Life is full of choices. You can choose to work the same job that doesn't inspire you, or you can let your satisfaction supersede your possession driven lifestyle and do something you have a passion for. You can choose to hit the snooze button in the morning and skip an early workout, or you can choose to get going at first alarm.
No, I didn't oversleep and miss the race... but where am I going with this?
Triathletes have a choice to do racing and training. Ultimately the world will still go on if triathlons didn't happen and triathletes didn't "tri". If cops and fire fighters chose to do something else, we would be screwed. I may have chosen to be a triathlon and endurance coach, but life goes on if it doesn't succeed. I have other skills. The point is, I try and not take the triathlon "hobby" so serious that it clouds my judgement.
The matter of choice dictated my race performance Sunday.
The weather was not cooperating.
2:30am started off with a flash and bang. Some nice thunderstorms with hail rolled through KC, but by the time I was in the car to pick a friend up for the race, conditions improved and pavement was drying. It was looking like we may catch a break and race on.
Nothing out of the ordinary for this race morning. I was eager to get the first race in and anxiously looking forward to test my training and diet improvements to see if there were any measurable race day gains.
Well, 6:30am hit and so did another round of light thunderstorms.
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| View of the rainy lake. It was darker than this came out and the light is from the portable spot lights, not sunshine... sadly. |
Race was suppose to send off with the pros at 7:30am. After a consistent downpour and lightening the RD postponed to 8am start to allow the storm cell to pass.
Then, around 7:45am, the RD chose to eliminate the swim and start the bike time trial with the pros at 8am.
There's the decision point. 5 minutes before the pro start, it was still raining pretty good and standing water on the pavement. Transition was set up, wetsuit was on (I put it on before the swim was cut and left it on to stay warm) and I was ready to race.
Ultimately there were many points to consider and pro's and con's to racing or packing it up. I have no issue with no swim. I started in endurance sports in duathlons, so had it been dry and no swim, I would have been all over it.
But, I decided personally that I did not want to risk a bike wreck, damaging my bike or hurting myself on wet pavement.
Props to the RD for finding a way to salvage a portion of the race. It's always nice to have choices. A lot of people stayed and raced, but a fair amount hit the road.
Ironically I was wondering how the KC Tri on the other side of town was faring. Two races in KC area on the same day... but were they experiencing the same weather? The sites were around 60 miles a part. There's a high probability that the could have had sunny skies. Turns out, they didn't. Their race was cancelled all together. I guess technically 5150 KS won on the finisher count.
Hopefully next year the races are on two different days if they both happen again. That way, if one gets rained out, you can sign up for the other one.
And, in a smart move by the RD's for Jackson County and Midwest Meltdown triathlons..
They offered $15 any or both of their races for those that didn't get to race or got shorted. Just an FYI for any of the racers reading the blog in the KC area.
I've done both triathlons, and Jackson County is the same location as the KC Tri, but different bike route. The Midwest Meltdown is an awesome flat course. It's a PR maker and is contained around a small lake, eliminating a lot of traffic hassles. Both quality events worth considering.
Use RAINYDAYDISCOUNT13 at checkout.
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