Ames Triathlon - 2023

 It was cloudy and windy as I backed my truck out of the garage to head north at 5:00am on Sunday morning. After such a successful race in the Quad Cities just last week I was feeling confident but the wind had me a bit nervous. I arrived at Ada Hayden just before 6:00am and got a spot in the first parking lot across the road. I had opted to skip packet pickup on Saturday to save the extra 1.5 hours of drive time so I headed to the registration table right away. After getting my packet I got marked and headed into transition to get things set up. 

Transition was set up with an aisle down the middle and racks on either side. My spot was exactly in the middle of transition and on the outside by the fence, which I liked because there was some extra space for me to leave my bag so that I didn't have to walk it all the way back to my truck. After setting up and hitting the bathroom I found my friend, Adam, setting up his bike. Adam and I have been doing some training together over the last few months and he was competing in his very first duathlon. We killed time before the race walking around to loosen up. Having someone to talk to helped keep the nerves at bay as well. 

Soon after transition closed we began lining up for the swim start. I spotted Erin heading toward me as I was line and she snapped a quick selfie with me. 

Pre-race selfie with my biggest fan

The race start was similar to last week, a self-seeded time trial start, so I was lined up near the back again. This week, they started people much more quickly and I was in the water by 8:17am. It didn't take long for me to realize how much of an impact the wind and waves were having on my swim. I struggled to keep a straight line with the cross wind and every few breaths a wave would break over my head as I was breathing. I swallowed A LOT of lake water. After about 150 yards I reached the first turn buoy and was headed straight into the wind. Breathing was easier now but it was slow going fighting the wind. I could feel that I was using a lot of energy and tried my best to get into a rhythm but just never got there. I finally reached the far buoy and turned with the wind at my back for the last 400 yards. Swimming was much easier at this point but I would again occasionally have a wave break over my head as I tried to breathe. I finally reached the boat ramp after what felt like hours and got up out of the water to head into T1. 

And I'm off!

Battling a cross wind

Great view of the swim course

Emerging like Aquaman once again

As I crossed the timing mat into T1, I checked my watch and was very disappointed to see a time of 24:30 as I had hoped to finish around 20 minutes. Determined to improve on last week, I sped through T1 in a time of 2:26, a HUGE improvement over the 4:04 from last week and giving me more than 1:30 back from that horrid swim time. 

My bike got off to a slow start as we had to ride on the shoulder of highway 69 for about a half mile and I was unable to pass. We then had a short climb before turning West and heading directly into the wind for about 2 miles. The wind was over 20mph and gusting about 30mph and it had a huge impact on the early portion of the race. I got a small reprieve from the wind as we turned north for a mile before heading back west again. It is at this point of the race that we hit the biggest and steepest climb and I think I may have averaged about 8mph going up that hill. It was brutal! Eventually I reached the farthest west part of the course and turned north before heading back east with the wind. Although the north/south sections of the course weren't into the wind, that cross wind really pushed me around and it took a lot of effort just to keep my bike going in a straight line at times. I finally reached the turn back onto highway 69 and down into Ada Hayden but my legs were on fire.

Heading back into the park towards T2

I managed to complete the 15.5 mile bike course in 59:28 which means I met my goal of finishing in under 1 hour. Because I know what I'm capable of, it seems laughable to type this but I'm actually very pleased with the 15.6mph that I was able to average on the bike course considering the conditions. I know what I am capable of on the bike when I'm in peak condition so watch out world when next season comes around!

I once again made up some time in transition with a T2 time of 1:44. The run course was a figure 8 on the trails around Ada Hayden lake, and I'm sure it is a gorgeous place to take a walk on a sunny and not-so-windy day. As I headed out on the run course I didn't have a good read on my body. My legs didn't feel super heavy like they sometimes do at the transition but I also wasn't feeling particularly ready to push it on the run. I had a GU gel in my back pocket and pondered using it for awhile but opted not to. About 2/3 of a mile into the run I began monitoring my heart rate and I was consistently staying in zone 2 so I knew my body was holding up. I pushed through mile 1 and was excited to see a sub-12:00 minute time. I tried to keep the same effort through mile 2 and was surprised to once again see a sub-12:00 minute mile. I kept the hammer down and gave it everything I had for the remaining 1.1 miles. I kept waiting to hit a wall but it never came, and before I knew it I was heading around the south end of the lake and the finish line was in sight. As my watch buzzed to signal the completion of mile 3, I was very surprised to see a time of 11:45. 

High five from Bridget as I head out
onto the run course

Settling into a good pace early in the run

Heading into the finish chute

I completed the 5k run in 36:32, an average of 11:46/mi. I'll be honest, I did not know that I had that type of run in me right now, nonetheless after a hard swim and bike. To put all of this in perspective, during all of the miles that I have run during my 500+ day run streak, there have only been 2 miles that came in under 12 minutes, both were 11:59 and came on different training runs. I just completed 3 consecutive miles, all under 12 minutes. As mentioned previously, it has been very hard for me to view anything as a success because I'm always comparing myself to past-Patrick. The feeling that I had about that run is pure pride and accomplishment. I quickly headed over to find my family to celebrate.

Bridget and Abigail were equally proud
of me AND cold

I mentioned earlier that I had a friend competing in the duathlon. It turns out that he is every bit as amazing as I thought he was and he had an amazing race as well. I was able to catch up with him at the finish line as well as he was nice enough to stick around to watch me finish. 

Adam headed out on his 2nd run

2 very accomplished gentlemen

Due to logistics and the fact that spectating these races can be tricky and boring at times, it has been rare for Erin and the girls to attend my races. Honestly, it doesn't bother me at all when they do not come BUT I'm very happy when they do. It was great having them to cheer me on the whole time and I couldn't help but smile every time I heard "Great job daddy!" on the course. It wasn't just me that had to brave the yucky weather, they did as well. 

Cold, and probably a little bit bored

Finding a way to stay warm

Now I'm not going to dwell on this next part too much, but it is part of the story and needs to be told. Excitement after crossing the finish line did not last long as Erin informed me that she got a fraud alert on one of her credit cards during the race. We tried to think through where she would have used the card that could have resulted in the number being stolen. Her and the girls headed back to the car quickly to verify that she hadn't accidentally dropped or left it somewhere only to find that the passenger side window of her car had been broken and her satchel with Id and credit cards was gone. There were several Sheriff's deputies already on scene as about 40 cars were hit (all racers and spectators). Without going into too many details, Ames police were actually able to track the guy down and arrest him. We spent the rest of our day cleaning up the mess and making phone calls and appointments. I'm not going to lie, it really put a cloud over another successful race. 

Broken glass everywhere

It was certainly another successful step on my comeback tour. I've spent some time thinking about how great it will be when I can finally put all of the pieces back together. If I could have paired last week's swim with this weeks transitions and run it would have been outstanding. I'm really starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. It is still very small and very far away, but it is there and I am heading in the right direction. I've been having so much fun racing, that I did some digging and found another sprint triathlon in Marengo, IA on my birthday weekend in September. I might just sign up for that one too!

I have 2 weeks of recovery and training before my next race but it will actually be 2 races in 1 weekend. On July 8th I will head back up to Ames to compete in the 8k Des Moines Corporate Games cross country race. Then on Sunday, July 9th I will head out to Big Creek to race at the Des Moines Corporate Games triathlon, proudly representing John Deere in both. 

Thanks for reading!