Hy-Vee Triathlon Recap

My Hy-Vee Triathlon Adventure.

Exciting coming into town!

Cool back pack received at check in. Part of the race swag!

When I arrived in Des Moines, I immediately hit up the expo and got registered. We had to sit through a 15 minute briefing that really didn't tell me much. Then we completed registration and picked up some cool stuff!

Upon registering we received a backpack, choice of hat or visor, and a nice bike jersey.

I dropped my bike of at the transition area. It was huge! This picture was taken from the entrance, see the little white tent in the back? That's where my bike went. Row 32 of 35! It made for a long way out to the bike course, but the run went out the back side, so I was in a good spot for it.

This is a good shot of the starting area. I won't lie, it was intimidating looking out at the swim buoys and seeing how far we would be swimming. All I can say is thank God for cooling the water down enough for it to be wet suit legal!

The swim went ok. I made it. I was happy to be out of the water!

It really startles you when you touch someone else in the water. It was difficult for me to site the buoys, especially when we headed into the sun and my goggles were fogging.

 I was 944 / 991 in the swim. That's ok because I finished!

Getting ready to roll out on the bike! I was VERY thankful to be out of the water and into my comfort zone.

I was having fun and feeling good on the ride. I probably could have pushed it a little harder in retrospect, but I averaged 18.8 mph after swimming a mile. I can accept that.

Off of the bike and into the run! I maintained a solid pace on the run. I felt like I was consistent and was able to pass several people. I had some cramping issues a couple of times but I made sure that I drank plenty of Gatorade and water at the stops. Luckily it didn't get too bad. I was able to maintain a 7:23 average pace on the run. A little faster than I expected!

Finally finished!

So to wrap things up, my finishing results are as follows:

1500 meter swim 40:14  944 / 991

T1 4:17

40 K bike 1:19:16 565/991

T2 3:23

10K run 45:56 206/991

Overall finish time was 2:53:14   429 / 991

Age group (40-44) 60/96

I am happy with the results. I had predicted that it would take me about 3 hours to finish. The swim was actually 5 minutes faster that I had guessed. 

I don't plan on doing any more triathlons this year. It is way too difficult to get any swimming in around here and that's where I need the most work. The last few weeks of my training I was driving an hour each way to get to a pool. It's really not feasible to continue to do that.

It was a great experience and I am happy to have completed it.

One of best parts of this entire experience was that I had a great support crew of family there to watch and cheer me on. It was a pretty awesome day!