Race Coverage

Coyotes, Semis and Super Good Sandwiches...

Tuesday, 13 October 2020 23:10

By Noah Billings

TRI BY KNIGHT RACE REPORT - I was interested in Tri by Knight at Wartburg College because their reschedule date, October 10, 2020,  fit perfectly between mountain bike races and looked to be a way to get one more race in before the end of season.  I liked the distance proportions.  It had a short 300 swim, a nice 15 mile bike, then a 3 mile run to finish.   

We left at 4:45 AM and drove to the college.  We almost hit a coyote. Because of Covid, there were a lot of extra rules about spectators and who could go into the fieldhouse, but they had a ton of student athlete volunteers so there were a lot of people to help.  Also, my tri friends from Rochester- Kevin Proud, Lael Daire, and Sarah Hunter- were all there so I hung with them pre-race. 

I was a little nervous for this race. My mom got covid at her work and we had to quarantine for 2 weeks and my doctor and coach said I should not train at all during that time.  I was released from quarantine and allowed to exercise 1 week before the race.  I was worried about whether I would still be fast.

The race started time trial style.  The swim was inside the fieldhouse and was a serpentine swim.  I thought it was super fun.  The transition was not too far, but it seemed huge because of the space between bikes.  The Bike was super windy riding through cornfields on a 2-lane road.  They told me the wind was 20 mile/hour.  There was a semi that slowed me down, but then it sped up and got gravel dust everywhere.  That was the worst part of the race.  After the semi, I turned so the wind was not a problem anymore and I was flying.  The run was a little hilly, it was 3 one-mile laps and part of the lap was through the stadium, so I got to see my parents cheer 3 times on the run.  I felt like my run was really strong.  I was pretty confident I had done well because I was able to pass another kid who I knew was fast. 

I got a drinking glass for finishing.  I took 1st in my age group (u-19) and 8th overall.  My time was 1:06:54. I got a cool backpack for first place.  We went to a really cool deli in Waverly, Iowa for sandwiches after and they were super good. 

I will probably do this race again, it was a fun course and I liked the swag.  The drive home was awesome because the fall colors were great. RESULTS