Kansas City Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic


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Kansas City, Missouri
United States
75F / 24C
Overcast
Total Time = 2h 28m 50s
Overall Rank = 65/427
Age Group = M30-34
Age Group Rank = 10/71
Pre-race routine:

To start off, my plan was to use this race as a good gear up for my upcoming KS 70.3. Even though this was going to be my first Olympic distance race ever I was feeling completely relaxed about doing this race. This probably because I have almost all of my focus on competing in the 70.3 race - bigger things weighing on my mind.

With that said my training lately has left a lot to be desired in the week or so leading up to this race. Work, traveling, and other commitments (i.e. life) wreaked havoc on what I wanted to get done, particularly as I approach my taper weeks. My training schedule had been much more random of late; which has left me with a mental feeling of unpreparedness, regardless of where I was physically. But here I am, so lets have at it and try to take care of business anyways.

I woke up at 4:30, ate a bagel with peanut butter, a pop-tart, and some coffee before heading out the door. Once at the race site I had an odd feeling that I didn't have enough nutrition in me to start the race. I thought I had brought an extra GU gel to pop in before the race, but it turns out I had forgot it. I proceeded to rack my bike in my assigned spot; which wasn't to bad of a place - relatively close to the bike exit. I set things up, picked up my chip, and thought about a bathroom break until I saw the line for the port-a-johns before deciding to wait until I reached the water.
Event warmup:

Hopped in the 60 degree water for a few strokes in the water with my full-sleeved wetsuit. The water was ice cold and it took my breath away. I also took care of my bathroom break to do item.
Swim
  • 23m 48s
  • 1640 yards
  • 01m 27s / 100 yards
Comments:

I was in the third wave of the race, behind the elite racers and the 29 & under women. Little did I know that it wasn't just my age group (M30-34) going next, it was all men 30-49. I had positioned myself at the front of what I thought was the 30-34 AG pack for the start before they had announced that all of us were going at once. It seemed like me and everyone else were caught a little off guard by this, but whatever, we'll roll with it. I was just hoping that my positioning on the start line didn't seem too aggressive. I can handle being a FOP swimmer my age group, but I wasn't sure about a group with a span of 20 years.

After a weak verbal "go," we raced into the water and tore into it. I was going full throttle to start off. It was one intense minute of thrashing, arms and bodies colliding, and blurred visions of different colored swim caps. If I was going to race up front I was going to have to earn it. I was swimming so hard it was all I could do to keep people off the top of me. Maybe about 200 yards in I found my breathing to be way too short and shallow. The intense start combined with the cold water was leaving my gasping for air. But at the same time things were starting to thin out up front and I had to mentally tell myself to calm the f down, catch your breath, and settle into a nice stroke pattern.

Eventually I found myself rounding the first left turn and we were hanging tough. About this time I found a guy off to my immediate right going stroke for stroke with me. I don't think we had anyone around us in our immediate surroundings, but for some reason we found it necessary to swim within two inches of each other. Well, we continued this for a good 5-7 minutes until we approached a buoy. This guy on my right was making a bee line for that buoy which was on my right and I more or less stood in his way. By the time we reached that buoy I had to decide to either make him fight for his positioning and crowd him out, or just let him by. I opted for the latter deciding just to ride his toes the rest of the way in. This actually worked out pretty well in the end because I could not for the life of me see the swim exit, all that I could make out were people in front of me angling left towards the shore. Once my fingers hit dirt I stood up and was greeted my nice crowd cheering us up into transition.
What would you do differently?:

I would be little more mentally prepared for the chaos at the start; visualization. Other than that, nothing. This swim went well, good intensity throughout.
Transition 1
  • 01m 47s
Comments:

We had a longer than I expected jog up through transition, but that worked out alright because it took quite a bit of fumbling around before I could find my pull string for my wetsuit zipper. Wetsuit slid off Ok, then shoes, helmet, glasses, bike and go.
What would you do differently?:

Nothing. Did everything the best way I know how but it's still not fast enough. Had the 81st fastest T1 time.
Bike
  • 1h 14m 3s
  • 24.85 miles
  • 20.14 mile/hr
Comments:

This was going to be all about being competitive on the bike without pushing the limits of what I'm truly capable of. Today was supposed to be a continuation of yesterday's high winds and temps. Luckily the clouds came out and shielded us from the rays and course set things up so that the headwind came at us while we were going through the neighborhood. As I've pointed out in other races, when you're an FOP swimmer and only an average biker there is little opportunity to pass other bikers but a plethora chances to watch the faster bikers roll on past you. However, I'm ok with this.

I stayed on top of my drink and nutrition. I put down a bottle of Gatorade Endurance and my gel flask mixed with two parts vanilla bean and two parts water with an occasional swig of water. Everything went well for the most part. The hills sucked if you happened to catch a 30mph-ish gust of head wind/cross wind, but boy was the tailwind sweet to start your second lap and to head on home.

I did have one small snafu. While I trudging up the long hill I dropped my chain, which was mostly due to me not paying attention to what I was doing with my gearing. It maybe cost me 30 seconds total, but in the end my hands would just covered in black grease from the chain afterwards. This would come into play later when I would go to wipe sweat off of my face. The race photos might be interesting to see as I ended up having black smudge marks all over my face come the end of the race.

Overall, I'm happy with my performance and was pleased to have averaged over 20mph, but this has to get faster. Save for one person, I'm easily the slowest rider at my overall position in the standings. But improvement will come in time.
What would you do differently?:

Good here, just pay better attention to my gear switching on uphill climbs.
Transition 2
  • 01m 18s
Comments:

Standard stuff here. Helmet and shoes off, socks and running shoes on. Snapped on race belt and visor as I was running out.
What would you do differently?:

Slide bike shoes off before I approach the dismount line. I've done this before, I'm not sure why I didn't today.
Run
  • 47m 54s
  • 6.21 miles
  • 07m 43s  min/mile
Comments:

I started off the run not feeling the best. For the first mile or two I was moving at pace that I didn't think I could comfortably maintain without blowing up at the end, but other factors took over that negated that worry. Around mile two my left foot began to fall asleep. This has happened to me a total of three times ever, prior to today. I tried to ignore it for the next mile, but once I started the second loop I had to pull off to the side and massage my foot to try to get rid of this nagging problem. The massaging provided little relief so I tried to get going again, but as I ran my foot had gotten so numb that it felt like I was running with a giant hard ball under the bottom of my foot. I pulled off to the side again, massaged my foot, and then removed the insole of my shoe in hopes of giving my foot more room should a nerve have been getting pinched. I started to run but again this provided no relief. I pulled off to the side again and this time I just removed my entire shoe off and ran with a shoe on my right foot and just my sock on my left. This solved nothing either, if anything I was stepping on rocks but I would never know it because I had no feeling in my foot.

Finally, I reached an aid station around mile 4ish where I slipped on my shoe and started to stumble along worrying if I was causing permanent damage and feeling sorry for my plight. About this time I came up on a guy I had done some track workouts with. After a quick exchange of how each of us was doing I mentioned my foot issue. He basically said in response, "why don't you just hurry up and finish and it won't be a problem anymore." It was so simple but it clicked a light bulb off in my head. HTFU and get to the finish line. I told him to finish strong and I would see him at the finish line, and off I went. Since I was stopping and starting earlier I had now built up a small reserve of energy which was just enough to carry me home at a solid pace. From here on out it all about making up for lost time.
What would you do differently?:

HTFU and get over my numb left foot issue.
Post race
Warm down:

Slow walk through the finish line/expo area. Grabbed a bunch of food and chatted with my wife. Conveniently enough, my foot problem vanished and my quads started to really tighten. I had to resist the urge to sit down and instead keep moving.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

A few instances of a lack in mental focus and toughness held me back from squeezing as much as I could from this race. Despite anything negative that happened on this race I feel very good about my overall performance. I figure I lost about 4-5 minutes on the run, but when I was actually competing today and my head was in the game I performed as well as I could of expect of myself on this day.

Event comments:

A great race. This was very well run and it seemed like so many of the details that come with a race were being taken care of. Everything from the race packet, to the numerous volunteers all over the course, the aid stations, food, post race medal and towel, etc. was put together very well. The local tri community was out in strong force today.




Last updated: 2010-02-22 12:00 AM
Swimming
00:23:48 | 1640 yards | 01m 27s / 100yards
Age Group: 2/71
Overall: 13/427
Performance: Good
Suit: Xterra Vortex 3 Full-Sleeved
Course: Longview lake, counter-clockwise swim. Straight out, across, and back in.
Start type: Run Plus: Waves
Water temp: 60F / 16C Current: Medium
200M Perf. Good Remainder: Good
Breathing: Average Drafting: Good
Waves: Navigation: Average
Rounding: Average
T1
Time: 01:47
Performance: Average
Cap removal: Average Helmet on/
Suit off:
No
Wetsuit stuck? Yes Run with bike: Yes
Jump on bike: No
Getting up to speed: Average
Biking
01:14:03 | 24.85 miles | 20.14 mile/hr
Age Group: 26/71
Overall: 126/427
Performance: Average
Wind: Strong with gusts
Course: Two loop course with the backstretch of each lap running through a technical neighborhood and one long climb.
Road: Smooth Dry Cadence:
Turns: Average Cornering: Average
Gear changes: Average Hills: Average
Race pace: Comfortable Drinks: Just right
T2
Time: 01:18
Overall: Average
Riding w/ feet on shoes
Jumping off bike
Running with bike Average
Racking bike Average
Shoe and helmet removal Good
Running
00:47:54 | 06.21 miles | 07m 43s  min/mile
Age Group: 14/71
Overall: 109/427
Performance: Below average
Course: Two loop course on the park's road and paved trail. Mostly flat with a few climbs here and there.
Keeping cool Average Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Average
Mental exertion [1-5] 3
Physical exertion [1-5] 4
Good race? Ok
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Good
Race evaluation [1-5] 5