A pretty good swim overall. Many had the distance a tad longer than stated but no worries. I can say I briefly led the whole race for about 400 yards before being slowly overtaken by two fellas, one of which was in a relay. Judging by my perspective (and confirmed by the results) I was swimming in no mans land. Too far back from the leaders and too far up from everyone else, but my pace was good, my sighting was like that of a hawk, and my buoy rounding was as sharp and crisp as a starched shirt.

However, my shoulders felt tight and tired early, and I'm hoping that it's just from wearing my wetsuit. I also got an ever so so slight twinge/hint of a cramp in my hamstring. Wait. What?! A leg cramp this early in the swim? Wha'ts that about? I don't get those. No. Well, that's just great, as if I didn't have enough to worry about.

Anyway, I climb out of the water after one lap and I'm trying to pull my swim cap back down on my head because it somehow managed to work itself off to the end of my noggin' only to be held in place by a pair of goggles. But I failed to get it pulled down all the way and I instead manage to do a graceful ankle turn on some uneven ground on my way to diving in for lap #2. Sweet.

Lap 2 was uneventful, but it seemed to go quicker despite swimming through Olympic swim wave traffic.

4/7
19/64

I ran up the hill and saw my uncle standing there cheering me on while also apologetically saying he's sorry he wasn't ready with his phone to take a picture, but that if I were to go back and do it again he'd be ready.

I didn't really bust my butt to get through this transition. Too many times that hill and run to T1 get me out of breath and shoot my HR sky high that I instead paced myself getting my wetsuit off and getting going on the bike.

There was great cloud cover once on the bike got started, which was going to be huge in terms of heat management if we could get it to stick around for a bit. The wind wasn't too bad at the start but it gradually kept building into an annoying head wind the further south we rode. Early on I had bunch of that salty liquid running down my scalp and off my nose, letting me know that I was already losing fluids and electrolytes. So I hit the fluids early and often. In all I went through my two bottles of EFS and a few on course Gatorade/waters.

I was fully expecting a miserable, hot run on a hilly course so I made a conscious effort not to hammer this bike. I was mostly looking forward to getting on the old IMKS course and experiencing a bit of tailwind. The headwinds and hills around Richland/Wakarusa River were starting to drag on me mentally and it had seemed forever from the last time I was able to just put my head down and ride. So once I made the turn towards the Clinton Lake turnaround it was heaven. Finally some fun, mid to upper 20 mph roads to bike.

Like the swim, I was passed by a few guys early on and then didn't see anyone else for the entirety of the race, so it was a nice mental boost to see the other racers near the turnaround. Perhaps everyone else felt the same way because I exchange waves with just about everyone coming the opposite way. After those few brief miles it was back to your own individual game.

Riding that south wind all the home was sweet, and I was soooo tempted to push it harder an get my time down and my average mph higher. "Let's see if I can push 30 mph for this whole section of road" I thought, but I knew better. The sun was out in full force, and the hints of leg cramps on the swim never disappeared. So instead I focused on keeping my HR controlled saving some of myself for the run.

3/64
1/7

I didn't even attempt a flying dismount. I was standing on my shoes as I approached the dismount line ready to hop off but something inside told me to take it easy otherwise your gonna take a spill. Other than that I moved through T2 pretty quick and efficiently.

Shoulda knocked the rust off and practiced some bike mounts and dismounts beforehand.

I started off with one foot in front of the other and I evaluated from there. Once I hit the first hill of major significance I said "Nope. Don't feel like getting leg cramps yet," I then proceeded to march up it. But I'm just gonna stop my run summary right here. The rest doesn't need to be hashed out. Really the best way to summarize this section of my race report is this: I walked a lot, especially the hills and every 10 minutes I drank water and then poured it on my head. Then I finished.

This is such a beautiful course, which is a shame because I suck at running here so bad, so now I have to hate this course. At least I was in the company of others who were in the same boat as me today. During the first lap everyone was throwing out encouragement to each other. By the second lap that had all stopped as most people transitioned to individual survival mode. This was the case except for three kick ass girls who were flying through the field like the rest of us slogged through the course. They ended up posting the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th fastest overall run times of the day.

I, on the other hand, managed to fight off leg cramps until the last two miles before having to resort to running with one leg locked to avoid having the back of my leg muscle seize up.

I sat in a chair in the tent at the finish line and conversed with my fellow finishers and declared, with the deepest sincerity, that once again I will never race this distance in the future. I proclaimed yet again that I am more suited for the Olympic distance. I opined that my body is just not cut out to race in warm weather. I then departed my fellow competitors telling them I'll see them next year at this race.


The same thing I wrote the previous five times I've race 70.3: lack of time to train more. But, I do what I can with the time I'm given.


Another well put on race by the Legend Endurance/Silverback folks.
It was a bit annoying that there were no pre-race announcements and/or speakers for the event management to use to give directions, but it turns out someone in there org left the speakers out in the thunderstorms that morning, so I'll give them a pass. Bless the volunteers that stayed out on that run course until the last finisher crossed.