Iowaman Triathlon Race Report and Results

On Saturday, September 12th I competed in a local triathlon called the Iowaman Triathlon. This is the second year of the event that is held at Scott County Park. It is pretty small and had only 104 participants but Top Shelf Race Productions does a nice job with this local race. It is a 400 meter pool swim, 15 mile bike ride through rural Scott County roads and then a 5k run within the park.
I arrived pretty early for the 7:30 race so I would have time to get in a longer warm-up than I typically do for a race. I wanted to get some mileage as I'm building up for the 1/2 Ironman in Austin, TX on October 25th. I ran a 1.5 mile warm-up and then did 7 miles of biking. I didn't time things well as I found myself in a hurry to put my race jersey and shorts on about 20 minutes before the start. I found the world's most disgusting porta-potty across the road from the race site and held my breath while I changed. By the time I got down to the pool everyone was already lined up in order of expected swim times.
Swim: I entered the water as the 4th competitor. It was a time trial swim start with someone starting every 10 seconds. The swim was a disaster from the beginning. Being in a pool I expected to be doing flip turns on the end but ran into the first wall without turning because the wall had no marks on it and the color of the paint blended in really well with the water. I changed strategy and decided against the flip turns. I had no rhythm at all in the swim as I was running into the lane lines and couldn't figure out which side I wanted to breath to. The swim was short enough I just counted my losses and decided to try to make it up on the bike. As it was I exited with the 5th fastest swim of the day in a time of 6:33. This was only 8 seconds faster than last year and I'm a much better swimmer than that.
Bike: I had a good transition to the bike and came out of it in 2nd place. I could see the leader, Chris Scott about 30 seconds ahead of me. Chris is a good triathlete from Morrison, IL. We've raced against each other quite a few times. The first couple miles was through the park with some steep descents and a couple sharp turns. I was pretty cautious through the park and caught the leader just as we exited the park. At that point I started riding really hard and had a solid ride. I had done a much more intense workout on the day before the race than I have all year since I was training through this one so I didn't know what to expect. I finished the bike leg with a time of 34:58, which was a 25.7 mph average. This was about a minute faster than last year's bike time. My bike ranking was 1st in the race out of the 104 competitors.
Run: Another good transition had me out on the run deciding how hard I wanted to push. The only brick run I had done in the previous two weeks was the night before the race and this week had been my highest mileage in a month so I wasn't sure how the legs would feel. I put the Garmin GPS watch on to check my mileage pace. I was able to hold 5:35-5:40 pretty comfortable until the last mile. Some of it is through a trail in the woods and the grass was still wet so I slowed it down and proceeded with caution. We then finished with a couple good hills and my pace had slowed to 5:45 by the finish. My final run time was 17:44 which was also about a minute faster than last year. That run split was the top ranked of the day. I finished with a time of 1:01:14, a couple minutes faster than last year. Chris Scott took second place in 1:05:08. Complete results with splits can be found at http://www.theracershub.com/files/299-683.txt Congratulations to all the finishers of the race. For many it was their first triathlon and hopefully they enjoyed it and are hooked on the sport. It was great seeing lots of members of Team Tri-Fit at the race. The title sponsor of the race was Cafe Express and they are owned by club members Teresa and AJ Perisho.
For the week I began my 6 week progression with 140 bike miles, 45 run miles, and 7,500 swim yards. I also got back in the weight room and lifted 3 times, as well as doing lunges twice, speed drills and strides three times, and core work 4 times. My total training time this week was about 17 hours. I'm looking forward to getting back into good shape and having a great race in 6 weeks. Thanks for reading. DREAM BIG!
For the week