Race Report - Ironman Kansas 70.3

Kansas 70.3 is a race my wife and I picked out to do together because it is a ~5 hour drive from where her parents live, so we decided it would be fun for it to be her first half. I consider myself very lucky that my wife is interested in triathlon also. The fact that we share the same interest in racing, challenging ourselves, and seeing what we’re capable of, is really nice. It is a time-consuming hobby, so working out ways to do it together is awesome!

The other thing I think is great about the sport is that the average folks like us can race on the same day on the same course as the elite pros. Some of these professionals are incredible athletes and to be doing the same races is way cool. This race had some great athletes, including Chrissie Wellington, who is the 2-time defending women’s champ and arguably the best women athlete around. Our run-ins with the pros started on the plane ride to Kansas, where we were in the row in front of a guy who was obviously going to the race. I noticed his Trek/K-Swiss jacket when he boarded and pretty much knew then that he was a pro on that team. I would find out later, it was Paul Mathews who ended up winning the men’s race in 3:49 with a 1:12 half-marathon. Yeah, that’s fast.

This was my wife’s first half-IM so my goals/targets for this race were, in order of priority:

1) Do what I could to help her and make sure she finished.

2) Practice my nutrition and race process in preparation for the rest of the season (IM CDA is 2 weeks away).

3) Go hard and see if I could qualify for Las Vegas, the 70.3 World Championships.

4) Break 1:30 on the run.

We spent the day before the race scoping out the venue, riding a little bit on the course to make sure our bikes traveled OK, checking them in, scoping the swim venue, etc. We were also trying to figure out how to get our family into the park without having to get up at the crack of dawn to get into the park – there was only one entrance and the bike course went out that way, so they would close it when the race started. It made for a long day and more walking than I would’ve liked, but my wife’s family were very supportive and I really appreciated that. Our kids were wiped by the end of it, too!

Race morning came and there was no sign of rain yet. We got into the park pretty easily and were walking towards T2 first (a half mile from where we parked) and the gossip was that the storm moved south and we might get off the hook. Regardless, as we were setting up T2, they announced they would compress to 3 minutes between waves to get people out there sooner and take advantage of the decent weather. So we set up our shoes/hats and then wandered down towards T1, which was another half-mile away.

Once in T1, we started setting up and when I checked on my wife, she was having trouble getting air into her front tire. I didn’t want to mess with it, so I just used the extra tube I brought that morning and changed it out. 1st drama of the day. While doing that, the woman next to her also said she was having some problems. I checked her tire and it turns out she was trying to put air into it with the valve closed. I politely explained what was happening and helped her get set up too. It actually was nice to focus on some other folks and just take it easy and relaxed. Next were the port-o-potties, which actually didn’t have as long of lines as I expected. We were pretty relaxed because my wife’s wave was #10 and mine was #12, so we had some time. Then we wandered back up to the swim start and my wife got in the corral while I watched the pros come out of the water. This is where I recognized the guy that was by us on the plane and noted he was bib #3 and 2nd man out of the water. I waited there until I saw Leanda Cave and Chrissie come out of the water and then got ready for my start.

In spite of my REALLY long swim in Auburn, I was reasonably confident for this swim. It didn’t look bad at all. However, the wind was really starting to pick up and it was way choppy. I just tried to roll with the waves and get into a good rhythm. I didn’t really have any drama during the swim – there was only 1 guy who got aggressive and grabbed my shoulder and pushed me back. Otherwise, it was just a process of trying to find a group and stay on some feet while trying to get into a rhythm with the chop. Once out to the turn buoys we headed back East, into the wind and into the chop. I felt like I was swimming in place. On the way back I just tried to keep plodding along, but it did seem like a LONG time. And once out of the water, it was a LONG time – 42 and change. Later on, I would see that the swim was hard for most people, but I did not expect that number. 90th AG out of 222 coming out of the water. My wife swam a 41 and change (yes, she is a better swimmer than I am!) and was 23rd of 78 in her AG coming out of the water.

I made my way through transition and just focused on the task at hand – working my way through the field on the bike. My plan for the bike was to go hard and stay around 250 watts as best I could. I was going to sip my “meal” bottle every 15 minutes and do a shot of my EFS gel every 45 mins and supplement with a Saltstick cap. I wanted to keep the sodium coming in to prepare for hot, humid conditions on the run. As I got rolling out of the park, I started passing tons of people. I was in the 2nd to last wave and obviously did not have a great swim, so I was basically riding through the field as I went. I would just ride up behind people and go around. On the road out of the park, which was straight East into the wind, I realized this was going to be a hard ride with pretty gnarly wind solid from the East. Once we turned South and headed towards the rest of the course, I was flying, but I knew it wouldn’t last long.

(don't have many pix because my wife and I were both racing, here's one of the race shots - you can see Kansas is not flat)

Then, about 10 miles in, I started up one of the many rolling hills (Kansas is NOT flat and this course is at least as hard as Vineman if not harder), I happened across somebody with a flat. Then I realized it was Emily!! I stopped and turned around. When I came up to her, she already had the back wheel off and was getting ready to change it. I told her to hand it over because I knew I could do it quicker. So I changed out the tube, now the back one, and then put some air in it with her CO2. It seemed to hold, so we got her wheel back on and then had to get her chain back on too. All-in-all, it took me about 5 minutes I think. I knew I was giving up some time here, but this race was more about her than me and I wasn’t completely sure she’d be able to use the CO2 correctly. And once you try that and the air is gone, you are stuck. As I mentioned, my #1 goal was for her to finish, so I was happy to help. Had I not come along, she probably would’ve been fine, but I get her rolling again and she lost only 7-8 minutes and I lost about 5. I spent the rest of the ride working hard on the hills and into the wind as much as I could knowing that I had to make up some ground on the folks in my AG. I worried some that she would have more problems, but rode on. There were large sections of the ride heading straight into the wind and times when I was pushing 300 watts and going 16-17 mph. In addition, my Garmin had 2500 feet of vertical. Usually, that seems to over-estimate a touch, but that is still more than Vineman, which has less than 2K feet of vertical. I ended up riding a 2:38 and estimate I lost ~5 minutes from the flat. Average power was 230 watts with a norm of 244. I was hoping to ride a little harder, but it felt like a solid effort – enough that I was irritable by the end and starting to get a little fatigued. And in spite of the flat, my wife still rode a 3:06. If not for the bad luck, she would’ve been under 3 hours for the bike, which is pretty good for your first time out!

Coming into transition was fun – the park road has some rollers and we had a strong tailwind for the last couple miles, so I was zooming by people still. A few hundred yards out and took my feet out of my shoes and rolled into T2. Racked my bike, took off my helmet, put on my shoes, grabbed my hat and was on my way.

The run is not super hilly but does have some slopes and one moderate hill. Everything is relative and the hills we run at home make this seem small, but I did hear people talking about how big it was. Anyway, I went on about my business and started my run “process” … 3 30-minute laps with target HRs and paces. I was shooting for a HR of ~157 on the first lap and going to try to keep my pace below 6:50 on average for the 30 minutes. I felt a little sluggish for the first few minutes, but the run legs showed up and I rolled along at ~6:4x pace. The course has 3 out-and-back sections and you repeat those on 2 laps. I hit the first out and back and then cruised back down toward the boat dock down the hill and towards the 2nd turn-around. I was moving well and felt good. On the way back up towards the campground, I was starting to get a little tired, but not bad. At the end of my 30 minutes, my average pace was 6:42 and my average HR was 158 – very close to target. My plan for the next 30 was to raise that 2-3 bpm and keep my pace up. I made my way around the campground and meanwhile started watching for Emily, hoping she had made it off the bike OK. By the end of the first lap of the course, I was still cruising along at a good pace and felt pretty decent. I started the 2nd lap and motored on. When I got down to the boat dock again, I was nearing the end of my 30 minutes and decided to extend it a minute or two… 2 reasons: (1) there was a small hill coming out of the boat dock and I didn’t want my average pace to show too slow on my watch when I started the next lap (a little mindgame for myself), and (2) if I let this one go a touch long, the last one would be shorter! By doing this, I made sure to set myself up for a good mental approach in that last 30 minutes and it worked really well. I got my avg pace down to the 6:50 range before hitting the small hill back to the campground and also knew unless the wheels fell completely off, I’d only have ~27-28 minutes to run on this last set! I let my HR come up a little and kept at it. My avg pace for the 2nd “30” minutes (actually 31:24), was 6:54 and my avg HR was 161.

(another race-photographer shot)

At this point, I also switched to only liquid fuel. My gut felt a little heavy and I didn’t want to push my luck. Coke tastes like sweet nectar of the gods in the 2nd half of the run!! I started the last part of the course around the campground on my 2nd lap and finally saw Emily. She made it off the bike and was already nearing the end of her first lap of the run – AWESOME! I was relieved at this point because I knew she would at least finish. Plus she still looked pretty good, so I was hoping she would finish strong. Those last 2 miles were tough, but I was flying by people so fast, it felt great. I was also on top of my mental approach and stuck to my rhythmic – “relaxed, calm, focused, strong.” On that note, I had recently read the mental chapter in Chris McCormack’s book and had already some thoughts organized in my “folders” that could be called upon when needed. I was hurting by this point, but I was in control mentally and felt great about that. I wasn’t completely focused on “when do I get to stop!” I was focused on my process and that was a huge victory for me. Not only that, I was keeping sub 7 minute miles and a HR of ~163 so I was NOT blowing up by any means. I pushed my way to the finish and clocked a 1:28:02 run, beating my previous best half-IM run by 3.5 minutes. I finished in 4:52 overall and was pleased I had managed to get under 5 hours in spite of a 42 minute swim and stopping to help Emily fix the flat.

I downed some sports drink, recovered for a minute or two, and then wandered over to part of the run course to watch for Emily. She came by and started her campground final loop and only had about 30 minutes to go… Then I found my family and we all watched as Emily finished her 1st half-IM in 5:44, which included 7-8 minutes of fixing a flat tire!! She had gotten back down to 23rd AG out of 78. AWESOME! I ended up working my way back up to 16th in my AG out of 222 and was pleased with that given the circumstances.

(my wife and I with my father-in-law after the finish)

As I continue to mature as an athlete, my perspective on races has changed. In the past, I probably would’ve been frustrated that I missed a PR by quite a bit. However, I just got to watch my wife finish her first half-IM and finish 23rd AG at a big race. Not only that, I helped her do it, by stopping on the side of the road and fixing her flat. This is what sticks with me. There is a fair amount of being self-involved in this sport – lots of training time, etc. It was a great experience to see my wife share in my passion AND get to help her do it and be there on the side of the road when she needed it. This was just a small thing, but it reminds me that we all need to find ways to give back to the sport and keep the community feel/approach during races, whether it is with your wife or friend or a complete stranger.

With respect to my own race, I had a great run and broke 1:30, was in control of my head (almost) the whole time. I left it out there, but also stuck to my process. I also dialed in a good nutrition plan for the rest of the season. I am very much looking forward to things to come… next up: a “bonus” Ironman in Coeur d’Alene only 2 weeks after Kansas!