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 Swim
Comments: (Last year this course was marked as 500 yards - this year almost 550...?) I placed myself in the middle and didn't start too hard. My last race I started hard and had to breathe every stroke. So this time I was breathing normally. The start was great - no kicking or pushing or anything. Something that bothered me: the whole time I felt really slow. I just couldn't step it up that last notch I needed in order to be 'fast.' I did the normal breast-stroke for a ways, switching back and forth. Found a pair of feet to follow for a bit, then had to pass them. The whole swim was just average for me, but still an improvement from last year. 2006 - 11:43 (2:20/100yds) 2007 - 11:10 (2:04/100yds) What would you do differently?: Get more OWS practice so I can be comfortable kicking it up to a fast pace.  Transition 1
Comments: Cap/goggles off while still in the lake - the run to my transition area was the longest as my rack was the farthest away from every entrance/exit (grumble grumble). Run, run, run, run, run... finally to my rack. Pretty smooth here, no issues. Knocked a minute off my T1 time from last year. 2006 - 3:49 2007 - 2:49 What would you do differently?: Run faster?  Bike
Comments: If you read my race report from last year, you know this was the course where I had to stop and walk my bike up the hills. It made me seriously question my athletic ability and desire to continue with this sport. It was my mission to conquer the hills this year to prove to myself that I had truly improved and that I could do it. Mounted smoothly and took off. The first hill had a sharp shoulder cut-off into the grass... about halfway up when I tried to move to the right to let people pass, I didn't look where I was going and rode right off the path and into the grass. Crap. Crap. CRAP! OK, stay calm. I miraculously remembered to unclip (becuase falling would have been uber-embarassing) and hopped back on the path. However, the incline was so severe, there was no way I was going to be able to clip back in while pedaling. I ran up the second half of the hill. But it wasn't because I couldn't do it (as I proved on the second lap), it was becuase I was a dumbass and rode off the path. About 10-15 people passed me during this jaunt. At the top of this hill, a cyclist was crashed, people were walking (besides me) and one lady on a mountain bike was stopped and looked about ready to pass out. I asked if she was okay and she just grunted. Hope she made it. OK back on the bike and determined to kick ass. I knew there was the "dam hill" but I'd forgotten about all of the other hills. I was out of the saddle quite a bit, but I was ON THE BIKE! Not walking the bike! First loop done, now I know where the hills are. The second loop was fun, I passed some people - even the semi-pro featured athlete! She was easy to spot as she is an amputee with a metal leg. I glanced down at my bike computer after the last hill and saw my average was 14.9 MPH and I cranked the hell out of the last few miles knowing there were no more hills. My computer says I averaged 15.5 MPH but the thing here says 16.03... the distances must have been a bit off. Either way, I was pumped about my average and the fact that I pretty much conquered what I came to conquer. 2006 - 42:19 (12.76 MPH) 2007 - 33:41 (16.06 MPH) What would you do differently?: Not ride off the path. Transition 2
Comments: Again, run, run, run, run, run, run... finally there is my rack. Went a little slower here than I should have. Not sure what I was doing, or thinking, but I walked half of the way to the run exit. 2006 - 2:05 2007 - 2:10 What would you do differently?: Speed it up. I was 5 seconds slower in T2 than last year!!  Run
Comments: The first half of the run has the uphills, and I felt it. It was hot - very very hot. And I was wearing black. Saw a few people cramping up and stretching - and a few people blew by me like I was standing still. Wow. I would love to be able to run that fast. Chatted with a cramped up (but still running) guy about salt tabs before the turnaround. He had never heard of them. The water I drank was SO GOOD at the turnaround - I think it gave me the boost I needed. The second half I felt AWESOME and kicked it up a notch. It probably helped that a lot of it was downhill, but my legs just started to feel good about 3/4 of the way through. I pulled my top up like a bra top to cool off for the second half, but made sure to have it down at the finish, Mom does not approve of bare bellys, no matter how good they look :-) I heard the music and crowd and kicked it up some more. The race course is a bit cruel in that you have to run up a hill to get to the finish line and you can't see the finish till the top of the hill and then it's right there. But I knew that from last year and passed a few people on the hill and right before the finish. I made a point to soak in those last few moments right before the finish... those moments contain the best feeling in the world I think - the cheers and the cowbells and the signs and that finish line... it's overwhelming. I knew I had crushed my time from last year, I just wondered by how much. The surge of emotion almost overcame me and I had to stop myself from letting it all go. It felt pretty dang good though. 2006 - 27:54 (11m 37s miles) 2007 - 25:26 (10m 36s miles) What would you do differently?: I need to practice more bike/run bricks, and get my running speed up faster right off the bike. If I can get the initial speed up, I think I can maintain it. Post race
Warm down: My dad was right there, like he always is. I looked at his watch to find out that I beat my time from last year by 12 minutes! Even with those crazy hills, and a slow first half of the run, and a slower-than-I-wanted swim, my time was 12 minutes better than last year. WORD.I think I pretty much kicked ass. Got some PowerAid and water, cooled off a bit in the shade. Saw LindaKC again and got a few more pictures. Loaded up pretty fast to get home for a work event I needed to be at. What limited your ability to perform faster: The heat and the hills. Event comments: A very organized race, lots of volunteers. I wish they would set up the transition differently to have the bike in and bike out at different ends of the parking lot, because everyone on the far end has significantly farther to go. Granted, age groups are placed together, but it still screws people (like me) every year. Overall a challenging, but great race. Last updated: 2007-03-13 12:00 AM
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United States
Johnson County Park and Recreation District
85F / 29C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 227/321
Age Group = F25-29
Age Group Rank = 15/22
I knew it was going to be a special race when I got my own private jet. Yup, and my own private pilot. Okay, my Dad is the proud new papa of a small airplane and he really wanted to fly me to the race so he could get more practice flying. SCORE! A 3-hour drive turned into a 45-minute flight. My mom drove my bike up the day before, as she was going there anyway.
Smooth flight - got there JUST in time to get my race packet. The guy who checked me in remembered me from last year (??), which was a bit weird. Mental note that my rack was AGAIN the furthest away from all of the entrances and exits. Oh well. Got to Gramma's house in the early evening, ate my lucky fajita dinner (this time at On the Border, yummy) and got to bed around 11 p.m. I slept like a baby till 4 a.m. and got up around 5:30. Mom really wanted to go early with me, so we headed out the door together at 5:45.
About 7 or 8 minutes into the drive I had an "OH CRAP" moment. I had rode my bike around the block the night before, and remembered that I'd forgotten to put my socks back in my bag. Turned around to get my socks and lost about 15 minutes. Glad we were early.
Parked, pumped up my tires and began the 1-mile walk to transition (why they can't set up closer parking I will never know). It was hot already, but I was thankful it was a beautiful sunny day as opposed to the rain at this event last year. They said the water was 86 degrees!
Set up my transition area, got marked by a cute mother/daughter volunteer pair, and chatted with my Mom. LindaKC found us, that was a nice suprise! Then my Dad and Gramma made it in, I felt bad because the busses stopped running and my 80-year-old Gramma had to walk that mile. She is a tropper and they made it.
Chatted with two girls in my heat for awhile before getting in to swim the ~100 yard stretch to the starting beach.