Kansas 70.3 race report - finally!

Well, it took longer than I thought to get around to this, but here we go, my Kansas 70.3 report. Once again, I learned several lessons that I will carry forward to the next race and the next...this season will involve ALOT of learning, I can already tell...

First, I think I established my driving-to-races radius with this one. It is now set at 7 hours, no more - I fly after that. Good thing was I got to hang with my good friend Levi and his sister Whitney in Roswell, NM on their farm, Hobson Gardens, on my way to and from Kansas! Thanks, guys! They both did the Milkman Triathlon in Roswell that same weekend, well done.

Even though I got into Lawrence a full two days before the race, I still had lingering lower back issues from all the driving from Tucson to Lawrence. I guess my inner trucker will just have to lay low until I decide to stop doing triathlons (yeah right). Thanks to my compression socks for making the trip much easier on my legs, though!! Nice look with the Keens, isn't it? :) Thanks also to Dr. Joel Thompson of Southwest Shoulder Elbow and Hand Center in Tucson for his support as well!

When I first got into town, I was instantly brought back to my Midwest childhood in that the humidity was so thick, you could see it hanging all around you - and feel it - and feel the heat that went with it. Ahhh, just like growing up. If you're ever in Lawrence and need a place to stay, I met the owner of The Virginia Inn, Sonny. He has done a fabulous job renovating his hotel and the rates look awesome!!

Lawrence is a great city, even without the KU students around - I'm sure it gets wild when they're in town! I double as a Landscape Architect, so I can't help wandering around taking pictures of places and plants and streetscapes and light poles and all those other fun things landscape architects do when they go someplace different. Here's a streetscape pic to keep my landscape architect friends interested...I thoroughly enjoyed strolling the tree-lined streets of the historic West Lawrence neighborhood too...

The main street in Lawrence is a great mix of local shops and national chain stores, so there's something for everyone there - I eventually came back and bought a great outfit at a local store with my homestay friend, Adrienne. Good fun on Massachusetts Street!

This was my first time doing a homestay, and if they are all like this from here on out, I'm in! I am so grateful to Adrienne, Kitcha, Oli and CiCi for taking such great care of me while I was in town! Here's my pit crew Oli and CiCi at the race start; such troopers to get up sooo early!

R-I-B-E-S, R-I-B-E-S, R-I-B-E-S and Ribes was her name-o! (how the kids can remember my last name...I thought that was awesome.)

Lucky for me, I had two very fun days before the race with my new friends. I was invited to go to see the new Sex and the City 2 movie with Adrienne and about 15 of her friends on Friday night; we were also celebrating one person's birthday. The challenge: to see who could smuggle in the best contraband into the movie. The winner: the woman who brought 15 cupcakes - with icing - AND sprinkles! Nice work. Imagine about 17 women packed into a theatre to watch S&TC2, all comparing their contraband. It was quite the scene and a ton of fun - thanks ladies, you're all awesome!

But, as hard as we ladies party, we also get down to business and workout the very next morning with a nice little run around town. Then it's coffee for everyone in Adrienne's driveway - good times still. Oh wait, I'm here to race...but having quite a bit of fun getting there! :)

So, the two days before the race were about mid-90s and 70% or so humidity, so I'm dreading what race day will be like. We all got very lucky in that race day was pretty overcast for the most part, and about 70-80 degrees. Whew, that could have gotten ugly.

Race morning - now, the only negative I'll give to this race is that the area where everyone has to park is at least 1/2 mile from the transition. Then, there's another 1/2 mile walk to the swim start. But, they had tons of busses taking all of us down, so race morning was not a problem. Next hurdle - my first 70.3 race without a wetsuit. Yep, that's right, no help. I tried not to panic at the thought and tell myself I've really been working on my swim and seeing results, so let's see how it goes. Here's the nervous smile beforehand, aided by my Sayonara at least (until Sept 1, when we can't use those either...gulp!)

Unfortunately, I didn't say 'sayonara' to any of my competitors in the swim leg; I was pretty disappointed in my swim split, but it was not helpful that our start was delayed almost 15 minutes to get medical personnel onto the course - while we all treaded water. I spent that time trying to convince myself that this is all okay and I'll still be able to swim a good split. Not exactly. But, I did get to chat a little with some of the other competitors while we tread water...

With the slowest swim time of the group that day, I faced my worst nightmare of running up to T1, with my bike being the ONLY one left on the rack! All I needed to complete this picture was the random tumbleweed blowing across the field to complete the feeling of isolation. To make matters more interesting, there were about 1000 people standing around waiting for their wave to go off, so I had quite the audience in transitioning to the bike. But, alas, I was off and onto catching anyone and everyone I could in the next 69.1 miles of racing!

The bike course is very rolling hills, which I don't mind one bit. A nice, scenic course and I felt very good (and motivated) to make up some much needed time. With the repeated hill crushing I began to feel my lower back getting twinged a bit, but I ignored it. I started the bike in 6th place, but came off the bike in 5th - podium at this point, but still way off my goal time. No worries, I just figured I'd race what I can race for today and see how it goes. Onto the run, which usually is a toss up with the bike as for which one is my stronger discipline.

I came off the bike feeling good to run, and was getting into a good rhythm for the first mile or so (about 6:45 pace at this point). Until my tweaked back got a good tweak on the one and only downhill portion of the run. There it went, reminding me of my injury from two years ago that made even walking almost impossible and soooo painful for over 1-1/2 years. It felt exactly the same, the pain shooting from my tailbone, down my leg, to my knee. I knew I had to slow up my pace and judge how hard I could push this run without aggravating that injury too badly. This is the wonderful grimace I sported for most of the run...not good. Unfortunately I had to slow it down much more than I would have liked and eventually was passed and in 6th place again. So, I was into survival mode and reduced to a manageable shuffle in order to complete the race. But, even with that I was determined to finish. I will not give up unless I physically cannot finish - end of story. So, even though I was so far off my pace and my race was basically over, I wanted to cross that finish line regardless. And so I did - and what a great finish line - yellow carpeted with bricks drawn on it and the costumed characters of the Wizard of Oz to greet you; how great is that!

Luckily, my nagging back problem seems to be under control, so I'm looking forward to Buffalo Springs Lake 70.3 next weekend - and here's my good luck sign I saw while driving home from Kansas. Bring on the buffalo!!! Now, this race is one I've done several times and always tend to do well at. So, I'm looking forward to doing a familiar race, but this time in the pro field.

I can't thank my homestay family enough for their kindness to open up their home to a newbie pro triathlete testing her abilities and chasing her dream...I hope to return to Kansas to race again next year!

Thanks for reading!!