Kansas 70.3

The wetsuit zipper broke right before the swim. That's how my race started in Lawrence Kansas on June 14th. It started with a culmination of events that day but I had to make a decision and make it fast as I was losing precious time as my wave took off without me. There was only one option and that was to swim without the wetsuit while everybody else swam with one. I had to swim back to shore, remove the wetsuit and give it to a volunteer and start the swim again. Swimming 1.2 miles with a wetsuit is tough, without one is even tougher. I lost an entire 10 minutes during the swim, the race day had not started well.

However, with the new kicking Caliente from Quitana Roo, I rocked the bike course with a blazing 19.8 mph avg, finishing in 2 hours and 48 minutes I came very close to my goal of breaking the 20+ avg on the bike ride. The aero drink combined with the new Speedfil hydration system using the Infinite drink I was able to stay in the aero position longer without using gels or sitting up to drink from a bottle. For the longer rides (ie Iron man distance) I can add more to the Speedfil or Aero drink while on the ride during each aid station.

The run was not as easy at all this time around. I started out with a good 10:30 pace for about the first 5 miles then I started feeling a cramp in my stomach as I continued on. It was 11:30 am and now the clouds were gone and it was becoming very hot with little shade. I slowed down to see if this would ease the stomach pain but the spasms continued about every two minutes, the pain was almost made me stop, but I continued on. I finished the first loop in 1:15 so I had a good pace and I had hoped to have a negative split on the second lap but the stomach spasms were getting worse so on a few occasions I had to walk but continued my slow jog to the finish. I really wanted to finish before the 7 hour mark so I pushed forward, slower pace but just kept moving, drinking Gatorade, water, even a gel to see if this would help the pain; nothing worked. I moved on and the last 2 miles I skipped the aid stations and pushed forward until I hit the finishing chute, oblivious to the crowd and knowing I was done!

A quick reflection on this race reminded me of all the problems I had that day. The race started out with a problem and even though the bike ride was stellar I still had issues on the run. This year I even had to DNF a race because I wasn't prepared for a bike mechanical issue, I took a risk, thinking nothing would happen, but it did. Life is much like a triathlon in many ways. We are all in race to get something done, to finish school, get married, buy a house, new job etc, however not everything goes to plan as life gets in the way of our plans. Adversity is part of life and we must learn to plan for the good and the bad that is inevitable through life. If you don't you may feel the need to give up and quit the race, not realizing if you had persevered to the finish your reward would be sweeter, knowing all the hardship it took to get there.

Some lessons learned:

Prepare for the good and the bad,

learn from you mistakes,

challenge yourself more often,

you can do it if you at least Tri.

In pain but I finished!