Hi gang, well, I didn't do the 40k at the Iowa State Time Trial today but opted to cut my teeth on the 20k and I'm glad I did. The course is for the most part flat for both the 40 and 20k, although there are some slight rises in the road and a couple of banked curves. The first leg of the run was great thanks to a tail wind that felt more like 12 to 15 mph instead of the 5-10 the weather service was predicting. I managed to hit 21.6 mph on my Catrike Speed and average 18.6-7 mph, which everyone tells me is a fairly decent speed for a trike.I made the turn around with no problem, thanks to the turning ability of the Speed. It can spin on a dollar and leave you change.....and smacked head on into that aforementioned headwind that had everyone, including the strong Roadies and Recumbent riders moaning and dropping mph's like rocks. At one point, probably about with 4 miles to go in my run, I thought to myself....you know you DON'T have to do this ....and my next thought was no, I WANT to do this! And I dug in and managed to finish in 44 minutes with a personal best of 16.75 mph. up almost 1.5 mph from my average last week at North Manchester. This may not seem fast to a lot of people, but considering the fact that I am 53, just started training in March and racing in May, and ride with a history of Rheumatic Heart Disease, I ain't complaining. Every mph that I can gain on my average is hard earned and every race I finish is a success story. Was it hard? Yeah, it was brutal, but I know that from this point on it will get easier. My S.O. managed to finish the 40k in 55 minutes riding a True Grit/faired recumbent. Now THAT's an accomplishment. I can only hope to be as fast on a bike as he is. My advice is to try a time trial when you can. I came home with a medal for my efforts and a true sense of accomplishment. No matter if you finish 1st or last, you go into it pedaling your heart out....and win. I have pics from the race that will be posted. I'll put up the website addy when it is available.