Kansas City Triathlon - Race Report

Prologue
I was getting ready to pack up my bike into our Jeep the night before the race.  I was giving Sir Blanco a quick once over with my multi-tool, tightening bolts, checking the roll of the wheels, basically making sure that the bike was ready for the race tomorrow.  As I was spinning the front wheel, I noticed that my cyclo-computer didn't come on. It automatically turns on when the wheel starts spinning so it can record how fast the bike is going, how far, etc.  I thought maybe my fiddling had pushed the sensor on the wheel out of alignment so I fiddled a bit more to no avail.  I then discovered that the lead wire had split.  Don't know how, don't know why.  This was a bit disconcerting because you don't need a spedometer when you're racing, but it's nice to see how you're doing and how far you've got to go.  I decided this was either a bad omen, or it was my one equipment hic-up for this race and this just meant that everything else would go perfectly...we'll see.

Pre-Race
I woke up excited.  The alarm was set for 4:45am and I was up two minutes early.  I got out of bed and started my daily routine like it was any other day.  I shaved, showered and then went downstairs for a little breakfast.  The biggest difference was that I was wearing spandex while I made my bowl of oatmeal. 

Normally, I only wear spandex when we go out to eat.

Mrs. Gias got up just after I did at 5am as she had some pre-race snacks to make and needed to get our girls up and out of bed in order to get to the race site by 7:15am - the time I told her she should be there to see the swim start at 7:34am.  Of course, she's a trooper so she was up with a positive attitude making sure I was ready to go.  I gave her a kiss and hopped in the Jeep for my 25 minute drive to Longview Lake.

I got to the race site a bit before 6am and it was already pretty full.  There were way more people there than I anticipated so I quickly texted Mrs. Gias to let her know the parking situation was going to be a pain and then found a spot along the course route about a half-mile from transition to park the car. 

I walked in with a number of other racers and upon entering transition to rack my bike, I got body-marked.  They had assigned transition spots according to your bib number, which was nice, no fighting for spots.  I quickly went to my spot and set up my gear.

Next I had to get in the chip line, which was pretty uneventful and then on to the porta-john line.  I chatted it up with a few other racers about how this was their first race, or their 50th race and what to expect on the course.  It was nice to be one of the athletes jawing with the rest of the athletes about what we were about to do.

Before I knew it the announcement came over the sound system that transition would close in 15 minutes and a pre-race meeting wout start shortly thereafter.  It was time to put on the wetsuit and head to the beach.

I have to admit, I had some trepedation walking to the water.  I knew it would be cold and I'd never done anything like this before.  I thought the best thing to do would be to follow my plan and hop in the water to get acclimated to the temperature and try to swim a few strokes. 

I jumped right in and....damn...the water was cold.  It was 60 degrees and it literally takes your breath away when you first get in.  I tried swimming around a little and with the wetsuit on, and after a minute or two it really wasn't that bad.  Could I tell it was cold?  Yes.  Was it unbearable?  No.  It's amazing what 5mm of neoprene will do for you.

A few minutes more passed and I headed up to the beach to get near the start, it was about 5 minutes away.  It was at this point I saw my dad waving his arms from the back of the start chute.  I hussled back there and said hi to him and Mrs. Gias.  They told me the rest of my cheering section had arrived and were on the other side of the beach ready to see me pop out of the water.  They wished me good luck and I headed down to the edge of the water for the start.

The Swim
I lined up for the start of the swim with the rest of the males 30-49...that's a big group by the way.  They originally told us it would be by age group, then they decided to put the four largest age groups together for what amounted to a mass start...no idea why.  Anyway, I knew that if I swam like I knew how, I would do fine...although, those bouys looked pretty far away...and the water was awfully choppy from all the wind. 

Go!

It was a mad dash into the water.  If you've never seen a mass start for a swim race, there's a reason they call it the washing machine.  It's random limbs flailing everywhere, water splashing and churning, you get kicked in the face, you smack someone else's arm, someone grabs your leg, people are going sideways across your back...it's chaos. 

Oh, and the water is 60 degrees, taking your breath away and making it that much harder to breathe and focus on swimming.

I sighted the bouy about 600 meters out, but just barely, the sun was rising directly in the line of sight with the bouy making the glare pretty blinding.  I started stroking and sighting like I'd practiced, which, by the way, wasn't working at all.  I'd look up and stare into the sun for a second, just long enough to get kicked in the face and then try swimming again.  Even after we were out about 200 metersI was still having a hard time breathing and I could tell I wasn't swimming straight...at all. 

When I got to the midway point between the shore and the furthest bouy, about 300 meters or so, I panicked.  I couldn't breathe, I couldn't see, I couldn't stroke regularly, I had the realization that I was already exhausted from the start and I wasn't sure I could continue.  I thought seriously about trying to get to the nearest paddle boat to have them take me to shore. 

It was terrible. 

All of my training, my delusions of grandeur of finishing the race, of having my cheering section see me exit the water, finishing the triathlon like I promised myself I would do, doing triathlons in the future, all flashed before my eyes in an instant. 

I told myself to settle down, catch your breath and get on it.  You're a good swimmer, you're comfortable in the water and you can certainly swim 1500 meters.  Quit jacking around feeling sorry for yourself, put your head down and go.  If you run out of air, switch to breast stroke for a while.  If your time is slower than your goal, do better next time.  You think you're going to drown, but you're not.  Forget about everything else and...just...swim.

I started making little deals with myself, just like I do when I'm in the pool.  Swim to that bouy and then take a quick break.  Do 10 strokes then site the bouy.  Say a Hail Mary breathing to the left, then say one breathing to the right. 

Before I knew it I was on the back stretch of the swim coming back towards shore.  Coming into shore was significantly faster than going out. I was almost in a rhythm, or as close to one as I could find, and I knew I could make it. 

Of course my rhythm was something like stroke stroke, kick in the face, turn slightly left, then back right, stroke stroke, repeat.  It was like some dark Philip Glass musical number about a slow triathlete. (Yeah, I just dropped a Philip Glass reference, deal with it.)

I think the biggest problem for my actual swimming was that I could not, for the life of me, seem to swim straight.  The wind was strong, the water was choppy and I was all over the damn lake.  I'm sure I ended up swimming well over 2000 meters with the crazy diagonals I was making.

Red is the actual swim route.  Yellow is the Geek's swim route.  "Well there's your problem..."

Was the swim a good one?  No.

Did I panic, get scared and feel as if I would almost drown?  Yes.

Did I drink so much lake water that hydration wasn't a problem?  Yes.

Did I finish it and smile for the camera?  Of course.

It was only later that I would learn that my piss poor swim time would still land me in the top 50% overall.  I've got to practice open water swimming...like...everyday.

T1
I hit the beach exhausted, mentally and physically.  The panic, the cold and the one mile (probably more) swim took a lot out of me.  Not to mention I was pretty shaken up from being so panicked in the water, I was just happy to be alive, but mad at myself for doing so poorly.

I ran up the beach and saw my full contingent cheering section for the first time.  Both my sisters with their husbands, Mrs. Gias, her mom, both my little girls and my dad.  There were cheers, signs and all kind of yells.  I can't tell you how much of a pick-me-up it is to have a cheering section, especially when you finish something like that swim which really had me dejected because I thought I was off to such a poor start. 

Hey moron, it's stuck on your watch.

I hussled up the beach trying to pull my wetsuit down to my waist where it got stuck on my watch.  Here's the thing, if you don't wear a watch when you practice taking your wetsuit off, but you wear a watch for your race, your're going to look like a one-armed idiot running into transition.  I was flailing like some kind of mental patient trying to get my arm out of a straight jacket...not my most graceful moment. 

I ran through transition area, which seems substantially longer when you're in bare feet across the uneven asphalt, and got to my gear.  My younger sister, her husband and Mrs. Gias had raced up the beach on the other side and were right outside transition giving me encouragement. 

I stripped down the wetsuit, this time catching it on my timing chip on my left leg.  Let's just say that Mrs. Gias tood a few too many pictures of the Geek bending over to get the wetsuit off of my left leg.  I'll spare you from having to look at any of those here.

I slipped on my shoes, sunglasses and helmet and was off.  I ran towards the transition exit and then hopped on my bike.

Wait a minute, where are my feet?

The Bike
I started the bike and my pace felt kind of slow (of course, I couldn't really tell because I didn't have a working spedometer).  I was tired and didn't quite have my legs under me yet.  I had used a lot more energy in the swim than I thought and my legs were already feeling a bit tired.

No biggie, just a 25 mile ride with 20-30 mph winds followed by a 6 mile run...who needs fresh legs?

Anyway, I started to ride and was still in my head about my swim.  I checked my watch and thought it was about 33 minutes or so, about 8-9  minutes slower than my goal.  Realistically, the goal should have been a bit more conservative, but, live and learn.  I was upset and dejected at my swim time and then with the bike seemingly starting so slowly I didn't quite know what to make of my race day.  Honestly, I was mostly worried about my cheering section having to stand around waiting for me to finish sometime late into the evening.  Yeah, a little dramatic, but hey, it's all in my head.

Not having a bike computer I had no idea how fast I was going so I just kept plugging along.  The course was a 12.5 mile loop we did twice.  The first 6-7 miles were on roads with a pretty significant headwind/crosswind, which really makes you work hard and go slow.  Then we hit a neighborhood section which was cool because people that lived there came out to cheer, but was not cool because there were a lot of tight turns that made keeping a decent pace difficult.

I almost look like I know what I'm doing...I should be an actor.

Luckily you come out of the neighborhood, hit one more massive hill and then...mile 10.  Manna from heaven.  It's downhill/flat for about 2.5 miles with a tailwind.  It literally felt like I was flying during this section.  The blacktop smoothed out, I found a gear I liked and just cruised.  It was awesome. 

Yeah, even my signs used my nom de plume...awesome.

The cheering section was out in full force when I finished lap 1 and it was again, like someone recharged my batteries when I saw my signs and heard them yell.  Best feeling ever.  I muscled through that first loop and checked my watch.  44 minutes. 

Wait a minute.  My goal time was 47 minutes per loop...I'm ahead of schedule on the bike...in this wind?  That's crazy.  That was a nice pick-me-up as well.  I mashed through my gears into the wind and neighborhood one more time gaining confidence the whole way, knowing that the last few miles I could do a bit of resting and still have a strong run.

T2
I rolled into T2 almost exactly in 90 minutes averaging a higher speed than at last weeks duathalon, which was half the distance of today's ride.  I don't know what it was, but something on the bike went right.  Don't get me wrong, I'm still SLOW, I was just a little less slow today.

I got into T2, dropped my helmet, racked my bike and made like a banshee for the exit.  I was tired and didn't have my legs under me, but I was ready to finish this thing.

Wipe that grin off your face, there's 6 miles to go!

The Run
As has happened to me pretty much everytime I start a run after a bike ride, the first mile is SLOW.  I'm pretty wobbly and trying to get a rhythm going is difficult for me.  Luckily at the top of the first hill about a quarter mile in, my cheering section was out in full force.  I had to smile.

The run course had one pretty decent hill, but for the most part was pretty flat running around the lake.  I passed a number of people on the run, which is weird for me because I am not that fast.  Luckily today I was consistent.  I kept my pace pretty even throughout.  My first 5k split was about 28 minutes and I slowed down just a bit on the second half (I know, I know...negative split your run...I was tired, leave me alone!). 

This is right at about the three hour mark...smile less, run more.

I saw my cheering section one more time on the trail towards the finish around maybe mile 5 or so. This is where you know you can finish but you just need a little bit of mind over matter to make sure you keep putting one foot in front of the other. 

The run felt like it went by pretty quickly and my knee felt great...which was a huge relief.  I got about a quarter mile out from the finish and noticed one more guy in my age group ahead of me that I wanted to pass.  I kicked it up as much as I could, which wasn't much, but I got to him and I think he tried to step it up for about three steps and then just let me go.  It felt good to finish strong and as I crossed the finish, my cheering section went nuts!

Of course this is the always flattering downstride picture where it looks like I'm losing to gravity.

Post Race

I walked slowly down the finisher's chute, got a bottle of water and my post race towell and made my way through the barricade to my family.  I went to chat with them, take some pictures and basically just enjoy a few minutes of the morning.  I told them all about how I thought I was going to quit 10 minutes into the swim, but how thinking about seeing them at the finish pushed me through.  I also saw a few people that I had trained with and shared a few war stories with them.

The hairy chest is a little gross.

I even ran into my coach and a few other "experienced" triathletes.  They made me feel pretty good (partially because I actually beat my swim coach on my swim time) and also because everyone was pretty much saying that the swim was terrible.  They all thought the water was cold, the chop made it impossible to navigate and that it was OK to have had a bad swim.  One guy even said he swam Escape From Alcatraz three weeks ago and that the San Francisco Bay was an easier swim than Longview that day.  That helped restore a bit of confidence for next time...

Cheering Section

After I finished the race I was looking for the awards podium because I was certain that I would easily win for best cheering section.  Who knew that wasn't a real award?  It doesn't really matter, because everyone there knew the Geek had the best fans.

My cheering section minus Mrs. Gias...somebody had to take pictures.

I've mentioned them above, but I have to give at least one more shout out to my fabulous cheering section.  They came out in full force for the beginning, middle and end of a three hour plus race on a Sunday morning. 

They brought signs, snacks and a fabulous attitude.  They were reason enough to finish the race.  

You guys are the best.  Thanks.

Kansas City Triathlon - Quick Update

I'm totally worn out and don't have time to write a full report tonight; that will come tomorrow.  Let's just say I finished the triathlon, the swim was terrible, the bike was pretty good and the run was a run...nothing special. 

I finished 332 out of 427 in 3:11:11, which was close to my prediction of 3:03.  I can pinpoint where the extra 8 minutes came from...exactly.  I predicted the swim at 25 minutes, I did the swim in 34 minutes.  The short story on the swim is it was cold, it was choppy and I panicked.

The one thing I wanted to mention for sure was that I easily, and I'm saying EASILY won the award for best cheering section of any other competitor.  Mrs. Gias came out with both B & G, my dad, both sisters and their husbands and my mother in law were there...with signs...and themed snacks...and loud cheering.  It was awesome.  Huge thanks for taking the time out of a Sunday morning to come support the Geek on his silly little New Year's resolution.  You all are the best.

More to come...

Kansas City Triathlon - Pre-Race

"I predict you'll be crumpled on the ground crying like a little girl...before the race even starts."

Well, tomorrow is the Kansas City Triathlon.  I picked up my packet yesterday afternoon and got my bib, swim cap and a few goodies.  After last week's race, I can't decide if I'm more nervous about this race or less.  Overall I think I'm just excited to finally get out there and race.  As you know, last week was fine, but canceling the swim was kind of a buzz kill.

The good news is that today and tomorrow we're going to have the warmest temperatures of the year in Kansas City.  It looks like it will be about 70 degrees when the race starts and will likely reacy the mid to upper 80's sometime tomorrow.  There's officially no chance of rain, so it should be perfect!  The only unknown is what the wind is going to do, right now they're predicting 20mph winds out of the south, which could suck...we'll have to see.  (Usually there's less wind in the morning, so perhaps it won't be that bad.) 

The other news (not sure if it's good or bad) is that the lake water temperature is in the low 60's right now.  So definitely a bit cold and wetsuit legal, but probably not hypothermia inducing cold; which is always a bonus.

The other exciting part of tomorrow is a bunch of family members are coming out to watch me embarass myself race.  I have a few little surprises for them to keep them occupied during the race (it could get a little boring after a few hours) that I might tell you about tomorrow.

Race Prediction 
Swim 1500m (.9 miles) - This is going to be open water, a bit cold and lots of competitors around.  Frankly, not a situation I'm particularly comfortable with, even though I fancy myself a strong swimmer.  Remember, last week (when the swim was canceled) was supposed to be my run through on a short course in open water.  No such luck.  However, based on my pool times and doing a little conversion, I predict I'll finish the swim in 25 minutes.

T1 - Last week both transitions were under a minute, however, I didn't have to take off a wetsuit last week, so T1 should be slower than last week.  I anticipate it taking 2 minutes.

Bike 40km (24.9 miles) -  I am SLOW on the bike, so I'm frankly a little worried about this leg of the race.  If I take the pace I went last week, which was only half the distance of this week, the bike will take me 92 minutes.  Although maintaining that pace for double the distance seems unlikely, I'm going to predict 95 minutes on the bike.

T2 - I think I can keep T2 under a minute (or close to) because it should be similar to last week, which was less than a minute.  Thus, I predict 1 minute for T2.

Run 10k (6.2 miles) - Last week, again at half the distance I was averaging a little over a 9 minute mile.  Let's assume I can keep to about that pace for the full six miles (unlikely, but I'm an optimist) that would put the run at just under an hour.  I'm changing my strategy slightly on the run and I'm going to walk the aid stations (one per mile) to make sure I get a few calories and water; last week I think I was a bit dehydrated at the end fo the race so this may help me maintain a better pace.  I'm predicting 60 minutes for the 10k.

Total - Added together above, that predicts a finishing time of three hours, three minutes which is probably pretty accurate.  If I finish in under three hours, I'll be pretty ecstatic.  I guess we'll see tomorrow.

Heritage Park Triathlon Duathlon - Race Report

The start of the run around the lake...that we should have been swimming in.

I got up at 4:45am today to give myself plenty of time to get to the race.  I rolled out of bed and the first thing I did was flip on the weather.  It showed pretty much what I expected, 50 degrees, rain and 7-10mph winds.  Not the best weather for a race, but I'd pretty much set myself up for this, so I wasn't that worried about it. 

Oddly enough, I went through my regular morning routine, I shaved, showered, etc. just to kind of wake up and get me into the right frame of mind.  I threw on my tri-shorts and a long sleeve technical shirt - today did not seem like the day to wear a sleevless tri-top - and headed downstairs for a little breakfast.  I choked down some oatmeal and a glass of milk and headed out the door.  I had packed the car with my bike and gear last night, so I was ready to go.

I got to the parking area about 5:45am and proceeded to find a place to rack my bike in transition.  I started to set up my area, but realized that 1) it was raining a bit and I didn't want all my stuff to get wet yet; and 2) it was still waaaay freaking early because the race didn't start until 7:30am. 

I walked over to pick up my chip and get body marked and headed back to my area.  As an aside, it was kind of silly to get body marked today since I was wearing long sleeves and there wasn't a swim, but hey, I'm not in charge. 

Mine's the crappy white bike right in the middle, affectionately known as "Sir Blanco".

I jacked around with my stuff for a bit and chatted up a few people.  About 7am I went for an easy one mile warm up run and stretch, just to get the kinks out.  I visited the porta-potty one more time and I was about ready to start the race.

Who's that goofy tall guy...oh wait.

As I was lining up to start the race, Mrs. Gias walked up and found me.  It was pretty crappy weather, so I told her I wouldn't be offended if she didn't want to come out and watch, but of course, she's awesome and came out and took a bunch of pictures.  Thanks, sweetie! (and if she hadn't come...major guilt trip later)

Well, a minute or two after I saw Mrs. Gias, the race started. The first leg of the duathlon was a two mile run that I wanted to take easy to see how my left knee was going to hold up.  I started running and felt strong, but I held the pace back a bit to make sure I could continue the rest of the race.  Those first two miles went pretty quick and before I knew it I was in T1.  I did the first two miles in 16:39 - an 8:19/mile pace.  Faster than I planned to be going, but it still felt SLOW compared with the monster athletes I was competing with. However, overall I was pretty happy with this first split.

Here's me coming out of T1 trying not to look like a total idiot...mission failure.

T1 was actually a place where I had a bit of anxiety.  Getting on the bike, while running, in front of people, had the potential to be a disaster.  Let's just say I am not nearly as graceful as I should be and I recently took a fall on my driveway that didn't have me brimming with confidence.  Luckily I didn't have any falling incidents and got out of T1 in 54 seconds - that's an excellent time for me (and for most people), I'd take less than a minute in every race.

Quit smiling for the camera and pedal faster!

The bike leg started and it was about a 4 mile loop we did three times.  There were some good and bad things about the ride.  The good: it started with a nice downhill section and ended with a decent downhill section; of course the bad: the middle was pretty much all up hill, which was awful.  Other challenges of the bike course was the fact that it was 50 degrees and drizzling the whole time.  This made visibility through my sunglasses streaky and cloudy at best.  I know what you're asking right now, "Geek, why didn't you take off your sunglasses?" - well the drizzle and wind would have then went directly into my eyes and likely would have been even worse...lesser of two evils I suppose.  I also think I was the only one wearing winter thisulate gloves while riding the bike...what can I say, I'm doing this on the cheap and it was cold. 

The bike went well and I averaged about 16.2 miles per hour, which isn't fast, but it's pretty decent for me on this course.  Only one person in the race averaged more than 20mph, which tells me the course was slow and difficult today. 

What kind of weird ballet-dismount is that?

The other nice thing about the bike was that it was on a loop.  Yes, it was a little monotonous, however, I also got to see Mrs. Gias every 12 minutes when I passed the spectators, so that was a nice bonus.  I finished the bike in 42:08.  The first lap seemed slow, but before I knew it I had finished all three laps and was ready to head into T2.

Me falling down woudl have been a far more interesting picture.

If I was nervous about falling coming out of T1, T2 was a total nightmare scenario.  It was wet and I am not the best and unclipping and continuing to jog next to my bike.  Also, if you've never ridden a bike for a while and then tried to run right afterwords, it's harder than you think.  Your legs are wobbly and it's hard to get your bearings. Luckily, I unclipped waaaaaay early and was able to run into T2 without falling on my butt. 

Frankly, that's like a victory for the day right there.

It was at this point that I began to questioin why the hell I ever decided to try multisport.

I got through transition in :59 seconds, again, less than a minute, I'll take it.  I started the home stretch three mile run.  I have to say, I felt weaker than I thought I would.  I don't know if it was the earlier run, the fact I didn't drink as much as I should have on the bike or if the bike/weather combination really just wore me down more than I think that it should have.  For the most part the run was pretty uneventful and I kept a decent pace, not as fast as I'd like, but not bad.  I did the run in 27:18 or about a 9:06/mile pace.

I was honestly beat near the end of the run and I really couldn't kick much to finish at full speed.  That's odd for me because usually I have a little something left in the tank to finish hard and strong.  I guess I was just really beat today.  Honestly, the cold and rain (and the terribly thick, humid air) got to me. 

In any event, I finished the race with a smile on my face and felt good about it.  My final time was 1:27:56 and since I've never done a duathlon before, it's a Personal Record! Ha!  After I finished I met up with Mrs. Gias, got some post-race goodies (chocolate milk, bagels, etc.) and went to find my stuff in transition.  It was pretty cold and raining still, so I didn't stick around to chat with people too long (and nobody else was sticking around either). 

So a  few thoughts on the race:

•  I'm humbled by the fitness level of these people.  Wow, I thought I was in pretty good shape, but the people I raced today are machines.  They are fast on the run, faster on the bike and just keep going.  It's a lot to take in.
• I've got a race next week that's about twice the distance of this race...I'm a little worried.  Mrs. Gias asked me after I finished (and was totally worn out) if I would have rather gone into the race next week not knowing how hard this was going to be or if I was glad that I had this little warmup/wakeup call.  I told her I wasn't sure...
• Total respect for Ironman triathlons.  They are literally, ten times longer than what I did today.  That's crazy.
• Triathletes love their gear.  I mean, I had kind of figured this out before today, but the number of $6000 bikes with every gadget imaginible, even for people with no hope of ever winning anything was unbelievable. 
• I've got lots of work to do.  I can finish races...but I want to be faster.

TriKC Indoor Triathlon (April)

I did another indoor triathlon today.  I previously did one other indoor triathlon last month with good results.  Today I was back for more.  The full race report should be up tomorrow.

Right now I'll just say that I improved in all three disciplines.  And I wore a wetsuit.  Oh yeah, a wetsuit.

Race Report: TriKC Indoor Triathlon

The site of my first triathlon.  Creepy.

So I participated in my first Triathlon on Sunday.  OK, it wasn't outside, it was weird distances and there were less than 10 people entered.  But...there was a clock, we measured distances, we did all three disciplines with transitions and we were racing each other...so I'm calling it a race. 

This weekend was the third (my first) indoor winter triathlon put on by the Kansas City Triathlon Club.  TriKC schedules four of these (one a month, Jan - Apr) prior to the outdoor season starting in May as "tune ups" for the big races.  They are very laid back, very grassroots (no finishing medals, t-shirts or ridiculous entry fees) and a lot of fun.  Basically we get a group of TriKC members together (guests too) on Sunday morning and you start out in the pool.  You swim for 15 minutes counting your laps, the further you swim, the better you do.  Then you get five minutes for a transition to the spin studio where you spin for 20 minutes, again, the further you go, the better you do.  Then you hop off the spin bike and run upstairs to the indoor track and run for the remaining 20 minutes of the hour, again, the further you go, the better you do.

If you do all of these races in the series, you would (hopefully) see an improvement in the distance you can go and it is a good way to measure your progress.  It's also fun to have a few other competitors there to push you to go a little faster under the guise of friendly competition.  It definitely feels more "race like" then working out by yourself. 

For being my first "race" I was a bit more rushed than I would have liked.  We ended up going to 7:30am mass as per usual and then I left straight from church (Mrs. Gias and I drove seperately and she took the girls home) to get to the gym, which was downtown and took me a bit of time to get there.  I found it without any problems and rushed inside, still in my church clothes, with gym bag in hand about 20 minutes before my race was to begin.  Little did I know that the time change must have thrown everyone a loop (spring forward this weeked!) because I was the second to arrive after Jan, one of the TriKC organizers.  I chatted with Jan for a few minutes then headed into the locker room, still thinking that we would get started in about 15 minutes, right at 9:20am.  

I slipped out of my church clothes and into my tri-clothes...OK, full disclosure...I wasn't sure if I would have time or access to a locker room before my heat started, so I wore my speedo under my slacks to church.  I don't know if I had some weird vision of acting like Superman stripping off my church clothes to reveal that I was ready to swim or what.  In fact, if I did have to do that, I'm pretty sure that me getting out of my church clothes and into a speedo on the pool deck would have been even worse than me having to find a bathroom to change.  Anyway...

I left the locker room to check out the pool and a few other volunteers had wandered in.  Amy, Tina and Don had all arrived.  They were volunteering for the race to count laps, keep time, etc.  Awesome of them to show up on a Sunday morning to help.  This was my first event with TriKC and everyone was great, especially the volunteers. 

It was getting to be about 9:12am or so and I was still the only competitor that had shown up.  This might be embarassing if 1) I have to race myself; 2) have 4 volunteers watching me the whole time; 3) haven't ever done this before so I'm not 100% sure how it will all work.  Thankfully a Rick and John sauntered in a minute or two later and we had enough to at least get a little race going. 

I wandered down to the pool to set up my "transition area" (really just a  place on the ground for my towel and shoes) and hopped in to start warming up.  (I did not go to the spin studio to adjust my spin bike, this was a significant mistake we'll learn about later.)  I did a few quick laps to warm up and noticed that the pool was salt water, not chlorine.  Interesting, I've never swum in a salt water pool before, it was kind of cool.  Anyway, I had to jump out and towel off for a minute when the rest of the crew came in becasue we were getting body marked.  Yeah, there were three of us in the heat, (five more showed up for the heat after us) but we still got numbers written on us with permanent marker anyway...kind of fun.  (I was "7", by the way).  (Who am I kidding, getting a number on my arm was awesome!)

Before I knew it we were getting ready to start our three man heat.  One of the competitors, John, was doing his first triathlon, just like me, and training for a half-ironman race in Lawrence in June.  He and I have the same swim coach so I knew he would be pretty good.  Lined up on my other side was Rick, a veteran of triathlons in his 50's.  Although he had a few years on John and myself, he more than made up for the age difference in experience. 

I felt a little nervous going into the swim, not knowing what to expect or how exactly to pace myself.  I knew it was 15 minutes and that I could probably do about 800-900 yards in that time.  However, your nerves get going, you're FINALLY swimming against someone and you just don't know how you'll react.  Luckily I'd done some competitive swimming in high school, so I wasn't going in totally blind. 

Next thing I knew, the clock started and we were off.  I started the first 200 yards waaaaay too fast and knew there was no way I could maintain that pace for the duration.  I also knew that I had pulled away from the other two pretty significantly and that I wanted to continue to pull away from them so I didn't let them creep back into the race.  I continued to pull hard and before I knew it I lapped both of the other guys in my heat.  I checked the clock and noted that about 8 minutes had passed.  I knew I could lap them again if I kept my pace steady, so that became my new goal.  At the 13 minute mark I passed Rick and at about 13:30 I lapped John again.  There was about 45 seconds left and I knew if I sprinted I could pound out one last 50 so that's what I did. 

I hopped out and learned that John and Rick had both done about 700 yards each and I had finished right at 900 yards.  That was the upper limit of where I thought I would finish, so I guess the pacing wasn't too bad after all.  I quick slipped on my shoes and threw on a shirt in the "transition area" (pool deck) and noticed that we still had three or four minutes left before we could start spinning.  I quick ran into the locker room, because I had the extra time and threw my towell in my locker and went to the bathroom.  I ran back out to the spin studio with only a few seconds to spare.  This is where my naivete cost me.  I didn't adjust my bike before the race and by the time I got to the studio the time was about to start.  I ended up with my seat too low on a bike that scraped against the pedal guard (annoying and it slows you down) for the entire 20 minutes.  I considered jumping off and starting on another bike, but I thought with such a short race that would probably cost me too much time.  Instead, I pedaled hard and got through the session in about the same distance as John and Rick, but I think I had to work a lot harder at it because of my lack of preparation.  I won't make that mistake again.

At the end of the spin session we hopped off our bikes and scampered upstairs to the indoor 1/10th mile track and started running.  I have to tell you, swimming to biking to running makes your legs feel weird.  It's different muscles and you are shocking your body from one thing to another.  My legs felt a bit Jello-like for the first couple of laps.  I was ahead of John, but Rick was ahead of me by about 30 or 40 feet.  I hung back, trying to get my legs to feel right and to get my pacing down.  I knew if I kept him close I could try to pass him later in the race.  After about 5 or 6 laps, I decided I needed to make my move and pull in front.  I started to increase my stride and passed by Rick in about a lap or so and continued to pull away from him for the duration of the race.  The run after that point was a little monotonous, 1/10th is a short track, so I ended up going around 21 times; it all starts to look the same after a little while. 

At the end of the time I finished ahead of John and Rick and felt great.  I walked around and thanked all of the volunteers again for their time and traded a few quick stories with them. 

It was a great race experience.  It only took an hour, I had a clock, others to race against and it was a great change of pace for my training.  Overall, I really enjoyed the race and I'm defintely signing up for the next indoor tri in April.