We did this race to support brain cancer research and to support our friend, Mark Helm, who was diagnosed with brain cancer years ago and is in full remission. Mark is the younger brother of my friend Heather. I've known Heather since kindergarten (we went through 17 years of schooling together. 3rd grade was REALLY hard) and I also did Tinman and last weekend's Jackson County Triathlon with her husband, Shane.
We haven't had an opportunity to participate in this race before so this was a first. Subsequently, it was also the first time I really raced a 5k. It wasn't on my race schedule originally but we finally got registered a few weeks ago. My intention wasn't to really race it as I was doing the North Face Endurance Challenge Marathon Relay the day before and I had a 50 mile training ride schedule the same day.
I decided to race but decided to do a test, which was to run by perceived effort instead of the objective readout of my Garmin.
So instead of doing a full on race report, I'm just going to do a "5K" version, as in make it short.
We got to the site around 7:00am and eventually met up with the Helm/Mecham clan. About 10 minutes prior to the 8:00am start, Shane and I did a half mile jog along the course to warm up the running sticks and then lined up. I guess I was still hemming and hawing about fully racing because we lined up about 30 feet behind the start.
So once we crossed the timing mat I did some shuffle jogging until I saw an opening. BAM! I kicked it up in high gear. For the next 3.09 miles I just tried to not scare people with my hard breathing as I passed. Now they called out 4,500 participants (another record... Go Brain Cancer Nay Sayers!!), so this isn't Komen-like but it's large. Given that, I was quite surprised to see timing clocks at mile 1 & 2. That was awesome! So mile one was in 6:38 clock time. I had no clue when I crossed the timing mat, so that was my marker. Two miles said 13:28. I knew I was going to be slowing down due to my poor planning, so the 6:50 split was not a surprised. As it turned out my first split was 6:21. Pretty fly for this white guy! That makes the last 1.1 in 6:51. Due to my starting position, I didn't get passed until the last quarter mile! Doh! Lets recap:
Ugh.. I just missed sub-20 by 2 seconds!! Going out too fast? Not lined up correctly? Yeah... probably both because if I was lined up correctly I wouldn't have done those unnecessary sprints to get open. The course itself was pretty flat. An uphill at the start and during mile 2 but it's really nothing.
Now some funky math later and you get 6:27 pace! Whoa! That was good enough for 8th out of 104 or 34th overall.
Post-race food grub was good. G3 Recovery Gatorade, Water, G2 Gatorade, Pop, Granola Bar, Fruit, Sheridan's, Krispy Kremes (yeah, I replenished those 600 calories in no time... but that was by design with the 50 mile ride looming). I will say I was quite surprised and pleased with the G3 Recovery (Yes... I've gotten over the nasty taste). I'm sure they didn't have 4,500 of them but at least the first few hundred got one.
Good, Bad, Ugly, The Standard
I'm not going to get into it. This is for a good cause. If you are trying to decide to do this race based off of my race report... well, don't be dumb and just register.
BONUS!
Enough of all that. The really AWESOME part of this race was TKB also ran and she KICKED BUTT! She doesn't fancy those boring longer distance runs and enjoys to dabble in the 5k market a few times a year. She was able to do this race without walking! Thanks to her time with the personal trainer, she no longer needs to run with the knee brace. I'm so proud of her!
Dang #1681 is speedy cute!
I'll see if I can convince her to do a guest race report for you!
The Proof
Holy crap! A race photo of me that actually looks decent!
Holy Crap! Or rather, it looks like I'm going to take one. This one isn't quite so flattering.
Shane flying in for a 5K PR!
Photo of Heather (behind the grey shirt... thanks for ruining my shot, grey), Valerie, TKB, and Karen. And some happy guy.
The girls again. TKB, Heather, Valerie, and Karen.
Mark with Alex in arm and Heather & Shane's 2 year old cruising to the finish in the 50 meter dash!
Little Lucas running from the scary Sporting KC mascot.
Two Words: Own It.
Post-Race Shot. The Racin' Bowlings. I love this photo!
Sorry.. per usually this is much longer than normal. Race Report of Saturday's North Face Endurance Challenge coming in the next few days!
Pre-Race routine is pretty... well... routine. Wake up at 4:30am, toasted bagel with peanut butter, banana, sunblock up, and tri clothes on.... and try to remember to suck down water. I had my transition bag packed with confidence due to my trusty checklist:
Thanks to the anality of my day job, I document everything.
Yes. I have each one for each race. I will blog about this some day soon.
We left our house and picked up Heather and Shane around 5:30am. On the way there we saw a couple cars with bikes on their racks. We followed one closely all the way to the race site (drafting is only illegal during the bike course!). After arriving we parked next to that same car and found out one of the riders/triathletes works at Cycle City. Between Shane and I, our car had a few thousand dollars worth of bikes and equipment that came from CC. Needless to say, she recognized us (regardless if she ACTUALLY did or not). Irony... she had to borrow my air pump. As it turns out this was Tarah from the shop and my understanding is she is the sister of the owner, Joe. She kicked butt and got third in her age group.
Thanks to a text from Joe VI the day before, I was not surprised to see the racking system used. Instead of having the typical bar to prop your bike on, it was essentially a box with slits on it to put the tires into. I didn't have very many issues with this but it was different. It was just a little nerve racking placing your bike into something that pinches the wheel to keep the bike from starting a domino track. After setup, we had about 45 minutes to get settled. By settled I mean hanging out in the port-a-john line. It was quite long (about the length of the transition area) but it went quickly.
A photo of the transition area while we were on the bike course. Here is an example of these tray bike holders.
About this time they announced that the water was just under the 78 degree temp to make the race wetsuit legal. I DID actually bring my wetsuit in the event it would be allowed but elected not to wear it. It probably would have been smart to get another swim in with the suit before Beach2Battleship 70.3. I would probably benefit from the speed for the 1000 meters we were about to cover versus the time to take it off.
The remainder of the 45 minutes went quickly as I bumped into a bunch of peeps, including Travis (and his friend Michael who just completed his first triathlon!) and Mark from Twitter. Mark has a blog I follow as well. No.. not thatMark. While we were setting up our transition area, I recognized a guy from work a few slots away. He was the guy who bowed out of the corporate challenge triathlon that took me out of backup role to participant role. Austin had elected to do Ironman Kansas instead.
On the way down to the beach I finally ran into Ryan from Twitter and of hismanyblogs. Last October after finishing the KC Marathon I did a search for #kcmarathon and found a few Twitter users who had ran the marathon. Ryan was one of them. So nearly 10 months after the KC Marathon, I finally met up with him.
Shane, Joe VI, and I continued over to the swim start. Mark joined up with us and listened to the pre-race meeting. A lot of information given and not the easily to follow. I knew I wouldn't be in front for the swim, so I decided to follow the leader (Ryan being one of them).
Swim - 1000 Meters
My goals for the swim was less than 20 minutes. I was disappointed with the Shawnee Mission Park Tri swim time of 22 minutes so this was a chance to fix that.
I'm the the only one hip enough to have color matching tri tank and swim cap.
I quickly learned that the swim was very odd. I have read a few posts about it and I've seen other races do it too but to see it in person was quite interesting. Basically, you start at one end of the beach and swim out about 25 - 50 meters. Turn left and swim ~400 meters. Turn left again and swim towards the beach. Once you hit ground, get out of the water and run back to the start to do it again.
So at 7:30am we were released like a bucket full of carp. I lined up on the inside and ran as far as I could before jumping into the water. The first turn came quickly and "time to sharpen the elbows". It was bit nasty. Similar to Tinman, I never really got into the groove before we had to turn back to the beach. I touched ground and start running. I decided to take a different route back than most people and stayed as close to the water as possible where the ground was more compact. It allowed me to pass a few people. I'll take whatever advantage I can get.
Time to dive back in. At this point I heard the Race Director (RD for short, I will probably refer to him a lot.. yeah, not a good sign) count down for the third wave.. "10... 9... 8...". HOLY CRAP! I dove in and sprinted as hard as I could. I was about to get nailed and, boy, did I. I thought about treading water off to the side to allow the more capable swimmers pass but I kept with it... even though I was being boxed in.
I got out of the water and trotted to the transition area, extremely glad to have that over.
I'm going to jump a few sections here. After I got settled on the bike for a mile or so, I looked at my 310xt to gage my overall time. It read 16 minutes. What? Something's not right?
Time: 9:57 / 1:00 (?!?!?!)
Rank: 16 Age Group / 102 Overall
Yeah. Something was SERIOUSLY screwed up here. The total swim distance was less than 500 meters. At least everyone swam the same route. And it wasn't the third wave the beat me up, it was the second wave. Now if I had chosen to wear the wetsuit, it would have most certainly slowed me down.
Transition 1
Nothing special here. Everything went as planned. My mount was less than spectacular. I'll work on that next year or two.
Exiting the swim. I'm not holding my arms close to the body because I'm cold, that's just how I run --- like a turkey ready to be cooked for Thanksgiving
Time: 1:39
Rank: 9 AG
Bike - 25.5 Miles
Long distance participants do two loops of the course. Since I rode the course on the previous Wednesday with Shane, Joe VI, and Lauren, I felt comfortable with my race plan. Get up the first hill and plow through the next 7 miles until I meet the hill again.
As you may notice with the swim photos, it was foggy. I could barely see 300 feet in front of me for most of the first lap. I kept my sunglasses on as I am blind as a bat without them but they were fogging up as well. It was really pretty, actually, I wish I had one of those bike mounted video cameras.
As I turned off of Raytown Road onto High Grove Road, I caught up with Ryan on the bike. He nailed the swim but with the shorter distance swim, I happened to catch up on the bike. I figured the only time I'd see Ryan again was during the post-race "party". I passed him just ahead of the hill and asked him if he was on his second lap. Now looking ahead my immediate thought was doubt. Crap. What am I doing wrong? Ryan will probably blow by me in the next 30 minutes as I push hard too early. I decided to stick with my plan and race my own race.
The hill was nasty but I kept the bike in double digits. Being as foggy as it was, I couldn't see where it crested but since I entered the course in my Edge 800, I just waited until it told me the turn a was .15 miles ahead and sprinted the rest of the way up the hill to the turn. It didn't take too long until Mark blew by me on Hook Road. He said something to me but it just sounded like a sonic boom as he passed.
This race has its own little "Warrior Dash"-esque obstacle. There is a wood bridge on Sampson Road. They've tried multiple ways in the past to make it safe for participants but this time it was "at your own risk". You basically have to ride the tire tracks or it will be a very bumpy ride. When you consider the recent rains, the wooden boards were slick but I took it 'safely' at 25 mph. Both times after the bridge I took in a Gu packet.
I was happy to see all my splits at 20+. It was a good feeling considering you effectively have to hit that hill four times (two loops and you hit it on both sides). Of course, what goes up must come down, so there was plenty of time to pick the speed back up.
My only gripe about this is they did a great job marking the turns except the most important one: the turn around. Now it is the participant's responsibility to know the course; however, I was concerned I missed it back on High Grove Road. It was actually just before the turn into the beach on Raytown Road. Everyone in front of me were short distance participants or other people who were confused. After I turned around, I saw other people follow. Heather and Tricia did mention they saw some riders take the turn towards the beach and then back out.
Time: 1:07:32 / 22.7 mph average
Rank: 11 AG / 60 OA
As I already mentioned, I am very happy with this bike. There is definitely some room for improvement but I'll take this any race right now.
NOTE: The 22.7 mph average is on the race results. If I look at my Garmin, I see a distance of 23.03 and not 25.53 miles as the 22.7 is based. My Garmin showed an average of 20.7 mph. I wonder where that 2.5 miles went? Maybe I turned around WAY to soon!? Hmm.
Transition 2
Flying dismount. Rack the bike. Struggle with my socks AGAIN. Need to man-up and go sockless.
I blew a kiss to TKB and off!
Check this out, ladies! I can run with a cup of water.
Photo Credit: Heather
Time: 1:22
Rank: 5 AG
Run - 5 Miles
As I mentioned earlier, I rode the bike course Wednesday night. I followed that up with a brick run. That run gave me a ton of confidence as I was hitting some 8:00 minute splits with my heart rate in check. So I was planning to dig a little deeper on race day. I had a impromptu target of trying to eek out a 7:00 minute mile on the last mile.
For the second race in a row, one of the guys I follow posted a quote that stuck in my mind during the race. It was:
This was my mantra for the run. I decided to visualize it... almost cartoon-like. The pain was in the legs. I wouldn't let that pain go above the waist. As long as I did that, I kept suffering at bay and just cruised. This is purely mental. It was easier than I thought but the legs did yell the entire time. I'm sure as I try to go faster, it will be more difficult until my body acclimates to the speed.
My first two miles were 7:35 and 7:29 respectively. I saw Mark on his way back to the finish. That guy is speedy. My third mile was 7:30. It should have been about 5 - 10 seconds faster though. Since this was a 5 mile out and back, there would be a turn around at mile marker 2.5. I was fast approaching two other runners as my Garmin clicked past 2.5 miles. I noticed some guy about 10 feet off the path and there was a bucket on the side of the path. I thought maybe it was some guy with fishing gear. The two guys in front of me kept going so I passed the bucket but then the fisherman yelled at me. I stopped and then finally realized he was telling me it was the turn around. Seriously? A guy and a bucket? Come on RD! You've got to be kidding me! Joe VI did say that by the time he got to the turn-around, the guy had pulled a dead tree limb onto the path to block people. That makes sense but wouldn't it be easier to bark at people to turn around or maybe a sign?
I turned around and took off in disbelief. I immediately knew to settle my nerves so I could focus on my mantra. I decided to ease the nerves by telling the next 30 or so participants that the turn around was at the bucket. For one thing the race map indicated the run would cross underneath High Grove Road but it didn't. So I wasn't expecting the turn-around until after the underpass. My mistake for trying to know the course ahead of time.
Once I heard the beep that mile 4 was completed in 7:40 minutes, it was time to kick it up! For the first 1/2 mile I was getting close to 7:00 minutes but then it trailed off. Dang it! I had one guy pass me at this point who was in my age group around 4.25 miles but just couldn't muster the extra speed.
Time: 38:20 / 7:40
Rank: 10 AG / 63 OA
Overall
Time: 1:58:48
Rank: 10 of 34 Age Group / 51 of 253 Overall
My goal splits for this race were 20 minutes for the swim, 1 hour 25 minutes for the bike (18 mph), and 40 minutes (8 min miles) for the run. Considering transitions, this put me at 2:30. Given the shortened swim and bike distances, that changes to 10 min / 1:17 / 40 min / +4 min for transitions = a new goal time of 2:11 hours. I beat that by 13 minutes! Love it!
This was triathlon number five for me. Not just this year but ever. I think back to the first one I did in May which I showed up by myself, not knowing anyone or what to do when I got there. I remember seeing other triathletes doing their setup and chatting with others. I don't try to size myself up to others like this but finally had my own group of folks to chat things up from Twitter and Dailymile and work or other races. Don't get me wrong, I love my friends and having them compete with me. In fact, I thought it was awesome to be there with Heather and Shane, who I have connections with going back to 6 years of age and getting to race in a triathlon with Joe VI for the first time. He made his comeback at this race after being out for two years. I also enjoyed meeting for the first time or seeing again athletes like Travis, Ryan, Mark (who got first in our age group!), Lori, Ashley (first in her age group!), Mark from the YMCA, and others (I may have forgotten one or two!)... both during the pre/post-race but also on the course. It really did add to the experience. I'm glad to have cracked my introverted shell a bit.
The Breakdown
The Good
Packet Pickup: Love having packet pickup 5 minutes from my house.
Weather: The fog really didn't hamper my race any and the overall temps were perfect. Maybe a bit warmer on the run.
Water/Pop/Beer immediately available in the finishers area.
Informative website.
I was able to make up the word "anality" for use in this post.
The Bad
Let's just say the overall execution of this race was sub-standard. Sure, it started on time but it kind of went downhill from there. Screwed-up swim distance, lack of signage for the turn-around on the bike and run. According to Ryan, the RD blamed the swim problems on the overnight wind and lifeguards who directed swimmers to turn to the beach too early. I've talked about this enough already, so I won't dig anymore. I promise.
They did have fruit for finishers to eat but I didn't find it until well after I completed. It was off to the side.
No gatorade/yogurt/chocolate milk post-race. I consider these a staple at events that take 2+ hours for most participants. Maybe I shouldn't.
If I hadn't waited in the 10 minute line to get my time I wouldn't care about my time being screwed up. It said my swim was actually 39:57. I went back right before I left and it was corrected.
The Standard
Packet Pickup. Fast and efficient.
Goodie bag. Chomps, discount to Cycle City, T-shirt, Bib, Lava magazine
Communication. Web site was informative. I don't think I got a single e-mail communication.
Aid Stations: One every mile on the run, including mile 0. A couple stations were doing made to order water/gatorade, which I thought was odd. Whatever, I got what I wanted.
Post-Race. I touched on that above. Mixed bag.
Parking. Good.
Porties. 10 - 15 holes. Long line but it went quickly. Wish I had.
Volunteers. Nice and friendly. Could have used one more on the bike turn-around (sorry, I'll stop now).
Considering this race is in it's 29th year, I would think some of these issues wouldn't be showing up. I will probably reconsider doing this race or any KLM races in the future. Considering that I love doing triathlons now, I will probably conveniently forget that comment when deciding on races for next year. This is truly one of the last large tri's in the area, so it's hard not to do it.
The Proof
Reflecting on the fun that is about to begin.
While some people might not care for the yellow tri top, I think it made it much easier for people to recognize me from the twitter and dailymile universe.
Shane, Me, and Joe VI about to get beat up in the swim.
A photo of Shane running to start the second lap. Let's just title this one "First Place".
Photo Credit: Heather
Joe is on my tail... 5 seconds behind me.
Shane exiting the swim. He always gets to the picturesque photos.
Joe VI starting lap two. Hopping out of the saddle to blast past that Explorer. YOU GET IT JOE!!
Looks like Shane is about to get smacked in the butt by the spectator. Watch it!
2/3's done Joe! Way to celebrate!
Shane also gets the great action shots.
Post-race... Travis joined us for the photo!
People may also recognize me because I'm so freakishly tall.
I found a new use for the pocket on my tri tank. Going to use this for hydration at Beach2Battleship 70.3.
Chatting it up with the Godfather of the local Twitter triathlon scene, Ryan, and his wife Emily.
Time to go home, clean up, eat some brunch, and nap.
Forget Photo finishes... CHECK OUT THESE VIDOES! Thanks Heather! Great idea!
Pre-Race
I've gotten into a pretty good routine now that I'm at triathlon #4. I have my transition bag packed the day before and just before bed time I get my bike on the rack and on the truck. The only thing to do is take the water bottles out of the fridge and throw everything, including myself, in the truck.
The one difference was that this race used TriTats for the race number body markings. So TKB helped me put these on the night before. We decided to have a little fun and used some knuckle temp tats that sister-in-law Rebecca had given us for Christmas a few years back.
TriTat... leg hair sold separately.
I'm a bad ass. Ok... maybe not. Fun though, right?!
I got up around 4:00am to have my pre-race banana and bagel w/ PB. We were out the door just before 5:00am. Aside from a detour, we got to the race site around 5:45am. I knew this day was going to be hot so I tried to drink a full water bottle from home to the parking lot. It definitely contributed to my need to relieve prior to the race.
A happy breakfast makes for a happy Scotty!
This race was at Shawnee Mission Park, the same location as Kansas City Corporate Challenge Triathlon. It appears to be put on by the exact same organization as everything was pretty much the same. I parked at Theatre In The Park and rode the bike to the transition area. TKB took the shuttle bus, while she was waiting on transportation, I got marked up for my age group and picked up the timing chip. Not sure what the thought process was to only have two people handing out chips and then you get body marked by 1 of 10 volunteers. Seems to be a little bottle neck there.
Look at that clean transition area. Notice all the room with no other bikes....
My brother Mike was awesome to come out and cheer me on. It was also convenient since I accidentally left my new visor with his wife, Amanda, the day prior. He was able to bring it to me with plenty of time. Once I saw him, I headed over to the transition area and said Hi to Mark who was racing the sprint. Then it was time to head down to the boat launch for the required warm up swim over to the beach.
Swim - 1000 Meters
My wave was the third wave and started at 7:10am. It's a water start where you wade 20 feet into the water until the horn blows. I lined up pretty much in the second row but the area was wide enough for everyone to get a good position.
Once going I was immediately in open space. I never really had to fight through anyone, which allowed me to get in a comfortable pace on the swim. You swim about 200 meters before you get to any buoys as you swim past the boat dock first. I was able to easily find TKB and Mike watching on the dock. I even tried an extended stroke to wave at them. That was really neat! It definitely helped that Mike wore his construction worker orange shirt so I could see them!
Once to the buoys I was able to pretty much stay in line with them the entire way with only really having to swim around one guy. I kept trying to stick with a good groove and not go overly crazy. One of the guys that I follow on twitter, Steve In A Speedo, posted this quote recently:
First half of the race, don't be an idiot. Second half of the race, don't be a wimp. -- Scott Douglas
That quote kept entering my mind the entire race and especially during the swim. The last two races I did the swims were 500 and 400 meters, this was the first time entering 1000 meters since KC Tri back in May but I had a wetsuit on for that 1500 meters. I tried to conserve.
One thing I noted during the swim was that I need new goggles. Mine were fogging up pretty bad and it was hard seeing the exit as I was swimming towards the sun (Yes, I do have tinted goggles).
Time: 22:27 / 2:22
Rank: 15 Age Group / 98 Overall
I was actually a little frustrated with this time. I conserved too much apparently. Since I was able to stay inline with the buoys, I wasn't wasting time/effort zig-zagging around the course.
Transition 1
Me in red. Note to self: Exit swim on the camera side.
I was definitely feeling a bit wobbly coming out of the water and took advantage of the water station they setup 100 feet out of the water. I heard cheers from both sides this time, TKB and Mike on the left and Mark on the right as he waited for his wave to start about 30 minutes later. I think I said something to the effect of "good luck Mark" but it probably sounded like "...g...l....M..".
This transition was quick, partially because I practiced putting on my race belt at home. Because I like to do the GPS tracking, I put my cell phone in my race belt and this adds some heft to it. The last three triathlons I would lose grip on it and fumble around. This time it was quick and easy. So sunglasses, helmet, shoes on and off we go!
Time: 1:50
Rank: 10 AG / 58 OA
Bike - 18 Miles
I hopped on the bike without any issues. I think I'm going to put on the wish list for next year to get some shoes that do not have the buckle as I'd like to try leaving them on the bike. I guess I could still try truly jumping on the bike with my existing shoes.
The route was 4 loops on a 4.5 mile closed road around the lake. This course is very hilly for the first 1/3 of the loop, then throw in heat and humidity. I was planning to ease into the hilly sections and hammer them on the third and fourth loops. Like at Tinman, I did have one guy that I leap-frogged for most of the course. I might have with other riders but this guy had a red and white checkered tri suit on so it was easy to spot. I finally caught and left him during the last two miles. By the third loop the course had gotten pretty crowded as most of the waves had started the bike.
I definitely felt like I was doing more of the passing than being passed. Those passing me had fancy Tri bikes and race wheels. (hmm... also on the wish list for next year?)
Action Shot!
I broke the cardinal rule of events... again. Nothing new on race day. I put a gel packet on my bike and held it down with tape. It was setup so I could just rip it off the tape and part of it would stay under the tape revealing an opening to consume the gel. It worked perfectly except that when I would get out of the saddle my legs would rub against the packet, hence scraping up my leg. Nothing major but a slight annoyance.
Something happened to my Garmin Edge 800 AND Garmin Forerunner 310xt while on the bike. When starting the third loop my Edge stopped showing speed and distance traveled. On the fourth lap it picked back up (almost at the exact same spot where it stopped). I also noticed the Forerunner was having similar troubles. I thought that maybe the Edge lost satellite lock but it showed a good reception.
Here's the really interesting thing, both devices stopped recording distance traveled and speed at the same spot. They both regained that function at nearly the same time too. Want to read something even MORE interesting? If I look at the plotted route on Garmin Connect, it shows me traveling four full laps. What I'm wondering is if distance and speed is being picked up from my speed/candence sensor on the bike instead of GPS. Need to research that.
Time: 57:47 / 18.7
Rank: 16 AG / 97 OA
Right now I can only compare this time to KC Corporate Challenge, in which I did two loops on the same course and averaged 17.8 mph. Looks like I'm building strength to be consistently faster with four total loops. Nice!
Transition 2
I did my flying dismount again with success! Hustled the bike over to my transition area.
Notice the look on my face? It's not me squinting to find my transition area...
Normal photo of me racking my bike. Still don't see anything? Let's look at another photo of me reaching for my shoes.
Notice something now? There's a bike laying on my transition area! WTF! The racks were pre-marked by bib so I have no clue what was going on here. I can't remember the bib number but I'm pretty sure it wasn't 202. It flustered me a bit. Instead of turning my bike around and mounting seat on the rack I pushed it through and mounted it going out the other way, which caused me to lift the rack over my aero-bars. It was just a cluster. I probably only lost a few seconds doing this and it quickly left my mind as I left for the run but seriously?
Very graceful drinking pose.
Time: 1:08
Rank: 12 AG / 73 OA
Run - 4.5 Miles
I had the Scotty shuffle going out for the run. Once I finally hit the road I was able to stretch out. I was bracing for that Dam(n) Hill that I had previously ridden on four times prior. I just tried to get my groove going and then take the hill at a comfortable pace. I was passed by one guy in my age group before the hill and he was booking it. In fact, he was pretty much the only person to pass me for quite a while on the run (that I remember). I just kept picking off other triathletes out there. I was really happy with my pace once I was over the hill. I kept trying to cool myself down at the aid stations with water as half of the run was in the sun and in an area with very little wind. My second split was 7:37 pace but that was aided by a couple big downhills. I just wish I could have kept that going but I still felt strong on the run.
The one motivating factor was trying to push hard so you could get to the shaded areas of the trail faster. It did make a difference! There is also a couple other annoying hills in the last half mile of the race and I even, *gulp*, walked for a bit up one of them. I figured I was doing OK seeing that while walking I passed two guys in my age group. Stupid justification but still.... I was able to push it strong for the last hill that holds the finish line at its top.
I heard multiple cheers there as well. Just before the finish line I saw Ashley, who paced me during the KC Marathon and is starting to get into triathlons herself. Mike and TKB were waiting for me after the finish line to take this great photo!
I extremely appreciate the guy directing me towards the finish line. I was totally lost up to that point.
Time: 38:11 / 8:29
Rank: 11 AG / 73 OA
Overall
Time: 2:01:21
Rank: 13 of 28 Age Group / 76 of 188 Overall
I was hoping to break 2 hours on this race and I think what hurt me was the swim. I was really surprised to see the 100 meter pace in the 2:20's. All previous races have been sub-2 minutes and during those I was fighting the crowds. Maybe I conserved a little too much.
I'm happy with my transitions now and content with my bike for now. I have plenty of work to do on the run. I just want to get FASTER. I want to see times sub-8 minutes for these distances. Right now my training is focusing on building my base for the half-ironman but weeks 13 - 16 will have speedwork included. I will plan to fully utilize those workouts. For my swim, I'm already trying to push myself in the pool and I definitely see myself doing some masters swim classes over the winter.
As I mentioned previously, I have mixed feelings about the results. I was within 2 minutes of my goal time, so I shouldn't be down on myself. I think I've enjoyed those single digit finishes with the sprint distance a bit too much and -- with all things being equal -- I probably would have finished in the top 5 of the sprint distance athletes had my pacing been the same for the sprint (which they would have been faster).
I keep telling myself though, I want to be a long distance athlete. I enjoy all the planning and care that goes into it and I know it takes time to put the body through all that work. The one thing I see is I've improved over Kansas City Triathlon over a month ago and that's what is important.
The Breakdown
The Good
The triathlon actually took place. The last few years it had been cancelled due to rain. This time the only issue was the heat and humidity.
Post race grub. For some reason I like it when events feed you a meal. Not that I was hungry for it, but I at part of a burger. Unfortunately, I left the supersized cookie at the food pavilion. Doh! The food/drinks at the finish line were good with Chocolate Milk, Gatorade, Pop, and Yogurt.
Massage - They had free massages if someone wanted one.
Organized. You could tell they had done this before. No chance of getting lost on the course.
Tech T-shirt - The color was a blah grey but it fit really well. I really like it.
The Bad
It's hard to rip on a race for weather but it was HOT and Humid out there. When packing up my transition area I felt feint and we sat down in the shade for about 10 - 15 minutes. My heart rate couldn't stay below 90 bpm and this was close to 30 minutes after finishing. Once shuttle service started, TKB left to cool down the truck and I walked around a bit to get some wind moving. I ended up walking down to the hamburgers and grabbed a plate.
Post-race Meal - Yes, I said this was good but the burger was pretty hard and overcooked.
I'm still a little irked about the bike laying on my transition area. Nothing the race organizers could do. Next time I'll get his license plate number!
The Standard
Packet Pickup. Besides being 45 minutes from my house, it was quick.
Goodie bag. Hammer Gel, Pop Corn, and Tech T-Shirt. Nothing special.
Communication. Web site seemed a little out of date as I kept going to the wrong website for race results. E-mail was OK but I had a hard time finding a timeline of when the park would open and when transition area would be available. Since it was a pre-assigned transition spot, it wasn't a big deal.
Aid Stations: I lost count on the run, so I guess that's a good thing.
Post-Race. I touched on that above. Mixed bag.
Parking. Good but we got a surface lot spot since we got there early enough.
Porties. I honestly didn't notice but I believe there was a line. I learned from Corporate Challenge to go to the marina and there was no line.
Volunteers. Nice and friendly. I actually shared a lane at the YMCA on Monday with one of the volunteers and had a chance to chat with him and thank him personally. He was working on doing his first triathlon this year and had hopped to get placed in the transition area. Maybe next time! I hope to see him at the Y again to chat with him about his training.
Other Things To Note
I use the GPS tracking so TKB knows when I'll be coming around but that doesn't help when someone minutes in front of me looks just like me. Apparently I found my tri-doppelgänger and he was always a step infront of me:
I wouldn't mind having his bike. Dean Feuerborn, I'm watching out for you now. TKB said that there are two many guys wearing red tri-tops, so I guess that's permission to buy another one!
The Proof
It's time to start putting some muscle on that chest... the "ribs" look is getting old.
Tip-tappity on my cell phone performing my self-imposed social media responsibilities.
