Pig Sprint Recap

Two B2s, 4 Zipp Wheels, 2 Race Bags and 2 Racers. Claire and I packed the Mini to the maximum for the drive down.

I traveled down to Cedar Rapids IA this weekend for the Pig Sprint Tri with Claire, who is the best road trip partner there is. We both love this race because the elite men and women compete in an equalizer format for a $750 bonus to whoever crosses the line first. Last year the women's head start was 9 minutes over the men and Claire ran away with the race and set a new women's course record. This year, the elites all agreed to try and make the race a little closer by cutting down the head start to the difference between the men's and women's course records, 7:43.

Race morning was cold and windy. I forgot to pack a jacket and walked around all morning with a blanket from my car to keep warm until it was close enough to race start to put on my wetsuit and go jump in the water. Even though the water temp was only 64, it felt great after the cold wind and I had enough time to get in a good 10 min swim warm up.

Kevin hooked me up with a new Blue Seventy Helix wetsuit this winter.
I had to model it in the living room for Claire this spring because the lakes were still frozen.

Tami Ritchie led the women out of the water in 6:17 as the men lined up on the beach. By the time we started, most of them have already started the bike course. I made a solid step toward redeeming myself after my St. A's swim debacle with a respectable 6:23 for a 500m swim. David was out of the water 9 seconds ahead of me and although he had an uncharacteristically off day, I was excited to be able to actually see him since he's normally on the bike and gone by the time I finish the swim.

I very quickly made up that 9 second difference in transition when David realized he had left his helmet in the Gear West van. He had to run through the parking lot, grab his helmet and then run back to transition. Daniel Bretscher, Thompson and myself all started the bike together and put in some time leading. The wind was so strong that I was getting blown all over the road and was white knuckle gripping my bars on the long straight descent out of the park at 40mph without any tree coverage to break the wind. Because the three of us rode together there was a very advantageous draft even though we maintained 3 bike length separation. At that distance there is a slight draft even without a headwind like we had on some sections. The women were much more split up and also got pushed around more by the wind because they are lighter.

Riding into transition we were pretty much on top of the lead two girls, Claire and a fellow Mizzou track and field alum Sunny Gilbert. I once again got an advantage coming into transition when Bretscher and Thompson drifted into each other during dismounting and both went down. Neither was hurt, but I ran past the two of them and racked my bike next to Claire as she was putting on her shoes.

Pig Sprint is hands down one of the best
races in the Midwest, but it fills in January
so you have to register early to get in.

Claire gave me a slap on the butt and told me to go catch Sunny. I got my legs under me running through the uphill transition and started the first mile running as hard as I could. I know from personal experience that in a run as short as 5k, if someone has a decent lead at the turnaround it's mentally really hard not to just let them go. The run was slow because of the wind, but I felt good and was really happy to cross the line first.

Race Results: http://www.pigmantri.com/pigman-sprint/results/pig113b.pdf

After the race David and I didn't want to do a cool down run with Kevin, so we all went for a walk with Claire and I was right back to freezing cold. We spent the rest of the morning huddled in the van trying to warm back up except for Kevin, who apparently doesn't feel cold even though he was wearing shorts, he spent the entire morning catching up with Iowans he knows and helping people with mechanical problems.

Now it's time for another big work week with good consistent aerobic mileage. Claire and I are driving to Winona MN next weekend for Trinona, “The world's biggest little triathlon”.

Train safely and wish me luck.