Race Coverage

Different From "Regular" Triathlon....

Friday, 17 August 2018 23:10

By Macy Iyer, 14

Last weekend (August 4-5) I participated in the USA Triathlon Youth/Junior Elite National Championships in West Chester, Ohio - this is a draft-legal championship for 13-19 year olds and it was my second year doing this race (I raced the not-draft-legal age group race there ages 10-12). Draft legal racing is quite a bit different than "regular" triathlon - the swim becomes much more important, and you have to use a lot of strategy on the bike course, creating and working with a bike pack, and the course is a lot more technical (several 180 turns and lollipops). There are 75 people in each race (4 different races - male, female, 13-15 year olds and 16-19 year olds - I'm 14). There are 5 qualifying races during 2018 around the country to determine who gets to the National race, and I did two of them.

I had a really good race at the final qualifier in Des Moines (Flatlands Triathlon) and finished 8th - my highest finish in draft-legal so far - but my goal for Nationals was just to be in the top 25 because all the top girls from all the races would be at Nationals. My coach Jenny Weber (from my Z3 Triathlon team) thought I could place higher. I also have many really strong girls in my age group just from my own team (we had 10 of the 75 spots)...

I didn't have a great swim, and even though I had a great T1 and passed some people, I wound up in one of the furthest back bike packs. But it was a pretty good group of about 6 girls who worked well together and although we were more than a minute behind the lead group, we biked pretty fast and made up a little time.

On the run, I put everything into it (it was hot! this was an 11:00 am start) and passed a lot of girls. I wound up finishing 8th overall, was first among my teammates, and had the fastest run of the day as well as the fastest T2. 

The next day they held a Mixed Team Relay Triathlon - which will be an Olympic sport in 2020 - and this is my second year being in a 4
person team in that race. It's fast, it's early in the morning and everyone's tired from the race the day before but it is super fun working with a team (2 boys, 2 girls) and I went 3rd from my team, which meant my teammate who went 2nd tagged me after his run and I got to do a run and flying dive off the dock to begin my short triathlon. It's also fun having all the ages mixed together (13-19) in one race.

I hope there is an opportunity for more people to try draft-legal triathlon - it's a different version of triathlon and I think there are people who would really enjoy it in Minnesota.