Legend Black
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Legend Black - TriathlonSprint
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Swim
Comments: The super sprint racers started first and we waited until everyone from that wave finished their 200 yard swim before getting sent off ourselves. The sprint race began with everyone starting in the water, with those of us up front standing in water chest high. The water conditions couldn't have been more perfect; calm and just cold enough. The horn blew and we were off. Immediately, it was me, Kevin, and Tyler - a triathlon newby, right up front together. I took an early lead but I determined the pace I was at wasn't sustainable nor worth the pay off for the amount of energy I'd expend so I backed off a bit and Kevin was soon out front once we reached the turnaround buoy. Back to shore it was me and Tyler stroke for stroke. Since there was no chip timing or segment splits I'm not sure who got there first so I'll call it a tie. The exit was a bit slippery from the algae on the ramp, so after cautiously climbing to dry ground it was a sprint for T1. Transition 1
Comments: Quick and efficient. I could see Kevin had a fast T1 so I did all I could to stay close to him. I was faster than Tyler so that was a plus. Bike
Comments: This was fun. . . in retrospect. During the race it was hard and you had to be on your toes and always thinking. There wasn't too much flat, straight-away biking. The two laps consisted of ascending, descending, and some weaving around a campground road. If I had been comfortably ahead of everyone else I could've eased up mentally and physically, but I was either always chasing or being chased by Kevin. Kevin maintained his gap on me from the swim for the first few miles, but on the hills towards the park entrance I noticed I was making up some ground on him, particularly from being able to rocket down the hills and letting my momentum carry me back up the hills. I made my move to pass after the first downhill-uphill following the first turnaround. I held the lead into the next two 180 turns and he was never too far away from me, but I was holding my own on lap #2. Towards the finish I made a tactical error that cost me in this close race. I decided to slip out of my bike shoes prior to hitting the final big down hill, in preparation for T2 which was at the bottom of said hill. It was here, near the end of the bike, that Kevin passed me. What I wasn't thinking about was that there was just enough flat biking at the bottom of the hill than what I was remembering, making my early transition move premature. To make matters worse I got stuck behind some lap traffic, specifically another competitor that was a bit nervous about making their 180 degree turn around. I could tell she was very apprehensive, so I assured here that I'd wait for her to make her turn. Kevin was able to squeak past her just in time and thus allowing the gap between me and him to grow. What would you do differently?: Don't mis-time the taking off of the bike shoes. Transition 2
Comments: I'm sure glad my Garmin tracks these transitions for me, otherwise I'd have no idea what my time was. Run
Comments: I was just seeing if I had any shot at all of catching first place, but it was quickly shaping up to be another repeat of the Baldwin City race, i.e. two runners running nearly the exact same pace. The first order of business was to make the climb up the road to the campgrounds. Many a race have I succumbed to this hill but luckily not today. The campground is nice and flat, filled with campers turned spectators wondering what all this triathlon business is about. Luckily they were of the friendly sorts and they cheered us on as we went by. Very nice to have people cheering instead of running on a lonely trail/street during a race. A few even gave me splits, letting me know how far back I was ("only 30 seconds behind"). Despite having a better 5k run performance than my previous sprint tri I only managed to close the time gap by about 10 seconds, finishing 20 sec back of Kevin. Still very pleased with how the run went. Post race
Warm down: Congratulated Kevin. Both of us pointed out that had one of us not raced today, we could've had a much easier day because the third place finisher was 12 minutes behind us. But it was fun pushing each other to go harder. We then took part in the free burgers, food, and beer. I only wished more people had done this race to help enhance the overall party atmosphere. Event comments: I really hope they do this race again next year, hopefully with a better turn out, because it has potential to be a bigger hit. Perhaps maybe start a bit earlier to allow for more socializing during the waning daylight hours. It appeared folks started to scatter once it got truly dark out. I've mentioned before in other race reports, but despite putting on good races I wish Legend would put more effort into the pre-race atmosphere. There is little to no music, no announcements or information being passed along. The energy before all of their races is very low and ho-hum. If we're going to sell this sport to first time triathletes there needs to be more effort put forth to make competing in this sport seem fun and worth doing again. Last updated: 2017-06-01 12:00 AM
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2017-08-15 2:26 PM |
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2017-08-15 3:56 PM in reply to: #5226331 |
General Discussion-> Race Reports! |
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United States
Legend Endurance
80F / 27C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 2/67
Age Group = 35-39M
Age Group Rank = 1/5
When this race was first announced it sounded like a pretty cool concept: an evening race followed by a bbq, beer, and music on a campground. Sounds fun, sign me up.
No early morning wake up call, just some sleeping in followed by an easy, short swim at the gym. After some lounging around I got my stuff packed up, put the race wheels on, and headed over to Lawrence, KS. I quickly got set-up after a 5:00 pm transition opening and then chilled out until race time. I sat with Kevin Wait and we chatted a bit figuring it might just be me and him racing with a few folks participating in AGN in Omaha, some people out of town, or some who were just flat out injured and sitting things out.
It was also curious that no timing chips were handed out. I've only done one chip-less race, and that was a 5k eight years ago.