I got up right away in the morning. We packed the car prior to eating breakfast. I wanted to eat a little closer to the race time. We ate at about 4:45am which was good. I had an egg sandwich with fake cheese, and coffee with soy milk. We left around 5:15am and Wes drove. We drove the jeep, so went a little slower. I had hoped to leave at 5:00. Oh, well.
We got to transition at about 6am. There was no line for transition, which surprised me. I quickly got out my bike and transition bag and headed to transition. The first rack on each side was for elite. The right side had 4 bikes, but only one of the left side. I set up next to it.
As I was setting up my gear I saw several people I knew and did some socializing. I went for a short bike ride and short run for a little warmup. I did a few passes at the bike entrance/exit to make sure I was geared right and knew when to take my feet out of my shoes. We had ridden on the course a few weeks ago, so I felt pretty comfortable.
I made sure everything in transition was set up how I wanted it. It was about 6:45 and I needed to still get in a decent swim prior to the start. I got my wetsuit on, ate a Hammer gel, and headed to the beach. I swam around just outside of the roped off area until they put out the buoys, then I swam almost to the buoy and back. I did a few practices of entrances and exits. When I got on shore, they were finishing up the pre-race meeting. Perfect timing!
There were only 5 elite females and we took off 8 minutes ahead of the men. I lined up near the rope. The pack seemed to thin out quickly. There was someone pushing me in to the rope, but after a few hundred yards she dropped back. I thought she had latched on to my feet, but she was 20 second back.
I tore down my wetsuit on the way up the beach, then took off my cap and goggles. When I got to transition I couldn’t even see Tami. I’m pretty sure at the swim turnaround I could see her pretty far ahead of us. I put on my helmet, but the strap was having issues. I took my helmet back off, then put it on again. Still messed up. I fiddled with it to get it good enough. I then put on my sunglasses, grabbed my bike, and took off.
As I was taking off, another girl came into transition. The entire way into Palo I assumed she was right behind me. I pushed, and my watts looked good. I thought I was gaining on Tami, but couldn’t tell for sure. She was very far ahead! At the turnaround I couldn’t see anyone behind me. Cool! It was a while before I saw Joanna. At that point I pretty much knew I was going to get second place. The next woman was a good amount behind her, and it was quite a while before the next girl. I had filled my aero bottle with a scoop of HEED, but had hardly any of it. I’m still glad I had it with me.
A little before the bike out I started taking my feet out of my shoes. It’s all downhill, so I didn’t need to pedal. I had plenty of time. I don’t remember seeing Tami running. I assume she was running out of transition as I was coming in. There was no way I’d catch her.
I got my helmet off easily, put on my shoes, grabbed my race belt, and took off. I didn’t see anyone else in transition. I got out of T2 quickly and efficiently. As I was running out, I didn’t see any women biking in until I was around the corner headed to the lake. It was Joanna and I knew I could stay ahead of her in the run. After the first mile, the men started to pass me. At the turnaround I didn’t see Joanna for a bit, but she seemed closer than I expected. I kept a comfortable pace pretty much the entire run. As I got closer to the finish line I did pick it up a bit in fear that maybe there was someone else closing in or that an age grouper would move up.
When I crossed the finish I had a ton of energy left. I could have ran for a lot longer. I had some water and a piece of watermelon. I didn’t do any stretching or get a massage.
I wasn’t getting all that hungry, so I went to the car, took a shower. I didn’t bring recoverite, but probably should have because the food line was SO long. Instead I got some yogurt, watermelon, and some animal crackers. Yummy! I wasn’t able to eat it until during the awards ceremony.
We stayed around for prizes. I got $400 for 2nd overall and $100 for 20th fastest swim. There was no way I would have beat Tami and the 3rd place person was a few minutes behind me. I felt that I got a good race in for my training. I did better in the swim and run, but was slower at everything else. Wes defended his Clydesdale title by about 2min, so won free entry in to next year's race! Our triathlon club, Iowa HEAT, won first for the club division. I was very proud of knocking off MidWest Xtreme in our first year as a club.
Iowa Hawkeye Endurance Team
1st place club!
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