2009 Season highlights

The TRIracers had their annual party just recently, and everyone got a chance to say something about their highlights for the last season. Made me think about it. I had a few, too. The ironman was obviously the dominant theme for the year, but there were lots of great things.

• Cynthia put up with me and the long days. It got to her, and she let me know when I was disappearing too long at times, but she supported me and I have to thank her. I love you.

• Bluff Creek Triathlon in May. This was the first race of the year, and I just took a couple of easy days before to "prepare" for it and its hilly bike course. The highlight was just how easy the run felt. Boy I felt good that day. Hoping for more days that feel like that.

• Ankeny kids Triathlon. My then-8 year old twins (boy and girl) both won first place. Can you believe? But the best part was when my daughter checked the results and exclaimed to him, "T, I got first place in boys and you got second place in boys!" without even blinking an eye. (I did mention to the scorekeeper that she was a girl a little while later.)

• Kansas 70.3. I had been kinda worried about this race. I thought I had a pretty good shot of going under 5:30 and did a fair amount of race planning. When we got there, the weather reports just looked awful. It didn't seem we had a shot at racing, but on the morning of the race, it was all good. This race just went spectacularly for me. Everything clicked. My first pass of the run course, I ran by the TRI racers tent and yelled "sub 5:30" or something to that effect. I was looking at my watch and feeling the run so easy. Second pass, the run got a little harder, but the math was inevitable. I was having a great day. 5:08 and I feel good. Could I get to sub 5:00 with a better swim???

• Hy Vee. I had a good race - maybe not super. (But what can you expect just a week or so after a 70.3?) But the venue was very cool, and it was a great race with Christopher. He had a breakthrough race of about 2:26, and immediately plotted his goal for the year: 2:20 at Big Creek.

• Big Creek Oly. This was the most fun race ever. I started in a wave 4 minutes in front of Christopher. He passed me in the swim and shouted at me as he went by. (And broke up my draft...). I caught him back pretty early in the bike, and thought maybe I had dusted him, which disappointed me a little; I had hoped he would be on for that 2:20. But when I got to T2 and had a little trouble, there he was coming in just as I was getting ready to go out. We ran together for a few miles. It was awesome. Eventually, I pulled ahead, to finish a minute before him. But I had a four minute head-start. So chalk one up for him: 2:20! My PR at that distance too, 2:23.

• Youth nationals. OK, I didn't race, but Christopher did. Great to watch him. He had a great day and finished in the middle of the pack. T&O both got altitude sickness, which was disappointing, but again, the experience overall was very cool.

• PigMan Half. There is no way to turn this into a highlight, except that it was, shall we say, exceptional. Pounding rain was off and on through the swim and bike, along with horrible winds. It rained so hard that it physically hurt when it hit your skin. I've never seen so many guys stopped on the side of the road as during that bike ride. By the end of the bike, though, the rain cleared and it started getting pretty warm...almost hot. In the end, my bike time still looked ok, but I had horrible GI problems on the run. At least 3 other people I know had the same pre-race meal and all had the same problem, but was it that or because I biked too hard? The highlight of the run for me was the porta potty at mile 9. I have stopped to use one exactly twice in my race career - once to pee at ironman, and once to use the facilities a little more exhaustively at this race...and that was going to have to happen whether there was a porta potty or not. Uggh.

• IM Wisconsin. What a great event! Our hotel was ridiculously overpriced, but the town area was otherwise very cool. Swim execution was perfect. (I was not quite prepared for how violent it would be, but at least it didn't seem long.) I had mentally broken it up in the two-lap sequence and this worked great. The bike felt awesome, and I had a great time without feeling excessively fatigued. (19.3 mph ave). I felt I would easily (?) get 11:30. Maybe even 11:15! But then my body blew up (temp, HR, as described in that race report) almost as soon as I started the run, which I still attribute to a virus, though I cannot rule out an overexuberant bike split. No nutrition issues. I did the best I could for the rest of the day, and I have no regrets. A little disappointment I will admit with my 12:06 finish, but I should not complain. It was a good first effort. It's just that the next one will be so long from now.