Kansas City 5150 Race Report

Writing this blog from my spot on the couch wearing the NormaTec Space Boots for some serious recovery today. Woke up and felt like my body had been run over by an 18-wheeler! I guess racing for 2 hours and then driving 10hours isn't the best for recovery ehh?  But here comes the lengthy race report of my first Olympic distance triathlon that took place in Kansas City this last weekend.

Loaded up and left after a quick swim Friday with Rebecca Much and Kristen Peterson. We pointed Kristen's boyfriend Nick Legan's white Subaru to I-70 and the 8+ hour drive to Kansas City. We became very good friends with I-70 and Kansas!!! A total of 17 hours of driving and probably 20hours or so in 3 days! I can say everyone's description of Kansas were correct! None-the-less, we arrive in Kansas City on Friday evening and got ready for a fun weekend! We located the Super8 hotel in Lee's Summit, and were impressed to see it was fairly new and in decent shape. The race wasn't til Sunday, and so it was great having a whole day to relax, do some pre-race shakedown workouts and then head to packet pick-up.

Saturday, we slept in a bit, and then got ready for the race with a little shakedown run/ride and then went to Panera for a good breakfast. After that, it was back to the hotel for some rest/napping, followed by a trip to Longview Lake for packet pickup, course recon and Kristen's pro race meeting. The nerves were settling in fast, and I was getting both anxious and scared for the race! After the meeting we found a great Thai place in Lee's Summit, with some amazing Massamun curry! Then it was to the hotel to put on numbers, and get everything locked and loaded for race! We were in bed pretty early, all dreaming of glory on Sunday!

Alarm went off at 5am on Sunday, and we were soon up scrounging around and eating breakfast. Had some oatmeal with a banana, mango and a Breeze Bar. Loaded up and headed for Longview Lake by 5:45, we were in plenty of time to get parked, everything put away and set up in transition, timing chips picked up and off to the beach for the start at 7:30.

Kristen was off in the pro women's field at 7:30, and Rebecca and I  didn't go off til 8:04 and 8:07.

Overall result from the weekend:
23:33 Swim (1:35yd/min)
2:04 T1
1:04:30 Bike (23.1mph)
1:20 T2
42:12 Run (6:49min/mile)

2:13:36.56

Swim: started and I got in behind Lincoln Eppard (Z3 Triathlon) out of Des Moines, who I have known. We quickly were able to distance ourselves from the pack! I had a bit of trouble sighting in the early morning, with some fog, but the BlueSeventy Element goggles did a great job, more of a personal error. We caught the prior waves fairly fast, and were rolling through them. I was able to come out of the water first. Got into T1 but this is where my lack of experience starts!

T1: Wetsuit off and leaving transition, took me a while to get into my shoes, which actually involved stopping for 30-45sec to put on my right shoe, that I couldn't get on ***More baby powder***. Got clipped in finally and was out

Bike: Settled into a nice rhythm and started picking off people left and right. Made me wonder if I was going that fast, or they were going that slow. A bit of both. I had lost Lincoln and another guy from CU with my shoe debacle. Tried to catch them, but only did catch the CU Boulder guy in my age group towards the end. Overall a solid bike, Cannondale Slice felt amazingly smooth and fast and the Carrol 85mm wheels did great! Thanks Grant for the help.

T2: Another rough transition, got feet out of the shoes and dismounted, but a shoe caught the ground and decided to come out of the pedals. So I had to stop and go back to pick up my shoe, losing another 10sec or so. Got the Pearl Izumi Isotransitions on and headed out for the run, 2/3 done!

Run: Started out on the 2 lap 3.1mile loop. First mile went by in 6:50, right where I thought I wanted to be. Was actually going by more people than I was getting passed by. By mile 2 I had hit 6:39 on a slightly downhill mile. Coming back towards transition for the second loop, I was starting to hit the hurt box a bit, probably a bit fast going out. On the second loop, I was really hurting by mile 5, and with this mile as slightly uphill and into a headwind, I was really hurting. Pulled out a decent last 1.2miles and finished with a sub 7min/mile average. Exactly where I wanted to be. Something crazy happened to me right before the finish though.....50yards out, I was trying to catch a few sprint racers, and as I was rounding the last curve a 70year old guy walks right out in front of me. I had no reaction ability and ran over him.....oops. But really, look where you're going and don't cross the course dude! I hope he is alright.....

The Mix1 Protein Shake I had post-race was probably the most tasty thing ever!! Awesome to have them onboard!

Anyway, so that is my first race!!! I ended up 2nd overall in my age group to the CU Boulder dude, who flew on the run and took 20th/1000 overall!!! Very happy with that, have a lot I can work on to shave some time, but it was an amazing experience, and I am glad to have started this quest. With my 2nd place finish and sub-2:15 time, I am now eligible to compete in the Elite Amateur waves in future races, and my 2nd place finish got me free entry into the 2012 HyVee US. Championship in Des Moines!!! Going to be coming on on Sept 2 to celebrate my birthday and hopefully with the M20-24 Age Group Championship. That is going to be the big goal for the rest of the year!



Rebecca, Kristen and I got back to the hotel, showered quickly, went back to Panera for some food and then pointed due west on I-70 back to Boulder, arriving around 11pm. A long day, a long trip, but so much fun! Going to hopefully sit down with Grant here and find out whats going to occur before Boulder 5150, to make me faster!!!

Next race I believe is the Boulder Sprint on June 8th!! Until the next post!!

"The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a man's determination." Tommy Lasorda