"81 degrees" the announcer blared through the loud speaker the night before the race. The supposed water temperature, that would have to drop four degrees over night to be wetsuit legal. Miraculously, 77.5 was announced as the water temp for the race, wetsuit legal, yay(I say that with all possible sarcasm)... For my money, 77.995 would have been a more dramatic temperature to announce. So, pre-race I strapped on my old trusted neoprene oven and got mentally prepared to cook. The swim went about as I thought it would, feeling like a flesh taco inside of a toaster oven, I was just hoping everyone else was struggling as much as I was. 30 minutes later, the "trial by fire" was over and I prepared to unzip my wetsuit when, not really to my surprise, the zipper would not release! So not only had this thing been cooking me for the last half hour, now it didn't want to let me go! A volunteer standing right there saw me struggling and helped pop the zipper open. Needless to say, I think the time for a new wetsuit has come.
T1 went fairly smooth except being in the wrong bike row and ducking under the bar to get to the right place, and cramping already from dehydration started out on the bike...
Not much to say about the bike, hilly, and windy and hot, not to mention an oil slick that forced riders to get off their bikes and walk around the slick for about 10 yards! Someone mentioned a triathlon terrorist, but if that was the case why not a bag of nails, or glass?...Definitely not enough electrolytes on the bike and came into T2 cramping pretty bad. Someday I will learn how to apply the perfect nutrition plan for the perfect race, but until then I guess I will be chasing the dragon...
Started out with a strong pace on the run, probably ran 6 minute miles for the first 5-6 miles and then dehydration set in big time, legs started to feel like rickety towers of wooden blocks, probably slowed to 8 minute miles which felt like I was crawling and shuffling towards the finish line. Finally finish in 4hrs 33 min and some change on another challenging race day in Lawrence, KS! Finished 6th in age group and 55th overall.
Although my times were a little slower than I had hoped for, the real triumph of the trip was getting to meet some of my Erin Baker's teammates, camping with some good people from Boulder, getting the first big race of the year under my belt, and just having a good vacation. There is always the next race to get redemption for myself, learn from mistakes made.
Time to rest...
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