Hy-Vee Triathlon (Page 3)

Just to add my 2-cents worth and share my experiences in the years I've been Tri'ing....
It is common for race directors to cancel the swim due to bacteria levels.  It's happened to me a few times.   I'm sure you've all read stories recently about people dieing from bacteria and amoeba infestation.  Athletes also tend to blame RD's for this decision.  They are only looking out for our well being.  I've raced a few Du's thanks to bad water.  It's frustrating, but it's better than getting sick or not racing at all.  If we lose the swim and do a du, then make the most of it and have a great race.  I'm sure the RD's are losing sleep over this right now.  The worst thing we can do it get upset over it or request our money back. (not going to happen)

Have a great race next weekend.  I'll be looking for BT'ers.  Anyone marking themselves with their BT name or BT gear?

I'm sure you are right about the RD losing sleep - I can't even imagine!  They definitely have to do the right thing for the safety of the athletes

This is only my 6th tri, so I've not encountered this situation before.  If they change the race, do they just eliminate the swim or do they typically make it a run,bike, run?

Most races typically make it a run-bike-run (Duathlon).  The initial Run is typically a 5k.  So hypothetically the race could be a 5k run, 40k bike, 10k run.

I've never done this, but have heard of people writing their BT screen name on their calf.

that's what I figured, no way I could do that

Why not?  If it's a personal reason, no need to respond.  I don't mean to pry.  But 3.1 miles of flat running before the ride and subsequent 10k shouldn't set you back much.
Just show up and have fun.  Make the most of it! 

no worries - I am just now getting comfortable with 10 k, and just barely - that is the longest distance I've run this year, well in my life.  It's taken me til now to get to that point after struggling with PF for most of last year. 

and I'm not sure the knees can take an extra 5 k in the same day without having trained for that (I have pretty crunchy knees)

I'd end up having to walk for sure in the 10k -

and, I am a very slow runner - not sure they could keep the course open long enough for me to finish - LOL

edited - lots of exra spacing

Well...even if you had to walk, you wouldn't be the only one.  This race is for everyone, which is why it was such a great event last year.  All levels participate.

IMHO...you paid the money.....better to experience the event even by walking than to be on the sidelines or at home.

good point - I'll give it some thought

it just figures that the part that is twice is absolutely my least favorite and worst discipline

I'm learning to like it better, but - it will probably never be my favorite -

and actually the walking part doesn't really bother me - I walked a great deal of it last year

honestly if I had about another month or so of training and more running under my belt, I probably wouldn't think twice about it

I'm just nervous because I seriously have only run the 10k distance 2 or 3 times, I train by time rather than distance, and have just now gotten to the point that I can sometimes do the the full 10k in the time on the plan - it varies based on if it's following a bike, the weather, all that stuff

I'll be officiating - so I will be in the standard USAT polo shirt.  Don't know how to BT myself up in that outfit.

Me too!!!  I would have to be curled up on the bathroom floor in the fetal position to miss a race. No matter what race it ends up being.  You can't always control what happens to Yul, but you can control how you react to it.  So I will make the most of it...whatever "IT" is!!

Alrighty then - I've almost convinced myself that I will go for it even if it turns out to be a du - just need a few more hours to let it settle in LOL 

Thank you all for the little extra perspective 

I am assured that the Age Groupers will at least do a Du, so there will be a race, just might not be any swimming.  I am also assured that the pro's will swim.  Nobody has said where yet.  I was told today that the race team has basically been locked in a conference room on Westown Parkway going through every scenario to make it as good as they can with the given conditions.  Really, that's all we can ask of them.

I've got some bad news, unfortunately.  There is rain on the way for today.  It will start as a light rain and get heavy near the end of the cycle.  The line of rain stretches north to south accross the state and into Minnesota, which means we will not only get the rain in Des Moines, but both the Des Moines River and Raccoon River will collect all that falls to the north of Des Moines and bring it down stream as well.  There is a 40 to 50% chance of T-storma all day today (which is a change from yesterday's forecast).  Here is the radar link.  This sucks major.

http://www.weather.com/weather/map/interactive/USIA0231?from=36hr_topnav_undeclared

I'm sorry to hear that - you guys certainly don't need any more rain, I hope it doesn't cause even worse problems in the area.  I'm sure lots of families have already been affected by it

in the grand scheme of things, the tri is the least of the worries 

I can't imagine how stressful it must be

take care!

You know - this is really starting to get old.

The problem with the X-year flood is that it's a statistical calculation based off of historical records which are pretty limited.  The scary part is that as the record grows and we get storms of this magnitude more frequently, it could turn out that what we thought was the 500-year flood is actually more like a 100-year or even a 25-year flood.  There is some chance that you could have two "500-year floods" in 15 years, but my guess is that it's really small.  All that to say we might see this more than people originally thought.

But it's not just a matter of getting the lake level to go down a bit and cleaning up debris.  The water is now full of farm field runoff which means tons of fertilizer. The PH level has to be through the roof.  There is probably no way to recover from that in a week.

Word. I did Pigman a week and a half ago and it looks like Palo is now under threat from rising waters - if the race had been on a different weekend in June, it might not have gone down. I was thinking about doing Hy-Vee next year, and have been toying with the idea of going down to watch. Now I'm more hesitant to sign up for it. I really does suck to shell out 50+ bucks for a race plus travel to see it canceled. Plus setting up a training plan so that you peak for a given race and then have that race not go down would be really frustrating for me.

Hopefully things will clear up and you guys will have a great race next weekend.