USAT Sanctioned: Yes
Date: Sunday September 12
Location: Polk City, IA
Previous Results: First time at this event
The greatest battle to ever take place was the Thrilla in Manilla. Ali & Frazier. Mano-a-Mano.
Currently, I've got ESPN camped outside my house wanting interviews. Barbara Walters wants to know, "If you could be a tree, what kind of tree would you be?" Sports Illustrated wants to do a exposé. Why?
Because of the ChaCha! in Iowa. It is myself, the Medicine Man of Minnesota going up against William 'The Professor' Jenks for all the marbles in the male 45-49 age group. The Professor is coming off his 4:48:43 PR at Steelhead. I'm coming off my little sprint 2nd place AG finish at Maple Grove. I politely asked for a 4-minute handicap to which the Professor replied, ""The Medicine Man just wants sympathy and I can see why. He is so ugly that when he cries, the tears turn around and go down the back of his head."
To which, I simply replied, "It's on like Donkey Kong."
OK, there is no rivalry but you can be sure we'll be marking each other during the event. It will be a pleasure to finally meet William. We've exchanged a lot of e-mails back-and-forth over the last couple of years and he's helped me out a ton with motivation, inspiration, and suggestions.
Swim - click here for map
The swim consists of a 500 yard out and back course. The swim will start from the beach and the course will be well marked with buoys. The waves (great, dead last again) are:
•10:00 am - Swim wave #1 (Collegiate, Relay, Athena, Clydesdale)
•10:04 am - Swim wave #2 (Female 13-34)
•10:08 am - Swim wave #3 (Male 13-29)
•10:12 am - Swim wave #4 (Female 35 plus)
•10:16 am - Swim wave #5 (Male 30-39)
•10:20 am - Swim wave #6 (Male 40 plus)
Bike - click here for map
This is a 14.3 mile course (14.41 via Map My Ride) being touted as flat, fast and fun. I don't know about fun. And having raced in Iowa this year I'm anxious to see their definition of 'flat'. I've yet to experience flat in Iowa.
Run - click here for map
The 3.1 mile run course is flat and on well paved trails and roads. The course also provides several opportunities to check the distance to that competitor ahead or behind you. Aid stations at miles 1 and 2 will have water and sports drink.
Predictions
Swim: 07:55
T1: 2:10
Bike: 38:13 (22.6 MPH)
T2: 1:05
Run: 20:09 (6:30 per mile)
Total: 01:09:32
Shout Outs!
William Jenks - Congrats to the Professor on this 3rd place AG finish (male 45-49) at Hickory Grove triathlon.
Mario Minelli - Mario got second overall at Mosquito Man just as I predicted. I just got the winner wrong!
Greta Simpson - Greta had a fantastic event in winning the female side of the St. Croix Valley Sprint Triathlon.
1 comment:
Flat is relative. There's almost nowhere in Central Iowa where there aren't at least 1-2% gradients up and down pretty constantly with only a few miles of real flatness here and there. There are some areas (like near Cornman!) that are really pretty rolly, and several river valleys that give relatively short (inverted) hills that have ~10% gradients.
There actually is one pretty much pancake flat bike TT series done near this race a few times throughout the summer. It's 15-20 minutes of lung-searing hell, though, so I'm not sure flat really helps. :-)
See you next weekend!
William
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