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SRRC Race Reports

Kinetic Half 2009 , Lake Anna, VA —Saturday, May 9, 2009
by Scott Smith

Race day began with bantering between an owl and some other night bird, bringing me out of the tent into the full moon, loading the bikes onto the rack for the quick drive to transition, then back to the campsite for breakfast (oatmeal and RedBull) and preparing fuel for the day ahead.  Lesson: despite proximity, these should have been done the day before.  I cut it too close to start time, having to hustle to get my chip and bodymarkings before heading to the beach start—no time for a warm-up run, no time to get my derailleur adjusted.

The beach was crowded for the start, and I lined up at an angle to the buoys and posts, which may have cut down some distance, but threw me off alignment, and I never seemed to get it straight on the swim. I grabbed my tinted goggles over my clear ones, another mistake, because it was harder to see the pilons, and orange and yellow buoys. Even the beach was hard to find.  The water was chilly, but discomfort quickly subsided with the energy.  I started out a bit fast, then worked into as much of a groove as possible that regular sightings afforded.  The water was choppy.  After the first buoy, the crowd started to clear out, and I found some feet to follow.  Good thing I kept sighting anyway, as one lead swimmer veered way off course.  Swim interrupted halfway with a jog back to the start for lap 2, and again it stayed relatively clear and easy swimming.  Time out at lap 1 was 15 minutes, about right on target for the warm-up phase of the race.

It was a long uphill run from the water to Transition.  I saw my buddy Steve putting on his shoes as I ran to my bike, and I gave him a nice slap on the rear! A pretty good T1, though the rain all week had left the ground quite muddy, and the exit was through a gravel parking lot and up yet another hill.  I had practiced just a couple of times pre-clipping my shoes, without much success, so ran in my shoes rather than socks only, and ended up having trouble clipping in, not getting my second foot in until about 1/4 mile into the race. 

It was all uphill for the first 2 miles, so I spun in an easy gear to get the legs loose and heart rate low before a long day ahead.  My heart rate after swim was zone 3, 164, fairly high, but lower than last year in Florida, which was about 170.  I had studied the course carefully, so I knew that as soon as I passed the park ranger booth, it was downhill, so I went full speed to start the momentum.  It’s a hilly course so momentum is key as you go towards the top of the hill and over for maximum speed down and way up the next climb. It worked like a charm as I pedaled into hill 1, I shifted into an easy gear for last burst up and over…and SCREEEECHHH to a grinding halt. 

Think of the question your kids might ask, “Daddy what happens if I pull up on the parking brake while you’re driving?” My chain had jumped the cassette and locked the rear wheel completely.  It took everything I had to keep straight, braking the front easy and unclipping quickly.  Clearly the chain was off, so I tried to fix it. Nothing moved. Bikers I had passed earlier began coming up behind me—ugh—embarrassment. I moved to the side.  Road support came up, and we tried to release the chain…nothing doing.  I moved farther away to the side of the road and stopped the watch. The race looked done for me.  Next came a phone call to road support #2 for a cassette tool! It seemed like forever, but it turned out that it was only 19 minutes, which included removal/replacement of cassette and a semi-tuneup. Now I could relax and turn it into a nice training day.  Even so, the chain barked and squeaked and gurgled all day, and I never could trust a gear to stay for long.  But I was riding!  Fortunately the breakdown was only at mile 3, so I had a nice long race ahead, and I knew the course.  I was glad to know where the hills were going to be so that I would know where to pick it up and where I could relax.  I stayed at about 75% the entire ride, and felt great.  It was a very different group to ride with now—more road bikes and 1st timers, lots of women, rather than the super-egos and tri-bike crowd.  The morning and lap 1 went quick, and lap two brought on a bit of sun and wind, especially across the longer bridges and unshaded stretches.  I had no other major problems and just cruised up and down the hills. 

The park entrance caught me quicker than expected, and it was longer than I had remembered from the entrance to transition, and I couldn’t seem to get my heart rate down, nor increase my cadence too much.  Runners were coming up.

T2 was fast, but the run start was different than expected, with a little out and back to get the distance right, then up the steep first hill of the run.  I don’t remember if I stuck to my plan and walked, but at most it was a very slow jog, and slowly uphill for mile 1, but not slow enough, 8:44, and I knew it was too fast.  I tried slowing down, but mile 2 was mainly downhill—again too fast.  Lap 1 was fair. So was lap 2—about as planned.  I finally caught Steve midway through lap 2.  I felt great.  I hadn’t stopped at an aid station yet. Now, water on the run, some on my face, some down the hatch,  I wish they had two consecutive water stops.  Lap 3 was slow as planned up the first little hill, then I picked it up—too soon, though and ended up stopping at one aid station, then walking for a brief stretch before convincing myself to just keep running.  On the backside of the loop, I walked another stretch uphill, then walked again under the water sprinkler (misting?) tent. I ran the final two miles strong and without stopping. 

As I came to the finish, the sun glare blocked out the time, but I knew mine was worse than I wanted, but better than I expected as I stood on the side of the road.   I knew that I had given my Best Effort on a tough, hilly course and finished strong and with a smile.

5:38, including 23 total minutes stopped on repair, and still a PR over last year—pretty bad last year!
The cool lake water felt great on the legs post race, where I ran in to Mayor Fenty soaking.  Sunday took me to my bike shop for a courtesy tuneup (since they botched the adjustment on my new wheel) and a call to FinalKick shop thanking for the tremendous road support.

An awesome race, a nice course, and a race I’ll likely do again.

May 2009

The SRRC would love to hear about your running, racing, or crewing experiences! If you would like to submit a race report, to be posted on the SRRC website, please email srrunner@srrunners.org.