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Race Result

Racer: Kevin Kunkel
Race: Little Pepper
Date: Sunday, June 17, 2007
Location: Culpepper, VA
Race Type: Triathlon - Sprint
Age Group: Male 35 - 39
Time: 1:16:41
Overall Place: 11 / 323
Age Group Place: 1 / 32
Comment: Easier than the August Race in Culpeper--NOT!!!



Race Report:



Little Pepper Race Report

This wasn’t my first time going down to Mountain Run Lake in Culpepper for a race. It was my second. The first time was two years ago in the inaugural season of Set-Up, Inc (now Setup Events) VTS series. It was August then and the race was called the Culpeper Sprint—simple enough. It was at that race where I got second in my age group but also some pretty serious road rash after a turn that I thought was about 90 degrees was actually about 130 degrees and I low-sided right off the side of the road at 30+ mph. The August race is till around and I plan to be there in about 2 months. This new race (Little Pepper) was claimed to be a completely different course and not quite as technical—sounds good on the face of it. This is was, but being less technical did NOT make it easier. We gave up the nice cross-country run for a VERY HILLY 2 loop course on pavement.

Pre-Race:

I got to the race pretty late thanks to the family deciding to join me for father’s day. I barely had enough time to get my race clothes on and my tires pumped before the first wave took off. I was thankful I was in the first wave. Pre-race festivities were kept lively by both Kevin and Scott Baldwin and Shawn Clark giving me a hard time because I didn’t get to the race site before the roosters were crowing. Sorry guys, sleep comes first, so long as I’m ready before the gun goes off fine by me. I also got to meet up with Susan Shaw and finally got to meet Fabrice. Too bad Alex Rochette’s not still around. We’d have had to fast Frenchman in the Club.

Swim 750M (12:35; 44th over all/2nd in AG)

The swim was done in the opposite direction of the August event. We did a counter clockwise rectangular swim. Nothing was unique here other than I went off in the 4th wave and actually managed for once to find someone to draft off of for about 200M. That must have been what helped my time because I moved from the top third normally into the top eighth. I would chalk this up as a successful swim. I couldn’t believe after looking at y results that I was only 1 second out of having the fastest swim. I know this wasn’t a stellar field but I’ll take any improvement in swimming that I can get. The only thing I didn’t different in this swim than others lately is that I pushed myself harder. Most of the events I’ve been competing in lately have been at east a mile. I don’t really feel that I have multiple swim paces so I just decided I would try and go out there and go as hard as I could.

T1 (2:01; 46th overall/5th AG)

Truly pathetic. First I missed my rack then I couldn’t get my wetsuit off. This was the worst part of my whole race.

Bike (40:04; 5th overall/1st in AG)

I was happy with the bike and the course, and finally my bike split proved out to be better than my run split. It was very hilly. The course kind of reminded me of portion of what I had to endure at Triple T. The roads got pretty crowded with horse trailers to the point that two of them were parked in the middle of the road while the driver’s spoke to each other about the race. I had no where else to go except split them right down the middle. That had to spook the guys as I came flying by. I also managed to get a shout out to our own Kona bound and Team Z émigré Stacy.

T2 (1:20; 59th overall/10th AG)

Even more pathetic than the first. This time I missed my rack by two whole rows. Maybe that’s why I was supposed to get to the race site earlier-hmmm? So I could know where the hell I am.

Run (20:52; 14th Overall/1st in AG)

The run course was brutal. There were virtual switchbacks leaving the park to get out to the road. Some of the accent and descents were some of the steepest terrain I’ve ever run on. I’m happy with my time I guess but this 5K was run at about the same pace I ran the ½ at Eagleman the week before. I managed to see Shawn Clark out in front of me on the 1st loop and I used him as a way to measure my progress during the run. I managed to catch up to him with about 100 meters to go in the race. I pushed pretty hard on this one and it was starting to get pretty warm out by the time we finished.

Finish (1:16:41; 11th overall/1st in AG)

I was happy with winning my AG. I managed to get a camp chair which I’ll put to good use while I’m in my self-induced isolation epic camp the first week of July (more details on this later—I plan on writing a report for the list). I have one more race (Lake Montclair) and then it’s time to change my period of training from short and intense quality to volume the month of July getting ready for IM-Loo.

After finishing I managed to meet up with Eric Dempster a guy I’ve been e-mailing back and forth forever since we found out we’re both doing IM-Loo this summer. He managed to win the race outright. He was awesome. He hopes some of my endurance will run off on him while I hope I can get some of his speed. I had to come to his defense prior to the awards ceremony because the apparent winner (Ryan Hislop) started in the elite wave thus he thought he won when he crossed the line. He started to give Eric grief about not competing in the elite wave. I said look, this is a time trial race, you against the clock. You need to go as fast as you can as long as you can regardless of where everyone else is. I understand that racing with another person will elevate your performance, but I don’t go into a race squinting my eyes to see who has a number between 35-39 written on the calves of those ahead of me. That’s enough of my rant. Eric plans on joining me for a couple days of my epic camp. Go easy Eric!

That’s it for now. See you all at the races!