Now, a bit of a back story. As we were making our way (Bo Parrish and myself) from Nashville to Des Moines on Friday we kept a keen eye on the in-car temp reading. It stayed pretty steady right around 100* for the entire trip. We had a hard time believing that the temp could be anything but miserable in less than 48 hours. Saturday we woke up for a 25 mile or so warm up ride. This gave us a good idea of the bike course profile. The hills at the start weren't big in comparison to TN but they still presented a bit of a test coming out of T1 for the first 5 miles or so.
We finished the ride and headed back to the expo and check in. I have to say that this race really set the new standard for swag. Bag, cycling jersey, visors and a mix of other goodies certainly made for a nice surprise. Later than night we brought our bikes over to transition and headed back to the hotel for some rest.
Sunday morning was upon us soon. We headed out of the hotel and out onto the streets of Des Moines. Temp had dropped to the low 50's. Fortunately I brought my wetsuit with me down to transition, not really expecting to need it for this race (the water temp had been 84* just two days before). As I entered transition I saw several people in wetsuits....surprise surprise - wetsuit legal. I finished setting up transition and headed down to the swim start.
This was the first race of the season for me with a wave start. My group was about 30 athletes. The course was set up as a rectangle. I wasn't paying much attention and lined up on the outside of the pack, just happened to be on the wrong side. I forgot that we had to swim to the right of the first buoy as opposed to the left so when the gun went off I had to make my way left through the pack to get around the buoy. The swim settled into a nice routine until we came around the second corned and headed into the rising sun. This almost blinded me and made sighting extremely difficult. The further along this long side we swam the less of an issue the sun became. Kept working the pace but my early struggles, and a few inexplicable course weaves led to a 26 and change swim time. This was certainly slower than I had hoped, especially with a wetsuit swim.
The run from the swim to the bike was a long T1. We had to run the full length of the transition all the way back to the bike exit where the championship transition zone was set up. This run was a chilly 55* run over slick mud. Got into T1 and got my suit off, helmet on and headed out for the bike.
My coach and I had talked a lot about the bike. I told him that I wanted to focus on hitting a 1:10 bike split so I knew I had a lot in the tank for the run. He thought this was a good idea and suggested that I watch my pace carefully for the first 15 minutes, push the pedal for the middle 18 miles or so and then pull it back for the mile heading into T2 to help shake the legs out a bit. Well, the first 15 minutes covered the whole initial climb or 5 miles or so. I really worked hard trying to keep myself from working hard on this section. When the watch hit 15 minutes I looked at my distance and knew I blew my already conservative 1:10 goal. I tried to push the pace a heavy during the next 18 or 19 miles. Constantly telling myself to not stress on picking up minute on the run just to add several on the run. This was hard. Even knowing I was behind my pace I still pulled back on the last mile and worked to shake the legs out heading into T2.
T2 went off without a hitch. Grabbed the visor, race belt and water bottle. This was the first olympic I had ever taken a small handheld water bottle on the run. The logic behind this was that I was expecting to be on the heels of my competitors so I didn't want to slow at the aid stations without sacrificing my nutrition (Powerbar Perform to save the day). I was very happy with this decision and will probably adopt this as a normal race strategy.
The run started off great. I quickly passed one racer in my division at a good clip. Hit the one mile mark and checked the split - 7:09 (coach had told me to take it easy on the first mile - this was a bit too fast for me). Passed the one mile mark which was on an out and back and saw three other guys in my division heading back the other way. It was tough to tell how far ahead of me they were but I know the two guys out front looked strong and comfortable in their stride. Mile 2 - 7:19 - still pretty good clip for me on an olympic distance race. At about 2.5 I passed another guy in my division. At this point I was pretty sure there were two ahead of me in my division but I couldn't be certain as someone could have beaten me out of the swim that I didn't see. 5k mark - 21:40. I was happy but nervous that the wheels were going to fall off soon. The run had an uphill finish that concerned me with this pace. I kept trying to push the pace wisely because I wanted to run the two down in front of me, but I didn't want to burn the matches too quick just to have one of the guys I had passed before catch me late in the run. 4 and 5 passed and I could tell the pace was slowing. At this point I just wanted to make sure I didn't have an 8 minute mile. I knew if I could keep my pace under 8 minutes that it would be hard for any in the back to pass me and I just had to hope the wheels really spun off for the front two.
Well, the run came to a painful end up the final hill and down the Hy-Vee blue carpet. Took a quick look over my shoulder to make sure I wasn't stalked up the hill by someone in my division and when I realized I was in the clear I slowed a bit to try and enjoy the moment.
Finished the race in 2:29. I was shooting for a 2:20 - 2:25 finish time. The poor swim and pacing on the bike led to missing my goal. That being said I felt happy about the run. I think I still could have pulled a few seconds off the time. Even with that it was nice to catch some guys on the run as this is something that I don't normally do. Now I just have to work on having that run strength with a faster swim and bike - that is what 2012 is for.
As I said I was lucky that this time got me on the podium (well kind of, they only let the elites get on the actual podiums, we just walked up and got our awards - but thanks to my wonderful Maggie I still got a picture
This was a great season and I will write a wrap up post on my thoughts and goals for 2012. But I just want to quickly thank everyone who has dedicated so much to let me compete in something I love. Gotta start with my soon to be wife - Maggie 
I also have to thank my mom, dad and youngest cheerleader Victoria. They try and make it to as many of my races as they can and even made the 13+ hour trek up to Des Moines to watch the season finale
Then I have to thank my sponsors. I am amazed that I have an opportunity to partner with companies like Powerbar, SLS3, nuun and Powertap.
All in all this was a great way to bring a busy season of training and racing to a close. Hy-Vee 2011 in the books and Hy-Vee 2012 is on the books (oh yeah, my podium finish got me an auto qualification for 2012 so I will be back to race my 2:15 time in Des Moines next year).
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