Race Coverage

"Claire Slapped Me on the Butt"...

Wednesday, 05 June 2013 01:10

By Dan Hedgecock (danhedgecock.blogspot.com)

PIGMAN SPRINT - 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.

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. READ MORE