Redman Race Recap

It's had 2 days to set in.

I am a HALF IRONMAN!

Here's the basic race rundown...

We got to Oklahoma City, after a nice lunch at Cafe O'Donnell in Wichita and checked out the bike course, checked in our bikes and checked our sanity at the start line! After some pasta at the Mac Shack, I hit the hay early.

The alarm went off at 4:30 and I was ready to go! With a delicious PBnJ and Gatorade, race prep was in full swing. It seemed like we had to walk forever from our parking spot to transition. Luckily, there were several portapotties near my bike rack. I have never had to use them that much!!! Before I knew it, they were calling us to the swim corral - and my nerves were starting to sink in.

As the women in the pink caps waded into the water, I tried to find a good outside, back spot. I ended up somewhere in the middle and had to fight with a few swimmers on the first half of the loop. The nice thing about Lake Hefner is that that first leg is really shallow - so you can stand up if you freak out! And I don't think I've swam in a cleaner lake! It was great! I hadn't really scoped out the swim course, so I wasn't too sure about the turns. When I saw the second white Red Bull bouy, I thought I still had a long way to go. Bummer. Then I realized it was only about 100 yards. When I stood up - I saw my swim time: 46:53!! About 10 minutes faster than IM Kansas!

I got my first taste of wetsuit strippers. My new favorite thing about triathlon. It was so helpful to get that taken off and run into T1 free and loose! I put on my bike shoes and realized that I had to pee so bad! I should learn how to just do that in the lake, but I couldn't let it go!! So my transition was a little long thanks to my friend Porta John.

On the bike, I took it really easy on the road around the lake to let my legs warm up. Once I made the turn, I started to pick it up. Throughout the bike, I felt really strong. I didn't have my Garmin on, so I wasn't sure how far I'd ridden. There were only 2 mile markers along the entire bike route, so it was hard to gauge my pacing. I don't know that I could have pushed any harder, so I'm very pleased with my 3:18 bike time.

T2 was miserable. After I racked my bike, I went to change shoes and socks - and my feet cramped horribly!!! I've never had any issues with cramping, other than in the pool when I train with my swim fins, so I was shocked, and I didn't really know what to do to alleviate the pain. I could barely get my running shoes on. Many thanks to Nancy and her Pirates Booty!

I had to walk the first .75 of the run to get the cramps out. The Gatorade, water and salt tabs seemed to help though and I picked it up. At about mile 2, I picked up a running buddy! And Lisa was from my hometown as well, so we had plenty to talk about. I think I paced myself pretty well over the 13.1 Over the course, Lisa and I added some other athletes - Ben, Chris, and Jennifer to name a few. That is one of the best things about triathlon: Everyone is so supportive and encouraging! We all just kept each other moving, one step after another, distracting ourselves from the pain in our knees or our sore, blistered feet. With about 3 miles to go, I picked up the pace a bit. I was really feeling it.... tired, sore, THIRSTY!! It was so hot, but I was feeling pretty proud.

As I turned the corner to run down the Redman Red Carpet, I spotted the rest of the KC Multisport crew there cheering me on! Tim, with beer in hand, Chelsea, taking photos, Andrea, high fiving me! Carly and Josh there yelling their support. I finished in 6 hours, 50 minutes and 53 seconds. It was a total PR and pride enstilling moment.

After a few photos and short cool down, we packed up the car and drove to Wichita. For a while there - I felt like CRAP! Like a horrible hangover after an Aggieville pub crawl and shots on the bar at the Pig. I zoned out on my chaffeur for a while (Thanks Josh!) and then all of a sudden - i was ready for some ice cream and french fries - after that I felt like a million bucks!!

We made it to Wichita. And a hot shower took all of the salty grime off of me. Wow. I was disgustingly dirty. It was gross. Then a couple beers, a killer burrito and a couple slices of delicious Knolla's pizza later - we toasted our succcess.

Nothing like a bottle of cheap champagne to say congrats to our Team KCM at Redman. 3 Top 4 Age Group finishes, a Top 20, 6 PRs, 4 first time Half Iron finishers.... Many props to all of us! The race wouldn't have been the same without you all! Too bad Chelsea wouldn't toast with us. Apparently she doesn't believe in champagne to celebrate sweet, sweet victory over the Redman gods.

Here's the numbers:

bib number: 1590
age: 26
overall place: 253 out of 374
division place: 15 out of 21
gender place: 60 out of 89
time: 6:50:53
swim: 46:53
t1: 4:20
bike: 3:18:57
t2: 4:31
run: 2:36:15


number of finishers: 318
number of females: 88
number of males: 230
average time: 6:16:04