Today's focus was all about relaxing and having fun. I stayed right and tried to control myself at the start. I wanted to focus on keeping my arms wide (not crossing over) as I've noticed I may be doing that more than I realized. I tried to just stay composed and relaxed. I never felt I was swimming hard, at all. At the end of the day, my time was OK (on par with what I've been doing) and I had no mental stress that I normally put myself through.

I don't think I'd do much differently. I finished about where I normally do (MOP) which is what I expected.

T1 went well. There was a decent run through the sand to get to transition. An area near a volleyball net had some nice tire ruts.

My T1 time was 10/23, and I wasn't really in too big a hurry, so I'm satisfied with that.

Overall, I thought I had a pretty decent bike. I was not passed by many and was pretty active in picking people off.

About 2 miles in my adducters started to hurt. I haven't felt that for about 2 years. I chalked it up to fatigue from training so just rode it out.

I was a bit surprise to see Steve R. blow by me early on. I chased him for a bit but slowed at one of the corners and never caught him again. He finished about 6 minutes ahead of me...so I wasn't even close. LOL.

A guy on a BMC TM and another on a Cervelo rode with me for a while. I dropped BMC guy about half way through but Cervelo wasn't going anywhere. He was riding at a comfortable pace so I hung with him. With about 2 miles left, I decided to go ahead and move pass him for the last time and I didn't see him again (until he ran by me at mile 1, ha ha).

Not too much. I don't have any GPS data so I don't know how the course mapped out as far as distance. I was a bit surprised to see I only averaged a little over 19.55, but in reviewing the bike times...no one really shredded it, so it may have been a bit long. Oh well. I put forth good effort for the gas I had in the tank today.

12/23

I had a bit of trouble in T2 as I lost my my spot in transition. There were no numbers, and the bikes around me were all still out. Eventually I figured it out, but it took a while.

After I racked my bike, I was out lickety split.

Pick a better transition spot? Use an elmo baloon? I don't know...probably just pay better attention to my stuff.

Well here's where things really broke down. I didn't have any run legs and I felt it right away. When I saw Cervelo guy run by me, I knew I didn't have it. IN looking at my pace, I was about a full minute per mile behind my more recent 10K runs. Again, I'm blaming this on training legs and little motivation.

I looked at my watch when I started and saw that I was on pace to finish mid-2:40s. Slower than I wanted, but I just didn't have it.

I would not do anything different based on the circumstances.

I crossed the finish line, grabbed a bottle of water and we pretty much packed up and went home.


This was a "C" or "D" level race, so there was nothing in particular other than I did not prepare to "race it" well. I started out the day with few expectations so I'm not disappointed by the outcome.

Of course, I would like to be faster, without trying, but that's not where I'm at right now. Since July, the focus has been on the 10/5 70.3 and I've stuck to that plan.


This race is owned and operated by Silverback. I think they are trying to develop a niche of creating cheap races that have little to no fanfare. This particular race was a free entry, with registration at either KS 5150 or Tinman. I would expect almost all participants were free entries, so expectations were pretty low. The location was nice, the roads were fine and overall the run course was well manned, so all that went well.

Registration was a bit of a boondoggle. Initially, the organizers said that if you used the free coupon code, you were automatically entered into this race. Then, notification came out later that you actually had to register online. It worked out fine for me, but I wonder if others were confused.

I did not get a correctly sized shirt as they ran out of Larges. Boo hoo. I don't need a shirt, but still don't understand how this happens. They were looking at registration receipts before handing out shirts, so it appears unlikely that they had a mass rush of size changes. Does not matter too much, but speaks to the overall lack of attention to detail this RD has.

At the run start and finish, the runners shared a narrow sidewalk going both ways. It was a bit narrow. The main problem was that about 30 feet from the finish line, a low hanging tree branch was in the way. Anyone over 5'7" probably had to duck to dodge it. At some point, you'd think someone would see the need for some hedge clippers to get rid of it.

If I had paid for this race, I may complain more. But it was free, and at least it seemed relatively organized and safe. The local college cross country team worked the run aid stations, so there was plenty of help there.

Overall, it was an fun day. I'd do it again (if it was free again).