About 6 we went into Lawrence (race site was just on the outskirts). Went to a brewpub style place and I got some hawaiian chicken sandwich. Hammerhead got an initial entree and then opted for some hot wings. I chose a Bud Select. Only had one though.
On race morning, the alarm went off at about 4:30. I probably slept for about two hours as I'd bet money there was a raccoon doing hot laps around my tent. It was odd. It also started raining a bit. Nail on the coffin was that I also forgot my pillow. I think Hammerhead had 10 pillows but he is royalty so he needs them.
In this race, there were two transition areas. They were about a mile apart, so we went to the bike/run transition first to set up our running shoes. We also put our stuff in a big ziplock bag as the forecast called for rain. The whole time, the announcer was saying we had plenty of time to go to T1 to set up there as well. Well, that was about the opposite of true. I got to T1 and was going to place my nutrition in order and have a relaxed set up. As soon as I got there, the race people were yelling that if we didn't get out of transition now, we would be DQ'd. That changed things. I threw everything in a pile, grabbed my wetsuit and took off outta there. No pre-race gel for fuel or water. I did have time to fill my aero bottle on my bike with water and I had a bottle of Infinit (about 300 calories) on my downtube.
There were about 220 people in my swim wave and it was almost an out and back swim, except for a couple hundred yards across before we turned back in. Some people who wanted to be towards the front started in the water, others on the ramp. I got in the water and talked to Hammerhead for a bit and then left him to go up towards the front, far right. Buoy's were on the left, and I figured I'd sacrifice a little distance for some clear water.
The gun went off and I got into a groove pretty easily. The plan was to take the swim pretty easy. I wanted to stay smooth and strong, possibly find a draft and control my breathing. My swimming's been coming along nicely since my injury, so I figured I could have a decent swim here without using too much energy. Overall, the swim was pretty uneventful, other than the random running into other swimmers and getting sandwiched a couple of times. It was kind of funny when a guy would suddenly veer straight left into me. This happened more as I started to catch the waves in front of me. I figured if I had a solid swim and didn't stray off course too much, I would be around 30 minutes. I ended up just over 33 minutes I think. Not stellar, but ok for where I'm at now and the fact that I didn't exit the water breathing too heavily.
As soon as I got out of the water, I got a huge cramp in my left hamstring. I stood up and sort of pirate wobbled to my bike. I was worried about it but thought it might work itself out on the bike. It did. The transition area had a bunch of small rocks, which was awesome to run over barefoot. The other crappy thing about the transition area is that it was packed. I tried to run out with my bike but got stuck behind a lady walking. There was nowhere to move. Finally, about 15 yards into a 150 yard run, she moved off to the side.
I settled into my bike and went to take a drink of water from my aero bottle as I was very thirsty. Nothing! I think my bike my have gotten knocked over. All the bikes were on top of each other, and no water was not what I wanted. I wanted to drink about 1/3 of my Infinit per hour to manage my calories for the race, but the next aid station wasn't for 15 miles and I was thirsty, so by that point, I had drunk about half of it. Not according to plan, but you go with what you've got. I settled into a really smooth pace on the bike and felt great.
Finally the aid station arrived and I slammed a water and poured the rest of the bottle into my aero bottle. I was thirsty to say the least. The Kansas bike course was very hilly and I had trained on some hills with Nacho Libre, so I was prepared fairly well. The missed riding time would have been nice to get back, but I had a good ride. I ended up covering the hilly 56 mile course in about 2 hours and 40 minutes, or about 21 mph. I got off the bike feeling great. Usually, in a race of any distance, I'm ready to get off the bike. I could have rode longer this day, which was nice.
I arrived in T2 and tried to unzip the plastic bag. I shouldn't have zipped it in the first place, because the zipper was stuck. Using my amazing strength, I ripped open the bag, put my shoes on and took off running. My plan was to go out around 8:15/mile and see how that felt. I went out conservatively, or so I thought. I looked at my watch and I was on a sub 7:30 pace the first mile, but it felt so easy. The second mile was a bit downhill, and I crossed two miles at exactly 15 min. This too quick pace and the lack of nutrition on the bike (I took about 2-3 gu's when I should have taken about 5) would bite me very soon. It was starting to get hot. No rain at all and mile 3 was an almost mile long hill. I was halfway up when it felt like my body was shutting down. I stopped to walk for a bit, until the top of the hill. I think I walked one more time during the first loop of the two loop run, but my time for that loop was about 51-52 minutes. The second loop was awful. I had to walk quite a bit, that big hill, I walked the whole way. I just had nothing it seemed. I walked through the aid station, put a cold sponge down my back, wrung one over my head, grabbed a gatorade, took a water and splashed it in my face and then another water. I took cola whenever it was offered, as it helped, but they ran out before my mile 6. I was the second to last wave, so it was later in the day and getting hotter. Still, no excuse that I was a pansy on the run.
I ended the run in 2hours and 3 min. About a 9:27 pace and a hell of a lot slower than I wanted. Good news, unless something dumb/crazy happens, I won't run that slow at this distance again...at least I hope. I think the missed training because of my injury hurt me the worst on the run. I wasn't able to get a lot of run workouts in, including longer runs.
Don't get this report wrong, I'm proud of my race, proud that I finished and finished running with a smile on my face. It was a great feeling to finish. Going in, I would be ok with around 5 hours, most likely sub-5, but I ended up going 5:24. Not an awful time, but for me, there's a LOT of room for improvement! I'm excited for the rest of race season.
Next up, the Bob McCarten Sprint Tri in Emmetsburg a week from today (Saturday). I believe Hammerhead is coming up and we should have a battle. The first race this year was a sprint and he got me by 20 seconds.
Cheers!
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