2011 Kansas City Triathlon

2011 race #2 is complete ~ Olympic distance Swim 1500, Bike 24.6 miles, Run 6.2 miles. Woke up at 4 AM after sleeping through the tornado warning last night. The race was at Longview Lake, which is a great venue although sorry to say the roads are in pretty bad shape. They look and feel due for a redo, and might impact a future race at some point.

I think the conditions were pretty similar to last year...the water was pretty choppy with 15+ mph winds. 360 Olympic distance finishers ~ 78 women and 282 men.

Swim 1500 meters: 36:29 (-3:41) For me it went a lot better than last year although we had to fight our way back to the shore through the 'waves' again. I had one choking episode after swallowing water but managed to recover. To get my composure back, I had to sidestroke a couple of times to calm down. For most of the race I had my own water except this girl and I couldn't seem to get away from each other heading back into shore. I think the waves were pushing me off course too ;) This split meant a lot to me because it was last year *after* this race that I hired my coach Kathy Boyd, and I was hoping that everything she taught me would pay off in my swim splits. I wanted this PR a lot.

T1: 2:39 (-0:26) Spent a little too much time recovering from being freaked out by the swim and not enough time hustling! It's always fun and "interesting" trying to take off that wetsuit.

Bike 24.6 miles: 1:20:17 (-0:59) Can't really argue with a faster split than 2010 BUT...okay I'm hard on myself. Still working on getting the power back after spending all winter and spring on the marathon. Just have to put in the work! Love that south tailwind heading back to transition. There were a couple of moments of scary crosswind action, and I realized that I'm really bad at cornering. Note to self, do not take that rocky turn back into the park too fast. Scary! My life flashed before my eyes.

T2: 1:11 (-0:18) Put on the shoes, grab the stuff and go. Put on the hat and race belt on the run. Feeling decent.

Run 6.2 miles: 58:57 (+2:27) First lap was okay but then I had to do another. Ugh. Was not feeling the running love today as you can see from my slower split. They changed the run course from pavement to that soft packed surface like the Trolley Trail and it was still really wet from all the rain.

So that's it...I feel happy about a personal best, but I wasn't tough enough on the run. I have been having some really good run workouts, so it was kind of not a fun surprise :)

Lots of friends got personal bests today...a great day!