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 Swim
Comments: So I line up near the middle of this 215 person wave, 2nd row back as I figure this is nationals and I'm not finishing top 10 out of the water at this one. Horn goes off and holy cow, the mayhem ensues. This was the washing machine effect I have heard so much about! I had people crossing in front of me from both directions. Guy on left is veering towards me so I want to veer left...NO because guy on right is veering left! It was hard to see the small bridge that we swim under but I could see the large bridge which was my plan anyway. I pretty much got tossed around a bit during the first 200 meters and drank a lot of water. The good thing was that once we swam under the bridge most of the swimmers veered left. I was pretty much alone, nobody to draft, but there was nothing but smooth water between me and that yellow turn bouy. I was finally able to put my head down and just swim. Not sure if I had any trailers but as I got close to the bouy I could see the pack coming from the left. I cut around the bouy pretty smoothly and the other bouys as well. The exit ramp was quite slippery so I took advantage of the volunteers hands that were extended out. The new ROKA worked out well. I failed to start my watch so I had no idea what my swim time was. I was actually thinking my swim was in the 24 minute range due to that terrible start. Ha, actually a new OLY swim PR by 28 seconds. What would you do differently?: Maybe line up on the end? There were some really FAST swimmers out there so lining up in the front probably wouldn't be a good idea. Normally a 22:24 swim would be top 5 in small races but there were 51 guys faster than that here!  Transition 1
Comments: it was a pretty long run to transition, plenty of time to get the top part of the wetsuit off. I had some trouble getting it off around the heels but this was my first crack with the new wetsuit. I didn't really practice gettng it off quickly the day before. Once I got the wetsuit off, everything else went pretty smoothly. I'm not quick at transitions anyhow. What would you do differently?: Practice race pace wetsuit removal?  Bike
Comments: This was the best my legs felt jumping on the bike all year. Legs were a little tight in the beginning but loosended up after about 10 minutes. This bike course was flat and fast. Since the waves were spaced out as such bike traffic was mostly within your age group. There were enough riders to where you had to pay attention to avoid getting a drafting penalty, much unlike the smaller local races I've participated in. The bridge was a climb but I had no problem with it as I passed a couple riders going up both directions. A few of those riders would pass me back on the flats, maybe they were monitoring their power etc. As we headed south towards the turnaround there was a large pack of riders, maybe 10 or so. There were definitely a few in the draft zone and I was closing in on the back. I just slowed down a bit but I was moving too slow so I just put the hammer down, burnt a match or two but passed all but one or two of them just to get clear of something that would get an officials attention. Coming back north towards the bridge there were a few manhole covers to avoid but other than that the roads were fine. I didn't start my watch until the run up to T1 so I didn't really know what my bike split was. I did glance at it and saw 1:06 as I was headed to the dismount line so I knew I had set a new bike PR but on this fast course I was pretty sure I would, just didn't know by how much. What would you do differently?: Not much, it was a very good ride, albeit in perfect conditions. Transition 2
Comments: Came in with planty of space for dismount, one rider about 10 yards behind me. I haven't tried the flying dismount yet, just running in my shoes for a few hundred feet. Bike helmet off - Check! Bike shoes off/running shoes on - Check! Visor and Sunglasses on - Check! Race Bib on......Why am I running with my SWIM CAP! D'oh, in the mad rush to get out of transition I grabbed what I though was my race number/belt and it turned out to be my swim cap. I just grabbed at sometthing resembling my race bib and that's what I got. I prefer not having to put race stickers on m swim cap! So I went back to get my race belt, that cost me about 30 seconds or so. What would you do differently?: Um, place swm cap to where I don't mistake it for my race bib....  Run
Comments: Oh yeah, the run, not my strength this year. Legs were tight at the start of course but not too bad. I just ran at an honest, comfortable, cramp preventing pace to start and was just hoping to hang on or even speed up a bit near the end. I took a GU with caffiene at the second aid station and took in mostly water the rest of the way. Poured a little over my head a couple times just to make sure body temp was kept at bay. Saw the polkadots of ChrisM who had a killer bike leg and crushed his OLY PR a couple miles in. Since he passed me on the bike course I wanted to return the favor. I saw one of our local racers who I met for the first time that morning who was in my age group after the first turnaround and thought for sure he'd catch me. His run was some 5+ minutes fast than mine but he spotted me 6 minutes on the swim plus a few more seconds on the bike. He was only 29 seconds back at the finish. I was able to muster up some speed coming back south towards the finish, it was flat to slightly downhill and I used all of what I had left in the last mile. Crossed the finish line, what a relief! What would you do differently?: Actually executed the run to my current ability so really nothing. I think I've averaged less than 10 miles per week over the last 3 months so I feel pretty good about averaging 7:30's after a fast bike split. Post race
Warm down: Got water, waited in line for some ground beef and past like substance. I think there was some corn on the cob in there too. What I really wanted was some chcolate milk. I need to start bringing my own to races. I went over near the timing chip tent and sat on the grass while I ate. Was shortly joined by some of the other K.C. characters and ChrisM. I didn't know what my finish time was, was hoping for sub 2:20 and was pleasantly surprised at a time of 2:18:28! What limited your ability to perform faster: On this day, other than mental lapses in transition, nothing. In general there's lots of room for improvment. Event comments: This was a very fun race. Very well organized and lots of volunteers. It has a very good "Big Event" atmosphere, all the people along the swim venue and along the bridge made it fun from the beginning. I thought the course layout was excellent. I will definitely try to get back next year. Last updated: 2014-08-04 12:00 AM
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United States
USA Triathlon
68F / 20C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 828/3066
Age Group = M45-49
Age Group Rank = 85/215
I finally made the trip! At the last minute I signed up 9 days before race day. When I tried to register via the original qualification link I got the message saying the event was closed. So I then emailed them and was told they should have some spots open up in the afternoon. So at that point I was on the waiting list but the gal told me I would get in.
We left town on Thursday and to save some dough I was able to car pool with another racer so we split gas and hotel expenses. We stayed at one of the host Hotels, the Hyatt which was a good spot as everrying was within walking distance. How many TT bikes can you fit into an elevator? We got all checked in by about 6:00 so we had time for a quick jog down to the race site.
We ran down to the swim start area, Discovery World, and checked out the swim course. We figured out how to site using the big bridge, which we would ride over and the white building on the return to the swim exit.
While on our run we saw a couple restaurants with outdoor patios so knocked out two birds with one stone on our recon run. Friday morning after breakfast we drove most of the bike course, got our race packets and took advantage of the warmup swim. The water was much warmer than I thought it would be. I had just received my new ROKA Maverick Elite wetsuit so I needed to make sure it was good to go. Patrick gave me some tips on putting it on and how to quickly remove it. I've had a DeSoto 2-piece the last few years, nothing new on race day right? The suit felt great and fit perfectly.
After the swim we took our gear back to the hotel, got our bikes then rode the run course before checking our bikes in. I got a SWEET transition spot right one spot over from the end of the rack. There was a pipe sticking up out of the ground so they used an orange cone to cover it, RIGHT at the end of my rack! The other nice thing was that FINALLY the racks were high enough so I didn't have to tilt my bike to get it out.
One thing I noticed was that there were very few road bikes in the racks.....Welcome to Nationals!
Race morning we woke up at 4:30 mainly to ensure a good parking spot. A lot of people just walked over but we didn't want to walk or ride back to the hotel after the race.
My wave did not go off until 9:40 so I had plenty of time to kill after leaving transition. Two racers I rode up with had a wave start at 8:48 so I was not only able to see the start, but the finish as well. It was cool standing on the bridge that they swim under.
One thing that I noticed was that most swimmers veered left after going under the bridge. This actually added a little distance to the swim. If you look at the swim map, it shows a 30-40 degree turn to the left after the bridge but in reality this wasn't the case. Keeping a line to that yellow bouy was the key. There was also an oragne bouy that was inline with the yellow one that very few people paid much attention to.
We were able to get in the water and warm up for 5-10 minutes. If I remember correctly, the wave before us left 20 minutes earlier and the wave after us were at least 10 minutes back. I like that because usually at small races back home I've got to swim through packs of people.