This past weekend was the 5th Annual Mudwater's Triathlon. A very well run event, great volunteers and a sweet venue - I now know why it sold out again this year. Will I be back next year? You bet.
Mark your calendars for July 10, 2011.
I had originally planned to race the Shawnee Mission Triathlon, but the event sold out before I could enter. Turns out I lucked out because
they called the Shawnee Mission Triathlon due to some rain. That is two years in a row. I still do not believe in stopping a race due to the weather, but that is me. This view most likely comes from participating in motocross events held in near monsoon conditions. Just ask my Brother Joey about the Loretta Lynn's qualifier held at Gatorback in Gainesville, Florida. Now if an event ever needed to be cancelled it was that one....
Back to Mudwaters....Carolynn and I made the trip to
Goddard, KS on Saturday and enjoyed a nice evening at one of the many restaurants in town. Well not really, truth be told there were only 3 places to pick from and Taco Bell got the nod. Before we settled down we ventured over to Lake Afton Park to check out the course and pick up my race packet. Very nice little lake. A really nice venue for a triathlon. Packet pickup was very smooth and the
Kansas River Valley Triathlon club were very nice. I was looking forward to my first Olympic distance triathlon. I've raced every distance from Ironman to short course, but never an Olympic distance. When I saw the new option for it when registering, I decided that I might as well give it a shot even though I have only been training for short course events.
Sunday morning came
quickly and we were off to the race site. Everything went smoothly on race morning. The transition area quickly filled up, but I was lucky and got a nice spot with easy entry/exit. As the 0700 start time arrived I was ready. Everyone ventured down to Lake Afton ready for a 1500 meter swim. Well, everyone who was racing the Olympic distance. There was also a sprint event and duathlon event taking place at the same time. Running three events at once can be a challenge, but looking back everything ran very smooth.
The event began with a loud bang. They started the event with a gun. This scared the shit out of me as it quickly brought back childhood memories of being shot at while up at the family farm. I can still hear those bullets whizzing by my head as my brother and I ran for our lives. I could not tell you why she was shooting at us only that she was a crazy old lady that lived in the woods. But I digress......
Swim went well for the most part. Pacing has always been a problem with me. I have never completed a 1500 meter swim before and did not want to go out too fast. I settled into a nice pack and was able to maintain a good rhythm and keep my breathing under control. The only problem was the pack I was following went way off course. We added a couple hundred meters for sure. My goal was 25 min, but came in around 27. I finished really strong so now I know to push it a little harder on Olympic distance swims and maybe even try sighting myself instead of following...
Transition to the bike was good. I felt very comfortable on the bike and quickly started passing the faster swimmers. I had a good average going - around 25 mph. There were only a few small hills so you could really keep the pace up. All the roads were in good shape except for heading west on 391st street. That road made you feel like your were racing a cobble classic over in Europe. I started to overheat a little towards the end of the bike. The temps were rising fast and at that time I wished I had done the Sprint Distance event. I was not looking forward to a10K in the high 90's. Finished the bike in just over an hour.
Transition to the run was very fast. Only wish I could have maintained that intensity. I think I lasted about a mile running well. After the first aid station it became more of a fast jog. By mile 4 all I was doing was jogging partly due to the heat and partly due to my IT band injury showing it's ugly head again. I dragged my slow running self across the line in 2:30. I would have been o.k. with a 2:15 time, but nothing slower.
I ended up finishing 2nd in the Male 40-44 group. There were a few fast times, but for the most part I was not alone in having trouble on this day.
Lots of improvement needed for this distance. In looking back I missed one important thing - having a Goal. I didn't have a goal last week, but this weekend I do. Kick some butt in tomorrow's
Tribute Triathlon. A 500 yd lake swim followed by a 18 mile bike and 5 K run. The longer bike leg should help me and I am looking foreward to closing out the season with a top finish.
Some pictures from the 5th Annual Mudwater's Triathlon.
t is nice having buoys every 75 yards or so. Make it much easier to sight for us who need to wear glasses. We started in waves of about 25 or so today. I kind of like the smaller wave starts opposed to a large mass start. Much less struggle heading to the first buoy. My swim was good for me. I got out in around 9 min and felt comfortable in the water. I caught up to the tail end of the first two waves. It was very comical watching not one, but two swimmers swimming back stroke with both hands at the same time (like the butterfly stroke). I had never seen that before. Then I remember how I felt at the Xterra Red River earlier this year and how I must of looked when I got in trouble.
t it. I was looking at the police officer and he was motioning to go straight, but it turns out he was directing the car which was in front of me at the time. I turned around without much lost time, but it took me awhile to get going strong again. I was passing a lot of racers from the earlier waves (I was in the last wave of the day) and felt strong. That was until this guy with a disc wheel TT bike come whizzing by and took my fastest bike slip hopes away. I kept him within 10 seconds until the turnout. At which time we make the turn around and headed back into what felt like a hot furnace. The entire return trip felt like we were riding uphill and into the wind. No wonder I was in the 53 x 12 on the way out - downhill and had a tailwind. I even had to venture into the 39 for awhile. I stayed there because I was still passing riders who were trying to mash along. As I made the final turn for the last 1/2 mile I came up on a car which was on the course. This older lady proceeded to stop right in front of the narrow barried off road, which blocked me. I ended up getting off my bike and running around the car. As I remounted my bike I could hear some of the riders behind yelling at her to move. I was not as mad like they were, but was disappointed that it cost me some time on my bike split. Still ended up the day with the 4th fasted bike split and a 22 mph average. With missing the turn and having to stop for the senile old lady I will take the time.
d my legs felt very heavy. At the first water station I grabbed 2 cups of cold water - one for the head/body and the other for my thirst. If had had known there would not be another aid station for nearly two miles I would have gotten more. There was another aid station shortly after the first but it only had warm Heed. I like Heed, but not luke warm heed :-). The run course went by a grave yard. No shade at all just siring heat from the sun. At this point I felt like I belonged in one of the graves. I was a running dead man and was having to force my self to concentrate and push on. The 4 runners I was with had checked out. They were running for the overall win. Me, I was running to try and protect my lead in my age-group. I could hear some runners behind me and once we reached the aid station with a mile to go I picked it up some. Luckily this section of the course had some shade. I did good good the final mile and clipped off a 6:15 mile. I was dead at the end, but it was enough to win the Male 40-44 age group.
This past weekend was the 5th Annual Mudwater's Triathlon. A very well run event, great volunteers and a sweet venue - I now know why it sold out again this year. Will I be back next year? You bet. Mark your calendars for July 10, 2011.
quickly and we were off to the race site. Everything went smoothly on race morning. The transition area quickly filled up, but I was lucky and got a nice spot with easy entry/exit. As the 0700 start time arrived I was ready. Everyone ventured down to Lake Afton ready for a 1500 meter swim. Well, everyone who was racing the Olympic distance. There was also a sprint event and duathlon event taking place at the same time. Running three events at once can be a challenge, but looking back everything ran very smooth.
I got a call a couple weeks ago asking if I would be on The Walt Bodine Show. They were going to talk about cycling in Kansas City. I agreed to participate and joined JP Shores and Brian Jenson to talke about our favorite subject - Cycling. I was an interesting show and went rather quickly. Overall I did o.k. Still needs lots of work with speaking in a public forum.
