Race Result

Racer:	Kevin Kunkel
Race:	Worldgate Sport&Health Spint Tri
Date:	Sunday, May 1, 2005
Location:	Herndon, VA
Race Type:	Triathlon - Sprint
Age Group:	Male 30 - 34
Time:	1:17:15
Overall Place:	3 / 71
Age Group Place:	1 / 9
Comment:	Small race, could use more volunteers, not too bad!

Race Report:

Here it is, my second week, and now a second triathlon to report about. This one wasn’t all that much different than the first. Instead of stinking it up in a lake I slowed everyone down in the pool--two swimmers to be precise. My good friend and fellow “lurker” RAT Will Waskes, who was forced to start behind me even though he can go sub-4:00 in a 300yd swim—that’s what he gets for waiting literally to the last minute to register for the race, and another fellow who I never caught his name, only his wake. I must admit I was having some mechanical malfunctions. On the 3rd stroke the Velcro on my Ironman Timex decided it had taken a lickin’ and wasn’t gonna go on tickin’. I essentially had to clinch the watch in my wrist fist. I’m sure that didn’t help my time at all.

Once I got out of the pool (5:29, 44th our of 71) (which I coincidentally gashed my shin trying to get out of) and walked down the flight of stairs to T1, I noticed the rain was still hanging around and it was about the same temperature as last week at the Kinetic Sprint. That meant it was going to be another day of frozen and numb feet--when will spring spring for gosh sake?! Once I got on the bike, which this time I used my tri bike since it was a flat 18 mile course out and back on the W&OD, I started motoring along. I managed to pass around 8 cyclists—one of course being the aforementioned Will. I got him on the west bound down slope after the 28 overpass. Unfortunately this wouldn’t be the last time I saw him. I never realized that there are some false flats out there on the W&OD. Either that or I’m simply not that well-fitted to my tri bike. I swear I could have gone faster on my road bike. At the turnaround at Partlow’s store I counted that I was in 6th place overall and about to pass for 5th, which I did. I managed to finish in a time of 50:42, 2nd out of 71. I stayed there until T2 where we started running on the W&OD from the caboose in Herndon. T2 was well managed. They took your bike and racked it for you and handed you a T2 bag that you gave them prior to the race. It made this transition a little less hectic. I guess you can do this when you only have 70+ competitors. It didn’t help my frozen feet though. This time it didn’t take the better part of a minute to get my shoes on. I managed the whole transition in about :30.

As for the run course, we made 2 ½ loops around old town Herndon. Apparently a couple of those individuals in front of me got lost. They simply did not have enough marshals, or someone was taking bathroom breaks at precisely the wrong time. Will caught up to me about half way through the 3 mile run. Since he started 20 seconds behind me he knew that if he simply stayed with me he’d finish ahead. We came in together thinking we were 5th and 6th. We turned out to be 2nd and 3rd overall. I guess I’m glad that I studied the run course map. In fact, Will thanks me for leading the way because he would surely have got lost as well. I finished the 3 mile run in 21:04 (right on 7 min pace). That’s a little better than last week but is still more than a minute off my regular 5K race pace. I was 4th out of 71 on the run.

We managed to get some goodies. They gave out a nice embroidered fleece rather than the simple white t-shirt. I won a water bottle and a HR monitor. That’s only because when they scored the times they had me listed as 2nd instead of 3rd because when they added the swim stagger they added :20 to Will’s time instead of subtracting it. We both decided to give it to a coworker of ours’ who needs it more than either of us.
This is a nice small low-key local race. Not many of those left in the world anymore. I still have a lot of work to do in the swim, and I need to start running more miles. I used to consistently run 50-60 miles weeks when I was training for marathons. Now I’m lucky if I go over 20!

Now on to next week where Will, Michael Tine, and several other RATS will be heading down to Smith Mountain Lake for the traditional sprint distance (S 750m , B 20K, R 5K). With the short bike segment there I have NO chance of seeing Will again. Oh well, C’est la vie! I hope you enjoyed the report.