Topeka Tinman Triathlon - Long Course - Triathlon

Tried to remain calm. The first 500 I was breathing every stroke before trying to calm down and focus. Decent swim. Not great. Thought I was a little better than the result.

I need to find a happy medium between being all-out (and out of sorts) and completely relaxed. I think I still panic a bit, but then when I calm down, probably not pushing hard enough.

Third fastest T1 in my AG. Not too shabby. I did take time to put socks on because I wanted them for this run. I had my shoes banded to the bike and the running surface was nice.

Nothing

I felt good on the bike. I spent alot of time passing and rarely being passed, however I think the faster athletes were gone and I never caught them. Was fairly satisfied with the bike, although I thought that I would have made better progress over 2013's race, considering the time I have in the sport and the additional training. My bike and swim were almost identical to 2013.

I had a decent T2, and nothing comes to mind that I should have done differently.

This run always kills me. The first 2 times I did Tinman long course, I melted here. My goal going out (especially since I've had no taper and no specific goals for this race) was to run well, and survive much better than I have before on this course.

I started out comfortably and was drinking from my belt every 10 minutes or so. I found myself observing milestones: the damn where my right hamstring cramped in 2013, the shelter area at mile 4ish that I nearly quit, etc.

I intended to spend the first 3 miles getting into a comfortable rythm and then move to push the pace a bit. I never got to the pushing the pace part, however. I did get the opportunity to pick up a dude who was really suffering and walking. As I ran by him, I told him "come on" and ran with him for about 2 miles before he stopped again. I felt like I was returning the favor for what Steve did for me in 2013. Overall, I felt decent and took a total of 6 minutes off my run time from 2013. I'm pretty happy about that.

I would not change anything, unless I changed my objectives for the race. I did not taper and was running hard intervals even until the end of the week.

After the race, got medal, water, gatorade and then looked for a shady place to watch for wife. We got some bad pizza and free beers and soon headed home.


Mostly, this was a C race that we signed up for because it was cheap, and convenient. Not many Saturday races and the course is fair enough. Even though it's "out of town", it's really not much further for us than some other races like KC Tri.


This race is sort of no frills. But I have no complaints. I like to complain when I feel like promises are not delivered on. The course was safe, the race was organized and well put together. There was ice at the run stations. The medals and shirts were very generic (same for long/short course, same design as last year), but that's not a big deal to me. I'm much happier with the production this year than I was as an observer in 2014 and 2015.