Emporia Migration and Salt Town Tune Up

So I really need to get rolling with this thing to let everyone know that my friends Chris Sweet and Steve Ruger are the ones that influenced me to really start doing this. Watching the ease with which they post information for everyone to keep up to date combined with the fact that it’s pretty difficult to keep in touch with everyone out here on the plains, I decided that it might be a good idea to start a blog – more of a history of comments and adventures.

Here's a link to Chris' blog...
http://www.goalisthejourney.blogspot.com/


It’s been a couple of weeks now (it’s amazing how time blows by) but it feels as if the Emporia Tri was just last week. It was a sprint tri with a 400 meter swim, 10 k bike, and 5 k run. It was the first tri of the year for me and a total blast. The swim is always the most challenging part for me. Last year I spent more time flailing in the water (no I wasn’t wearing water wings ha) and had spent a lot of energy by the time I got to the bike or the run.

With a year of swimming under my belt, things went a little easier this year. I submitted a conservative time for the swim and beat it by about a 90 seconds. Not too bad of a showing for a guy who had to do the backstroke last year ha. The course was a down, back and under the ropes course, you should have seen some of the almost crashes!

With the swim done, I raced out to the bikes and promptly got tangled up putting my shirt over my wet head. I must have looked like a cat with a box over it’s head (I’ve seen that before and it’s pretty funny). It took about two minutes to get that mess untangled and down to my belly button before I charged out on the bicycle.

Racing out on the country roads by Emporia I was able to get up to 37 mph. I felt like I was really making some awesome time up on some of the other folks. Suddenly, I realized that maybe the gusting wind was the reason for the awesome speeds. Boy did I find out the truth when I hit the turn around cone. I got around the cone and promptly simmered down to a blazing 10 mph! The rest of the ride in was a struggle to get up to 15 mph! I really need to get some aero bars, hello EBay.

After the bike in, I had an awesome transition to the shoes and got out for the run. It went really well, I felt like I had some energy in my legs and had a great time with the hills. The best part is catching the other tri folks who really had a tough time with Emporia’s hills he he.

Almost the entire crew from the Kansas River Valley Triathlon Club were there, and they all had an awesome time. I’m really going to have to work on everything if I’m ever going to place better in my age group with Jason and Jesse in the group. Alan the president is awesome, I think we’re in for a great year with the club.

Here is a link to the club website with tons of photos and the results…
http://ksrvtc.com/