Hy-Vee weekend is always a busy and fun weekend. On Friday I presented with Victor Plata (former Olympian and ITU Athlete now turned lawyer and Board Member for USAT) to the USAT Board of Directors on funding the professional Triathlon Association, or PROTA. I was voted on to the board in January and since USAT was having a board meeting in Des Moines (because for the Hy-Vee Race), it was an opportune time to discuss our progress and business plan. Later Friday night Victor and a professional Triathlete he coaches named Ben Collins came over for dinner. After dinner we went to the Hy-Vee silent auction at Hy-Vee hall and socialized a bit. Fun night! Ben is a new US ITU athlete who is about 25. The former national age group champion has great talents and is gaining valuable experience. He went on to have a great race finishing in 25th place. We were happy to see Ben do so well (must have been the pre race meal of Salmon on the grille). :]
Race Day: The radar showed a big storm on the way as I checked it about 4:30 AM. It was approaching from south western Iowa and looked like it was going to arrive in a few hours. We had all ready had a ton of rain earlier in the week, so the ground was wet and the humidity high.
As I arrived at transition about 5:20am the race director Bill Burke came on and announced it would be shortened from an Olympic distance to a Sprint distance race with a time trial start to get everyone off in time to beat the storm.
It was still about 90 minutes later before I hit the water for my 9 minute swim. Seemed like I was just getting my arms loosened up when it was over. None the less transitioned with my bike shoes in hand until the mount line. I was concerned about the mud in transition getting stuck in my cleats so I carried my shoes. The Bike was supposed to be a 20K but was at least a mile long based on the Elite’s times all over 30 minutes. Gave it my best around 25mph ave. and was pleased I did not get passed by anyone. There were so many people on the bike course however there was a lot of weaving in and out of bikes. Transitioned and was off on the 5k run and the course was packed with runners. Really felt winded up the hill to the turnaround but hung in there and ran 6:38 pace. Finished with 1:04:24 good for 5th place out of 94 in the age group and 67th male out of 901 total. I was pleased with the effort but hardly had a chance to take a drink of water before a huge clap of thunder and rain that came down sideways! Everyone scurried to get their bikes out of transition. I rode back to my car in a downpour and about 6 inches of water in the street. Along the way there was a guy who asked how to get back to the Mall where he had left his car (he took the athlete shuttle to the race that morning). I said come with me, and I drove him back!
Once I dropped him off I got home to a wonderful hot shower, I unpacked and cleaned a carload of wet everything! It was a fun event as usual. I went back that afternoon to watch the Elites race including local boys TJ Tollakson and Nathan White. Tim Don and Emma Snowsill were the pro winners. Participating that day with me were Loran Storts (3rd in age grp), Steve Latta, James Hollaway, Jeremy Schwertfeger, Kevin Parker, Micah Moore, Mike Morrison, Joel Rinderknecht and about 100 others I know! Four years and four different courses. I guess Hy-Vee Triathlon is like a box of chocolates, never know what you are gonna get! On to the Racine ½ in July.
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