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 Swim
Comments: The water was warm. I wore my wetsuit and could feel that I was slowly over heating through out the swim. But manged it just fine. The only really bad thing was the sun in your eyes coming back in the second half of the swim. Other than that the swim wasn't bad. The water was smooth. I elbowed someone in the face on the start. Wasn't my fault though. I couldn't see them behind me. What would you do differently?: Practice in open water more with my swim suit. This was my first open with the wetsuit, but it went fine.  Transition 1
Comments: Well I told myself to take my time through transition to make sure I had everything and was set. I fell getting clipped in to the pedals. It was a little embarrassing, but I stood up and waved and told everyone I was ok with a smile on my face! What would you do differently?: Not fall getting clipped in and practice taking the wetsuit off more.  Bike
Comments: Well I was feeling great through out the first 20 miles when my tire went flat. I should of stopped somewhere flat but instead I was changing the flat on angle which made it a little harder. I was surprised at how many people went past and asked if I needed help or if I needed anything. I keep saying no and thank you. I knew I had everything and could do it myself. I was just slow. It took me between 5-8 mins to do because it was also my back tire. Once I got going again, a mile or two up there was an oil spill across the road. We were able to single file past it on my side and continue racing. The volunteers were great with reacting and being there telling you to slow down and having cones to move you over to the side. We had to come back down the exact same spot after the turn around. Except this time you had to dismount and carry your bike around the oil spill because it took up the whole lane. That was actually quite fun!! I also saw a guy munching on a whole PB & J at at point during the race. As I got going again, I realized that the hills weren't as hard as i anticipated them to be especially with the lack of hills in my area. Just to let you know, if you expected Kansas to be flat, you are wrong. It is mostly gentle rolling hills. Coming back in the last 6 miles along the reservoir road, I saw a biker sitting on the guard rail pretty beat up. An official was with him and an officer was there and the ambulance was just showing up. I didn't see his bike anywhere so I think that went over the guard rail. Hopefully he is OK. I finished up the bike and actually felt pretty good still. But because of this, I think I might have pushed a little to hard with the hills and my run suffered from it. What would you do differently?: Not get a flat. Change my tires out if I am having that many problems with them. Transition 2
Comments: Good fast transition. Once again though I told my self to take my time and make sure I was set to go. What would you do differently?: Speed it up.  Run
Comments: I haven't been having the greatest running the last four weeks of training. I had been having some right shin/ankle issues. So I did feel this a little during the run. Other than that the run was nice. I made sure to smile the whole way to make sure I was having fun!. It was nice because I ran past our camp site four times and waved and smiled at them. It was almost completely in the sun also. I did walk about 30 seconds or so at each of the aid stations to make sure I was taking in the water and nutrition necessary because it was hot out there. Going up the finish chute was exciting! There was the yellow brick road and some characters from the Wizard of Oz. My finish photo got messed up by some a-hole crossing at the same time I did. I was actually thinking of purchasing it, since it was my first half-ironman. Chrissie Wellington was handing out medals, so I made sure to get my medal from her. That was exciting. What would you do differently?: Make sure my shin and ankle feel 100%, so I could run a little harder. Post race
Warm down: I sat down in the shade and started drinking some water. Didn't really really feel up to eating, so I more or less grazed on a few things. I cleaned up the camp and packed up when we got back to our campsite, because it was not done yet. I showered before our nice 8-9 hour car ride home as to not offended anyone during it! What limited your ability to perform faster: Not enough hill training. Not having hot enough days to acclimate myself to the heat. My shin/ankle bothering me during the run. Event comments: I think overall it was a great venue and was set up nicely. It does get a little cramped at times with everything being setup right at the entrance to camp ground 3 but it also mad it nice being able to stay directly at the venue. Last updated: 2010-01-08 12:00 AM
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United States
88F / 31C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 824/1591
Age Group = M18-24
Age Group Rank = 29/49
I left early Friday and arrived at Clinton State Park by about 3 pm. My girlfriend, and two other friends were camping at one of the campsites, so it wasn't too bad once we got there. I checked in and picked up my race numbers and such. Then I went to set up camp. It was hot about 95 outside with no clouds. We went to Topeka to Olive Garden for dinner that night and also stopped at Walmart to hang out and cool off more or less.
Saturday I woke up at about 6:30am and went for a ride at about 7 am. I made it about 5 minutes into my ride before my back tire went flat. I changed it out at my campsite and then finished my ride up. A couple of hours later, my tire was flat again. Time for the professionals to fix it. I took it over to the local bike mechanic on site and they checked it out. I also went to the course talk and meet some nice people from an hour north of Chicago. They ended up hanging out with us at our campsite on Sunday. The person who was doing the race, sadly did not finish. She swallowed water in the swim, threw up, and panicked. This was her first Triathlon ever, but she did say she is going to to try some shorter ones out first. Saturday it was also about 95 again, so it was a constant state of sweating and trying to stay hydrated. I went for a swim with a few BT'ers around 4:15pm. There was suppose to be an open beach somewhere. We never found it and made our own beach some where near the entrance to park. The water was bathtub water warm, so I was pretty sure we would not be using our wetsuits. After the swim, we went in to Lawrence to eat dinner at subway and go to the local target to cool off. We came back and I went to bed around 9:30ish.
The walk to an from the transitions was more than enough of a warm up for me.