Spring has sprung in Wichita and things are starting to heat up. Spring and Fall in Wichita are announced by shifts in the direction that the wind blows in. In Winter, it’s predominately from the north. In the Summer it’s predominately from the South. In the Spring and Fall it can vary from day to day. Last week the south winds have blown in warmer temperatures. The trees and flowers are in bloom. The city landscape has exploded with green and colors everywhere.
Along with the warmer temperatures, something else was blowing in the wind this week. Approximately 200 triathletes completing the Emporia Spring Migration. The Spring Migration is one of the best triathlon races early in the triathlon season. It’s perfect for both the folks transitioning from the indoor triathlons to the outdoor triathlons and for people who haven’t completed in triathlons before.
Results
Photos
The indoor swim is conducted in a serpentine fashion that is pretty exciting, especially when trying to pass other folks. The bicycle and run legs of the race occur outside. The bike route consists of a mostly flat course they heads predominately north of the Emporia State Campus. The lack of hills has definitely been negated by the wind during the last two years of the Spring Migration. Both years saw a very strong wind out of the South, sending cyclists north like rockets.
The run heads to the west of the campus into the hills where the town of Emporia is situated. This course can be very tough on competitors have not logged a lot of running miles. Some times you can pass three or four people who have decided to walk up the hills. The down hills are sweet, letting you stride out to get all the benefit from the difficult hills you just pushed yourself up.
This year the winners flew through the course, the numbers the posted were pretty amazing by my standards. The second place guy posted a faster 5K than I’ve run all year ha. The Wichita contingent was well represented. The Try a Tri Club must have had nearly 50 people there and the KSRVTC must have had about 50 more.
This year I put down an ambitious swim time and got placed as number 59. Standing in line is always a riot because you’re able to yell at the people you know going before you. As you move up closer in line things you notice that people either start talking more or they start to get really quiet. You can guess which happened to me ha. I got my ten second after the guy in front of me started and then it was off to the races. Overall, the swim went really well. I only got passed by two people and was able to make it out of the water without looking too much like a drowned rat. I was a bit over the time that I thought I could make it in, but things seemed to work out pretty well none the less.
I ran out to the transition zone and got to my bicycle. I proceeded to get everything on pretty well… until the shirt. Turns out that it can be very difficult to get a dry shirt over a wet body. The whole thing ended up bunched up under my armpits. After about five minutes of wrestling with it (and the crowd of spectators thinking I was having a seizure), I was able to get the shirt on correctly. I gabbed my bike and was off to the races. Except for one more thing. Running out of the transition zone, I realized that my gu packet was missing from my shirt pocket. After jogging to the end of the transition zone I realized that it was stuck between my shirt and my neck. I was able to get it unstuck from wet back after about three or four swipes with my hand up the back of my shirt. From there, I was up on the bike and headed out North.
The first half of the bike ride was fantastic. I was going about 24 or 26 mph almost the entire time. I was making great time on the folks who were returning South. Along the way north, I noticed one of the yellow sponges from someone’s aero bottle. It wasn’t a difficult object to avoid, but I wondered how the heck someone managed to lose that out of their bottle.
The turn around point came quickly. After making the turn, I met up with the wall of wind. The return trip South was much slower, averaging about 17 mph. I’m not sure how the folks on mountain bikes survived the ride. Later that day I discovered that a wind advisory was issued that afternoon.
The transition to the run went quickly, as soon as I located my stuff. I forgot to trace the steps to my stuff from the direction of the gates. I was over two too many bike racks and was running an eternity late when I realized where my stuff was located. I racked my bike where I was an ran to my shoes (rather clucked to them in my bike shoes). Once there I quickly made the change and charged out the gates.
I was up the hill in no time. The first mile and a half went quickly. Soon, I was passing folks with numbers much lower than mine. This meant that I was picking off people who had started in front of me. At about 1.5 miles into the 5K I realized that I had made a big mistake by eating the gu on the bike. It was fighting back and giving me a killer side stitch. Fortunately, I was able to fight and recover from it later in the run. My final time for the botched transition and side stitch 5K was just over 20 minutes. Not bad, but I know I can go a lot faster.
Overall it was a great race. I only got passed during the swim. I finished 29th overall. My age group was stacked. I ended up with 6th in my age group. It just goes to show that I’ve got a lot of work to do before I’m competitive in the local triathlons. It will be interesting to see what happens this summer.
Overall the Club members had some great races. Jason did fantastic, taking first in his age group and having a great race after taking 1st place in the Belle Plain Tulip 5K. Joe had an awesome tri. His swim was blazing fast and he was able to hold his place on the bike and run. It turns out that he was the one that lost the yellow sponge. Apparently, he hit a major bump and it bounced right out of his bottle. He ended up taking a Gatorade shower when he and his bottle hit the next bump ha. The real animal of the race turned out to be Alan. He totally tore up the course and managed to PR in the 5K. Not just a triathlon 5K, but his all time 5K PR! There were lots of folks who had awesome races. These are just a quick few that came to mind.
The next few weeks after the race will be spent preparing for the River Run races. So far the weather is holding and the training is going well. I’m just crossing fingers for a great race.
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