HyVee - The day before

Leading up to the end of triathlon season I was feeling a bit of the blahs. I don't know if it was the heat of this summer or the hectic schedule but it had been a few weeks since I had felt any real motivation toward competing. I was ready to go to Hyvee, enjoy a fun event, see the pro's race and have a little vacation...but the thought of having a strong race or setting a PR wasn't really on my mind. Especially when all of the info coming from the race director was the water was 83+ and the event would not be wetsuit legal...more on that later.

Labor day weekend arrived and we loaded up the car to head up to Des Moines. I kept trying to convince Michelle that one of the kids wouldn't mind riding on top so my bike could be in the car and not get wet on the ride up...she didn't agree. So, the bike went on top with the computer and seat wrapped up to keep them nice and dry and three or so short hours later we were at the Marriott in Des Moines.

Once we were up there Saturday we split up and my mom, Michelle and the kids hit the science museum while dad, Brian and I headed to the Expo, race briefing and to get my packet. This was a very well organized race, the race briefing and packet pickup went very smooth and I got some great swag!! After I got my packet dad, Brian and I headed down where they had a Q&A with the pro triathletes that would be racing on Sunday afternoon...then off to the bike course.


When I've never seen the bike course I like to drive it to give me an idea of where the hills are and what the pacing might be during the race. Despite the course elevation map's scale making it look like I was going to be climbing the rockies this course was fairly flat. There was a long steady climb at the beginning and some rollers but most of it was flat.

One new experience for this race was bike check-in the night before. The thought of racking my bike the night before and then just leaving it there in the park didn't seem like a great idea. But I figured just like out running a bear...you don't have to be faster than the bear you just can't be the slowest guy in the chase...and there were lots of fancier bikes than mine in that transition area to pick from. So, I left the bike and headed back to the hotel looking forward to a good time on Sunday.