After recovering from worlds and doing a trip to Toronto to do a media tour and event for the Reactine Allergy medication I was off to Des Moines, Ioah for the biggest prizemony race in Triathlon.
The goal here was to take the fitness and prep from worlds and put down another good performance and hopefully pick up some cash. The original course had been flooded and moved to a new area which was potentially not able to have a swim as the lake was not clean enough. Over the week prior to the event though the water levels went down and the lake was deemed safe to swim in. So a Triathlon was on!
I again had a another good swim exiting at the front of the main group with only five guys in a group 30 seconds ahead. We quickly reeled the group in and then it was another pack of 30 guys riding together for 40km. There were a couple of attacks but nothing substantial and I again got into transition at the fron but then a shoe strap snapping slowed my exit but I was still in the middle of the group.
The temperature was quite high and having not raced in the heat yet this year I took a conservative approach the run. I also had a gut full of drink that was too sweet and salty to absorb sloshing around. It wasn’t until about 3km into the run after taking lots of water that my stomach emptied a bit and I paired up with Hendrik Devilliers of S.Africa to start pulling the guys ahead in. We swapped off the lead and we quickly moved by guys over the next 5km till we were in 13th and 14th. Hendrik put a hard surge in with 1.5km to go and I was risking blowing in the heat trying to go with him so I let the gap open slowly and by doing so I moved up one more position to finish 12th and pick up a nice pay cheque.
