2013 Shawnee Mission Triathlon Preview

Tomorrow, I'll be doing the short course race at the Shawnee Mission Triathlon in Shawnee, Kansas. The race has been going on for a number of years, and this will be the third year in a row that I've done the short course race.  In both 2011 and 2012, I took second place in my Age Group.  With the new bike, I'm hoping I can finally crack an AG win there!

The course itself is fairly short (500 meter swim, 9 mile bike, lengthened 3.2 mile run), but what it lacks in distance is made up for in elevation gain.  For Kansas, IT IS HILLY.  Especially on the bike. There is only 1 flat section that may be 1 mile in length.  And there's also the Dam Hill, with a grade near 18%.

This year, they've changed the race up a bit.  The run previously used to be 2.4 miles of constant up and downs.  This year, they added .8 miles to the run, but it is a flat section near a creek.  There's no shade on the new section of the run, which will likely make the run even more brutal.

I'm excited to race, but I'm even more excited because this will be Rach's first triathlon! She's been training pretty consistently the last few months and is ready to go!  I thought we started in the same swim heat, which left me a few decisions to make: Do I race my own race, OR do I start behind her, swim over her a couple times and officially welcome her to Triathlon.  I left the ultimate decision up to a poll on BT.

It wasn't looking good for Rach... She's getting swum over!

Well, luckily for her they changed the waves, and now she starts 5 minutes ahead of me.  There's also some speculation that it will be a time trial start, so I guess I will try to catch her...

Race Goals:
This year, I'm really trying to just have fun.  In the past, I wanted to see better splits, but this year I just want to have a fun race.  I'm not tapering at all for this race. I've also been dealing with a little case of Achilles Tendonitis, which has put a damper on my running volume the last few weeks. My number one goal is to not aggravate the injury any more than it currently is (because I have another race next weekend!)

I'd also like to win my AG, but I'm not going to be disappointed if I don't. I hate having goals that involve an outcome dependent on other people.

Splits I'm shooting for:
Swim: 8 minutes (1:27/100)
T1: 2:00 (crazy long transition run)
Bike: 24:30 (22 mph)
T2: 1:00
Run: 24:00 (7:30 pace)
Total: Under 1 hour

Last year, I came in just under 59 minutes. I don't know if I'll be able to top that with the extra distance this year and the current state of my right heel, but I'm going to go out and have some fun and see what happens!

Thanks for reading!
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