2009 Hy Vee Triathlon

Thanks for the info!

This will be my first time at this race.   Just booked a room at the courtyard next to Jordan Creek Mall.  I plan on riding my bike from the hotel to the race so the rest of the family can have the car.

Nice choice.  All kinds of eating places out there.  The mall is huge and has some 30 theater screens, plus all kinds of your normal mall activities.  Close to a couple of bike shops.  Ride over is mostly downhill.

There are some - Saylorville, Walnut Woods, none that are super close, though.  I sent you a PM, Dan.

There has been a change in the HyVee bike route from what was previously posted.  There will be no turn at Booneville and no heading North towards I80.  Instead, the course will continue west out Raccoon River Road (the course directors keep mistakenly calling this road Booneville Rd, but Booneville Road is a much smaller and shorter road).

The reasons for this are not really being talked about.  Rumors include that many people were upset with the amount of hills and that HyVee had done a traffic count on a Sunday and the road North was just too busy.  I haven't heard though the grapevine if there is some inside info. 

This will make this ride much flatter and with far less turns, which I will assume (since I haven't ridden it yet) will result in faster splits.  It will also, IMO, make it much easier to call drafting penalties.  There is no real hard climb on this course (last year there were two) - said by the person that drove it in a car) and there are no severe turn, save the rightturn on the way back in from Raccoon River Road to Grand Avenue and the turn into and out o the park to ge to transition.  I have made a route map in BT which you can look at in the following link.  Note that the course, as drawn, is only 24 miles.  There is some riding from transition and back in that I was unable to trace perfectly, but that is where the rest of the mileage is.

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/training/map.asp?routeid=83490

Ok - so I went out and looked at the run couse this weekend.  Ummmm, let's just call it hilly and leave it there, huh.  There is more climb in the run than there is in the bike - for reelz.  If you look at the map - Fuller Road is an up and down section.  Most of Grand is flat, falling away from the lake on the way out and slightly up but just slightly on the way back in.  It is not like last year with a finish up a big hill, it is a nice grade that will help you lean forward for that last kilometer.  I think it will be good. 

About that last hill from last year.  You remember coming up that hill and making the left into the finish area.  Well, you still get to run up that hill - lucky you - except that it is around the 7K mark and you get to go down hill after you crest.  The long slope that went by the library and up towards the Football Stadium is much shorter.

The finish is awesome.  You will come back into the lake area and you will circle behind the bleachers.  you will make a u turn and then head in front of the bleachers to the finish line.  It is great because, if you have someone that want to take a pic of you finishing, they will be able to see you start behind the bleachers and go get set up to snap the phot as you circle around.  This has not been possible in the past. 

Here is a map.  A lesser person than you might let the 5+% average grade scare you.

http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/training/map.asp?routeid=83496

Yup - the run course happens to be right in my neighborhood, so these are the hills I get to run all the time   Not fun, but at least I will be prepared (I hope).  As for the bike - there are a couple of hills out near the turnaround, but nothing that is a big deal.  Flat as a pancake (boring!) aside from those. 

Are you planning on riding the course a lot?  My plan is to alternate riding and running once per week, probably on a weekend. 

The bike course, yes, but mostly just out of convenience.  That's the easiest way for me to get to open highway without hitting much traffic leaving straight from my house. 

 The run course - I'm sure I'll do it a time or two before race day, but no specific plans.  I run parts of the course every time I leave my house (the hill behind the freshman high school is part of just about every loop I run).

 This will be the first triathlon for my husband and I.  It was right by our house last year too (at the last minute) so we went and watched it.  Got the bug and decided to try it this year

+1 on that!

I'm thinking about driving down from the north EARLY that morning. . .what time should I arrive so that I don't have to walk 10k to get to the start line?

So hard to tell, at this point.  There is very little parking near transition and I do not know how they are going to handle it.  Last year they had a bunch of city buses, but they did the "drop your bike off at transition the night before " route.  I do not know what the plan is at this moment.  I would say between 3 AM and 4 AM without knowing what the big plan is. 

I believe you can still run it.  There are a lot of houses on Fuller, so they have to be able to get to their front doors and such.  Grand, there are no houses, but I think that , if there are no other options, you can run up on the grasss that is on the side nearest the lake.  It is pretty flat along there. 

Speaking of training - I was wondering if us locals might want to set uo a few training rides along the course on weekends once we don't have to worry about the snow falling.  That would be kind of fun, no.  Even the folks from CR could come to town on a Saturday or Sunday and ride with us to check it out, then maybe have a frosty beverage of your choice afterwards. 

Anybody interested in that? 

I might be able to make it out that way once.  Let me know when you're planning on doing a ride.

Sounds fun.  I don't think the wife would mind a trip to the mall while I rode.

I'm still not sure if I'm doing this race or not, but I wouldn't mind coming down and riding just for fun