It's race week! Kansas City Triathlon edition! Who's in? (Page 2)

Trapping the fart makes you more buoyant. Scientific fact.

I rode the course yesterday around 6:00 PM and I think it was about 60 degrees. Rode with shorts, cycling jersey and arm warmers and it wasn't too bad. I was thinking that it had to be pretty chilly for the folks swimming in the OWS clinic. I'm considering throwing on a long sleeve shirt in T1 and taking it off in T2. Anybody else thinking that?

Yep, I'm thinking of a long sleeve shirt or my Saucony Windbreaker for the ride.

Yeah, I was thinking of a windbreaker too but it's not very tight fitting and I had the image of it flapping around in the wind in my head and didn't think it seemed very aero. If I do the windbreaker route I will have to laugh at myself - aero helmet and disc to be super aero but then have my jacket flapping around!

I rode the course yesterday after swimming and froze my a$$ off for the first 6-8 miles. Only had my tri kit on, no arm warmers. I did use toe covers, which I'd recommend for Sunday. I'm contemplating just going sans armwarmers/long sleeve for Sunday because:

a. I just figured out what HTFU means (and will about how cold it is the entire ride anyway)
b. putting arm sleeves or a top on in T1 soaking wet is a biotch
c. during the race, I doubt I'm concentrating on how cold I am. I tend to focus solely on limiting the amount of time Patrick beats me by...

just my two cents. I don't think you can really go wrong.

Sort of agree with Mark, my first tri I attempted to put a shirt on in T1 and it was a nightmare, I'm also not sure wearing the sleeves under the wetsuit would really help, then you are just wearing wet sleeves for a while....

Edited by kuatb 2014-05-15 12:42 PM

I totally agree that it is a pain putting something like that on. I also think wearing sleeves under the wetsuit would be a complete waste of time. I dont know...I MAY still try to pull on a long sleeve shirt because I hate freezing on the bike. I will probably just make a game time decision I guess.

Long and it wasn't that bad....

They posted Race Day schedule on FB. Looks like I will be in the last wave start - thereby maximizing air temp ;-)

Wave Schedule
• 7:30 AM: Wave #1: Olympic Males 25-34: Yellow
• 7:33 AM: Wave #2: Olympic Females 39 & Under: Pink
• 7:36 AM: Wave #3: Olympic Males 35-39: Blue
• 7:39 AM: Wave #4: Olympic Males Under 25: Red
• 7:42 AM: Wave #5: Olympic Females 40 & Over: Green
• 7:45 AM: Wave #6: Olympic Males 40-49: White
• 7:48 AM: Wave #7: Olympic Males 50 & Over: Gold
• 7:51 AM: Wave #8: Olympic Clydesdales, Athena's and Relays: Red
Break
• 8:30 AM: Wave #9: Sprint Males 14-34: Gold
• 8:33 AM: Wave #10: Sprint Females 14-34: Red
• 8:36 AM: Wave #11: Sprint Males 35-44: Green
• 8:39 AM: Wave #12: Sprint Females 35 & Over: Red
• 8:42 AM: Wave #13: Sprint Males 45 & Over: Blue

Edited by Ranski 2014-05-16 8:16 AM

7:48.....
That's a whole lotta bikes with disks to pass!

Not happening...

The weather sure turned out better than I expected and the swim wasn't near as cold as many of us thought!

I thought they did a pretty good job coordinating the race and had a fun time. My only complaint is that I got dinged with what I think is a bad penalty on the bike for being in the left lane. I get it, rules are rules but I firmly believe I rode the course properly and safely. How about they penalize those several people I saw wearing headphones on the run? Oh well.

Hope everybody had a good and fun time!

Bummer.. I am surprised I didn't get penalized also. On my second lap, the number of people ride two and three abreast and chatting was annoying.

Had fun, had a lousy race. Major bike malfunctions lead to me stopping to try to make adjustments 7 or 8 times. One of these years I will have a good race here.

You could get a penalty for that? Whoops! I agree, on the second lap, when you hit the sprint bikers, you had to get over, there were TONS of people riding 3 wide, many of them on mountain bikes. It would have been more unsafe to to stay ride and go between them.

I had the race I sort of expected, but not the race I had hoped for. I felt terrible on the swim, I goofed around in T1 (the ground was pretty rough on my delicate feet). On the bike I did ok, but in hindsight I think I had the fitness to redline more of it. I only averaged about 20mph and I expected 21. I had a real hard time getting going on the run. I finally started to feel my legs about 2.5 miles in and it got much better. In fact, it ended up being my best run (expected for a time I had 2 years ago in D.C. that I've always felt was dubious) I've recorded (by about 30/sec per mile). Just wish I could have started out better as I know it could have been even better.

All told, finished at 2:41 which was a PR by a minute or so. I'm happy about that, but in hindsight feel that the weather and course was such that I left alot of time out there. I probably wasted 2 minutes alone in T1.

On another note, I really feel like KC Triathlon/Ultramax nailed it. I've been to enough events now to get an idea of what I like/don't like and it seems like they really went out of their way to make the event "feel" big. The nice swag, the nicely marked course (the many potholes clearly marked). I don't get too excited about medals, but those things are like weapons. '

If you were a VIP, the post race food was nice (even though I wasn't very hungry). I hope you picked up a pair of sunglasses. We got a pair, but there was no one watching and I saw people walking off with them by the handful.

Finally, I enjoyed one of the benefits of being 190 pounds with an awesome bike: anything within sight when I reached the top of the hill got chewed up. That was fun. Of course, none of your skinny guys need to remind me that gravity works both ways.

I thought it was a really good race too, I do hope they do some work on the roads before next year, there were some monster potholes!

That about sums it up for me as well. Since my training is a bit behind, and this being only my second race, I wasn't sure what to expect. Finished 8/11 in M45-49. Felt real uncomfortable at the start of the swim, I couldn't see the buoy due to the sun and followed a group waaaay right and had to come back. Settled into a rhythm on the back stretch and hit the 2nd buoy perfectly.

Flatted right of of T1 but pleased to report Pit Stop had me up in running in about 5-mins. Although turning bike upside down emptied the contents of my aerobottle. Thankfully temps were cool so hydration wasn't a major issue. Uneventful ride, but need to do more hill work.

Run was slow as usual but man that was about perfect weather to run in.

It was great seeing most of you there - next up St. Louis!

bib number:	362
age:	43
gender:	M
overall place:	12 out of 394
division place:	3 out of 48
gender place:	12 out of 298
time:	2:10:44
swim:	19:34
tran1:	3:25
bike:	1:04:53
tran2:	1:25
run:	41:30

Overall I am very happy.  PR'd by about 2 minutes.  Improved my run yet again and pushed the bike harder that I might have in past years.  Took 3rd in AG and missed 2nd by 7 freaking seconds.  Lost that in a horrible T1.  I couldn't get the top velcro strap of my wetsuit undone at the back of the neck which really slowed down my run up the hill from the water.   Lesson learned.  I had someone on my feet the entire swim and it ended up being the guy that took 2nd.  He just moved up to 40-44 this year and is a heck of a triathlete.  He is even better at the longer distances so he will be a challenge in the KS 70.3 in a few weeks.

Gotta get those transition times down as I move through the season.  No excuse for that.

Was great to see everyone again!  Except for Jon's bike malfunctions it sounded like most people had good races.

Edited by Jayhox 2014-05-19 10:17 AM

Yep. I was pretty much "not happy" about it too. Went and talked to the head referee but to no avail. I feel like I rode the course in the most safe and fair way possible given the conditions (lots of people to pass - I did average 22.9 on the bike so in fairness there was lots of passing going on; lots of potholes to avoid, etc) plus I didn't get any unfair advantage from being in the left lane a bit. It would be different if I was drafting or listening to headphones or riding erratically and putting others in danger. Oh well, it is what it is.

Question on this penalty. Was this for riding in the left lane or for riding on the left side of the right lane? In most places, it was two lane and the bike traffic was in the right lane. I did most passing on the left (of the right lane) but sometimes had to move to the left lane to get around. When I went down the big hill I went straight to the left lane and camped there the entire descend as I was passing and was not moving in and out of traffic. Is this considered a penalty?