A little delayed race recap, but figured I’d better get it done with another race coming up on July 20th! I had just finished up my recap from Chattanooga right before I headed to race Des Moines on June 9th. The last time I raced 70.3’s so close together was back in 2016, which went ok, but being a few years older now I wasn’t sure how my body would feel. My coach added in a few intense workouts in between the two races, but nothing too crazy. I had raced this course last year so I knew that the bike course would be hilly (that was such a surprise last year and I was annoyed the whole time while riding thinking it would be flat) and the run course would be flat.

JMR had a work deadline so I made the trip up solo. This time I was really trying to work on keeping my nerves calm and staying relaxed as I was mess before Chattanooga. One thing that really helped was that the size of the race was about 1/3 of Chattanooga, so that already made me feel better knowing the bike course wasn’t going to be so crowded. The smaller transition area also gave a much more chill vibe. Saturday I did race check in, walked around downtown for a bit, dropped my bike off in the afternoon and then settled in to stay off my feet.

Race day I was up at 3:45a and out the door to transition at 4:30a. I arrived in plenty of time to get a great parking spot and was actually lined up outside transition waiting for it to open. That was a first! I was able to get set up pretty quickly and was racked right next to my buddy who was also racing, which helped keep my nerves calm. We then headed to the swim start and hung out, took forever to get our wetsuits on, and then finally lined up for our swim corrals. My mind was in a much better space than it was in Chattanooga before the swim, I still had some race nerves, but I didn’t feel that fight or flight feeling. I just told myself to focus on the swim and worry about the bike and run when I was doing them.

I hopped in the water and seemed to find an ok rhythm, I wore a sleeveless wetsuit this time since I felt like the sleeved restricts my arms and I wanted to make the swim as comfortable as possible, especially since the water wasn’t freezing. I noticed my goggles seemed to be a little loose and wasn’t sure if water was going to leak, but decided to leave them be and keep going. I liked this swim course because the three left turns and two right turns really kept my mind busy, focusing for the yellow buoy, then the red where we would turn and repeat. I was a little frustrated as it seemed everyone was swimming past me quickly and thinking ‘why can’t I just swim faster?!’, but I kept pulling myself back into the moment and remembering I was doing the best I could. I made the last right turn and tried to push a little harder as I swam to the finish. When I got out of the water I saw 39 on my watch and was like ‘well it felt slow, seems about right’, and moved on.

I ran into transition, got my shoes, sunglasses and helmet on and was off. The first part of the course goes through a park and last year I was super annoyed with the loops on the small path and feeling like I couldn’t pick up the pace, but this year I was familiar with the loops and was able to push a little harder. Although once we left the park portion I was happy to be out on the roads. That was until we hit this stretch that had huge seams every five feet that just rattled the crap out of my bike. I was prepared for a tire to pop and was also annoyed as it didn’t seem to bother everyone else as they passed me. I looked down and saw my front hydration was about to fall off, so I pulled over and fussed with it until I got it all back together and got back to it. I noticed my watch and cycling computer times didn’t match and realized my watch probably auto-paused when I stopped, oh grr.

The next part of the course was on really nice roads, and I was able to push the pace and was feeling great. I saw my friend on an out and back around mile 30 and cheered as he rode past. We had two more out and backs and was able to hold a good pace, but I could tell I was fading a little. I tried to keep taking in my nutrition in hopes that it would help keep my energy up and from fading. I was using a little bit different of a nutrition plan, adding more sodium to my drink and also increasing my calories from 200 to 250 an hour on the bike and it seemed to be working! Finally I approached the last out and back and headed back into the park, this time a little slower as it was more crowded and I didn’t feel comfortable passing on the turns on the narrower path.

As I pulled into T2 I was thrilled to see 2:54 on my Garmin computer, a little better than last year and I also felt much stronger. I quickly swapped into my run shoes, belt, hat and grabbed my handheld and ran out. My legs were feeling good and I used the same mentality as I did in Chattanooga, to just relax on the first mile, don’t stress about pace and just let my legs get used to running. Surprisingly my first split was in the 8’s, and I just kept sticking with that pace. I had decided to change my nutrition on the run a little by adding more salt and 1-2 more gels, which also gave me something to focus on for each mile, either just water on head and around neck, or salt or taking a gel. I really tried to stay in the mile I was in and not get ahead of myself stressing about ‘how much farther’, and it seemed to help me stay relaxed and keep a steady pace. When I made the turn for the second loop I was still feeling good, a little tired but ok. I saw my paces were slipping to the higher 8’s, but I just told myself as long as they were under 9 that was close to my goal and just stay relaxed. Once I made the final turn at mile 10.25 to head downtown I felt both relieved and tired. I also mixed up when I was taking my next gel and took it at the 10.4 aid station, a mile early and my stomach felt a little angry after. At mile 11 I decided to take a look at my watch again and saw I was going to possibly come in a little faster than my run time at Chattanooga if I could just stay under a 9 min pace. ‘I can do it!’ I thought. I was able to pick up the pace just a little bit and when I hit mile 12 I thought, ‘I can do one more mile’. (well 1.1 miles). I was in the zone and focused, I could hear the finish line music. I made the turn for the finish and was feeling so much relief that the finish was steps away.

I ran under the chute and saw 5:33 on my watch and figured maybe I came in around 5:34 (adding 90 sec for the bike hydration fix autopause), but regardless I had run my fastest 70.3 run ever! I was thrilled. I will say, knowing that this is my last triathlon for the year (very short season for me, lol), it gave me a little boost on the run to finish out strong. I was also just so surprised how well Chattanooga and Des Moines went on such low volume training, I guess the years of training definitely builds a strong base. I hung around at the finish and waited for my friend and after he finished we chatted about our races and then I headed out to hit the road for the 5ish hour drive home.

That’s a wrap on the 2024 triathlon season, now on to ultrarunning training!