Hy-Vee Triathlon
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Hy-Vee Triathlon - Triathlon
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Swim
Comments: We started in a TT format going four at a time. I was in the third group and dove in strong. I quickly passed people in my group and the group that started six seconds up on me. Soon I looked up and realized I was in THIRD on the swim! I might very well come out of the water in first place! I swam by myself like this for a while until about 500 yards out I hit a sandbar with the bottom of my hand which frightened me just a little. After that little excitement the swimmers started to catch me and I had a normal swim here on out. On the way back I felt like there were more chops hitting us but not too bad. What would you do differently?: Save more for second half. Transition 1
Comments: Coming out of the water I felt horrible. I always feel horrible though and I just needed to know to push on. I quickly got my wetsuit off, better than ever before, and got right onto the bike. I did a pretty decent flying mount but was still a little woozy from getting out of the water. What would you do differently?: Nothing. Went well. Bike
Comments: Time to rip! Getting going on the bike was a little sluggish. I felt like I was really pushing just to hang onto 20mph? I told myself it was a false flat and started planning my attack. The last few races I’ve waited too long to start my attack and I told myself the race doesn’t start halfway through the bike; the race starts now! Each time I picked it up I had a little trouble staying strong. When I hit about mile three on the bike we were at the second turn around. We had three lanes to switch over to three lanes, six total. I took this very wide and tried to keep my speed up. As I came around the corner I heard a scraping sound by my rear wheel and suddenly my back end came airborne! Luckily, I landed it okay. This turned out to be just the adrenaline rush I needed and I started to gun it right from there. My only panic for the next mile was, “Oh my god my rear wheel just got trashed didn’t it!” The rest of the bike was quick and fast riding. I was determined to not let anybody pass me since it has been a while since anybody did on the bike. I started passing all of the elite guys who started five minutes up from me; talk about some confidence boost! With about two miles left I saw my time was shooting right over 1:03:00 and if I really pushed I could break it. I realized I had to run afterwards and wanted to run well too so I just stayed strong and didn’t push too hard. I came in at 1:03:29, a new personal best on the bike! What would you do differently?: This went really well. I think just being patient and knowing the bike will continually get faster through the years is about it. Transition 2
Comments: I got off the bike and saw only a few bikes in transition, perfect! I got my shoes on and took off with one mindset, “Make them hurt!” What would you do differently?: Nothing. Run
Comments: I passed a guy from my age group in about a minute and thought to myself, “That’s 1st place right there. We can coast to the win from here.” After about five seconds of that I wanted to see who all I could get on the run. This was my last triathlon of the year I didn’t want to leave any stones unturned. I kept a strong pace and started eyeing how far back I was. I passed a few more elite guys on the run. The run went pretty smooth and came in to about the five mile mark when shock hit my system, somebody had caught me! Suddenly a runner came alongside me and I told myself to hang with him. I picked it up and stuck stride for stride with him. It actually felt pretty cool because it was a mess of slower runners from a previous race and then the two of us running in stride right past all of them. The problem was when we passed people we each would go different ways. When we passed a runner he would get a small gap and then it slowly built from there. I was in total shock; somebody had beaten me at my game, taking people out on the run. I fought hard that last half mile and tried to close back up the gap as we came up the hill and sprinted down the shoot but couldn’t get the last few seconds on him. Right when I got across the line I took about five steps and fell on the ground exhausted. What would you do differently?: Not much really. I could have more fight at the end but there wasn't much left in the tank. I think mentally I was drained from the season by this point as well. Post race
Warm down: Quickly two ladies came up to check on me to see if I was okay. I just told them I didn’t want to stand and they let me lay there for about 30 seconds before I got back up. I finished in a time of 2:08:59. That little sprint at the end paid off as I passed a guy by one second and claimed 8th place overall! This is my worst placing in any race in Iowa but I also raced in a race five times bigger than any of my other races. I ended up placing third in my age group and I was frustrated. After taking a looking at the results I realized there wasn’t much I could do; the other two guys ran 35 minute 10Ks while I stilled PR’d my run with a 37:24. This was just 16 seconds slower than only doing the run last year. Not only that but I also had a faster run split than the Olympic Gold Medalist as he raced on the course later that day; talk about bragging rights! My effort on race day was near perfect. I pushed every time I needed to and sometimes when I didn’t want to. I got the technical problems I’ve had the last few races fixed and things went really well. For now, I’m going to finish up my year with a few running races focusing on an extra kick in the last mile just like I started the year. What limited your ability to perform faster: Swimming and mental exhaustion by the end of the year. Last updated: 2012-02-27 12:00 AM
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2013-07-16 8:10 AM |
General Discussion-> Race Reports! |
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United States
Hy-Vee Triathlon
70F / 21C
Overcast
Overall Rank = 8/961
Age Group = M20-24
Age Group Rank = 3/37
My second place at Pigman hurt a lot. I had finally convinced myself I was going to win and when I came up short it really hit me. It took a little bit extra to get me going back up to normal after the race. Luckily as the next two weeks progressed I got back into my race mindset and I was ready to just destroy Hy-Vee.
I told myself this was my last chance of the year. I had put in the hard training; this is the time to just let loose. The bike course will be difficult again; I had made my race season specifically that way. I just wanted to show I as better than a 2:10:20 like I was at Pigman. I knew the run course so I knew I could set a new PR on that course.
I got to the race course with my teammate, Alex Libin, around 5:15am and got set up nice and easy. Walking towards transition was probably the most nauseous I have ever felt before a race. This was my big goal for the year and I think my body knew it. I wanted to win my age group so bad. The night before the race I remembered a mantra I had heard before, “Everybody else is hurting just as much as you,” referring to the fact that everyone else is out there just as long as you. I turned this into my own mantra for the day. If they are going to be hurting as much as me, I’m just going to make them hurt as much as I can! I feel I have more mental toughness than most of the racers to I wanted to lay down the hurt. I wrote on my race page, “Let’s make them hurt!” in big letters on the back to remind myself that I want to lay it all out there.
We couldn’t warm-up on the bike or swim beforehand so the only thing I could do was run. I got out for a run and felt content. I really felt like I could just go hard and it felt exciting. I went and got lined up to be one of the first from my group into the water.