Race Coverage

"Dumb Windy"...

Tuesday, 07 May 2024 00:10

ED. We posted a story of Corey's win at Neosho Sprint last Wednesday. Here are Corey's words about that experience.

By Corey Nygaard

I have never raced this early in a season before. In the Midwest, April racing just isn’t a thing, heck racing in May is barely a thing! I was in southern Missouri visiting my girlfriend and decided it would be a fantastic opportunity for me to do this race in a town about 15 miles south of Joplin. If anyone from Missouri reads this, I am sorry I do not consider you Midwest.

The weather is always on our minds for any distance race, this one was no different. All week long it rained every single day, like clockwork. Two days prior to the race I drove an hour further south to ride in Bentonville, AR. It was wet but it didn’t rain, so I considered it a success. The day of the the race was – a term my sister and I like to use- “dumb windy”.

I got a small warmup ride in before the race to see the course and the one significant hill. Very glad I did so I knew what to expect. The swim was in the Neosho YMCA pool and it was a snake pattern which is...

wild, but with 100 athletes it makes sense. So every lap I did I had to flip turn and dolphin kick under the lane line into the next lane. Not a skill I knew I needed until this day. I swam well enough and transitioned in 26 seconds.

The bike was 2 loops of 6 miles and it was half headwind and half tailwind. 30mph one direction and 19 the other. The hill was the only break from aero aside from the U turns. It was a get out of the saddle kind of grade, mixing up the ride. The road in which the race played out was decent in my Minnesota road eyes. The lead motorcycle had trouble making the u turns but was very nice to have out there giving a safe feeling. Finished the windy ride and threw on the shoes.

The run was very barren and you guessed it, windy! Running into that headwind was mad! It was an out and back run that I had trouble navigating but ended up figuring it out. Great way to get used to running all out, off the bike again…oofdah, as that is definitely something that feels better with the race season progressing. I will close by saying it was a very well-run event and a kudos to Heartland Racing for having a great race!

See y’all out there on course this year.