Ultramax Kansas 50 - TriathlonLong Course

started hard and drafted well until about 200 yards when the riprap ended and the waves started pounding me in the face. Switched to left side breathing and it was better but still not good, the wetsuit feels like all its floation comes by squeezing my lungs, I ended up mixing in a few yards of breaststroke for sighting and breath catching reasons, probably every 100 yards. The leg in was much better, went back to breathing on dominant right side. Noticed some boat wake mixed in with the wind driven chop as well as the smell of 2-cycle outboards. My thoughts on the wetsuit are mixed, I'm much more comfortable out of it due to the breathing restriction but it is faster.

At one point one of the lifeguards asked me if I was okay, yelled I was fine but thought "Great, I look so bad that want to rescue me."

Swim more, weekly average is under 60 minutes of swimming for the past month or more and it caught up with me. Was moving along pretty good when I was swimming freestyle, just need to stay comfortable enough to not drop down to breastroke or treading water to catch my breath/navigate/relax/whatever.

Totally out of breath after the swim and basically walked into transition, took plenty of time removing wetsuit then slapped on the helmet and glasses and took off. Got up to speed fine and feet into shoes fine

Hurry more, but the swim kicked my butt

Nice venue, I frequently hit parts of this course on long training rides so was pretty familiar with what to expect. My plan was to keep the effort easy, like a long training ride, I was expecting 20 mph average and had that through the first loop but melted down on the second.

I am the anti-camel, I need water, lots of water. I can drain 2-20oz bottles in a sprint, got a 30oz aero bottle and a 20 oz frame mount and have to ration to get through an olympic. Decided to sacrifice a 20oz bottle at the water station, hoped to get 3 bottles, 2 for sure, one in the jersey, one in the cage, and one to refill the aero bottle. I was dry and thirtsy when I hit the water station and I saw 1 kid with one small bottle in his hand. That sucked, I had contemplated a camelpack but decided against it based on the water station. Guess I could've stopped and raided the cooler but they ran out of water as it was. Don't know if this is normal, I expected 2 or 3 people, one at the start and one at the end so you have time to grab 2 bottles. Unrealistic expectations??? don't know, this was my first experience with an aid station on the bike.

Nutritionwise, ate 1 Gu Chomp pack, 200 calories, could've easily doubled that, had no problems with digestion. Lesson learned.

Nailed a sweet bunny hop over the speed bump at the park entrance, perfectly smooth. I think a couple of sections into the park were the hardest, straight into the wind, feeling you should be done but still a long way to go.

Carry more water: camelpack or rear mount rack for 2 more bottles. Eat more.

Good transition, took off jersey and put on T-shirt as part of my heat resistance strategy. Took 1 step and turned back for my visor and race number belt which were under the wetsuit. Also took a quick shot of sunscreen.

Not much, went pretty good considering the change of clothes and wetsuit covering everything in a small transition spot.

I was expecting to run mid 7 minutes pace coming into the race but had that number revised to 8/mile midway through the bike leg, it went downhill from there. Major quad cramps about 1/2 mile in that required limping/walking, couldn't stretch the quads without risking a hamstring lockup. I didn't want to walk 10 miles but had some faith that they would subside within a few minutes. Got a lot of "Hey man, you okay's" and usually managed to grunt a reply. Walked for a bit with a KC Multisport guy who offered up some e-tabs as the cramps were starting to subside, felt better and jogged to the 1 mile feeding station. Had to stop once more and walk before mile 2 but timed this for one of the few shady spots.

My strategy became to stop at each feeding station and pig out, the oranges were awesome, plenty of gels, and lots of water and ice. The run aid stations were everything the bike station was not, although it looked like some might run out of water towards the end, hope they got restocked. If you're the type of person that uses the phrase TMI, skip to the next paragraph...Since I had on a t-shirt, ice dumped down the top hit the ground with no cooling relief so I decided to try the shorts, that worked well and also relieved the bike chaffing. A cup of ice, properly metered, will last 1 mile.

Got to chat with lots of other runners as we passed each other since it seemed everyone was doing some sort of walk/run/stop and drink combo.

2nd loop my shoes were soaked, my right foot was totally numb, and the heat was getting worse, but the quad cramps were gone. I never wanted to stop running so much in my life. I appreciated the signs along the course, something about having the courage to start a race blah, blah, blah finish the race, I have no idea what they said, my brain was fried but I recall them being somewhat inspirational.



Totally unprepared for the heat, got behind on water consumption on the bike and never caught back up. Overall pleased with getting back in the game and hanging in there after the first 2 miles.

Cooled off under a spray test and chatted with George who finished just ahead of me, sat in the lake for awhile, chatted some more, ate, and watched the finish for awhile then headed home after the awards. I like to hang out until the race is finished but the heat was too brutal, I don't like to leave while there's still people suffering on the course.

Stopped at Walmart on the way home to get some ice and sat in the tub for an hour. That was great, then I fninished mowing the lawn later that night.


Heat, hydration, nutrition, preparation, in that order.


This could be a nice race, I'll cut them a bunch of slack for the inaugural year but here's a few things that need to be improved:

Prerace information: 3 bike course updates in the last week, 2 in the same day, maps never did match actual course. No transition map, no parking map.

Start times at 8 am for the sprint and 8:30 for the long. I appreciate the reasoning to clear the short course bike turnaround before the long course gets there but there's got to be a better way. Packet pickup the morning of the race only, that's gonna be a lot of bikes laying around the pickup tent if the race grows.

Water stations on the bike, if you're gonna advertise water on the bike make sure it is sufficient to support the course distance and number of racers.

I suppose a lot of this was left loose to allow race-day adjustments for unexpected circumstances and is just a minor annoyance from a planning perspective since they had generally adequate signage, but the start time and bike water station were bad.