Hy-vee Highlights

Well the Hy-vee triathlon weekend is officially over and things went pretty well for me! The race was epic so I’m going to write a full race report later. In the mean time here are a few highlights from the weekend:

1) 1:08

That was the time gap from me to the race winner Simon Whitfield – 1 minute 8 seconds. The podium at yesterday’s race contained two Olympic gold medals and one silver so I am without a doubt excited about my finish. That indicates some serious improvements not only in my overall running speed but also my tactical awareness on the run and my ability to match accelerations. Underlying that was a solid swim and bike that put me in the front pack from the start. Sweet.

2) Simon Whitfield actually talked to me

That’s right, not only did I get to race against the Canadian Olympic Gold (Sydney) and Silver (Beijing) medalist, but he actually acknowledged my existence before the race! He told me to “stop running into people with my bike.” At the time I wasn’t aware that I was running into people with my bike, but it was sound advice nonetheless and I made sure to not run into anybody else with my bike from that point on. It’s pretty awesome to be able to race against guys like Simon. It would be even sweeter if I could just run 3 or 4 seconds per kilometer faster…

3) Our relay team didn’t get last

I’m happy to report that our relay team did not get last place – we beat Mexico Team II and USA Team IV. We’re awesome.

4) ITU racing is where it’s at

As Paulo Sousa recently reported in his June 23 post, ITU racing is definitely where it’s at. The new ITU World Championship Series is bringing the sport to new levels in terms of athletic ability, epic venues for racing, and live coverage around the world. Thus far in the first year of the series three races were decided by a sprint finish and a review of the finish line photo-finish camera. A few other races featured daring bike breakaways that decided the race winners. Paulo is right, Ironman can’t come close to providing the same amount of excitement or professionalism that ITU racing has. The rest of the world has known this for awhile. Hopefully these past two weekends of epic ITU style racing in Washington D.C. and West Des Moines changed the minds of a few iron-centric folks in the United States. Here are some great pics from this past weekend’s race from the ITU website:

Mark Fretta making a flying leap into the water for the second lap of the swim.

T2 chaos.

Simon Whitfield is pumped! I would be excited too if I just won $140,000 after taxes.