This was my worst swim ever. I came into this race undertrained and unprepared for an OWS. I'm not a good swimmer to begin with, but this swim should have taken me 35 minutes or less.

Swim training....got to do it.

Why didn't I wear my tri top in the water? I know better than this. I stuggled for a solid 30 seconds trying to wiggle the top on over my wet body.

Think. Prepare.

Cycling being my strong point, I thought I would hammer this course and make up the poor swim time. I should have averaged 24-25 MPH based off of past performances and because this course was flatter than where I train. I started getting inner thigh cramps almost immediately. Then my hips started to cramp. This is what I get for training on my tri bike only two weeks before this race. Or should I say "lack" of training.
There was a point on the course where there was a big climb. The crowds lined the streets like the TDF. There was even a person in a Devil outfit chasing people up the hill. Very cool!

I need more than two weeks, or a handful of rides on my triathlon bike before racing on it. I ride a road bike as well and was training for a century just before this triathlon. If I were smart I would have parked the road bike 2 months ago and got my body used to the "tri" bike and position.

Ran out of T2 without my race belt. Had to turn around and go back to get it. Stupid mistake #3 of this race. I know better!

Stop and think.

The run. Here's where everything crumbled and I made the most embarrassing mistake of any race I've been in.
I ran as hard as I could. My legs and body were fatigued but I pushed on past my threshold. I can hang myself out for a 10k. Anyway, there was a lollipop section where they split runners from the pack to run a loop around a couple of blocks of downtown. Several volunteers were yelling out different things, such as...."Turn Left Twice..." or "First loop to the left"....etc. I turned and did my loop, which had me passing the volunteers three times total, which I thought was the course. Turned out I missed the loop the second time, which shortened my total run course to about 5 miles, not 6.2. I did not find out about this until later in the day....I finished on the clock at 2:32:--. Not my fastest time, but better than I thought I was doing....but this wasn't my REAL time....here is where the F-up came in.

Back at T2 after the race was over I asked the guy standing next to me how he did. He said..."Not very well. I missed the second loop and shortened my run. I'll probably be DNF'd". Shucks, I thought to myself. As I continued to pack up my transition area I heard a group of five other athletes talking behind me. They were talking to each other about missing the second loop. The result of this conversation was four out of five of this group missed the second loop. So out of the 6 people standing around my transition area, 5 of them missed this mystery second loop. Later in the day I told my wife..."I can't believe these guys missed the second loop"....NOT KNOWING THAT I AM ONE OF THOSE GUYS!!! The more I started adding up the numbers in my head it didn't make since. Based off of my swim and bike time I would have ran 5 min/miles in order to finish in the time that I did. F***!!!! F***!!! F***!!! I'm an idiot!

End of the story. I GPS'd the loop I missed which was 1.2 miles. Adding this distance to my "actual" run time had me running 7.5 min/miles, which is my actual speed. The times you see in my log are what I actually would have finished. The time recorded as my official results show 10 minutes faster, which is inaccurate. Apparently I wasn't alone. I'm guessing hundreds of other athletes made the same mistake I made, which makes me feel a little better. The race officials can't fix this problem because there wasn't a timing mat on this apparent Second Loop, so they have no idea who DID or DIDN'T do this additional distance.

I wasn't planning on doing a race report, partially out of embarrassment and partially because this wasn't my A race of the year, but a few BT friends suggested I do one so that others can learn from my mistake or commiserate if they did this race and made the same mistake.

My first mistake was not to train properly for this race. I didn't take it real seriously thinking I could just pull a great race out of my arse. It didn't happen this time. I blame the error I made on the course mainly on my fatigue and inattention. I could blame the race directors for making this last minute change to the run course and for the volunteers yelling out unintelligable directions. Obviously I wasn't the only one who made this course error, but ultimately it's the athletes responsibility to pay attention. If 100% of the field would have missed the turn then I would think differently.

Lesson learned. Every now and then a person can pull a good race out of his/her arse with little or no training. The mistake is when you depend on pulling this off. I depended on it and "it" wasn't there. I had a bad race. I made multiple mistakes, and I learned a lot from them.

As far as a first time race venue, Des Moines rocked the house. This was an awesome event and an amazing course (even with the hiccups). Course support was top notch. The crowds were huge. The finish line was very much like an Ironman finish, which bleachers and a tunnel of people. Very cool! Well done Hy-Vee! Well done.