Rock the Parkway Half Marathon

Yesterday, my wife and I did the Rock the Parkway half marathon here in Kansas City. The day started off very cold, about 35 degrees. We showed up early to meet up with some friends before the race, and the wait for race start made me wish I'd brought gloves. After we started running I was glad I hadn't bothered with them.

We were in wave F, near the back, which meant we started about fifteen minutes after the first runners. Once we finally got to the start line and began the race, I warmed up considerably and really enjoyed the race.

I decided I was going to stay with my wife this race, as opposed to taking off without her like I did last year at the Nashville half marathon. I really had a good time running with her. We matched paces pretty well, and while I sometimes got ahead of her while I was running, I always slowed my walk down and she caught up to me on our walk breaks. 

I was doing very well until around mile 8.5, when my energy levels started flagging. I wasn't in any pain at this point, but could tell I was gettinb very tired. I pushed it aside and kept going, but around mile 11 the pain started to set in. My right knee was aching a bit, and my right foot was sore, which is still the case today.

The knee was no big deal to me. I've dealt with knee pain my whole life, and this was nothing new. I could tell it was nothing to worry about, and sure enough, after I had a chance to sit down for a little while, the knee felt fine.

I think my foot was due to my new running shoes. I never had this problem with my old shoes, and I had the same issue in the exact same area of my foot on my first run in these shoes, which was only 3 miles. The more I've run in my new shoes, the less foot issues I've had, but this was my longest run in them to date, so I'm hoping the pain will fade and , as I get more used to the shoes, the pain will eventually never come back.

We walked alot the last two miles, as we were both sore and out of energy, but still managed some short runs. We ran across the finish line together and got out medals. Our overall finish time was 3:08:20.

This is the first time I've done this race, although I've spectated it a few times, and it's a very well-managed race. If you're looking for a good first half, this is one you should consider. It's not exactly flat, but nothing is in Kansas City, and this is one of the flatter courses in the area. The course is picturesque and I was happy it wasn't located in the downtown area, simply because Ward Parkway is easier to get to than downtown. 

My wife and I are doing the Heartland 39.3 series this year, which is a series of three half marathons over the course of six weeks. Rock the Parkway this weekend was the first, and the Garmin half next Saturday is the second, followed by Running With the Cows on May 14th. We'll see how the Garmin goes next week. Neither my wife nor I have ever done two half marathons on back-to-back weekends before.

I know this site's been dead for a long time. I got really busy with overtime at work last year and typically had to make a choice between training, spending time with my wife or updating here. It wasn't even a choice as to which got cut. After the overtime finally cooled down, I didn't want to start updates again with simple trainer workouts, so decided to wait until I could the race reflection on Rock the Parkway. I don't know if I'm going to do posts for every workout, especially since it's early in the year and my biking posts would read "I did half an hour on the trainer and it felt good," but I'm going to try to update at least weekly with how my workouts that week went. I've also got a two or three equipment reviews in the hopper that I'll write up and post over the next week or two.

                                  

                                                   The medal from Rock the Parkway

Kansas City Triathlon Race Report

Fair warning: this is a long entry. The race was last Sunday, but I purposely took a few days to get this up here because I wanted to let the entire experience sink in a bit before trying to write about it.

This past Sunday, I participated in the Kansas City Triathlon. It was my first outdoor triathlon, and I spent the entire week before the race obsessively checking the weather, hoping that we wouldn't have a repeat of the Matt Mason tri last August and end up with another rain-out. The rain came down in torrents on Saturday, and Sunday dawned cloudy, but the weather did not actually do anything on Sunday.

They offered both a Sprint and Olympic distance at this race. I chose to do the Sprint distance, the shorter of the two. The Sprint consists of 500 meters of swimming, 12.4 miles of biking and 3.1 miles of running.

I got out of bed at 3:30 am to make sure I had enough time to get to the lake. The transition area was set to open at 5:00, and I wanted to leave by 4:15 to get down there. I'd packed most of my stuff in my car the previous night, so all I had to do this morning was get dressed, air up my tires and put my bike rack and bike on the car. We ended up leaving right on time, and got down there and parked almost right at 5:00.

The first thing I did was take my bike off my car and went looking for chip pick-up. After getting my timing chip, I found my way to the entrance to the transition area. Upon finding it, I got my body marked by the volunteers there (my race number, 523, on my left arm and my age on my left calf) and entered transition.

Everyone in transition had an assigned rack based on the race number. Every rack had a range of race numbers, and where you placed your bike on that rack was a first-come-first-served system. I found the rack that contained my number and was lucky enough to get the spot right next to the center aisle (a very enviable position as it limits the distance you have to travel in transition and makes spotting your rack that much easier).

I'd brought a shopping bag with me to help me keep my stuff organized once the race started, and was planning on using it mainly as a place to stash my wet suit after the swim finished. I ended up being very glad I had it with me; it made finding my bike that much easier as all I had to look for on the ground was a grey rectangular bag.

I placed the bag and my towel behind my bike, put both pairs of shoes and my camelback in front of my bike, and placed my helmet directly beneath my bike. My helmet contained all the miscellaneous items I would need for the ride - my sunglasses, my cycling cap, my gloves and my spibelt which contained my cell phone.

Below are two photos of my transition area before the race started. I apologize for how dark they are; I took them before the sun rose and didn't think to take any more once it was light outside. Not shown here is my shirt - I ended up draping it over the aerobars before the swim.

After getting the transition area set up, I had a bit of downtime before the swim warm-ups started. I walked around and looked at some of the vendor tents, then got into my wet suit. I got into the water and did some warming up after they opened the beach, mainly to get accustomed to the water temperature, which was at a chilly 64 degrees.

After warm-ups, ready to start the swim

The race start was done in waves, based on which race you were doing and your age group in your particular race. The Olympic race started first, followed by the Sprint.
As the Olympic triathletes took off, most of the Sprint racers gathered on the beach to await our turn to start. Watching them was very sobering. The water was very choppy and many of them were calling over the kayakers or the people in the pontoon boats and being pulled from the water as they were unable to complete the swim.  Getting pulled out like this is a big deal - by asking to be pulled out (or just getting pulled out without asking), you're disqualified from the rest of the race. No bike, no run, no finisher medal. You're just done for the day, and seeing some of these athletes tapping out made me a bit nervous.
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In no time at all my wave was next to start. We were called up to the corral and entered the water, moving out about five to ten feet from shore. I went in barefoot (I'd worn swim shoes in the warm up) and the cold water quickly infiltrated the ankles of my wet suit. As I stood there in the cold water for the fifteen to twenty seconds it took for the race director to blow the horn and send us on our way (if felt more like fifteen or twenty minutes), I was very nervous. I'd just seen a bunch of people get pulled from the water, and didn't really know what to expect since I'd never done an open water swim before. Thankfully, before I could think it over too much, the air horn sounded and off we went.

My wave (I'm the one in the black wet suit and green swim cap)

The first 100 to 200 yards of the swim went well. I was surrounded by people but had enough space to swim without being smacked in the face by someone's feet, and I was getting my sighting down and heading in a pretty good line for the first buoy. Then I turned to take a breath and sucked down a lungful of water instead of the air I'd been expecting. I, of course, stopped dead, coughing and sputtering and trying desperately to keep some form of forward movement going so I wouldn't be plowed over by the people behind me.
A few seconds later I'd recovered enough to resume mostly forward movement, but the effects of that one bad breath were telling. I couldn't confidently do freestyle. Every time I put my face under and tried to take a normal stroke, I felt like I was choking again. I resigned myself to doing breaststroke, a little bit of backstroke (which usually ended pretty quickly after waves splashed my upturned face), and a weird hybrid of the two where I was on my side, doing a breaststroke kick and pulling with my lower arm.

Overall, my swim was not what I wanted. I expected this to be my best event. After all, I swam competitively for almost a decade, and for four of those years my main event was the 500 yard freestyle (the swim here was roughly 550 yards). This should be a walk in the park, old hat, easy as pie. Never have I been so wrong.

The open water really got to me. I know that happened when I sucked in that water: I tried to take a breath at the exact instant a wave was in my face. Obviously this is never a problem in a pool, so I didn't think too much about it until it happened. Had I been more practiced at bi-lateral breathing, I would likely have been breathing on my left side at the beginning of the race (the side away from the wind). However, for my entire swimming career, I've always breathed on my right side, and undoing all those years of habit is just plain hard and exceedingly uncomfortable (it's akin to attempting to write with you non-dominant hand). But, now I have something I know I need to work on in training.

The swim ended up taking 16:31. Had I been in a pool, I could have completed this in about 10 minutes at my current level of fitness. When I exited the lake and looked at my watch, I wasn't really pleased with my time, but I was very pleased that the swim was behind me and that I was out of that cold water. I headed up the beach to transition just as fast as I could, stripping the wet suit off my upper body as I did so.

Once I reached the transition area, I found my bike easily, thanks to having that nice end spot on the race. I had to sit down to get the wet suit the rest of the way off, then threw it into the shopping bag and quickly toweled off, concentrating on my feet, trying to remove any sand and mud that might still be on them so that wouldn't be a factor once I got my socks and shoes on. I got my socks on as quickly as I could with wet feet, then got my shoes slipped on and threw my shirt on. After my shirt was on, I donned my sunglasses, biking cap, gloves and helmet, then took my bike off the rack and walked towards the bike out area. All told, I spent 6 minutes 59 seconds in T1, which is a little bit too long. This is an area to work on for next time.

Exiting T1

The bike portion actually went pretty well. I've said before that swimming is my best event, but biking is my favorite. I really enjoyed the ride at this race. I went a bit past the bike mount line and got my right shoe clipped in and then took off, getting my left shoe clipped in fairly easily, which is not always a given. The bike course was very well marked in terms of where to turn and where to go, and there were plenty of volunteers (both civilians and police officers) to help direct you in the right direction.

There were some hills, but only two really stand out in my memory. The first really bad hill came at the worst time - right after a 180 degree turn. We headed down the hill, then had to slow to turn around at the bottom of it and go right back up it. Now, obviously, the main strategy for hills is to build up as much speed as you can on the downhill and then use the momentum going up the next hill so you don't have to work as hard. This doesn't work when you have to brake to turn at the bottom, but I made it back up the hill and pressed on.

The second killer hill came in around the ten mile mark or so (guesstimating here, not exactly sure what the mileage was). This time there were no gimmicks or tricks with turns - it was just a really steep, really long hill. As soon as you managed to climb it, you had another 180 degree turn to go right back down it. I will admit that the downhill here was fun, but also pretty scary. I reached a top speed of 39.8 MPH going down this hill, and more than once felt like I was going entirely too fast for comfort. I wish I could have gotten another 0.2 MPH, but I also think that extra little bit of speed would've ended with me laying the bike down. Not a good thing at that speed.

I was able to stay in the aero position for long periods of time on this ride, something I've been unable to do before now. I really like the aero position. I'm hunched down low over the handlebars and can get quite a bit more power to the pedals. I know I'll be using this position alot.

I finished the bike portion in 54 minutes 59 seconds with an average pace of 13.6 MPH. Heading into T2 after the bike portion I was feeling good. Tired, of course, but overall pretty good. Two thirds of this thing were down, and all I had left was a 3.1 mile run. I knew I could walk some of it if I needed to, and that there was no danger of either drowning or crashing, both of which would have likely ended my race. I hopped off my bike a bit before the dismount line and struggled to get my right foot unclipped, almost falling in the process, but I managed to get my foot disengaged from the pedal and planted firmly on the ground just in time.

I walked my bike back to my rack, using the grey shopping back to quickly identify where I needed to go. I quickly re-racked my bike, then removed my helmet and gloves and switched my biking shoes for my running shoes and headed towards the run out. T2 took me 2 minutes 39 seconds to complete.

The run was pretty typical for me. It's my least favorite event, and I ended up walking some of it, but I ran more than I walked, which was the goal. Nothing really special to say about the run; it was a run. I finished the run in 42 minutes 30 seconds, with an average pace of 13 minutes and 43 seconds per mile.

Heading towards the finish line

Almost there!

The next thing I knew I was across the finish line and a volunteer was hanging my medal around my neck. I felt elated that I'd finally accomplished my goal, and relieved that I was finally finished for the day. My first stop after finishing was at the Tri KC tent to get a cookie, then I sat down at a table and waited for my wife to find me. We found each other pretty easily (hooray for cell phones!) and both sat for a few minutes, talking about the race and taking it all in. After we sat for a few minutes, I went back to the transition area, packed up my stuff and took my bike to the car and headed for home.

Finished!

Overall, the race was great. I had a really good time doing it, and never once thought "I don't know if I can make it," The race itself was very well organized and executed. From talking to some of the other triathletes, I understand that this is one of the tougher tris in the K.C. area, mainly due to the cold, choppy water and some of the hills on the bike leg. Everyone I talked to agreed that the swim this year was the roughest they've experienced at any tri in the area for the past half decade, so I don't feel so bad about my swim time now as I did right after I finished. I should have realized it would be a rough swim beforehand based on how many people were pulled out of the water, but I didn't think about it that way then. 

Still, a great first tri for me. If I can do one of the toughest tris in the area for my first tri, I'm confident that I can do my next tri without issue. 

I'm now proud to call myself a triathlete. 

Country Music Half Marathon

This weekend Melissa and I ran the Country Music Half Marathon in Nashville, TN (there is also a full marathon, but so far I'm only half crazy). The race was 13.1 miles of hills. I thought KC was hilly, but Nashville is crazy hilly. As soon as you finish climbing one hill, another one starts going up. There are some downhills, but I'm convinved we did more climbing than descending. I haven't looked at the race's elevation chart, so I don't know if that's actually true or not, but it sure seemed that way.

Overall, the race went well. It was supposed to be really rainy, and I was very worried we'd have s repeat of my first tri last August, which was cancelled due to lightning. It did rain overnight, but when we got up and out of the hotel it was dry, and it stayed that way.

The downside to overnight rain was the humidity. Being from KC I'm no stranger to humidity, but I haven't had much chance to train in it, and it made for a sweaty, sticky run. It's been a long time (since last August, at least) that I've been in this kind of humidity. When we got off the shuttle back at the hotel, I quite enjoyed the high heat and humidity (I love the heat), but it made racing much more difficult.

I started the race keeping up with the 2:30 pace group, which, in retrospect, was quite ambitious for me. I haven't been able to train much recently because of long work hours and general laziness on my part, and I could tell at the race. I kept up with the pace group for 1.25 miles, then had to stop and walk.

For the next mile and a half or so, I had random run/walk intervals, but finally found something comfortable in mile 3. At 2.9 miles, I started running, intending to run 1/10 of a mile and walk 1/10 at mile three. When I hit mile 3 though I was feeling pretty good and told myself "Just go to 3.1 before you walk, then you'll only have 10 miles left." Yeah. "Only" 10 miles left. 

I did manage to run to 3.1, then I walked to 3.25, then ran to 3.5, walked to 3.6, ran to 3.8, walked to 3.9, then ran to 4.1. I kept up with those intervals until mile 8. They helped the miles go by faster and easier, which was the goal.

At mile 8, my walk breaks started extending and my runs started becoming shorter. The longest I ever ran in training was 6 miles, so after the extra 2 miles my body was like "Dude! You are the stupidest stupid person ever to grace the planet with their stupidity! What are you doing?" Unfortunately, I listened to my body and let the walk breaks extend.

At mile 11.5, I finally decided I was done running for the day until the finish line. I started running a bit at 11.5, but couldn't keep it up for more than 0.02 miles. I had a small blister on a toe on my left foot, both feet generally just hurt, and my right knee ached something fierce (not an uncommon problem for me - my knees have always given me problems), so I decided I was going to walk until I got near to the finish line and then run across it.

This actually ended up being a great decision. At around mile 11.75, another member of Team RWB pulled up mext to me and we started talking. We were both in our Team RWB shirts, making it easier to identify each other. She was from LA, and did 10 half marathons last year. She was super excited that this was my first half marathon, and we had a good conversation over the last mile in. I told her that if she wanted to run on ahead, she didn't have to wait for me, but she said she wanted to cross the line with me since it was my first one.

I really enjoyed talking to Deedra (might not be the right spelling) for the last mile. It was kind of unusual for me - I'm not a people person and usually find conversations with strangers very uncomfortable, but this was relaxed and easy, likely because we're both half marathoners and belong to Team RWB.

For anyone that doesn't know, Team RWB (Red White Blue) is an orgainization dedicated to helping American veterans. I've always been pretty patriotic (I tried to serve in the Navy but was declined due to my asthma), and my cousin, who was also the best man in my wedding, had been deployed to Iraq twice, so when I found out about Team RWB it was almost a guarantee I would join. If you're interested, check out www.teamrwb.org

Almost right at mile 13, Melissa caught up with Deedra and I. Her joining us there worked out wonderfully. Once she got there, all three of us started running because the finish line was right around the corner, and we all crossed the finish line holding hands. It was a great feeling crossing with both of them.

Overall, the race was a great experience. I would have liked a faster time, but given the lack of training I'm not disappointed. I had a really good time doing it, and it's given me a baseline for the half ironman in October. This race, more than anything, has me charged up to start training again. While the running is my least favorite part of triathlon, I still enjoyed the race today. I'm very much looking forward to my next race on May 17th.

       

                                             Myself, Melissa & Deedra after the finish  

     

                                                           Myself and Deedra  

                                   

                                                             Myself and Melissa

Matt Mason "Cowboy Up" Memorial Triathlon 2015

I finally got around to signing up for this race again today. While this race isn't one of my A races this year, I'm very much looking forward to it. The only other race this year I'm anticipating more than this one is the Border Wars Half Ironman in October.

The Matt Mason tri was the very first tri I ever signed up for. In fact, it was this specific race that really got me into triathlon in the first place. For a number of years I'd always thought "Doing a triathlon would be fun", but I never did anything about it because I didn't own a bike and had no idea which race to do. Then I found this race.

The Matt Mason Tri is a memorial for Matt Mason, a Navy SEAL who was killed in action in Afghanistan on August 6th, 2011 (the Chinook helicopter he was in was shot down by a RPG). Those of you that know me know that I'm fairly patriotic, and that of all the U.S. Armed Forces, the Navy is by far my favorite. From 8th grade through my senior year, my only plan after high school was to join the Navy and get my dolphins (servicemen who serve on submarines have "earned their dolphins", as they are the only branch of the Navy that wears a dolphin pin on the uniform) and be a career Navy NCO on a submarine. Then, on the day I went to sign up just before graduation, I found out that my asthma is an automatic disqualifying factor. I couldn't even get a desk job with the Navy.

As this race is a memorial for a fallen Navy SEAL, it obviously has a very heavy patriotic theme, This appeals to me very much. When I stumbled across this race in the middle of last year, I knew it was something I wanted to do, so I signed up for it and began training. This race is the reason I'm doing triathlon today.

Unfortunately, the 2014 race was cancelled the day of because of inclement weather, so I have yet to actually do this race. For that reason, I'm really looking forward to it. I can't wait to do it. The finish line is lined with American flags, and there are volunteers handing flags to all the racers shortly before the finish line. It should prove to be a quite moving tribute for a fallen hero.

Border Wars Triathlon

First off, I apologize for the derth of posts recently. I've been working lots of overtime at work and haven't had much time to workout and no time to keep this site updated when I did workout. 

I recently signed up for my first Half Ironman, the Border Wars Triathlon. It takes place on October 4th, 2015 in Alton, Illonois. The "Border Wars" part comes from the rivalry between Missouri and Illinois. When registering, participants were required to allifiate with either Team West (Missouri) or Team East (Illinois). Being from Missouri, I obviously chose Team West. At the end of the race, the directors look up which team had the most members cross the finish line first, and that team "wins" the contest. (Team West won last year, which was the inagural year for this race).

I'm very very excited but very very nervous about this. I know I have 9 1/2 months to prepare, but the extreme distance (1.2 miles swimming, 56 miles biking and 13.1 miles running) is still very intimidating to me. But one of the reasons I got into triathlon was Ironman, so it makes sense to take the first step on that journey now. 

I can't wait for October to get here, but I'm sure that somehow it'll get here far too quickly for my peace of mind. 

68's Inside Sports Triathlon

I have offically signed up for my next triathlon: the 68's Inside Sports Triathlon, taking place on March 1st, 2015 at 68's Inside Sports gym in Overland Park, KS.

This tri is a bit different from most of the ones I've seen: not only is it a bit shorter than the typical Sprint distance tri, it takes place completely indoors (which is likely a good thing given the weather we get here in the Midwest in late February/early March). The swim is done in a 25-yard pool, the cycling is on a stationary bike and the run is on a track.

The fact that this tri is indoors is what convinced me to sign up for it. Since the Matt Mason tri was cancelled, I've yet to actually do my first tri. This one seemed like a good choice. As I said, it's shorter than a typical Sprint (500 yards swimming, 10 miles biking and 3 miles running versus 750 meters swimming, 12 miles biking and 3.1 miles running). 

Beyond that, the fact that it took place indoors appealed to me for a number of reasons. The swim takes place in a pool, which plays to my strengths. I swam competitively for almost a decade, so swimming in a pool is something I'm very used to. Practice with the various teams I was on accustomed me to swimming in crowded pool conditions, which I'm sure will come in handy on March 1st. I practiced one open water swim before the Matt Mason tri, and it is worlds different from swimming in a pool. There are no nice lines on the bottom of the lake to help you keep going in the proper direction, forcing you to look forward frequently to assess if you're still on course. There are actual real waves to deal with (beyond those created by swimmers in neighboring lanes). There are no lanes to seperate the swimmers, leading to people clumping together in large groups reminiscent of spawning salmon. The water temperature is highly variable. The entry and exit are natural, sandy/gravely beaches. In other words, open water swimming is typically much more difficult than pool swimming. The fact that this swim takes place in a pool was a huge point in this race's favor in my eyes.

The biking portion takes place on stationary bikes. Whereas there will obviously be no real hills to climb on a stationary bike, I'm expecting them to have every bike set up to run the same work-out program that will simulate the hills and flats that you'd find on an actual course. Everyone will climb the same "hills", which is as it should be. The exciting part for me regarding the biking portion of this tri is that I don't have to worry about flatting or some other mechanical failure on my bike. I've only changed the tube on my bike a few times and it's something I'm not very good at yet, and I'm not exactly a do-it-yourself kind of guy, so any other mechanical failure during a race would be disastrous for me. It's one less thing to worry about during my first race, which is for the best.

The run will take place on an indoor track, which means no hills at all, period. I currently run .6 miles at a time, with a .1 mike walk to catch my breath after. I'm confident that I'll be up to running all 3 miles at once come March 1st.

I know my training has slacked recently. I've been lazy and have been using the fact that the Royals are in the postseason for the first time in 29 years as an excuse to skip working out. I think part of my lethargy came from not having a tri to train for; now that I'm officially signed up for my next race, it's more real and I hope I'll begin training consistently again. The last game of the World Series is tonight, so after tonight I'll have no more excuses to skip training. 

Kansas City Marathon Relay

This morning my wife and I ran as part of a five-person relay team for the Kansas City Marathon. Our team was one of two sponsored by Rock & Run Brewery, the same restaurant we run to and from during our Wednesday night runs.

The marathon was obviously split up into five segments, one for each runner. I had leg number one, which was 3.4 miles. I felt I did very well. It'd been over a week since I ran, mainly because of laziness and the Kansas City Royals amazing postseason play, but I stuck to my intervals the whole time (.5 miles running, .1 mile walking) despite some serious hills. Overall I was very pleased with how I ran.

This was the first race I've done that I've actually taken seriously. Looking back on it, if I had to choose one word to describe it, it would be: Cold. It was only 45 degrees out when we showed up a bit before 6, and I was dressed only in a tee shirt and shorts. Alot of people (mainly my wife) tell me that this is the perfect temperature for running half-marathons and marathons in because as you run your body heats up. While I can attest to this as I did heat up during my 3.4 miles, I'm a summer kind of guy and would have much preferred temperatures to be a bit warmer.

But, nothing is ever going to be perfect and when things don't go as you'd like, all you can do is deal with it. So deal with it I did and ran my mileage. Both R&R sponsored relay teams ended up crossing the finish line at the exact same time, and I have to admit that was a pretty cool feeling (those of us that had already finised our legs met the last runner .2 miles from the finish and ran in together). We were all dressed in identical shirts and spread out to take the whole road. It was quite the rush.

The relay was a good experience, and is a good way to get introduced to racing if you don't want to do a 5K by yourself. You have someone waiting on you to finish so you have to keep going and can't simply quit, but those other people on your team are there to pick you up and help you through. It's something I'd consider doing again.