2014 Kinetic Half Race Report: Set Realistic Expectations

First triathlon of the big 2014 season is here! I learned a lot of things in my second half Ironman, which is a good thing.  The first was to set realistic expectations.  I knew my swimming was stronger than ever before, but I assumed that because I had been riding longer and running longer that I could improve across the board, in all 3 areas.  That was not to be & it set up me to be less than excited for a 5 minute PR, which is still GREAT!  This is 1 of 2 70.3's this season before Lake Placid.  So instead of racing against last years pace, I should have focused a little more on the real prize.......getting ready for IMLP!  My lessons learned will be highlighted.

Pre-Race: About 2 weeks before the race I was having some snapping and pain in my right foot.  A trip to the podiatrist on the Monday before the race diagnosed a neuroma (think your nerve as a cocktail straw and a neuroma as the olive on the straw and that olive gets caught between your bones and muscles as you walk).  So one cortisone shot later, I was limping out of his office praying the numbness would soon set in before Saturday.

We left for Lake Anna at 10 am on Friday.  Next time, check to see when the HOV lane opens and leave Baltimore accordingly.  It took us about 3 hours to get to our rental house.  We settled in and got unpacked and let Jethro run around in the huge backyard for a bit before others started to arrive and we went to pick up packets.  Racing with friends is THE BEST!  Patrick, Roy, Bruce, Mark and I were all racing the half.  Ramsy, Keely and Meg were our cheerleaders and Angie raced the sprint on Sunday.  Bryan McMillan was our "personal official" and made sure we all behaved ourselves on the bike (which we did, of course).  

We all left the house by 5:45am to rack our bikes & get transition set up.  It's AWESOME doing a small race, no lines at the port a pots!  We all hung out & got into our wetsuits.  All 4 of the boys were in wave 1, I was in wave 3, so we started 8 minutes apart.  

Swim: 42:11 18/26
First, the buoys they set up were so damn crooked! I said screw it & only tried to sight the yellow turn buoys which was not easy as they were pretty far away.  I decided I needed some "experience" starting off with the crazies.  So I lined up in the middle towards the front & decided to let myself get beat up a bit and swum over.  Figure I might as well get used to it because Placid will be MUCH larger! It wasn't that bad, but the water was super choppy so it took me a long time before I could really get into a rhythm with my breathing.  I made the assumption that I was swimming straight for the yellow and not the orange but I'm not totally convinced of this.  I know for sure to the second turn I swam the shorter line, but on the way to the first, who knows!  Everyone who tracked the swim came up with 1.3, so maybe a little long.  Nothing major on the swim, I was able to draft for a little bit, but some people really swim all over the place.  As I got about halfway to shore my left calf started to cramp.  WHAT the hell is that?! I've NEVER cramped, EVER!  So I stopped kicking for a bit and just pulled and stretched my foot out.  Legs were fine until I took 2 steps out of the water and the right calf cramped and I almost fell down.  I thought, OH NO! What the hell do I do?!  But I just kept walking and hoping it would work itself out.

T1: 4:03 18/26
I took my time in T1, clearly.  I couldn't run up the hill for fear of the calf totally locking up.  And as I got to my bike, Ramsy was right there.  "Calm down & slow down" he said, probably the best thing I could have heard at that moment. I needed a few deep breaths.  Got all my gear on, grabbed Needle & off we went.  

Bike: 3:05:10 8/26 

When you've done a race before and you know that there's a hill coming out of transition, you would think that putting your bike in the proper gear would be done.  Nope, so I dropped a few gears & turned the pedals so I wouldn't tip over. And then, I almost tipped over.  I'm still getting used to the looks and I always end up on the wrong side of the pedal.  On the bike, up the hill and we're off.  Or so we thought.......I rode about 1.5 miles, was just about 0.5 miles from exiting the park and went to shift to big ring.  I dropped the chain and it was all the way down around my pedal.  There was no way to pedal this one back on.  Damnit! I get off the bike, put it back on and got going again.  About 10 seconds later, I realize my finger is throbbing.  I look down and apparently during the chain ordeal I had cracked my fingernail almost in half, deep into the nail bed.  Son of a b*tch that hurts!!!  I tried to focus on easing into the bike, warming up and holding back a little.  And it's SOOOOO hard to do on this new bike!  I was able to ignore the pain in my finger for quite some time, as I was distracted by a calf tied up in someones front yard (yes, I said hello to the baby!) and sadly when I rode past someones dog who'd been hit.  I had to look away and immediately focus on passing someone or I was going to cry.  I can't handle that stuff.  As I grabbed my second PBJ of the day, I caught that damn nail on my bento box.  I may have  yelled an expletive or two.  Then I remembered that Stoney had put some electrical tape under my aerobottle holder.  I pulled it off and taped my nail together so it wouldn't move. Electrical tape fixes everything.  Done, one problem solved.  Kinetic course is a series of short rollers for the first 25-30 miles.  I LOVE it, but that's my cycle instructor training kicking in.  Short little intense burns in the legs, then flush and roll.  I enjoy it.  After the race, the boys immediately yelled at me for "lying" and saying the course was easy.  Sorry, guess we all define easy differently you bunch of sissies! :)  I felt great on the bike, no major pain issues.  Food was going down easy, finished almost every drop of my fluids.  I need to practice getting my bottles out of the back cages, I'm not very good at it.  There's a solid 15 mile stretch where the road is VERY rough and just vibrates your entire body.  It's tough on the butt and the legs, but then there's a section of road that was just repaved and it was like heaven!  We hit some wind around mile 35 which was tough, but I was happy to have the tri bike then.  I managed to get a bottle of water, without stopping with half a PBJ stuffed in my mouth.  Pretty impressive stuff, huh?!  I felt like this year the bike was maybe a little harder, but the wind definitely had an impact at several points on the course and last year there was none.  Overall, I'm happy with my time, even if it's 3 minutes slower than last year.  Just goes to show you, you can not buy speed on the bike.  I rode my aluminum road bike last year to a 3:02 and my fancy new carbon tri bike this year to a 3:05.  

T2: 2:19 13/26
Nothing major in T2, decided not to swap out my socks as it had just rained a little and I just didn't feel like sitting down to put new one's on.  It looked like it was going to rain more, so my feet were going to be wet anyway.  I remembered to put my body glide in transition, but failed to put it ON my arm pits.  Last year I ran the last 4.4 mile loop looking like a chicken because the insides of my arm pits chafed.  This year, I did the same damn thing.  Lesson learned, twice, if I forget again I'm a complete moron.  

Run: 2:20:59 15/26
This run was not fun at all.  Ok, maybe on a few of the downhills but for 80% of it I was hating it.  It rained lightly on and off, which kept the 80 degree weather bearable.  But my number one goal on the run was to keep the stomach happy.  I was clearly hydrating well because I had to go 2 times during the run, but other than that my stomach behaved very well.  Stinger waffles, PBJ's, applesauce (when I need a spike of sugar) & Osmo it is from now on!  The first mile of the run loop is uphill, the whole way.  And you get to do that on all 3 loops, awesome! :(  Did I mention that it's awesome to race with friends on a looped course?!  I got to see everyone (except Patrick) at least twice.  Patrick passed me on his way to the finish line as I was finishing mile 4.  Lap 2 was mentally tough, but I knew if I got down to the water I was almost home free.  In loop 3, the calves were beginning to yell at me again and threaten to cramp up.  So I just kept moving and tried to focus on anything else. I sang some songs in my head, but the only one's I could remember were slow and boring, clearly not from my running playlist.  I didn't want to run anymore, I was over it.  But I knew I had no choice.  I don't quit, so I guess I just needed to suck it up and keep moving forward.  The last two miles were really tough. I knew if I stopped at all my right calf was going to just seize.  So despite a nasty little hill at 12.5, the craving for just a little coke and just really wanting to walk for a second I managed to jog it in the whole way.  The finish shoot is grass and my leg screamed at me for a split second but I managed to keep it under control.  It was great to come into the finish and have your husband and friends there.  And Jethro tried to take down the fence to get into see me! :)

6:14:40 I finished with a 5 minute PR, 6 of those minutes I made up on the swim & T1! Everything else ended up being about equal.  All in all it was a good race made even better by great friends!  We finished out the day with a few beers, some ice cream and fried pickles and lots of laughs.

Kinetic Half 2014