John “Rooster” McConeghey at IM 70.3 Kansas

June 7, 2010 at 1:59 pm · Filed under race report, weekend update and tagged: race report

Pre-race

The day before the was very hot! It was 94 degrees and the humidity was high as well. They announced the water temperature at 81 degrees so wetsuits were in doubt. The registration and pre-race meetings were a little challenging and not very well organized but I made my way through it and got checked in without much issue. The way the race is laid out is a little confusing when you first get on the site but once I got myself acclimated it all started to make sense.

As with all tris the morning started early. Once we pulled into the parking lot the guys in the car next to me were talking about their wetsuits. I asked them why and they were told the race was wetsuit legal. Somehow the water temp had dropped overnight (without any rain) to 77.5 degrees. I am not joking, they announced the water temp at 77.5 degrees! Fortunately my wetsuit was in my van so I through it on the pile and took it along.

This course has two transition areas –like Hy-Vee in 2008 – which makes organization very important. I stopped in T2 and dropped off my gear bag and running stuff and headed for T1 and the swim start. At this point I had the worst idea of the day. I decided I would walk from T1 to T2 without any shoes or sandles. By the time I reached T1 I was regretting this idea because my feet were not feeling good at all.

Heather got some good pictures of Andy Potts and Chrissie Wellington in T1. The funniest story of the day, Andy Potts walked over to a women standing outside of transition and asked her if she was a Mom. She said, “yes”. He then asked her to put body glide on his shoulder scars because “Moms do the best job.” Heather got a picture of the moment…too funny.

The race got off to a slow start because the medical team was about 15 minutes later getting there.

Swim

The swim went okay. I finish in a little over 34 minutes but I was not happy with it. My sighting was really poor and I probably swam an extra 150-200 meters because of it. I intentionally started wide on the swim start to stay out of the mess in the middle. My age group was quite large (293) so they split it up into two separate start groups.

T1

My first transition was slower than normal. Remember how my feet felt? I was tip toeing my way across the asphalt in T1 to get my gear. This added more time than I wanted to and overall I was not very happy with my first transition.

Bike

The bike started off really good. I crossed the first 20 miles in just under 55 minutes. I recognized this was a little too fast and backed off the pace. There was quite a bit of traffic to navigate and I passed countless number of people on the course. There were quite a few people not following the “ride right” rule and were going down the middle of the lane. I had my two closest bike accidents in this single race. The race is described as rolling and I would agree with that. Overall the routes we take in Iowa are more difficult than this one. I saw several people on the side of the road working on their bikes because of tires, shifters, etc. There was more of this than any other race I have been in.

The oddest thing that happened was at mile 30. There was an oil spill on the road. At this point I was wondering if Ironman had contracted out the road course to British Petroleum. Anyway, the race officials did an excellent job of letting people know about it but we had to stop, dismount, carry our bikes through a ditch, and then start again. Oh, and all of this was at the base of a hill. Not the most ideal spot for this to happen!

In the last 25 miles I passed not only cyclists but a pickup and a SUV. I guess tractors were not allowed on this course!

I also think the “sweet mint mafia” was in Kansas this weekend. I did not know so many sweet mint Biancis existed!

I finished the bike in 2 hours 52 minutes and was pleased with it.

T2

The second transition was more of what I was accustomed to. Because my feet were still a little tender I decided to use a different pair of socks on the run. This was a wise choice because my first pair were thinner socks and I think this would have been an issue. I was in and out in no time and headed out for the run.

Run

When I first entered the run I had to pull myself back some. I ran the first mile in ~7:45 which was too fast. I dialed back the pace and was feeling more comfortable by mile 2. This is when the second funniest thing of the day happened. I was coming up on this guy who had shaved his legs…not uncommon for triathletes. Here is the unusual and funny part. This guy was harry! I mean fur popping out of the top and sides of his tank harry! I couldn’t help but chuckle just a bit. It was a nice break.

Shortly after mile 2 I stopped to use the facilities for the first time. I saw quite a few people with Hy-Vee and Rassmussen jerseys on while running so it was nice to see people close to home. At mile 9 I had to make another pit stop at the facilities. At this point I was happy the plumbing was still in working order. I kept cruising a long and I crossed mile 10 at 1 hour 24 minutes. I was really please with this time because that was only 2 minutes off my half marathon pace at Drake this year. Unfortunately this is when I really started to labor. At mile 11 I started talking to a guy from the Nebraska triathlon club. Neither of us were feeling very good but we chatted for awhile and decided we would run together and help pass the time and it worked. The last 2 miles were hard but talking to someone made the time pass by faster. We talked about Mark Allen,Dave Scott, Faris Al Satan, and “mankinis” – trust me, we were trying to do what we could to take our minds off the run. I finished my run in 1 hour 53 minutes which overall I am happy with but considering my pace up to mile 10 I was disappointed because I know I could have done better.

At the finish line is every single character from the Wizard of Oz as well as cheerleaders from the University of Kansas. During the race I found it a bit annoying – now I think it is rather humorous.

Overall

I really like this race course. The run was mostly flat and the bike course had a nice mix of hills and flats. The run course takes you through a campground which is primarily filled with triathlon teams. This was great because they’re really into the race and are cheering hard for everyone. The only down sides were the split transitions and there was not a lot for spectators to do. Heather was very bored while I was out on my bike ride.

My finish time was 5 hours 25 minutes 28 seconds which is under my goal time but I think I could have broken into the high teens if I would have done a few things differently. I learned more about my hydration and nutrition needs and am getting closer to having this fully ready come August.

I hope everyone had a good weekend.

John

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