Des Moines race report 5th July 2009
Morning everyone,
Every year for the last two years there comes a race in Des Moines, Iowa. Its a race like no other we have on the circuit during the year. With so much on the line, and most of it is plain old hard cash.. Its also freaken hot in Des Moines! two days before the race and 40 degrees with 98% humidity! do I hear Ambulance anyone...
In a time when money is the object of everyones problems the team in Des Moines do a fantastic job. More importantly Hy Vee the major sponsor of the event, the way they come up with 1 million dollars in prize money is just simply amazing. As an athlete Its a dream to be able to race for prize money like this. To the winner go the spoils, thats pretty normal I guess. But here the spoils are $200,000 big US dollars, so to the winner went more than just the spoils of winning the race but to spend a nice the big check afterwards!!
Not only did we have the big Hy-vee event the weekend also doubled up as the World Team Championship. We had a great team with Myself Andrea Hewitt, Bevan Docherty and Sam Warriner. The race would be run as a team relay with each athlete completing a 250 swim a 8k bike and then finishing off with a 1.8k run. It was going to be difficult to back up after the big race but we all knew what was expected when representing your country.
I had planned with Chris for the Hy-Vee events to be one of my first peaks of the year. I've been training and racing well throughout the first half of the season off mostly limited intensity in my program. We stepped it up a notch over the past month in Boulder heading into Hy-Vee and were both looking forward to the results.
When I arrived in Des Moines you could feel the anticipation from all the athletes. From the get go we all knew it was going to be a big day for someone, for sure... we just didn't know how close it would be come race day at the finish line for 6 of us.
The race started well for me. I had a great swim maintaining contact with the front pack most of the way. had a great transition from swim to bike and was the front of affairs quickly. I'd planned to be as close to the front as I could without expending any more energy than I needed. I also wanted to keep an eye out for any key break away opportunities that could present themselves, especially early on. For the first 4 laps of 8 the bike was pretty much, full gas. We had around 20 guys in the front group some working some not but thats the game. The second chase pack of about 15 guys were really close and chasing hard the whole time. they caught us after three laps and then the pace dropped. For a lap and a half I actually got up the road by 20 seconds or so with Matt Reed when this happened. He's a hammer on the bike, I knew if I could follow we had a small chance to steal a march. But It wasn't going to happen, the other top guys were not letting me go, and it was shut down before it got dangerous. Straight away Matt attacked again and this time they let him fly. A couple of others drifted of the pack late in the bike as the group slowed down considerably as we all prepared for the run. But I was sure the winner was going to come from the big group, and so it was game on for the run.
I hit the second transition and went straight to work to string the guys out early on the run. I had some great help from Jan Frodeno ( Olympic Champion ) setting the pace early, and I felt great when I was at the front. The first to come around us was Brad Kahlefeldt ( Commonwealth Games Champion ) and he set about raising the pace again. At 3k there was really just the three of us with a small group behind by maybe 5 or so meters which included Javier Gomez ( World Champion 2008 ) Jarrod Shoemaker ( USA Olympian 2008 ) and last and by no means Least Simon Whitfield ( Double Olympic medalist).
Myself and Chris had spoken about going with my instincts after the race in Korea played out the way it did. I had raced to a plan there and held back when I felt great in patches and didn't move with it. So at 4k I hit the go button! I went away from everyone for some meters, but then hit my only bad patch of the race and got reeled back in. Weather or not this was just bad timing for me that I felt bad at that very moment after feeling so good prior to making the move. Or that the increase in speed caused it, I'm still not sure but I'll never know. What I do know is then when Brad attacked straight over the top of me, only myself and Jan could follow him. This surge was also quite short but it did do some damage. Although shortly after we eased up again and they other three again joined back on to make six once more. Then it was Javier's turn, everyone covered this but Simon. He was lurking just off the back ( as in Beijing 2008 ) gone again you say? not by a long shot..
At this time I started to feel very good. The pace had slowed a lot and it was decision time. You could see everyone was thinking the same thing is it too late to raise the pace now and suffer myself?? Or if I do would I be the sacrificial Lamb.
To be honest in this situation you have to back yourself. If you think you are good enough, and I do, then go for it, so I did. I knew it was a technical finish, and I also knew where I wanted to be to give myself the best chance coming into the final meters. The scene was set, 6 guys 500 meters to go and 200,000 to the winner, tickets anyone?
Brad was first to raise the pace slightly after a dead turn. Then simon went next looking for position. Both seem to be thinking what I was trying to do, be first into that last corner. I got around Simon to hold the position I wanted before the final straight. Jan was getting shuffled around a bit behind all of this but he loves this position as we saw in the Olympics. As we hit about 70-80 meters to go it all got a bit messy fast, to say the least. If you play this game then you have to live by that decision. Simon did the sprint brilliantly. He took it all the way to the finish and also won the big Dollars! Myself, Jan and Brad decided that we would run down the left and try and sneak under Simon before the line. But three bodies didn't work down there, and we all really got in each others way. It all looks pretty comical when I watch it on the replay, I think I nearly hit the deck two or three times in that last 80 meters.
As I've said in the past, you live and you learn, so Im learning again which for me means I need to keep improving so Im ready for the next time. Can't say that I'm loving all the 4ths but there is a place for everyone in a race, and in Des Moines mine was lucky number 4, again!.
As I mentioned we also had the team World Championships in Des Moines. It was strange to back up after such a race and to be involved with the finish like it was, there were some long thoughts that night but come sunday morning it was game on again. I never had so much fun before a race. Biking down as a team was different but exciting. We all were joking around and no one really knew what to expect apart from it was going to be brutal. Unfortunately Sam had a bad crash some weeks before on her bike. And Bevan had been sick for a week, so our team was looking like a wounded bull before the bull fight even began. I hoped for everyone that the set backs wouldn't effect us and so we went with Andrea to lead off and then for me to follow with the hope of getting some sort of a lead and hanging in for Sam and Bev to bring it home. Andrea raced awesome giving me the lead in the hand over. I ran to the water and dived in and pretty much right away went into lactate city!! yesterday was in my legs, my heart and my head. I tried to hang on but lost 10 seconds to the Australians by the time I got back to Sam. Sam was really up against it and we all wished the best for her but the broken rib was just to painful. Bevan had a great leg to finish off and looked like he's starting to get over the sickness heading into the european rounds of the series. So for team NZ it was a 6th, not the result we were all hoping for some weeks prior to the event. But under the circumstance probably the best we could do.
I'm now back in Europe for the next two rounds of the World Championship Series. First of all is Kitzbuhel, Austria next weekend. Then the Queen race of this World Championship Series Hamburg, Germany. Chris says my form will only get better from here, as we head into the business end of the year. Which means I probably will get that chance to learn from Des Moines. So guys I'm going with game plan B for these next races hope you like it.
Cheers,
Kris