Hy-Vee Race Report - Long winded, boring, and from the point of view of a back of the pack age grouper so don't say you were not warned!

Pre-Race Meeting:
I arrived in Des Moines on Friday and I went to the pre-race meeting and packet pickup which was held at their local convention center. The RD did a very good job with this and everything was run in a very professional way. Every racer had to attend one of the pre-race meetings prior to picking up their race packets, etc. The meetings were 30 minutes long and basically included a course preview and an overview of USAT rules. While much of this was "boring" to me, I think it was a good thing to do in general given how many new racers were at this event. The meeting also had a huge jumbotron type of thing and they had a nice video presentation as well. After the meeting everyone picked up their stuff and the swag was excellent. Every racer received a VERY nice bike jersey (a picture of it is on their website) as well as a VERY nice back pack (probably would cost $20-$30 in a store) and a headsweats visor or hat plus the other usual random items. I would rate their swag as near the best I have received at any type of race.

Pre-Swim:
One of the main reasons that I got to town early was so I could pre-swim the course. Friday was the only day to swim early as racing started on Saturday (Junior Elites) and swimming the course was important to me because I usually only swim in a pool (unless I swim in the Mississippi River which isn't the best option). The pre-swim went well although the course was slightly tough to site in spots but the water was very warm (81 degrees race day). Overall I felt very good about Sunday and decided to be very aggressive on the swim and see if I could make something happen. This would be a big step up for me because I normally always stay out of the front and concede time in the swim. Unforunately for me my decision "made something happen" but lets not get ahead of ourselves...

The City:
Just a quick comment on Des Moines. I have never been there before and I assumed it would just be a complete dump and be populated my redneck farm people. However, I ended up being very wrong and was mildly impressed by the area. Now don't get me wrong, I wouldn't plan a family vacation to Des Moines but it was a decent place. They had a lot of nice hotels, a decent downtown (busy during the day but dead at night which is typical of midwest cities not counting Chicago), plenty of family activities to do, several very nice "self contained communities", and a very athlete friendly system of parks and trails (or so it appeared to me). It was pretty easy to get around the city and there were plenty of good places to eat. Also the people were extremely nice and everybody was wishing the athletes good luck and thanking them for coming to Des Moines, etc which was pretty cool.

The Pros:
One thing I really like about Triathlon is how friendly the pros are and how willing they are to just hang out and talk. This event was an ITU World Cup event so most of the top 20 ITU pros in the world were all here and I think there were 100+ pros in total competing for the $200,000 First Place Prize which also included a Hummer H3 SUV. Many of the pros were staying at the same hotel I was and I had the chance to talk with alot of them. They were all very down to earth and more than happy to talk about the sport or just life in general. The pros raced a different course than the Age Groupers and started at a different time so we didn't exactly "share the course" like at a WTC event but it was still good to be around them. I have nothing but good things to say about the ITU pros and of course their race was great but that is another topic all together.

Race Morning:
The AG event started at 6am on Sunday which was great because it was VERY hot during the day (90+ with Midwest humidity). We dropped off our bikes the day before so that made race day a bit easier for getting setup. One negative about the TA and race morning in general were the lack of port-a-potties and very limited swim warm up. Also parking was tough but with 2,000 athletes what are you going to do? Overall they did a pretty good job securing the TA and getting the athletes body marked and into TA. Time inside TA was very limited but you really don't need much time in there so it wasn't a big deal.

The Swim aka my near Death Experience:
They did the swim start in AG waves which was good because a mass start in the lake would have been tough. Anyway the gun went off and I decided to try my new strategy of starting up front, sprinting to open water, and then cruising from there. Well you know how they say don't do something in a race you don't do in training? I learned Sunday that there is a reason for that as my plan completely back fired and I had the worst swim of my life. I got run over, run under, kicked, hit, elbowed, drowned, and on top of that I think I drank about 3 gallons of lake water!!! The swim start was a nightmare and I now have an idea of what it was like when the Titantic was sinking and everyone splashing in the water. Also did I mention that it was a non-wetsuit race? I am not the fastest swimmer in the world to start with and so not getting to use the wetsuit also hurt me. Bottom line I was forced to basically swim away from the main group and wade around for awhile just getting my focus back. I finally got to the outside and was able to start moving forward but it took me a good 10 minutes to calm down and even then I never felt comfortable. I have learned that I need to stay to the outside of the group so that my breathe side can get "clean space" with no people splashing and I need to start in the back on the outside area. Even if it costs me a few seconds because I end up swimming a little further it is better than getting run over and nearly drowned. Once I finally finished the swim and kissed the ground I moved into TA. However, my swim time was HORRIBLE but the real damage would not show itself until later in the race...

The Bike:
After a decent T1 (not fast, not slow for an AG) I got out onto the bike course. I used the rubber band technique on the shoes for the first time in a race (yes I am a newbie clown) and it went perfectly. I practiced several times leading up to the race and it paid off. Overall the bike went very well but the course was extremely crowded. With so many AGers I was constantly out in the left lane passing which made me nervous since the USAT had numerous course marshalls out there looking to hand out penalities. I was a little slow at the start but settled in and finished the 25 mile bike in 1:04 which came out to a little over 23mph. This was slower than I had hoped for but considering the mass crowds and the poor swim it was about a good as I could do. My bike skills still need a ton of work but at least I am moving in the right direction and hopefully in another year or two I can put up a more respectable time. One thing I did not do well on the bike was fuel but my stomach hurt the whole time and I just did not want to drink. I decided to let my stomach settle and kept my fueling to a minimum (yes bad plan I know).

The Run aka The Death March:
T2 was solid (still need to cut time on my TAs) and when I started the run my legs felt very good (bricks starting to pay off I think). The first 2 miles were excellent and I was at a sub 7:30 mile/pace (my goal pace for this event) with the only real issue being that the timing chip was rubbing my ankle raw so I had to loosen it up (the ankle chip braclets were crappy and need to be replaced before the next race and some people even had them fall off during the race). At this point I thought I was going to finish strong and then my swim came back to haunt me. After the 2 mile mark I got a really nasty stomach cramp and my enegry levels just tanked. I could almost feel the lake water rumbling in my gut and I thought I might get sick. My pace slowed to a crawl/death march and the 10k distance suddenly seemed like a marathon. The run started in the Gray's Lake park and followed a path along the river into the city. Once you got into the downtown area you did a 2 loop run and then finished by the Capitol Building. This 2 Loop Run was probably the single biggest mistake the RD made. There were no timing mats during the run so there was no way to check and see if someone had done the loop twice and nothing to stop a person from cutting the run short which MANY people did. Now I think most of the people who cut the run short did it on accident but you know there are always some people looking for an edge. The only safeguard against people cutting the run short was one guy with a mircophone telling everyone to do the loop two full times before turning off into the finishing straight away which was up a very nasty hill. I suffered through the 2 full laps (didn't want to cheat myself out of the pain) and finally shuffled up the hill and over the finish line!!!

The End:
My goal had been to finish in under 2:30 but I ended up falling just a bit short of. If I had been smarter in the swim I would have reached my target time but my plan to "go for it" in the swim really cost me. Overall it was an excellent race and a GREAT learning experience. I had never done an event this large before and really learned alot about myself and race strategy in general. Racing takes more than just fitness, you need to have a plan and stick with it plus experience is a very helpful thing. I plan on returning next year and hope to have a better race. I need to be smarter on the swim and do a better job fueling on the bike as I only drank a 1/2 bottle of fluid and ate nothing. However, I think part of my problem fueling on the bike was that my gut was killing me and my body really didn't "want" me to ingest anything. I think the RD did a good job in general aside from the 2 loop run and a few other minor details (need more port-a-potties, more swim warmup time, etc) which you always find are issues at a race. The city of Des Moines was an excellent host city and the sponsors were AWESOME!!! Anytime you can get Corporate America to put up a total prize purse of $700,000 for a triathlon it is a good thing (even Age Groupers won money!). This race is good for the sport of triathlon in the Midwest and I am hopeful it will continue to grow and become a "must do" race for all Midwest Triathletes!!

The Good:
~Big Prize Purse (even Age Groupers got money)
~Host City
~Friendly Pros
~Lodging and general "entertainment" options
~Pre-Race Meeting, etc
~The Swag!
~Transition Area

The Bad:
~Swim Course not well marked
~No run course mile markers
~Parking
~Very crowded bike course
~Lack of Port-a-Potties
~Lack of Shuttle Buses to get back to start

The Ugly:
~2 Loop Run Course Chaos
~Warm Water and Gatorade on the course (I think their water came from the lake and I would know since I drank 3 gallons of it during the swim)