Ahh! The Ironman 70.3 Kansas Relay was so fun… I don’t even know where to begin!
Getting pumped up before our wave start!
My snister’s fiancé, Will, is really in to biking and my brother-in-law Andrew swims… so obviously, the three of us needed to do a relay triathlon together. Over the winter holiday, Will and I were discussing races, and we settled on Ironman 70.3 Kansas – close to where those two live, and a long enough race distance to make it count! It didn’t take much (if any) convincing to get Andrew on board, and we registered in January.
This was my first time doing an Ironman event, and really… even spectating one! I didn’t know what to expect! But damn. Ironman is super organized… except when it came to relay team information. Ha ha. I couldn’t find anything online, or figure much out at athlete check-in the day prior to the event. Luckily, it was super easy to figure out on race day, and we worked as a team to help each other at the transitions (more on that below).
So. Our main goal going in to this was for everyone to have a good, safe time. Andrew was concerned about the water temp/swim cut-off time, Will was wondering about his hilly bike course, and you know me – a hot half marathon in the middle of the day? Yeah, I was sure I was going to melt. But! Surprise! We all ended up exceeding our expectations and kicking arse in a major way. Our finish time was 6:14:38. I am not smart enough to figure out how many relay teams there were, but we were 17th, overall.
Alright, let’s get this party going!
1.2 Mile Swim
The relay teams were in the last swim wave – 7:22 am (first wave was at 6:30 am), but we had to get to Transition 1 (T1) to check in Will’s bike, get body marked, and be out of there by 6:15 am. So we arrived at the race site (Clinton Lake) right after 5:00 am.
We racked Will’s bike,
had a volunteer approach us and give us the only relay-specific information we had heard up until that point (exchange timing anklet in that tent over there! no headphones! no cell phones!), got the heck out of T1,
and waited.
It was really fun to see the pros swim and transition to the bike… before Andrew even started. Ha ha.
Once Andrew started swimming, we waited to see his beard emerge 1.2 miles later.
The swim course was a huge U shape, so you could actually see the swimmers all the way to the turnaround and to the finish. It was fun to watch!
Here is what Andrew said about the swim:
I was pretty out of sorts the first quarter of the swim, having to stop and hold the buoys to catch my breath, not being able to find a rhythm… Second half was all freestyle stroke without problems – 7 min faster on back half than the front half.
The water temp was around 71° and nearly everyone had wet suits on. Andrew said it was warmer than he was expecting, but it still did take some getting used to!
Will and I spotted Andrew (really, his beard) a few minutes before he finished the swim, and Will went over to the relay transition tent to get ready to exchange the timing anklet. Andrew emerged from the water and had to take a few seconds to remember how to walk after swimming for 50:48 minutes, then found his legs and ran to the exchange. I was yelling at him like crazy “Go! Go! Go!” Hee hee. I had seen so many people walk the swim to bike transition. I was planning on teasing Andrew if he did, but he didn’t. So I had to find something else to tease him about (<— not hard).
Andrew said he was relieved to see Will and hand off the timing anklet!
Then it was Will’s turn!
56 Mile Bike
I watched Andrew and Will exchange the timing anklet, then yelled at Will as as he took his bike off the rack “Move yo ass!” Oops. A bit inappropriate. But he did move his ass pretty fast. T1 was already fairly long with the run out of the water, the anklet exchange and getting the bike, and they got it done in 2:13. Woo hoo!
The bummer about the bike course is that you only get to see them start and finish, since they leave the park for a loop. Wah. Luckily, Will wrote me a recap of how it went!
Starting out I was pretty nervous waiting for the transition with Andrew. I took a Hammer Gel about 15 minutes before the race. Normally I feel awful the first 10 miles or so, but I felt really good. I started out slowly on the bike, not knowing what to expect from the hills on the course. I paced behind another rider for about 3 miles, until I knew I could up the pace. My goal was to keep my cadence above 80. I tried staying around 90. I finished with an average cadence of 82! High 70s – high 80s cadence is really comfortable for me.
I started upping the pace, and began reeling other riders in. I think the competitive side took over around mile 6-8, and I really enjoyed seeing a rider in the distance and working to catch up. Overall I think I passed over 40 riders, with only 1 retaking the lead from me (note from Kim – we were in 30th place for relay teams at the end of the swim, and 18th place when Will was done with the bike!). From mile 25-40 I chased after a rider until I was finally able to overtake them. It felt really great to finally catch them and pass!
I was pleasantly surprised the wind wasn’t horrible. A few times during the race there was a head wind, but usually it was just a crosswind I had to deal with. There were a ton of rolling hills, and a 8-10 large hills that were tough. I think this is where having a dedicated tri bike really helped. Getting low on the aerobars I was able to hit over 40 mph going down several of the hills and keep a lot of speed headed up the next hill. I caught a lot of riders on the down hills where my bike just took over. It rolls so fast!
On the flats, I usually averaged 19-23 mph. Downhill I could hit 40 mph. The gradual uphills I averaged 16-17 mph. Climbing the tough hills I would stay at about 7-8 mph standing up pedaling.
I think a large part of my success was my nutrition strategy. I never bonked during the race and I never felt sick. Calculating my calories helped take my mind off pedaling. I wanted to take in around 300 calories/hr. I had two 25 oz bottles of accelerade and gatorade mixed (280 calories/bottle). So I drank 1/2 bottle every 14 miles. For solids,I started with clif bars cut into small pieces at the beginning of the race, then gels and gu’s from the aid stations the rest of the race. I think I was right around 900 calories for the race.
The aid stations were awesome!!! I couldn’t be happier with the volunteers for the race. There was an aid station around mile 14, mile 34, and mile 46 if I remember right. My bottle on my aerobars holds around 45 oz of water. It has a quick fill top, and the aid stations they had water bottles with squirt tops, so I could ride by, grab the bottle, dump it in my aerobottle, squeeze a couple times, and keep riding. For the gu’s and gels, the younger kids would sprint to my speed and hand off the gels, so I didn’t have to slow down much. They also had sports drinks, bananas and a few other solids you could pick up.
At mile 46 I grabbed a bottle of water and soaked my head and back and took off pedaling. I was really surprised how great I felt leaving the aid station. A few turns later, the headwind I was worried about finally came. It was a tough headwind the last 10 miles of the race.
Before the race I read forums and always read about a horrible hill at mile 50. Seeing the hill was a little daunting. It was steep, but the worst part is how long it was!!! It was weird, because i hadn’t seen anyone walking the entire race, except people that had flats, etc. When I started the hill there were about 8-10 people pedaling in front of me. About halfway up, every person except 1 was walking their bike. I was standing up, pedaling my hardest, in the lowest gear on my bike, and was averaging 4-5 mph. It was brutal. At the top of the hill, I was exhausted, but I felt great I pedaled the entire time. There were two volunteers with signs at the top. The first read, “And you thought Kansas was flat” and the second read, “At least you don’t have to do that again” I had a good laugh at that.
Coming into the finish felt so great, but I was dazed at that point from the hill at mile 50. I came to the finish and saw Andrew. He told me exactly where my rack was and where I needed to run to meet Kim. I racked my bike and ran over to Kim. It was finally over! It was so helpful having Andrew direct me at that point. I wouldn’t have known where to rack my bike or where our transition was. I was really happy with my overall time. I didn’t think i’d be able to finish in under 3:30 minutes with the hills, but i finished in 3:18! (official 3:18:06)
Damn. It reading that doesn’t inspire you, I don’t know what will. Now I want to go do a long bike ride like that. Ha ha ha.
In case you can’t tell… Will really prepared for this race. I am sure I won’t offend anyone if I say that he was more prepared than Andrew and I were. Will put in a lot of miles on his bike (and a loaner bike – long story) and did a lot of research on nutrition. And wow. It really paid off!
Andrew and I had an idea of when Will would come in to Transition 2 (T2) (which was actually in a different place than T1) and we went over there an hour or so before we thought Will would show up to ask how the relay exchange worked. Because we had no idea. That was when we discussed Andrew directing Will on what to do when he got off the bike, because… well, we were unable to discuss all of those things before. Teamwork at its finest! Ha ha ha. Seriously, we all did a really good job of keeping track of time and making sure we were all where we were supposed to be at the right times. If that sentence makes any sense.
T2 took 1:06. I like to tease Andrew that Will and I PR’d the transition time over their 2:13, but really, our transition was a lot shorter in distance. I was so pumped to see Will, I got super excited and could barely get the timing anklet off of his leg, because my hands were shaking so much!
13.1 Mile Run
So in fairy dream la-la land, I was going to try to PR this race, if the conditions were right. Muah ha ha. I threw that lofty goal out the window in April. My new goal was to average 10:00 minute miles. I am not very good at running fast in the heat (due to lack of training for that – let’s be real) or in the full on sun! Man. Was it ever sunny. My skin felt a bit fried before starting the race, despite sitting in the shade! So, with a bit of a higher temp (started mid 70s, ended high 70s), I told my team to watch for me around the start in about 2:10-2:20.
I was really surprised when I ran the first half in 1:02.
I was just feeling awesome. Really even miles. Only stopping to take three GUs. Two cups of water and one poured over me at every aid station (every mile). Passing TONS of people. Talking to tons of people.
The run course was interesting. It was one course that you ran twice – but it had a bunch of out and backs in it, so I got to see my family a lot! And there were actually a lot of spectators on the campground. I really enjoyed the run, which amazed me, since it was so dang sunny and hot (for me, anyway). Could I become a hot weather runner someday? Maybe?! I kind of fell in love with running in the summer during this event (even though it’s not technically summer).
Anyway, I really wanted to run a faster second half, so I kept up the pace and finished my last mile a bit faster than the rest (okay, okay, I was trying to stay in front of some Hawkeye dude). My run time was 2:02:25, for an average pace of 9:20. So much better than I thought it would be!
I got to high-five Glenda and the Scarecrow at the finish!
It felt so good to finish, and get all of our medals and finisher hats!
Go Team AWKward!
I’m sure we’ll be doing this again. We made a really good team. Everyone was enthusiastic, laid-back, hard working, and communicative. Andrew thinks we should do this again next year… as individual teams. What do you think about that? Ha ha. The full event might not be as fun – I think feeling fresh on your leg when everyone else is as tired as sh*t makes it kind of fun, even though that sounds super mean.
Other Thoughts
This is already so dang long, what else could I have to say, right? Ha ha ha. I have to talk about the spectators for these events. Holy cow. This is an endurance spectating event. My parents and snis got there before 6:30 am and saw the entire event. Steven and his dad got there in time to see Will pass by on his bike. They all waited around for us all to finish (my parents brought a little tent for shade, and had lots of food and a grill – party!).
Andrew, Will, me, Christina, Steven, Steven’s dad, Mom and Dad
Furthermore… it was my mom’s birthday. What a fun way to spend your birthday… right?!
I could not be more thankful and happy that they came to watch us! I think watching events like this is really fun, but I know it’s not for everyone… so I am glad they were up for it.
We saw some other intense spectators. When I was chilling at the tent before my run (and cowbelling it up, of course) there was a husband spectating his wife, who must have been 5th female overall. Every time she passed he gave her her exact pace and how far she was behind the 4th place woman. And apparently, when I was running, the rest of my family saw a wife spectating her husband. She told him to turn to smile for a picture, and when he did, he pulled his hamstring! She was immediately like “I didn’t do that! I’m way over here!” Ha ha ha. They said he recovered and kept running.
We saw so many families. So many kids excited to see their parent out there. That was really neat.
And it’s just so inspiring to watch an triathlon. But this distance? Wow. Those people are amazing. And it’s amazing that the pros are out there, and the slower folks (us!) too, and everyone is encouraging one another.
I need to stay away from tris, I think. Every time I spectate one, I think I want to do one!
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