Kinetic Half Race Report

I have always wanted to have an active birthday. In the past, I have envisioned a gathering of fit friends to engage in a day of biking, running, soccer, and other outdoor activities. Alas, I don't really have too many friends who would commit to this type of thing. There are a few that would find a day of outdoor physical activity fun but getting them all on the same page would be like herding feral cats.


At the end of last year, when I was planning out my race schedule for 2012, I noticed that the Kinetic Half Triathlon fell on May 12th which as many of you know is my birthday. I could not think of a more fitting activity to engage in on my birthday. Doing a Half Iron Distance triathlon seemed like a great way to celebrate and really was a no brainer. I had to do it.

For those who need a quick reminder, a Half refers to the Half Iron Distance triathlon. The race starts with a 1.2 mile swim, and then moves on to a 56 mile bicycle ride, and finishes with at 13.1 mile run. Last year, I did 6 triathlons in total including 3 sprints, 2 internationals, and a half at the end of the season. Since last year, I have come a long way in my training which has including hiring a full time coach, training with a team, and training more consistently. I have found it a lot easier to train with other like minded individuals than going at it all alone. Triathlon is an individual sport but training with a team is the way to go.

The Kinetic takes place in Lake Anna on the warm side of the lake. Why do they call it the warm side of the lake? Lake Anna was built by Dominion Power to provide cool, clean water to cool the North Anna Nuclear Generating Station. The water is taken from the lake, cools the reactors, and then is put back into the lake. Hopefully swimming in the lake won't cause me to end up like this famous Simpsons fish.

Melissa and I took off on Friday afternoon to drive up to Lake Anna to pick up my race packet and setup our campsite. The start time for the race was 7AM so camping at the venue would prove to be quite convenient. We had a nice big campsite for our large tent which you can see in the pictures below.

After packet pickup we went to a nearby restaurant for dinner. I had looked at the menu before leaving Richmond and even called to confirm some things on the menu. The dinner ended up being pretty decent. I had a big spinach salad with apples and walnuts, some coconut shrimp as an appetizer, and a garden veggie burger. It was all pretty decent.

After dinner we drove back to the camp site and settled in for the night. Around 10 PM, I was starting to get worried that it was going to be one of those sleepless nights. The campers a couple of sites down had some pretty loud and annoying young children carrying on. We heard the parents tell them they had to keep it down because people were starting to go to sleep but the kids did not listen and the parents did not do anything about it. In fact, they gave them smores. Now I know that camping is fun for little kids and they get to do things they normally would not do at home. But so much sugar after 10PM? I was sure they would be up all night. But they finally quieted down and I think I was asleep by 10:30 or 11:00. I had a fitful sleep, dreaming odd dreams about waking up late and missing the start of the race. All in all, I did not do too bad and I woke up at 5AM feeling pretty good. I downed my smoothie, had a banana and a Lara Bar, did my other morning things, and then we walked to the race venue about .25 to .5 miles from the campsite.

While setting up transition, I heard the announcer say that since there was fog on the lake, they would delay the start 15 minutes. That extra 15 minutes gave me time to ease into things and take my time getting my wet suit on. Here are a few pictures of me before the race.

 Getting body marked. I was number 316, a good biblical number

 Here I am in transition

 Here I am after my warmup swim

I am not sure why I am making this gesture. 

There were about 66 finishers in my age group M40-44. We had our own wave, blue swim caps, and went off in wave 3. I took it easy at the beginning and eased my way into the swim. At first I had problems with my goggles and was getting some serious leakage. I shut my left eye and swam like that for a while before I decided to stop and try to correct my goggles. After a few starts and stops, I finally got them to stop leaking and then tried to get into the grove. I felt much better on this swim than I did during the Rumpus. I was still breathing every stroke but my breathing was more calm and smooth and I did manage to thrown in a few breaths here and there to my non-favorite left side. I concentrated on my stroke, trying to apply all the things I have been learning and I think it paid off. After rounding the first turn buoy, it seemed like no time at all before I was at the second and final turn buoy. As I sighted and swam towards the beach, I felt like I was really getting into the groove and I pushed hard to finish strong.

When I got to the beach, I made my way out of the water and started the run towards transition. Typically racers will start to take off their wetsuits during the run from the beach to transition. The idea is to multitask so you don't have as much to do once you get to your bike. Below is an example of a racer pealing off the top half of the wetsuit while running. This is not a picture of me although I have the same wet suit and this was someone in my wave. I too peeled my wetsuit down to my waist before getting to transition. Melissa was on the course cheering me on and told me my swim split. She yelled "41 minutes." Wow. For me, that was really good. I was pretty psyched. So far the race was going quite well.

Once I got to transition, I got the rest of my wetsuit off and put on my bike shoes, helmet, riding glasses, gloves, bike jersey, and Garmin. I stuffed my pockets with some Gel flasks, Clif Shot Blocks, and a Lara bar and then started the run out of transition with my bike. It is illegal to mount the bike in transition and can only be done once you have cleared the mount/dismount line. Here are a couple of pictures of me in transition changing for the bike ride and then running my bike out of transition. 

 

Once I got on the bike, it did not take long for me to get in the groove. After about 5 minutes of riding, I started my nutrition plan. My plan was to eat something about every 20 minutes. Mostly I ate vanilla Hammer Gel, Clif Shot Blocks, and a Lara Bar. I also had two big water bottles with HEED Sports Drink (High Electrolyte Energy Drink). My HEED was fortified with Endurolytes (Electrolyte Replacement Capsules) that I had opened up and poured into my HEED for extra replenishment. As it turned out, it was not really that hot so I ended up not drinking that much HEED. Instead, I really only drank water when I was washing down my other nutrition. I had one bottle of water in addition to the HEED and there was a water bottle hand off on the course every 15 miles or so. Since I was not drinking much HEED, I took more Endurolytes which I carried in my pocket in a Mentos container. The Mentos container worked out quite well.

I was able to keep up my goal pace of 18 miles an hour for the first half of the course. By the last third of the race, I was starting to fade slightly. I was still riding pretty well, but I had definitely slowed. With 10 miles to go, I checked my watch and pace and realized I would not meet my bike time goal of 3 hours and 10 minutes. When it was all said and done, my bike split ended up 3:18 for the 56 miles of biking. I was a lot faster than last year's Patriots Half bike split so I am pleased over all with that time. I felt like I knew what I was doing better than last year and I also did well with my nutrition which could help setup a successful run.

After the bike, I just had to hammer out a 13.1 mile run. I set my PR for the half marathon back in 2007 at the Shamrock Half Marathon. I did not really know what I was doing back then but I did manage my fastest ever Half Marathon time at 1:47.  My goal for the Kinetic run was to beat 2 hours. I would have to average better than 9:10 minute miles to beat the arbitrary 2 hours I had set. After I got off the bike, I felt pretty good and felt that my goal was well within my reach.

The Kinetic bike course is a three loop course with 3 sizable hills right out of the transition area. Below you can see the elevation profile for 1 loop. So you can image the profile by stringing the picture together for 3 loops. You can see that the course is by no means flat.

I felt good on the run. My stomach was a little full so I was not able to take in any additional nutrition and stuck to water at the aid stations. I took a few Endurolytes on the course but otherwise I was done with gels and shot blocks. After the first loop, I ditched my gel flask. Here is a picture Melissa took after my first lap. You can see me reaching into my pocket to grab my flask which I then threw to Melissa who scooped it up for me.

After my second lap, I still felt pretty strong. I was pacing well and not hurting at all. I was passing people and having a really good time. The pictures below show me finishing up my second lap.  I ended up catching number 380 in this picture.

Once I got to my third lap, I started to realize that my goal was totally attainable. I felt good and felt like there was no stopping me. I had worked my nutrition well, kept my pace up and now just had to hammer out the last few miles. I ended up running my last 1.1 miles at a 7:34 pace. My run split ended up being 1:54 - 6 minutes under my goal! I was very happy.

The birthday race was a huge success and a stellar idea. I am totally pumped after this race. My thanks to Melissa for always supporting me in my training and racing. She makes it very easy for me. And she took all these great pictures, cheered me on at every stage of the race, broke down the tent while I was on the bike and really made me feel like a champion.

So what is next? We shall see. Tune in next time for that topic. Thanks for reading. Comments appreciated.