have the shoes already clipped in and put them on while riding. I don't think I'll attempt flying mounts and dismounts anytime this year.

I rocked the bike, just like I expected to. I was passing a lot more people than passed me. Of course, a lot of that is because I am a bike specialist and am a slow swimmer. After T1 I was in 72nd place in my AG. During the bike I picked up a net 15 spots to 57th, so that was great.

Just go faster. I'd like to be able to improve my bike time to about 1:09 - 1:10 by the end of the year.

Took a little extra time to polish off the water I had in my Camelback. Rest of transition went fine.

Take my feet out of my bike shoes before I get off the bike. Like I mentioned before will need to practice this, but flying mounts and dismounts won't happen this year.

Felt like I blew up during the run. The first two miles were probably at 12:00 pace. My quads and calves were just killing me from the bike. The amount of breaststroke that I did in the swim didn't help either. I stopped near the grandstands on our way out so I could stretch out my calves. I got faster throughout the run. The last two miles I was probably back up to my regular cruising pace of about 8:45. I had major chafing in my shoulders and crotch the entire run, I was in pain with every stride.

1) Get some trishorts instead of bicycle shorts for the crotch and get some Bodyglide for everywhere.
2) Train more, slack off less. If I could drop the time down to 52:00 - 54:00 I'd be happy.

Had to ride the 3 miles back to the mall since the lines for the buses were crazy long.


This race was well run given that there were like 2000 competitors were involved when including the 200 some relays. Good shwag gifts. Very good post race food. I had two ice cream cookie sandwiches, a granola bar, a mini cupcake, two bananas, 20 oz of Gatorade, and 20 oz. of water. I should have gone for the post race massage since I am still very sore the day after. I do have two major complaints though. We had to wait in an extremely long line to be able to get into transition after the race to get our stuff out. This could have been handled much better. Also, the buses to get out of the race venue were set up horribly. They were not pulling up to the designated spot and picking up people from the front of the line. They were stopping way short so people near the end were just jumping on. This only affected the buses going to the mall, not the ones going to the high schools. I and many others just rode our bikes back. I didn't know the route back, but there were plenty of native Des Moines people that knew the best way.