Kinetic Half - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Started off feeling pretty solid. Put a massive gap on the 2nd wave in the first 50-100 meters and no one was near me. I started way left which was a straight shot to the buoy. Saw one guy in my wave off to the right and we seemed evenly matched. We were about 10-15 yards apart laterally so I was ok with this. Made it to the first turn and then had a tough time seeing the 2nd turn marker. Was swimming way off to the left, then the right I was just all over the place. I had the feet of the guy in my wave but he just was swimming so smooth and I was fighting with the water. He kept a line into the 1st wave and I didn't want to fight with the swimmers in front of me so I stayed left. Finally, I lost him at the 2nd turn back home. He pulled away for good. Came out and felt whoooped.... But was glad to be getting on the bike.

Not sure. My swimming is the best it's been in years. I'll just leave it at being a bad swim. All things considered I was still in a decent position OA in the race and I didn't blow myself up.

A little slow here. Wetsuit was stuck on my wrist and my foot. Oh well.

Nothing

Where to begin. It was a fun bike course but man it was IMO hard. I don't have roads like that where I live. Honestly, I'd love to see the elevation on this course. I bet it's more than Timberman. The entire course it up and down. A few decent climbs but mostly rollers that were pretty moderate. The wet roads didn't help things at all. Really worked the gears over on the bike. Very different layout from my goal race of Eagleman where I am going to have the power down for 2+ hours.

Starting off I got up the first hill out of T1 with no issues. Made the right turn for a short half mile out and back and saw what I thought was the race leaders from the wave that was 3 minutes ahead of me. I was shocked that they were that close. So at that point my plan was to ride comfortably out of the park and get my HR down. First race ever with my HR monitor and I was just checking it to see where I was based on feel. HR was in the low 160s to high 150s for the first 10 miles of the bike. Once I hit the main loop that you had to do twice I wanted to again ride controlled but pretty close to suicide pace but limit the really deep and strenuous efforts. By mile 12 I had the race leader and I blew past him like he was not even there. By the first water station I didn't even see him at all. At this point the race official on the motorcycle came up behind me. More than likely I was just passing through the water station and was to the left of the road to avoid any contact with the people handing out water. I must have stayed there to long for her liking and she gave me a position penalty. I am 100% certain it was not for 30 seconds but I may be wrong. I moved right and kept checking over my left shoulder. They were not passing me. So I just kept on riding. Finally they passed me that was that. No comments nothing....

Got to the 2nd loop of the course and I finally started to see people again. I rode pretty much the entire 1st loop by myself. Got to the back end of the course and the mist started to pick up a bit and there was clearly a wind in one direction coming from the east. Not massive but it was tough on the roller sections. I started to fade a bit somewhere between mile 30-40. In fact I almost lost a full gear during those 10 miles. At about mile 40 I regained focus and gave it all I had. Got the gears back and was glad to be nearing the finish.

Made it back to the park but knew I was losing time or suspected it anyway. I was watching avg speed and at mile 30 I was at 25.4 I lost about a full MPH over the last 40K. The taper should help with this in a month.

Nothing. It was fun!

Quick transition. Had a tough time getting my helmet off.

Nothing

Run was fun. Let me first off with a comment. Running is my limiter. The 6 days a week of running I have been doing at easy to mod aerobic paces has really helped. No injuries. Another note. My longest run before this race was only 11 miles. I'd love to see what this run split would come down to if I was to bump up to 13-15 for a few weeks on end. BTW this was the fastest 13.1 I've ever run. So I am happy with it. Especially for May.

Back to the race:

First mile is all up hill. The entire mile. I felt good. HR was high but it's to be expected on that hill. Kept motoring along and was all by myself. Felt great until about mile 5. My stomach decided to take a turn for the worse. So I needed or thought I needed a bathroom or it was going to be a messy finish photo. A few safe rips and I felt a bit better. It was a risky move but I had to do it. The gamble paid off and my Tri shorts stayed clean. Back to running hard again and I saw the winner coming hard behind me. He got me at mile 6 and I had a quick chat with him. He had a garmin and said he was running 6 Min pace. I knew I was not going to be able to match that so I stayed with him as long as I could. Then he got about 200 yards on me and I held it there for a good bit. Finally I had enough and blew a bit up on one of the hills on the back of the course. I stopped for a quick sec, took a full drink of coke and dumped a water on my head. That felt great and I got back to work. The final 5 K was tough but no where as bad as it usually is for me. I didn't have that intense pain that I normally get in my quads. I really tried to motor home the last 5 K but that's all I had. I saw my watch and new it was going to be close to 1:30 so I just ran as fast as I could with out killing myself. The last mile has this insane down hill section through the woods thats paved. Its wet as hell and there were wet leaves on the ground. I just pictured myself slipping and laying in the woods for endless hours. Oh and I almost got hit by a deer at about mile 7.... Ran right at me on the back end of the course. That was fun.

Nothing I am happy with the effort. Manage the ups and downs. I had a fair share of the downs out there. Talked myself out of it a few to many times. Need to really focus harder mentally. I think the hills had me a bit intimidated.

Sat in the lake, had plenty of water and fresh fruit. A bit of protesting to the USAT official as well. She was as cold as a witches tit...no luck there.

Chilled out with my wife and kids and was very glad to have the first race of the season done. Met some really nice people.


Nothing... A solid training race.


Fun event. Crazy back woods VA. Dukes of Hazard type driving to get to the race. Lots of run and well run. Race organizers where great as well. Had a few nice conversations with them.