The Aloha Triathlon and Quintathlon….Awesomeness!

Earlier this year I decided to join the Reds – a Women’s local tri group (though there are now a few guys too).  Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to be super active with them, but the ladies and the Coach (Liz) are all terrific!  Liz decided to put on a Triathlon this year – and wanted to make it “the most fun race in Kansas City” and I think she succeeded.

Inaugural events can always be challenging, but I thought this one went so well!  You can tell it was a race put on by an actual racer. 

Why yes, those are snow cones at the finish

You had two options for the Aloha Triathlon and Quintathlon:  A Sprint Tri – 400 M Swim, 11 Mile Bike and 5K Run.  Or a Quintathon: Swim, bike, run, bike, run.  Which was a 800 M Swim, 18 Mile Bike, 5K Run, 11 Mile Bike, 2K Run.  With the heat this time of year in Kansas City I opted for the sprint, but there were about 60 people who did the Quint.

I woke up early…as always for a tri.  My alarm was set for 4:15 and I was up and ready in a few minutes.  I headed out the door at 5 am to pick up my friend Michelle and we were off.  Already at 5 am you could feel the heat in the air.  It was about 78 degrees and humid.

We arrived and got amazing parking! The benefits of getting there early and such a small race.  I think there were only about 200 people total for both events.  We got our transition areas set up and chatted with a few other friends we ran into.  Everyone was pretty excited for the race.  As we began to head out of transition the sun was just coming up.  It was really beautiful, but it was also bright and huge.  There wasn’t a cloud in the sky.  It was definitely going to be a hot day.  I found myself very thankful I was only doing the Sprint for sure!

It was time to swim before I knew it.  Since it was a small race they just did 4 waves.  Men Quint,  Women Quint first – followed by a safety/wave .  And then Men Sprint and Women Sprint.  The women’s sprint was by far the largest group.  There were nearly 100 of us (92 to be exact ), so this made for a pretty large swim wave.  We started from the beach and ran in.  With only a 400 M swim and so many people starting at once it was pretty congested the entire time.  I got kicked and hit A LOT especially until I reached the first buoy.  Then it spread out some, but it was pretty packed the entire time.  I felt like I could never really get into a rhythm.  I didn’t have a great swim time, but it was ok.  I finished in 11:06.  My Garmin recorded over 1/3 of a mile vs. ¼ of a mile however, so the time was a little better than it looks.

Finish line picture...not exactly sure what's going on here

I was out of the water and running up to transition.  I was feeling pretty good and felt like I went through transition pretty quickly (1:31). I mounted my bike and took off on the bike course.  The bike was also really congested for the first several miles.  As I mentioned the swim was pretty congested the whole way so it seemed like many of us were grouped together on the bike at the same time too.  There was even one point where I was going uphill and had to brake to keep from hitting the person in front of me because I just couldn’t get around.  Braking on an uphill definitely is not cool!! I struggle enough with hills on my own.   It finally broke up and I felt like I could really get a little speed now.  I went back and forth with a girl for a while.  I would pass her on the uphills and she would pass me on the downhills.  This never happens!!  She even said to me “you keep passing me on the uphill and I’m passing you on the downhills”. It felt like being in an alternate universe – that is definitely the opposite of what usually happens to me.  Anyway, I really enjoyed the bike course because it was full of rolling hills and I really like those.  I know they aren’t for everyone and I heard a few people after saying they hated the bike course…but everyone likes different things I guess.  I also passed a ton of guys on the bike!  I’m not sure why, but I passed a lot.  My bike leg was my strongest of the 3 (as usual) and I felt really good.  I was actually disappointed to get my results.  I thought I had ridden a little better.  I ended up averaging 16.6 mph which is pretty good for me…but I thought I was a little faster.  Oh well I was 58^th overall for my bike time out of 152…so for me…that’s pretty good.  Bike time was 41:58.

I quickly transitioned for the run (1:01 transition) and headed out for the HOT run.  I was definitely beginning to feel the heat.  But worse than the heat was the run course.  The 5K takes place on a chat trail which is like loose small gravel.  Most people love it because it is really easy on the joints, but for me, for whatever reason it absolutely burns up my calves.  I find I just can’t get traction and my feet slide.  I can’t seem to get any speed and my calves just get tighter and tighter as I run.  I was hot and my heart rate was elevated, but more than anything I had to stop completely several times to just stretch my calves out to be able to even keep running.  It was frustrating.  My run was TERRIBLE….but honestly the run was terrible for most people.  I ran a 39:06 5K (12:37 pace)…which is pretty awful. This would normally put me way down at the bottom….as in bottom few at a triathlon, but there were actually still 72 people who had run times slower than mine!! I guess that tells you just how hot it was.  I don’t know the exact temp, but it was well over 90 degrees with humidity above 80%.

In the end I finished in 1:34:39.  The average finish time was 1:32.  So I actually felt pretty good about my finish.  I was 8/15 in my AG, 49/92 women.  So relatively “average” and you know me I’m always happen with average! 

A pic of the temp...it wasn't over a100 actual temp though

I found my friend Michelle at the end who had come in 2^nd Women overall!!  She is so awesome!  We then enjoyed some Snow Cones…and a photo booth….yes, it was a fun race! 

Race Swag

The race swag was pretty awesome too.  You got a really cool sweatshirt, a cute little rubber ducky, and a lei/medal.  You also got free race photos.  The added touches like the photo booth and snow cones were amazing too!  It really was a great race and I will definitely be back next  year!!!!

And if you haven't already - Don’t forget to sign up for my Giveaway!  You could win a $50 or $100 gift card to Sports Chalet!!  Giveaway ends 9/2.