Ironman Kansas 70.3 - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

What can I say about the swim that is good? Well...I finished, although with a belly full of lake water. Fortunately Clinton Lake has relatively clean water...and doesn't taste too bad either. I started out towards the back of my group. As the gun went off I high-stepped the water until it was time to bury my face and pretend like I know how to swim. The swim went like this......3 strokes, site, get hit....3 strokes, site, hit someone, 3 strokes, site, I'm facing the wrong way, 3 strokes, site, here comes the next heat of swimmers about to swim over me. Honestly, this was one of the worst OWS's that I've completed. I could not get the panic to leave, could not get my HR to go down so I could breath and find a rhythm. Each time I stopped to regain my composure I would take in a large mouthful of water. Funny how I didn't drink any lake water while swimming...only when I stopped did the chop punch me in the face causing me to hydrate prematurely. Maybe God's way of telling me to swim and not doggie paddle. After each turn buoy I relaxed a little more and was able to get my rhythm and swim for a period of minutes without stopping. Strange how when I was actually swimming I would pass people. Even when trying to draft off feet I would speed up and pass them, only to be re-passed when I would stop and catch my breath. Maybe a sign that I need to work on pacing and effort? Anyway....I finished the swim with only a couple of guys in my wave behind me. I was surprised to see by my watch that my total time in the water was 47+ minutes. The official split was 49+ because the T1 timing mat was a good 100 yards away from the beach exit.

What would I do differently? I don't know. I have so many issues with swimming that I can't list them all. I think at the "end of the day" my biggest problem with swimming is my Mind. I allow the swim to conquer my mind and intimidate me. I need to work on that above all other aspects of the swim. Stroke technique, kick, etc means nothing if I can't relax and get my mind right.

I'm trying to stay away from complaining too much about this race site, or the race itself, but one of my issues with this first time venue was the transition areas. Most everyone was complaining about the T areas. The transition area was in a parking lot, which consisted of broken-up concrete with rocks, stones and shards of sharp gravel. Not very pleasant on the feet. T1 went OK. I took my time and made sure I loaded everything I needed for the ride.

Next time I bring an additional towel to wipe the sand, mud and rocks off of my feet after running from the water.

Ha. What can I say about this bike course. I'll sum it up this way....I happened to be racked around some pretty hardcore athletes. Why I was amongst them lord only knows. Anyway...one of the athletes was wearing Ironman Wisconsin garb. After the race was over I asked how the KS bike course compared to IMWI bike course. They laughed and shook their head and said...."This was much tougher. The hills here (KS) were a lot longer and unrelenting compared to IMWI, which are relatively short and can be rolled over." As apposed to baby-gear grinding for miles on end. They said they would not want to ride this course had it been a full Iron distance race. These comments may give you an idea of exactly how hilly this bike course was. Anyway...on to my account of the ride.
Knowing that the run was going to be a question-mark, I decided to stay in Z-3 most of the ride, which was to go hard enough that I was not pussyfooting the pedals, but not so hard as to blow up. Well...the hills did their job of keeping my HR in Z-3 and Z-4 most of the ride. A lot of people were coasting downhill to recover. A few were walking some of the hills, which is not a good thing. I kept turning over the pedals and tried to maintain an ave/mph of 19. As mile 20 approached I had a sudden urge of queasiness in my stomach. Next thing I knew I was throwing up. I ended up puking twice on the bike course. I didn't feel sick, but something was obviously in my stomach that wanted out, so I let it out. Maybe it was the lake water? These little episodes didn't slow me down or shake me because overall I felt fine. I kept pushing. I knew in the back of my mind that this effort was going to take the zing out of my run. Had I been smart about this race I would have probably dialed my effort back to around 17-18 ave/mph based off of the difficulty of the bike course. There were a few interesting things about the bike course besides its uber hills. One was the number of crashes I rolled by. Not sure what was causing them because the roadway surface was excellent. One crash required a medical helicopter, which landed in the center of the "Iron Cross" to evac it's patient. I was almost taken out by a guy who dropped his water bottle. We were moving at around 20 MPH when I saw him drop the bottle. It hit the ground and went spinning towards my front wheel. For a split second I thought my race was about to end. The bottle went right into my front wheel causing a loud Thunk and Ping. I yelled out "PHUCK!". The athlete apologized as I rolled by. Sorry folks...but PLEASE hold the phuck on to your water bottles. Your sloppy handling of your bottle could ruin a guys race, or even a season...or worse. Moving on.... I had a good chuckle at a spectator on the course who was standing on the side of the road out in the middle of no-where wearing nothing but a banana-hammock with three XXX tattooed across his lower belly. He was cheering racers as we passed by. You could hear the laughter for blocks.
In conclusion, I enjoyed the bike course. It was challenging to say the least.

Had I had more consistent run and brick training I would have gauged my effort differently. I did not taper for this race because IMWI is a couple of months away. How my body was going to react was a big unknown so I made the decision to push a little harder than I should have.

I'm sure everyone is aware of the flooding issues that the Midwest has been having. Lawrence was also effected. Clinton Lake, where the race was held had flooded parts of the area around the transition zone. The run course was changed three times over the period of a week due to flooding. We found out at the Expo that they had changed the course once again because areas were under water. The run course ended up being mostly off road, probably 80% loose gravel roads and broken up trail surface. I'm not blaming the race director for this because the flooding is out of their control, obviously. But the run route was completely and utterly a freaking wreck. This was basically a 13.1 mile trail run. We ran through muddy park trails, jumping tree roots and small wash-outs. We ran through a sand volleyball course a total of four times. At least I think it was a volleyball course. The rest of the course was loose gravel roads, which were pitted with chatter bumps and an uneven surface. I don't run offroad so this surface really beat me up. This probably had to be the worst part of the entire event. They will have to change this if they intend to keep IMKS 70.3 as a yearly event. I'm guessing the original route was on paved roads and the flooding pharked things up.
First mile off the bike I ran an 8:11. Second mile was an 8:25. Then the wheels started to come off. I fought off the urge to walk for roughly 7 miles, then it hit me like the proverbial "wall" of a marathon. Slam! I was walking...barely. I was light headed and could feel my legs were just about d.o.n.e. I knew that once I started walking the run was going to be pure survival mode. I did the best I could NOT to walk but systems were shutting down left and right. Feet, ankles, calves, quads, head, mind.....it all started to fade. I ran/walked the last few miles. I bumped into Montyzooma around mile 11 who appeared to be struggling as well. He apparently had a brush with sickness on the bike course as well. He still looked fresh however and managed to finish right off of my heels.

There's not much more I could have done differently. My training schedule was screwed up the last 3-4 weeks out from this race. Not tapering didn't help things either, but this wasn't my 'A' race of the year.

The end of the event was quite dramatic. The last few miles of the run a huge storm blew in causing super high winds and lighting. The skies darkened and the temp dropped probably 20 degrees in a matter of minutes. Rain started to fall from the sky. As I neared the finish I overheard a lot of people yelling and gasping at the news that they were canceling the race and not allowing people to continue if they had not already started the second lap of the run. This left a lot of people on the course who were not allowed to finish the race. My wife said she witnessed one female racer have a complete meltdown when the officials stopped her from beginning her second loop. She was screaming and cursing and flailing her arms like a woman possessed. I feel bad for these people, but they need to suck it up and understand that the race officials are ultimately looking out for the safety of everyone. It's really sad that so many people couldn't finish, but we can't control the weather, can we. It was also sad to see all of the vendors tearing stuff down and spectators scrambling to their cars to escape the storm. I guess that not many people were left to greet the final finishers.


Overall I would say this was a good FIRST TIME event for Ironman 70.3. The course was wicked. The run course snafu was not the RD's fault. There were plenty of volunteers and plenty of water stops and support. Normal hiccups for a first time event I think. This being my first Ironman "branded" event didn't really leave me thinking they are much better organizers than the independent directors. They had more blow-up toys than the indie races (gatoraid bottle and finish and transition shoots). Besides that nothing really stood out at it being anything more than just another race venue. Would I do this race again? Maybe...if they changed the run course. They also needed more food vendors at the finish. I ended up having to drive to a restaurant to get food. Most every race I've attended has had goodie-bags at the finish with some sort of food for athletes. Not to mention they had no cold beverages at the finish line. Just a stack of warm water bottles and warm gatoraid.