Somebody pushed off every 20 sec. I was the 43 person to go and I had every intention of catching everybody that was in the pool at the same time as me! Swam about 150 meters before catching teh first person ahead of me. Got by him very easily. The next people I came was a pack of two. When I got to them they were swimming single file because somebody was coming the other way. After the person going the opposite direction passed I put in a quick surge to beat the second person in line. I managed to get outside of him before he started to pass the lady in front of him. Clean swimming after that. With 50 meters to go I caught a big mouth of water so I had to breath every stroke for a few strokes just to settle down.

Turn in a faster swim time. I turned in 7:15. I didn't think I would swim that fast. Next year I'm going to turn in a fast time and let people swim around me!

Fast transition. Nothing special here.

Race without socks!

Ah the bike! I used to live for the bike and run. Lack of bike training could be felt within seconds of getting on the bike! A old fart on a Cervelo tried to pass me within the first half mile. Well needless to say I didn't let him keep the spot. Wind was blowing out of the SE and the bike course is out and back North to South. Going out speed was fast and I was passing people fairly regularly. Was riding fairly hard. Of course I was it is a race. Only one guy passed me and he passed me like I was sitting still. He looked really fast. I wasn't really riding in a zone because I was hollering at people that I knew. If I'm in "The Trance" I never see those people. The wind coming back wasn't that bad as it was a cross wind. MPH were down but it wasn't unbearable. Nothing fun or neat happened on the way back into town. One observation I did make is that the aero helmet is much warmer than the regular helmet. The aero helmet has no vents in it and the road helmet has many. I hope it doesn't get real hot at KS 70.3. I didn't overheat but I did get warmer than normal.

Train more. Ride harder. Race less often!

T2 seems to take much longer when it should be shorter. Had a little trouble with the left running shoe not wanting to go on correct. Other than that everything was average.

Run without socks.

I don't remember ever being slower that third in the run at this race. The run course is VERY hilly! You climb for the first 1.25 miles before you ever go downhill. After that it's up and down some very big hills. Hills on the run make up for the flat bike. Out of T2 with noone in sight and noone close behind. I asked the two kids at the first turn how far ahead the next person was. They said I had some time to make up! Heart rate was through the roof. I actually thought about slowing down to let my heart rate stabilize! I managed to keep pushing until the first downhill. I relaxed the first down so I could start my race of pushing the hills and relaxing the downs! This seems to work for me. I passed a few people here and there and just keep pushing to the next person! I came up on one guy who looked like he was fast, I told him to jump in behind me and I would pull him home. He said I was moving to fast for him. I said OK see you at the finish. With about 3/4 of a mile left I passed the girl who was the first to start. I always look at peoples numbers to see how far I have made it into the field. I have never passed the #1. Obviously she didn't win. She was just the fastest in the pool. To do well here I really shouldn't have done all the racing leading up to this one. It's the first one of the season so it was good to get it out of the way!

Not race twice every weekend!

Ran a mile on the ESU track just to get my HR back to a normal range. I don't thnk I have ever noticed my HR in races before.


Testicular Fortitude.


Very good race. There is always a lot of Wichita people at this race. Good early season race! I just hope a couple of guys had awesome races and I had an ok race. The only thing that saved me this year was the fact that I'm in 30-34 now. In 25-29 I would have gotten second. The guy that won that age-group is a new member of the tri club and I can see we will be training a lot together in the future. He is an awesome person and an awesome triathlete! JUNE 15th......