Topeka Tinman Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

I was in the second wave of the morning. I started out fast and was leading a small group guys. I probably started out too fast because I couldn't maintain my initial speed too long but the fellas on my feet could, so eventually I fell back a bit and did some drafting off two dudes. This was going very well for me, as I usually can't keep a draft buddy around to save my life. But nothing good lasts forever as we eventually caught up to the wave ahead of us and we all scattered into our own separate direction. Once I was in the clear I had lost my swim friends and was all alone.

When you're alone you have time to think. In my case I thought about my trusty Garmin 310 watch. I thought about how I turned it on before the race to get a satellite signal. I thought about putting it into multisport mode. I thought about putting it on my bike. I thought . . . wait. . . I didn't do any those last two steps. Do I even know where my Garmin is? Well, we'll figure that out soon enough. Good thing I got my handy timex Ironman watch on my wrist.

Nailed it. I know this because my time was pretty much the same from the previous 3 times I did this race. Anytime getting older <=> getting slower it's a win.

6/15
38/128

I swear getting your wetsuit off in that first minute of getting out of the water is the hardest and the most dreadful thing to do in triathlon. One day I'm going to collapse on the ground in pain, in the grass somewhere trying to simply grab the zipper cord and unzip myself.

My T1 time is pretty pathetic, but only because I gave my spot a couple extra looks trying to spot my Garmin. No where to be seen.

The standard "do better at remembering where you put your Garmin watch prior to the race" thing. Pretty sure this is common mistake among other athletes.

The one thing that is kinda, sorta annoying about the bike course is the 4-5ish miles of false flat road near the beginning. It looks flat but your speed tells you otherwise. Maintaining a respectable speed proves to be quite a task. But on this particular day going fast on this stretch of road turns out to be relatively easy. Maybe I got lucky and that small amount of wind shifted to give me a push. I'm pretty sure the two minute bike course PR had to do with this fact. Of course, I had no Garmin watch to confirm this, so who the heck knows.

3/15
14/128

I found it! Don't worry everybody, I found it. My Garmin was stuffed in my left running shoe, exactly where I last put it.

I pretty much ran around the lake by myself. There were two super humans that passed me at different points in the race, running near 6 min miles in this heat. I was just happy to be not be walking and hovering around the low 7s. The breeze was really a life saver this morning, because the first two miles going over the dam with the tailwind were brutal. Static air and nothing evaporating.

Mostly focused on keeping a running motion going, even on the back portion of the course with the hills. I may have been able to go faster/harder but it's a bit of a guessing game with how much to push it when its warm outside. I was a bit cautious this year following last year's performance. I still love this run course, it fun and beautiful, but I still think I can do soooo much better out here than what I've done the last four times. But its a good thing I had my Garmin with me!

My wife and kids drove over to watch me finish. I got some big (little) high-fives round the corner and into the finishers chute.

I need it to be cooler, or I need to do medium distance training runs with steep hills sprinkled in near the end. Maybe a different mental approach to this course. Sub 7 min miles should be totally doable, but yet I can't touch it.

I chatted briefly with some friends, then watched my 3 and 5 year-olds expend some energy on the park jungle gym. No awards ceremony, which meant I could just pick mine up and go and not have to keep the family waiting around.


Well run. Well organized. Plenty of volunteers. Course was well marked. Beer at the finish line. Just get an an enthusiastic announcer (or any announcer for that matter) to make the race feel more like an event. Will do race again.