Ok, ON TO THE RACE!
Setup:
Forecast of mid to high 80's, sun, and some wind.
Got up... it was already 70's at 4:45am. Nice....
0.9 mile swim, 24.8 mile bike, 6.2 mile run.
Pre Race:
Packed my gear the night before, loaded the last of it, ate the trusty oatmeal, orange juice, 1 slice bread with PB, gatorade, loaded the wife and kid and we were at Grandma's at 5:30am for drop off! PERFECT EXECUTION!
Arrival:
It was odd... the entry into the lake is usually packed on the road and if you are slick, you drive past and pull a u-turn and come back to skip the traffic. No need this year. No line... was I running behind?? Not really. We paid extra for VIP parking reserved next to transition so we pulled right up. The spots were assigned by number to the racks and you could pick a spot anywhere on your assigned rack. PERFECT. Got a spot at the end so set up camp with my gear. Got in, got marked, got set up.
Pre Race Port-a-potty:
VIP tent, handicap port-a-potties. Got in early, made a deposit and got out to see the line grow to like 20 people. PERFECT.
Warm Up:
HOLY CRAP that water was COLD! I think they said mid 60's but it was ice water! Glad I brought the wet suit. I got in a few out and backs to get the arms warmed up but I didn't care to spend too much time in that water. But, the sun was coming out, clear day, It was shaping up to be a good race day, unlike last week's rain and mid 60's.
SWIM!!!:
Got transition set up, GU'd up, protein bar eaten, goggles, cap, ear plugs, wet suit... it was a GO! The one thing i would have changed about the swim was our group was men 30-49. That was about 100 people or so. My wife said it was a cluster F start. I was on the trail end to avoid that. The swim out and across was good but the swim back included some waves that kept smacking me in the face when i would go for a breathe and I think I drank 2 gallons of the lake (the same lake they find a dead body in every year for one reason or another - yuk). The wife also reported that the jet ski guy that patrolled the swim would buzz the swimmers and cause big ole waves and just about clipped an elite athlete... smart guy.
BIKE!:
Hit the bike in decent form. They had us run into one end of transition and by doing that, I had to run pretty much the entire transition to get to my rack on concrete on bare feet. That kind of sucked. Also contributed to my time in T1 exceeding 3 minutes. Not so cool. Hit the bike and the wind hit me. I thought something was wrong with my steering but it was the wind catching my ZIPP wheels. Tad bit windy. It was an ok course. Some parts go through a little neighborhood that I could live without. Tri Bikes don't lend themselves to shifting on tight turns. But the HUGE hill on the back side and wind at your back completing the bike loop was SWEET. I think I was around 35 or 40 mph down the hill ( I would know better if the dang Garmin would have switched to bike from swim - grr). The bike was two laps, and not bad. The wind also blew in some clouds that could have produced some rain but they held off. I was a bit nervous after last weekend.
RUN...:
Running is quietly turning into my not so fun friend. Maybe if it was first and not last. Who knows but man it took me a good 1/2 mile to get running feet going from shuffle feet. The run course was relatively flat. Couple little hills but it was two loops and there's nothing worse than finishing the first, running through transition, and wishing you were done!
FINISH!!!:
Good times. Done is the best part! Since I paid a little more for the VIP treatment we had a tent with our own port-a-potties and food and what not. Nothing too different from the regular finish line area but fenced off and a little less hectic. I was a little disappointed with the furnishings this year from last year. They had 3 massage people last year, only one this year. I did get smart and take my bike to the mechanic guy to have it cleaned first thing. That was a huge line last year. They also gave wristbands out for family members and the food "attendant" was giving my prego wife crap for getting me a water... um, hello we paid for it. GIVE it to us! I also did not get a special spot in transition like last year for VIP. I guess they couldn't do that since they numbered the racks??? We did get a goodie bag and some good bike tools and other coupons. It more than made up for the price, but you could see some cutbacks in the operation.
RESULTS:
02 : 36 : 38 - 2010
02 : 49 : 37 - 2009
Picked up 13 minutes from last year and moved up to 112 overall from 185. Bonus...
Splits:
Swim - 2 min / 100 yards - this is an improvement for me as I shaved 9 minutes from the swim last year. Double bonus.
Bike - averaged 20.4 mph. Would have liked it to have been better but the wind and hills nailed me. Last year was 20.3 mph, so I shaved 9 minutes from the swim and only lose 0.1 mph on the bike.. triple bonus.
Run - averaged 7:49 min miles. Better than last year's 8:30!
Look out elites... I'm coming for ya! Maybe... if I quit my day job.
RESULTS ONE STEP FURTHER:
So, I was curious how I would have stacked up to the sprint field. I extrapolated (fancy algebra term) my time using the long course averages and I would have taken about 01 : 20 : 30 for the short course counting transition times. That would have been good enough for 13th overall and 1st in my age group. Now, I bet I could have upped the speed on the bike and run not doing twice the distance, lets say 1/2 mph more on the bike and save 15 seconds per mile on the run, 01 : 17 : 40 - good enough for 8th overall and first in my age group. Very interesting. I may do a few sprints (already signed up early bird for some other tri's and can switch them to long or short course) after IM KS and see how I stack up. I wouldn't be oppose to a top 3 finish some race (like it would happen).
MY TAKE:
It was a good olympic race. Well organized and supported. There's some debate about race directors for this race and other races and the quality of the event. Personally I've never had mush issues with the other races and I wouldn't raise the flag that the KC tri is VASTLY superior, but it was a good event and more than like I will do it again next year.
POST RACE:
I rode my bike home 27 miles from the race to our house. I needed a big bike weekend for the IM KS training and to avoid burnout for the KC tri I had to ride after the race. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't exactly fun. Luckily Mr Sunshine stayed behind the clouds and I wasn't too crispy when I got home. The sunburn I do have was from mowing the lawn (and wrestling the mower) Saturday and thinking "first warm day, I'll mow without a shirt and catch some rays... ya, too many rays).
PHOTOS:
The event photos are not posted, and the wife opted not to take pictures, so for now I'll have to leave you with the following stick figure recreation...
ps - News for the blog idea still in the works. Hopefully Wednesday the post will be ready!
1 comment:
Nice improvement over last year!
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