best Tri's in Kansas?

You might also look into the Flint Hills Tri. Its just outside of Manhattan in early June. I will (hopefully) be doing that one for my first tri. I've heard the Tinman is a pretty big event.

Danny

Sorry it took a while to respond... as I'm sure you've noticed, the Kansas board is not very active. We should change that!

I just started with the triathlon madness last summer, so I only did two races here- the Rose Brooks women's tri (now the KC Women's Tri) just north of KC and the Jackson County Tri (in Lee's Summit). Both were good, but I guess you won't be participating the the Women's tri.

I watched the Shawnee Mission tri last year and will probably volunteer this year. It looked really fun, and I'd prefer to race it, but my "A" race, a HIM by Chicago, is just two weeks after it, and I don't want to burn up my legs on those hills.

I'm planning on doing the Heritage Park tri in Olathe in May (but don't know what that's like), the Topeka Tinman in June (I'd like to hear others' thoughts on this race) and hopefully the Corporate Challenge tri in June as well. I'll also do the Women's tri again in August, and probably another in September (maybe the Midwest Meltdown).

Here's a link to some information about various Kansas races:
http://www.trifind.com/ka.html

If you click on "Results 2006" in the left hand column, there is a more comprehensive listing of the races in Kansas. That can give you an idea of what's out there, and the sizes of the races.
Good luck!

Edited by LindaKC 2007-01-09 10:02 AM

I did both Topeka and Shawnee Mission last year. Topeka was great. Shawnee Mission was killer on the bike (but you already did it and liked it so nevermind). Next time for a new race, I'll ride the course a day beforehand so I won't be suprised, ouch.

I'm for sure doing Topeka again this year and am looking for a long-distance to do in August... anyone have any suggestions? Will travel to Oklahoma, or Texas...

You can look at my race reports from both by clicking on "races" below.

so I take it the hills at the Topeka Tinman aren't as hard as the Shawnee Mission course?

You should look into the women's only tri in August, my wife is going to do it and she's excited about it.

http://www.rbtri.com/training.cfm

THe hills at Shawnee Mission killed me. But I'm kind of vowing to re-visit and conquer.

I'm looking at this for my race calendar:

Saturday, June 16
Topeka Tinman
SHORT distance = 300 yard swim, 8.2 mile bike, 3.2 mile run

Sunday, July 8
Shawnee Mission Triathlon
SHORT distance = 500 meter swim, 9 mile bike, 2.4 mile run

Sunday, August 26
Jackson County Triathlon
LONG distance = 0.6 mile swim (1000 yards), 23.5 mile bike, 5 mile run

Anyone done Jackson County before? I'm curious.

I think my calendar is looking like this:

5/6: The Big O (Olathe)
6/3: Flint Hills Tri
7/1: Shawnee Mission
7/8: Midwest Mudder
9/2: Midwest Meltdown

At least that's what I'm thinking while it's cold outside and training seems like an abstract idea.

WOW! Is it really possible to do that many in a season? I had contemplated doing Flint Hills in June and then Shawnee Mission, but I was thinking they were way too close together. But I suspect in short distance races, you can actually do more in a season than the longer ones...

My "plan" is to train for the olympic distance at the Flint Hills tri and the Shawnee Mission. The others I think will just be sprint distance. I'm putting them in there just to make sure I have something to look forward to, a whole month with no events would get a little boring! If it ends up killing me I'll have to back off, but I used to do a lot of bike races which were held just about every weekend. Triathlons are a little different though since they are so grueling.

I'm glad there are some people on here from Kansas. I just joined begginertriathlete or I would have been participating sooner. You should do the Midwest Mayhem in Lawrence. It's July 22nd I believe. I've done this race for 2 years and it's always fun. I'm putting together my race schedule right now, but I plan on doing the Half Ironman at the Big "O" as my first race. I'm super excited, it will be my first half. I try to do a tri every other weekend. Hope to hear from you guys and see you all there!

~Amelia

I also am planning my races out this year, and mine look like this:

Lawrence Half Mary - April 15th
The Big O HIM - May 6th
Heritage Park Sprint - May 20th
Topeka Tinman Long Course - June 16th
Shawnee Mission - July 9th
Jackson County- Aug 26th

I'm gonna have to get me a better wetsuit for the Big "O", I don't think that my shorty is gonna work, that water's gonna be brrrrrrrr cold.

The water's going to be *very* cold for the Big "O"!! I hate wetsuit swimming. I've only done it once and I thought I was going to drown and I'm an excillent swimmer. I guess I need to get some people to start going to the lake with me in April to practice. I don't want to freak out on a 1.2 mile swim!

Runpudrun,

It looks like we will be going to some of the same races as well, so far my schedule looks like this.

Aug-26 Jackson County Triathlon
July-08 Shawnee MIssion Triathlon
June-16 Topeka Tinman Triathlon
May-20 BikeSource Triathlon
March-31 God's Country Off Road Duathlon
And of course the Ground Hog run Jan 28th..

I look forward to running into you guys out there!

Yeah, some early morning open water wetsuit distance chill sessions will have to be in order if I am to survive those temps. Last year Heritage was freaking cold and I didn't use a wetsuit, but me thinks that I would be better served to get a long sleeved suit. Should be fun times though. Are any of you guys/girls in KCMultisport?

Will those of you doing the Tinman or the FlintHills tri be wearing a wetsuit? I don't have one, going to be hard to come up with the cash for that one...

The last time I did the Tinman, wetsuits weren't allowed. I've never done the Flint Hills Tri, but if wetsuits are legal, I don't think I would use one. I hate swimming in a wetsuit and being cold just makes me swim faster!!

Tinman is June 16th, no way there will be wetsuits, unless this sleet crap hangs around!!!

The sleet can be good depending on how you look at it. I just got a 30 minute core workout today from shoveling ice/slush off of my driveway. Probably would have been better if I could have gone for a ride though.

To answer a previous question, I'm not in KCMultipSport, is anyone here? I'd be interested to know how often they get together, what they do, etc.

I'm not. I don't know much about them either. But I do know they are in Kansas City and I can't drive to KC all the time. We should start one in Lawrence!

Just asking cause I am.

We meet quite often, right now we have Thursday night spin sessions and they always have a long ride every Sat.

In my race report for Topeka last year I entered the water temp to be 76 degrees. Not sure if I remembered them saying that, or if I made it up

By the way, the KLM race fees increase on Feb. 1 so register early if you know you're going to participate! They are The Big O, Topeka Tinman, some Trail Stomp, Midwest Mudder, Midwest Mayhem, Pain Terrain, Jackson County Tri, The Dot Trail Trot and Midwest Meltdown.

Nothing like shelling out 200+ bucks when my first race is 4 months away! Hope I don't break a leg or anything.

sign up for KLM events today!!!