Iowa was planning to float down the Mississippi to the gulf again, or was sticky humid in the weeks leading up to Hy-Vee. The Hy-Vee Triathlon is becoming a pretty big deal in the world of Triathlons. It brings in the best athletes from around the world (to race after the 2000 age groups folks like me) and is run by professional race planners. Needless to say it was pretty exciting to be a part of all that.
Two days before the race the park where the race was to be held was having high water issues, but they said the race must go on so I went down to Des Moines that fine sticky hot Friday to pick up my packet. This race has a higher fee, but I am pretty sure I made most of that back in swag (a nice race jersey, a great running hat, a backpack, etc.)
Saturday I had to cram in activities like Abigail's super fun 6 and a half year birthday party with 10 kids running around Reiman Garden's in Ames looking for gnomes and chasing butterflies. Then I had to pick up my super cool TriRacers of Iowa team race outfit (a one piece thing that I wear for all three parts of the triathlon). Then back down to Des Moines to drop my bike off to transition and then over to my folks for my last meal.
The next morning I was up a little after 4am to head over to the mall and catch a shuttle to the race venue. It was overcast (well dark when I got on the bus) and as we walked in to transition the PA announcer was saying they had changed the race from an Olympic distance (1 mile swim, 25 mile bike, 6.2 mile run) down to a sprint distance because a major storm was due to hit before we would have all been out of the water.
Obviously many of us were disappointed. People came in from all over the country to do this race and for a lot of us it was to be our first Olympic distance race. It was a bummer set back, but I was feeling really good so just had to go with the flow. The race was wet suit legal but the water temperature even with all the rain was still around 74 degrees so I decided to go with out. I had to wait on the beach for almost an hour for my turn at the start which they had changed from large group wave starts to a time trial start where you go in one at a time in a continuous stream every 4 seconds.
I had never done a time trial start so that was new to me and it turns out that did not play in my favor. When I do a wave start I usually have a good 3-5 minutes to get out in front of the pack before I hit the wave in front of me, and it gives earlier waves a chance to spread out so I can usually get through easily. This start had us all swimming over each other and I had to sight a lot more often so I wouldn't run into anyone.
I got through the swim knowing it wasn't as quick and smooth as it could have been and ran through the ankle deep water in transition to my bike and hit the road. The bike course is a pretty flat (a couple medium sized hills at the start) ride so I was able to get down into the aerobars and just grind away. All in all the bike felt good and the five brick workouts (bike with a transition to run) made all the difference when I started running.
I was able to get into a decent rhythm once I got my race number belt under control and plodded along comfortably for the first 1 2/3 miles... then it was up a big hill. the same hill I had uncomfortable dreams about leading up to the race, but alas we only had to run 2/3 of the way up the hill and back down to a flat home stretch. At this point I was pretty fired up and ramped up my speed. I ended up averaging just over a 9 minute mile for the run and finished in the middle of the pack for my age group... and then the skies opened up and I started looking for an arc because I was certain to need a boat to get out of there.
My folks had come to watch once they got the very early message that the race was going to be heck of a lot shorter and I would be finished an 1 1/2 earlier than anticipated. Joe stayed home with the sleepy kids and stayed dry.
Some of the highlights for me on this second race of the year was the strong finish and personal best time for a sprint race. The kind woman giving out dry T-shirts under the shelter while the rain poured down for 30 minutes and we all waited. My folks for coming out and trying to stay dry through it all to cheer me on. My two training friends Laura and Jill who volunteered for the race, wandered through the flooded expo with me to get more free swag, and then gave me a ride with my bike back to my car....
Leaving me with these thoughts. The weekend warriors who try to squeeze in 4-8 hours a week in training and go out and do what they do on the weekends are awesome, and it was great to be wearing my team gear and be part of something bigger than myself for the Hy-Vee race and races to come this summer. I know now that I can be flexible, learn from my experiences, and still go out and have a great time no matter what mother nature throws at me because in the end it is all about showing up. I have a 10k run tomorrow and two more sprint races in August and September. Then I will wrap up my season with a charity Olympic distance race in my ol home town so until then... I need to figure out how to get motivated again and back on the training wagon.
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