Final Quad Cities Triathlon
Pre-Race: Coming off a work trip from Arizona in 100+ degree heat, I had a feeling some of my energy would be zapped. I landed in Moline the evening before and drove straight to packet pickup. I got home, hopped on the trainer for an hour and did a quick runoff the bike. I hadn’t been on my TT bike in over a week, so race morning I got on for a quick 10 minutes to make sure everything was good to go.
Swim (7:48 – 3rd): I was the only
registered Elite athlete, so I just started at the front of the race. I paired
with a guy who wanted to be first out of the water, so I expected some quick
take-out speed. I got on his feet for the first 200 yards until I noticed
him drifting to the left. I cut straight towards the buoy and put in a surge as
he corrected and got onto my feet as I rounded the buoy. On the way back a
highschooler came around me followed by the first female athlete. I got in her
draft as we closed out the swim and was out of the water in 3rd. I was expecting a slightly faster time, but all
in all an ok swim.
T1 (1:58 – 5th): A very rough transition and I can’t explain why I was so out of sorts. I opted to forgo a flying mount with the uphill start, and I spent much more time getting my cycling shoes on than I should have. I came out 40s slower than the previous year but only lost a few seconds to the front.
Bike (36:31 – 1st): Starting the bike, I already had my shoes on and was able to punch it out of the park. I went by the high schooler and lead female that first ¼ mile and was off the front on my own. We had a strong tailwind heading out, but I could tell my pace was slow. HR was hanging at 172bpm and I was struggling to even hold 300W. With my computer set to auto lap every 5 miles, the first 5 was 296W and I knew it’d drop more the 2nd split with the U-turn in the middle. Next 5 was 291W (298NP, so I’m actually ok with that) and the final split dropped to 275W with the flying dismount at the end. Average Power: 285W (294NP) at 25.1mph. The next fasted split was my buddy Matt at just over 2 minutes back. So even though power was ~10W lower than last year, I felt like I had a decent ride.
T2 (0:50 - 20th): I thought I was incredibly efficient and opted to go sockless again, so I’m surprised to be so far down the list. 2nd place pulled 16s back on me, but I was through transition and well into the run before he came in.
Run (18:14 – 1st): I had a comfortable lead of about 5 minutes to 2nd after I hit the turnaround, but I made it a point to push as hard as I could. At the halfway point I was barely averaging 6min pace and didn’t have another gear. This was my slowest QCT run to date, and I was bummed to not be under 18. In the end, I came around the line over 7 minutes ahead of 2nd.
Post Race: Not going to lie, it felt good to finally
win what I consider a hometown race. At the same time, I must acknowledge the
fact that the guys I couldn’t beat in previous years were absent. I was slower
across the board in at 5 of my splits, so it’s hard to feel like I earned it. However,
I am reminded that you can only race who shows up, and it’s possible that I could
have dug a little deeper if I was chasing like previous years. I can blame
travel, being in “Ironman shape” or a whole mess of other things. But when I
have a race like this, I’m learning to let it be and just get back to work. So
many times, I over-analyze an effort and convince myself that I’m off track. Instead,
I’ll take winning the final QC Tri with a smile and start building to Ironman
Lake Placid.
Here to hoping for a resurrection of the Quad Cities Triathlon in the near future.
