I thought I made a mistake seeding myself near the front on the swim because it seemed like I wasn't getting separation from anyone. On top of that I was swimming towards the wrong buoy. Even though the starter made us say, out loud, "buoys on the right" I started aiming for a buoy on the left - which is a normal fixture in the lake when races aren't happening. So while everyone else is swimming the direction they should be I'm shooting off from them at a 15 degree angle. Thankfully I realized the error of my ways and slowly merged back with the pack.

For whatever reason I just wasn't siting the buoys very easily. The sun wasn't an excuse yet since it was behind us. And so, right as I'm trying to find someone to guide me through the correct path my pal Pete shows up next to me in his bright neon yellow team banana hammocks jersey, He was going just ever so slightly faster than me so I slipped on behind him and had him guide me through the turn, the sun, and towards the finish.

Pay attention to where I'm going.

I followed Pete up into T1 and was about as clean as efficient as you can get, until I got to the mount line and couldn't get my right foot to clip in on the first four attempts. Pete mocked me for this and then passed me on his way onto the bike course.

8/172
2/12

I'm usually am not a fan of this riding around this park, but today it wasn't so bad. The whole bike segment was over in such a short amount of time. The whole reason I did the short course was because I didn't think I was prepared enough for these hills, but maybe today I would have been alright. Anyway, I didn't get out of the saddle too much when tackling the hills for fear of killing my legs early, but I still held my own. I absolutely hammered the flat section on the first lap, mostly out of ego as some guy I passed, who was riding in the middle of the road, tried to come back up on me.

The second lap I was a smidge less aggressive, but I did hammer the down hills a little more confidently this time than on the first lap. As I approached T2 I about forgot to slip my feet out of my shoes, so I did that as quickly as a I could before I ran out of road.

I about lost it at the dismount line. Somehow part of my tri shorts, the tiny bit of extra material between my legs, got "hooked" underneath the nose of my bike seat when I stood up and began to swing right leg over my bike. It disrupted this whole fluid motion when I went to dismount. At the last second I came on unhinged and was ok, but I think to some watching it looked like a near catastrophe. No harm done and I was quick and fast after that.

3/172
1/12

Mostly very pleased with this run. I was pleasantly shocked to see my first two mile splits were at 6:40 pace, especially since one of those contained the vertical climb of dam hill.

The first downer was the Enormous side cramp I got on my right side around the end of mile 2. I didn't drink much fluid on the bike, but whatever I did consume was not happy to be in my stomach. I was holding on to such a great 5k pace at that point but I was slowing down because of this thing. So disappointing. I kept thinking "are you supposed to breath in through mouth or your nose to get rid of cramp - or am I making that up? Maybe you're supposed breathe using your abdomen?" If anyone has any clue, please fill me in. I also tried massaging my side, but that didn't really do anything. After about four hours the cramp went away and I was able to finish the run hard (ok, it was four minutes).

About the time I was getting over my cramp, and as I was making my way towards the climb up the dam, and right around the time Josh Wolf was passing me on his long course run the soles of my feet revealed that I was developing large blisters. Sigh. I've been trying this thing lately where I don't wear socks for sprint triathlons in order to be quicker in T2, and up until now that has worked for me. But today, with these shoes, not so much. I didn't really slow down because of this but it was a nice additional add-on of pain to accompany the up hill sprint finish.

Drink less on the run. . . I guess.

My wife and kids made it to the park to cheer me on, and so we wandered towards the lake so the kids could play, Then it was over to the finish line festival so they could make signs and so I could eat some pizza.


Inconsistent training pattern, but I was probably in decent shape for this sprint.


Well, organized, planned, and thought out. Plenty of communication before and during the race. A fun atmosphere before, during, and after the race. Plus it was for a good cause, the Open Options KC. Having the special needs individuals place medals on you at the finish was awesome.