After skipping Wildflower I was ready to race a ½ again and
this would be the 4th time in as many years for me attending
Kansas. The geographical location of
this race seems to work well for the Boulder folks as well as
mid-westerner’s. The course is nice, warm
water in a decent lake, a few hills on the bike, and a two lap usually hot and
humid run. Owen and my sister Christine
loaded up the wagon and headed over from CO Friday night after work and arrived
sat afternoon just in time to setup camp and get to the race meeting. Kansas is nice because you can camp right on
the run course, get up late and walk right to the start. There were about 15 or 20 pro men and about
the same on the women’s side at this race.
It is a little smaller this year as the prize money had gone down.
Race
morning it was confirmed that this was going to be a non wetsuit swim for the
first time at this race, even though the water was cooler than last year. It seems if the water temp is close to 76
they call it wet suit legal, but this year they may have done it right. So race conditions were windy larger waves
and non wetsuit swim. This is starting
to shape up to fit my racing perfect.
Race prep was easy as I had my bike and everything ready to go at camp,
rode down to T2 dropped my shoes and on to the start. I had plenty of time to get ready and get in the
water for a brief warm up. I started on
the outside as usual and swam out front with two other swimmers. By the first turn I was in 2nd,
but the leader was swimming a little faster than I was going to go. I let him go and swam the rest on my own, nice
waves and the water temp was perfect. I
think this was the one of the most enjoyable swims in a while, because I did
not overheat in warm water with a wetsuit and I kind of took it easy. It is not worth swimming super hard in order
to gain a few seconds in the swim, I have started to realize. I came out of the water in 2nd
about 30 sec behind the leader, my Zoot speedsuit came off very fast and
easy. Got it all into my gear bag and I
was off on the bike. It was into the
wind to start and would continue that way throughout the entire bike it seemed
like. The wind was strong and I was
feeling pretty good on the bike, got in my nutrition and water. I rode well and came off the bike in 4th,
averaging 313 watts. On to the run now I
was feeling good but the heat was coming on strong, the winds helped a
little. I was passed by one guy early
and did not see anyone else coming up behind him until mile 12 when the one
other passed me. He was holding a much
faster pace and I knew it was not possible to keep up. I still felt okay though, especially coming
off this hip injury, I wore the Zoot Ultra Tempo 5.0 that have a little stability and my
feet were very comfy the whole run. I
crossed the line in 6th just out of the prize money of course. But I still feel like I had a good race for
sure. My swim was relaxed, my bike was
strong, and my run is not back 100% but coming along well. Overall a good time was had by all, Owen took
6th in his age group and Christine was 7th with a 4
minute penalty. Next race in 2 weeks, I
will just try to bring up the fitness a little and rest the last week, Lubbock
is sure to be hot and windy as well.
6th overall
Swim – 25.51
T1 – 1:08
Bike – 2:15:48
T2 – 0:42
Run – 1:24:02
Total – 4:07:31
Nice race Gavin.
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