Wednesday, September 9, 2015

2015 Des Moines Tri pre-race


I had not intended of participating in any event this year.  Due to the birth of my daughter, Summer, I just didn’t have the time or the energy to train.  Also, ever since a medication change last fall I regained the 20 lbs. I had lost last year.  I just wasn’t feeling like doing much of anything.

I hadn’t even gotten out on the bike just for fun much either.  Typically I pull the girls in the Burley about 500 miles a year.  As of today I am just shy of 100 miles.  Sometime around the end of July I decided to work on my weight loss again so I started running a bit.  Usually only once a week, but it was something.  I had not been in the pool all year.

A little over 2 weeks before the Des Moines Tri, Jen got a message from a friend that she had won an entry though work.  Since she had no use for it she asked Jen if we were interested.  I figured since it was free, why not?  The DSM Tri offered both a Sprint and an Olympic distance this year.  Since Hy-Vee was shortened to Sprint due to weather last year I threw caution to the wind and signed up for the Olympic.  Go big or go home, right?

Since I had exactly two weeks to train I decided to go with the same plan I did last year.  Concentrate on swim and run.  In two weeks I swam 4 times, a mile each time, and ran 5, running 6 miles each time.  3 of those runs where with 2 of the girls.  Pushing 60 lbs. is good resistance training.  J  I also did one day of bike.  It was a 60 mile ride with a local group of people that regularly train for Ironman’s.  About 30 miles in I was unable to keep up and got dropped.  I was a little disappointed as this was supposed to be an easy, taper ride for them.  More than anything I hate riding alone on the road.  Too many a-holes in cars.  After a piece of pizza and a little pity party I continued on my own route and finished the ride.

It was a pretty difficult two weeks.  When you work two jobs, have three kids, one of which is a new born and working around Jen’s schedule (she teaches swim lessons a couple nights a week), made for some very long days for me and short tempers at home from everyone.

On the day of packet pick-up I had to work at the mill in the morning.  That was the deal I made with Jen’s parents so they would watch the girls while Jen worked and I participated in the Tri.  After work I grabbed lunch and headed down to packet pick-up.  Race briefings were every hour.  Since I have about 30 minutes to kill before the next meeting I headed up to the Expo.  Since Jen likes to do some of the more popular running races I have been to many Expo’s all over the Midwest.  They tend to be very large with lots of vendors and free samples.  I had been to the expo several times back when it was Hy-Vee and now this one and they have always been very small.  I would guess maybe a dozen tables?  Surprisingly Bike World was the only bike shop and the guy manning the table seemed very put out that he had to spend his entire day there.  I figured Discount Tri Supply would be there since they are local.  I left with an empty bag and proceeded down to the briefing.

After briefing I headed back to check-in to get my packet and swag.  Again the swag was a little disappointing this year.  Last year we got a kick-ass backpack, a bike jersey, sunglasses and all kinds of product samples.  I’ve actually started using a lot of those products because I got to try them out first.  This year we got a long sleeve dry-fit shirt (I hate long sleeve) and a pretty crappy bag filled with advertisements.  I’m probably complaining to much for getting a free entry but it’s the same management company so the bar was set pretty high last year.  It just kind of adds to the fun and excitement I guess.

During the briefing I started to get nervous.  I was 20 lbs. heavier than last year, I did about 1/100th the training of last year, it was forecasted to be in the 90’s with humidity and I was going to do double the distance of last year.  I was a little worried about finishing.

I then drove down to Gray’s Lake to drop off my bike.  I always like walking around the bike corral.  I like to drool over the fancy bikes.  It’s probably the only place you will see a $20,000 full carbon tri-bike sitting next to a $150 rusted out Wal-Mart special. 

I went home, mowed the yard and had dinner.  Hit the bed about 9 pm.  I really had a hard time sleeping.  My phone was soon buzzing at 4:45 and I remember why races are not really my thing.  I hate getting up in the morning.  I’m not sure if it’s a proper pre-race meal but I had two hard boiled eggs and a Bonk Breaker bar that I had gotten for free along with a large glass of water.  I had packed up my bag the night before and was already in the truck so I wouldn’t forget it so I filled up three water bottles and another glass of water and was out the door.

I left about 5:30 and it was already 80 degrees according to my truck and you could feel the humidity. I got to Grey’s lake much earlier than last year when we had to park about as far away as you could and had to rush to get my stuff set-up before transition closed.  It was so nice to be able to take my time to set up all my stuff at a leisurely pace.  I had my stuff set up by 6:30 so I sat down to relax and eat my banana.  About 6:45 I headed over to the start.  Due to the heat they had extra water so I grabbed one and ate my Honey Stinger waffle.

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