login
 Swim
Comments: Without a lot of hoopla we were off. First all the males and then all of the females. I had a direct line to the first buoy and I hit it perfectly. I was expecting to encounter a little bit of traffic since the first buoy was only 50 yards out, but there wasn't any and I was the first one to round it. There were three orange buoys to navigate around and in between there were white buoy markers that I think are normally part of the pond area. You know what I mean, right? Those small round pegs that float around in the water. Well, we were instructed to swim outside of those as well to make the swim more arcing and the proper distance. I did that for the first one, but since I was leading the swim and I had no one to follow (a first), and small, floating, white pegs are hard to see in the sun, and I completely forgot about what I was doing I almost missed rounding the second one. It wasn't until I took I breathe and saw a lifeguard frantically pointing me in a different direction that I wised up. My mistake didn't cost me too much and I emerged first out of the water by 35 seconds. I'll take that for a 400m swim (full disclosure the second fastest time was from the women's wave, 8 seconds back of me).  Transition 1
Comments: Good, except for the whole part where I fumbled around trying to get clipped into my bike. 2/6 8/80  Bike
Comments: First on the bike. The thought running through my head for the first few minutes was "I sure hope I'm going the right way, otherwise I'm screwed." But once I started to make the climb up the dam I was pretty sure I was in the right place. Heavy panting: Check. Skyrocketing HR: Check. Painful climb immediately after T1: Check. Yup, I'm in the right place. After 5 miles of a 12ish mile bike course I was finally passed. He was moving too fast for me to stay with him so I let him go. The ride back to the park was pretty fun; there was a nice decline which made for fast biking. Despite how speedy I was feeling I managed get passed again, but this time I held him close by until the descent down the dam. His descending skills were a bit better than mine and I lost touch with him going around two of the bends. I'm also going to note here, at the end of my bike write-up, how ridiculously humid it was this morning. Rain was on its way but it fizzled out before reaching us. I still spent the bike ride swimming. An uncomfortable ride in that regard. Transition 2
Comments: It's good to know that after almost 30 triathlons there is still something new that can happen to you that hasn't happened before. Today, as I approached the dismount line I stood up on my bike to hop off only to have the crotch area of my tri shorts got stuck on the nose of my bike seat. As a result I couldn't properly step off my bike and instead fell over on the ground. My bike was unharmed and I only suffered a skinned knee and a bruised ego. 2/6 30/80  Run
Comments: Coming into T2 I saw first place guy getting his run started and second place dude was just ahead of me. Depending on how they ran I thought there might be a chance for me to catch them. As with any 5k, especially in a triathlon, this run was painful. Even though it took me less than 20 minutes to finish the run it might as well be an hour long run because each second in time is stretched out to last eternity. I caught up to second place dude and hung a few yards behind him. There is no way he didn't know I was there, its hard to ignore a heavy mouth breather gasping for air. I picked a max pace I could maintain which unintentionally matched his pace pretty good. 1st place guy was no where to be seen. The road was on a constant tree-lined bend so you could only see so far. What ultimately matters was he was just as fast us me and 2nd place dude and thus no ground was made up on him. I'm pretty anal about running the tangents in races and 2nd place was not so much. I took advantage around mile two and sneaked in ahead of him on a bend in the road. Unlike myself he was not a heavy mouth breathing caveman so at first I couldn't tell if he was right on my tail or if he fell back off the pace. But runners coming the other way started saying "good job guys," as in plural, there are more than one of you, so I knew he had to be right with me. With a tenth of a mile to go he sprinted right on by me. I was already giving it my all and I couldn't find that extra burst to go with him. What would you do differently?: Find that extra gear at the end. Post race
Warm down: Me and the wife hung around the finish line and chatted with the other finishers. Waited for the award ceremony. Event comments: I really enjoyed this race. A very laid back and friendly event. I knew no one at this race but I ended up talking with a lot of people, which was real cool. Most of the post race was spent chatting with the other finishers who came in right after and before me. I'm glad I finally raced here, but because of the lack of energy and excitement in the air at the event and its fairly uninteresting course I can't see myself making it a point to race it again unless my wife and I decide to make it part of another weekend getaway. Last updated: 2015-06-16 12:00 AM
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
View profile
Add to friends
Go to training log
Go to race log
Send a message
View album
CONNECT WITH FACEBOOK
United States
Oz Endurance
78F / 26C
Overcast
Overall Rank = 3/83
Age Group = 35-39M
Age Group Rank = 1/6
I've kinda wanted to do this triathlon since it started four years ago and get the opportunity to race in my old home town. However, I never wanted to either a) get up super early and drive two hours to race a sprint or b) get a hotel the night before to race a small sprint race. Well, to justify the latter my wife and I decided to make a small weekend of it. We dropped off the kids at my parents in Topeka and then continued to make our way west. I booked a room at the new swanky Bluemont Hotel across the street from Aggieville that my old co-workers now run. We then spent the afternoon/evening in the 'ville drinking beers and eating appetizers. Before we got too crazy we took in the movie 'Vacation' and relaxed for the rest of the evening.
Breakfast was simple. A couple of yogurts, a Cliff Bar, and a Naked juice. It was a mostly liquid, easy to swallow stuff since I have been struggling of late to force down chewed up carbs so early in the morning, i.e. bagels, toast, and even bananas to a certain extent.
It was an easy drive to Tuttle Creek, although I was a little surprised they made us pay to enter the state park. Or perhaps better put, I'm just used to not having to pay the park entry fee at other races. No big deal though. I checked-in and picked up my chip and waltzed into the smallest transition area I've ever raced in. Just two rows, enough to hold 40/45 bikes each.
Nope. I just waited on the beach to start. I spent most of those last few moments before the start trying to get myself psyched up to not only race but race hard. The atmosphere was so relaxed and quiet I was kinda "meh" before the start.