Tour de Kirkwood : Official Thread

I haven't done Kirkwood before, but from what I have heard from those who have is that so long as you are lucky enough to dodge any serious heat then you should have a great time!

So race update. After fininshing this race I have some advice. TRAIN HILLS. I should have known better but I didn't really focus on training hills, I just continues with my regular training plan that has incline but not enough to be successful in this race. The bike loop is two loops with a steep decline and an almost 45 degree turn before you start your climb into the "hill" which seemed like a mountain to me. I am not a strong biker regarding my clips so I slowed down to make the sharp turn before the climb so I was starting out at an almost stop. Normally, I would say for the bike hills don't bother me but this one is one you should be ready for because it can really hurt your time since it is only a 10 mile bike with the hill twice. So train hills, train hillls, and train hills.

Also, for the run it was short which was nice but my legs were pretty much smoked from the lovely hill. So when you get past your first 1/2 mile there is a another small hill but just make sure that you can handle it after the bike is my suggestion.

Regarding the swim, most people were not accurate on how fast they were so it was difficult to pass and kind of a cluster so be prepared to be stuck in the lanes sometimes.

I just wanted to share my advice bc most people would say "some hills" where I think they were much more influential in this race than people gave them credit.

The race was fun and good beginner race. Fun enivornment.

I fortunately knew those hills and incorporated them into my rides. Worse yet, they follow a brutal worse hill for me to get there, but such is life. It was my first time doing Kirkwood. I really wanted to do it last year for my first ever, but couldn't. I was surprised at the rather low number of folks who came out to 'watch'. I guess everyone was at Church. The Sunset Hills one seemed to have a lot of friends and family and what even appeared to be just people out taking in the madness.

The old bike course that they did up until 2 years ago had a left turn at that downhill. A little wider turn and you could carry some momentum and not immediately start the slow trek uphill to the vertical wall of Sugar Creek Rd.. But, the other way up that hill on Doughtery Ferry, I think...is worse. It just never seems to stop.

What sucks, is you go up that hill almost 5 times. Twice on the bike, then on each loop of the run you're doing about 3/4s of that hill twice, then on the last loop, you're going all the way back to the top. Well, almost. I didn't even want to drive up that hill for a week. Odd, though, my run was much faster than normal.

It's certainly a fun one and great for newbs like me and great for first timers, other than the hills. I was one who misjudged. I was a full 15 seconds off my usual time in the pool. Not sure why. But, nothing like the mass craziness that happened in the 5 minute pileup.