Just wrapped up the Big Creek Tri 27 in Polk City, Iowa near Saylorville Lake and the Big Creek Resevoir. The weather was fair, but not quite ideal. It was 74 degrees at around 7am when the race began and warmed up to a balmy 86 degrees by 10am with the humidity seeming as if it was 100% (it was more like 93%). The race started at 7:30am with elites taking off first followed by the next 7 to 8 waves at intervals of 4 minutes.

The swim was warm...the water temperature was 83 degrees the day before race-day. The course was fairly well marked, however they could have used more bouys as the sighting was pretty hard. The swim had just two right hand turns and initially was supposed to be a triangle but was more of a rectangle in shape. The swim did seem a bit long...TJ Tollakson, who overall won and had the best swim, emerged from the water after 21:18. I emerged in 30:24 but had felt, from my training that I would be about 2 minutes faster than that. I heard other participants talking about the swim distance being slightly longer than 1.5km.

The bike route was very simple and allowed for plenty of speed. Long, straight Iowa county roads with few turns allowed for maximum speed. Heading out west, there was a slight head wind which hindered max speed a bit. The first stretch had a few gradual, minimal, climbs. Then the route took a turn to the north and we were on our way. I was averaging about 25mph and there were others cruising. However, we eventually had to turn around...Heading south now, the wind was only a moderate 8-10mph but it felt like it was whippin'. We then made a right hand turning heading west again, climbing a large hill at another turnaround and then heading east with a slight tailwind. Again, TJ Tollakson recorded a time of 53:41 averaging 27.8 mph! Me, I rolled in at 1:08 for an average of 21.8mph...PR.

And the run...the run felt really long. By this time, the sun was shinning and the heat was turned on. The course was nice and flat with the only large hill being at the 3.1 mile turnaround. The course consisted of the Big Creek State Park's in-road and their biking/running trail on the way back in. The trail was partially shaded, but this didn't help much. Water was essential to take at every aide station...located at every mile along the run which was awesome.

Overall, Tollakson recorded a 37:46 in the sweltering heat and, especially, the humidity, to finish up at 1:53:55 and winning by about 9 minutes. I finished the run in 44:51 which was surprisingly the #23 best time recorded (only ~5 triathletes broke the 40 minute mark). I finished the Tri in 2:25:19 (PRing by four minutes with a fast Bike time and fast transition times) and placing third in the 20-24 Males Group.

Great Race and will definitely be back next year!