[RACE REPORT] Rain AgAIn??? The Midwest Meltdown Duathlon (& Tri)

Finisher's medals were bottle openers, too. Sweet. (Photo courtesy of SeeKCRun.com)

With last week's late-addition (wanted extra practice since SMP Tri was cancelled) and then late-cancelled (weather -- again) Matt Mason Cowboy Up Triathlon missed, I went in to this week itchy. A triathlon or duathlon every week for six weeks equals my favorite time of year; missing one meant a miserable weekend (although I was suffering through a strained right hamstring at the time). I was anxious to get back on course, and this weekend's Midwest Meltdown Duathlon at Miola Lake near Paola, Kansas would provide great opportunity to get my fix.

The Midwest Meltdown is a triathlon/duathlon organized by UltraMax Sports, and always come in back-to-back with the Jackson County Triathlon & Duathlon on neighboring weekends (although, last year the Jackson Co. Du was first). At the Meltdown Duathlon last year, I took second in gender-category, and second overall. This year I'd be shooting for same or better. Considered a "sprint duathlon" if there ever were such a thing, the Midwest Meltdown Duathlon is a 1-mile run, followed by a 10.3-mile bike, and finished off with a 5k run. The triathletes would hit the same course, only with the first run replaced by a 400m swim.

On to the courses!

Course Preview
          Parking & Transition

Miola Lake, with parking, transition and run #1 noted. (Image courtesy of Google Earth)

The event takes place at Miola Lake in Paola, Kansas. For Kansas City residents, it's a 30- to 50-minute drive south on I-35, exiting south to US-169. From there, exiting on Kansas Highway 68 west and taking a left on Hedge Lane will run you straight to Miola Lake. Parking is just off the lake's northwestern corner, across the road from transition, in a large grassy area. Be sure to arrive early enough if you're a spectator -- the road leading in to the lake area (Lake Miola Drive) is part of the run and bike courses, and shuts down a half-hour before the event begins. Depending on how early you arrive, transition is a quick walk across the road towards the beach, with transition just north of the beach area.

          Bike Course
The course itself is two laps of Miola Lake. Each lap is only 5 miles and change. With no significant climbs on the route, this is a very fast course. Fresh off a concussion, I still posted a 22mph average over the course's short 10.3 miles. There are many mini-climbs that scatter the course, which makes consistent speeds difficult, and there is virtually no true flat section of road on-course. However, if short and powerful efforts are put in, the result will pay out in dividends, and speeds will stay high. My bike leg in 2013 would be fastest overall, taking me in to and out of T2 in first place, only to be pipped just 1 mile from the finish.

The bike course map, with first lap highlighted on the elevation profile chart. (Image courtesy of Google Earth)

          Run Course
Run #1 is an out-and-back of the first half-mile of the full 5k run #2. Again, no rated climbs on either course, especially the pancake-flat run #1, with only 20 feet of climbing over the entire 1-mile course. However, for run #2, the run south up Lake Miola Drive towards 299th gives a quick 29.3 foot climb (just inches short of category status for a run climb), followed by an equal descent and then another quick 23-foot climb up to Lake Miola Dam on 299th. The turnaround is halfway down the dam, and the mini-climbs back are the same as the way out. The run in to the finish is flat, and actually diverts off-road in to the grassy area just north of the beach, which is slightly downhill from the street. Be sure to watch for slick spots in the grass.

The run course map, with run #1 highlighted. (Image courtesy of Google Earth)

Pre-Race
          Weather (Updated 8/8/14 @ 9:00am)
Less than a week prior to race day is when I feel weather reports become (relatively) note-worthy. The forecast may change a bit from 5 days out to the day before (as was the case for this past weekend's Matt Munson Cowboy Up Tri), but for the most part, at least a pattern is established. The pattern for this weekend? Rain. Until a week before race day, the forecast didn't include any chance of rain for race morning, but as of the Friday before -- 2 days prior to race day -- it does. What was once a sliver of rain chances 48 hours ago has become nearly 50% chances, which -- as Midwestern meteorologists are concerned -- basically means 50% of the forecast area will experience precipitation at any given moment. Given the extremely high relative humidity forecast for Sunday, I'd say chances are greater. And lightning and thunder are likely to accompany any rain showers that pass through. Hopefully organizers will let athletes compete either way, but rare is it that rain (and especially lightning) is in the area and swimmers are allowed to start (as we've learned not only at Matt Mason, but also at the Shawnee Mission Tri); and since there is a triathlon along with my du, things wouldn't be looking so positive.

Weekend forecast for Paola, Kansas, with the 7am start time noted below.
(Forecast and image courtesy of NOAA)

          Training
On the contrary, I felt extremely confident going in to race weekend. Up to now, my season schedule has included dozens of brick sessions, and a small handful of races of the multisport variety. Two weeks prior I had a disaster of a triathlon, but luckily none of it was related to poor training. Last year I placed second overall at this event, and would still feel comfortable with the course layout (especially considering the difficulty of Maple Leaf City's run course). A few days before race day, I also managed to get in a run-bike-run test brick, and although I wasn't able to complete the full second-run 5k (due to extremely high heat indexes), my fitness felt on-key. I had also suffered a bit of a right hamstring strain the week before, but was 9/10 by a few days out. I was definitely ready.

          Packet Pick-Up
Packet pick-up for both the Midwest Meltdown and the Jackson County Triathlon/Duathlon take place at Elite Cycling at their Mission Farms store. Though a tough difficult to get to (no nearby highways), it is easily manageable. Packet pick-up is right inside the front doors. Two minutes to grab the goods, a few minutes browsing the on-display bike porn, and I was out the door.

Race Day
          Race Morning, Transition Set-Up & Start Line
I wake up just two minutes before my alarm, brought about by a clap of thunder and a burst of lightning. This seemed all-too-familiar. The weather report hasn't really changed much since last-check: thundershowers right up until race start. That seemed optimistic given our recent luck, but I was hopeful just despite. It started raining the second I started driving, and reached its crescendo on the highway. The roads were flooding, cars were hydroplaning, and visibility dropped to mere meters. If it even came to be, this race would be soggy.

Parking is best-accessed from the 299th Street/W Lake Miola Drive entrance. From there, trucks are set up to point you towards the parking area -- which was helpful this race day given the unusually-dark circumstances. As the road turns right towards the lake, cars are directed to the left, off-road, and in to a grassy area just west of transition. A few slicks of mud from the still-pouring rain, and I was parked. With it still raining fairly heavily, I didn't want to set my bike up in transition quite yet, so I now played the waiting game.

The weather slowed to a light rain with the skies barely allowing a hint of light off to the east as the storms moved north. Athletes were starting to move about from under the shelter of their cars. Transition was still empty, but given the clearing radar and fairly light rain, I decided to at least move my bike in to transition to grab prime real estate.

Transition is set up in classic rectangular fashion, stretching East-West, with Swim In on the East side of transition nearest to the lake. Bike In/Out and Run In/Out were both on the west side, with Run In/Out on the Northwest corner of transition (right side, if looking from inside transition away from the lake), and Bike In/Out on the Southwest corner (left side from inside transition). I grabbed the first row to the far west, and a position on the outside of the rack. This would allow for a less-crowded transition, and quick entrance-exit. A quick chip pick-up (located right along transition's southern edge) and body marking (which always sounds morbid to me during triathlons), and I was good to roll. On cue, the drizzle slowed to a stop. Lightning was no longer on the horizon. It was 7am. For once, the forecast was correct -- to the T. Organizers gave the go-ahead for the 7:30am start.

A panorama view of transition, with bike in/out on the left, and run in/out behind the tree.

The long-course triathletes and sprint duathletes took off at the same time, the triathletes starting from the beach just outside of transition, and the duathletes starting from the Run In/Out mats just inside the west side of transition. One of the race organizers gave duathletes instructions from the start line: given the tight roads leading up to transition, along with the fact that cyclists and runners were both using the roads, things around transition in would be very confusing (all of which I'll cover below). And just like that, 5-4-3---go! (we actually didn't make it to "2-1-" before they said go)

          Run Leg 1 & Transition 1
Like last year's Midwest Meltdown, I wanted to use run 1 as almost a warm-up for the bike and run 2. At the same time, I wanted to secure overall victory. Last year I started off on reasonable pace, and allowed 4 to 5 athletes to overtake me, all of which I pulled back and passed during T1 and Bike. After the start, my run-start senses kicked in, and my pace rocketed ahead of any plans I had. My mind switched from "ease in to it" to "this is a sprint duathlon -- you can push the pace the whole time" and "don't let a single person pass you!"

And I didn't. Any time I heard footsteps behind me, I pushed the pace a bit more. At a quarter-mile out, my body was wondering what the hell was going on. By the turnaround, it got in-check, and my body and my mind were finally working together. The run beyond the turnaround went by too quick to even remember as I approached transition.

As transition neared, cones appeared on the road, splitting it in two, with the right side of the road a bit narrower than the left. Runners and transition-bound cyclists were to stay to the right of the cones, with lapping cyclists to the left. I ran past the cones with extra bounce, and entered in to transition with a healthy 15-second lead, my 1-mile first run complete in only 6:14.

Given the unusually-quick first-run pace (in addition to the adrenaline), my heart was racing ahead of the rest of my body. I made to sure to keep my focus steely, going through transition only step-by-step, attempting not to let my brain and body race ahead with my heart. I was able to get out of T1 in 1:09, behind one other athlete that had their shoes pre-clipped on to their pedals (presumable for a flying mount).

          Bike Leg & Transition 2

That's right: so fast I'm hard to keep in focus.
(Photo courtesy of SeeKCRun.com)

The flying mount did well for him, but getting the feet in not so much, so it was only 10 seconds or so (I also had some difficulty clipping my shoes in) before I passed him, taking back first place. Now I was on to my strongest leg -- my goal here was to really eat away time from my competitors. Obviously I didn't want to pick away too much energy either, so I decided to hit a 8-out-of-10 on the effort scale, making stronger efforts on climbs to take away time. It  worked well, and I entered (and exited) T2 weelllllll ahead of second place (by nearly 2 minutes, by my count).

Here are the bike leg videos, with live metrics, separated by lap...

          VIDEO: Midwest Meltdown Duathlon, Bike Leg, Lap 1/2 (direct link)


          VIDEO: Midwest Meltdown Duathlon, Bike Leg, Lap 2/2 (direct link)

          Run Leg 2 & Finish
Shortly after leaving T2, flashbacks to last year started cropping up: leading all of the run, only to fall in to 2nd a half mile from the finish. I didn't want that to happen again. I kept looking behind me nearly every half-mile to check and see if anyone was gaining. My legs were shot, and I was asking them to push at near-5k-effort paces. But I had to focus elsewhere.

Liz looked good coming in to and going out of transition.
Not obvious at all that she was a newbie.

Nearing the only real significant climb -- on the rise up on to the dam -- I could see one off in the distance, separated by perhaps a quarter-mile. I knew I was already nearing the turnaround, but a quarter mile could be wiped out in a mile and a half -- especially if he was kicking hard. I made a pact with myself to run the entire second half without looking behind me, focusing only on my form and efficiency, at least until the half-mile to go. I did, and when I came to 1k to go, I looked behind me to find no one. I kept looking back to double-check, including immedi

ately in my wake (maybe he kicked and was right behind me). Nothing. I could coast in. Before I knew it, I was passing cones. 100m before transition in, finishers diverted off the road in to the grass, heading toward the beach. A quick left and into a stretch of grass (or in today's case, mud) guarded by barriers, and under the finish banner. 1st. And by a solid 3-minute margin.

With the quick finish, I was able to watch my sister's very first triathlon (her wave set off at 8am). She bought her first road bike a mere two weeks ago and was already competing -- brave. And a great tune-up for the upcoming Hy-Vee Triathon (not to mention next week's Jackson County Triathlong/Duathlon).

Race Day Metrics [COMING SOON]

With my sister, post-finish.
(Photo courtesy of SeeKCRun.com)

          Run Leg 1
Time: 6:13                      Distance: 1.00mi
Pace: 6:13/mi                 Max. Pace: 6:10/mi
Elev. Gain: +10ft            Calories: 97kcal
Avg. HR: 162bpm          Max. HR: 176bpm
Avg. Cad.: 168spm        Max. Cad.: 176spm
Avg. VO: 11.0cm           Avg. GCT: 242ms
          Transition 1
Time: 1:09
          Bike Leg
Time: 27:21                    Distance: 10.30mi
Avg. Speed: 22.3mph     Max. Speed: 27.2mph
Elev. Gain: +390ft           Calories: 421kcal
Avg. HR: 158bpm          Max. HR: 174bpm
Avg. Cad.: 96rpm           Max. Cad.: 117rpm
          Run Leg 2
Time: 0:45
          Overall
Time: 20:04                    Distance: 2.90mi
Avg. Pace: 6:57/mi         Max. Pace: 6:16/mi
Elev. Gain: +89ft            Calories: 331kcal
Avg. HR: 168bpm          Max. HR: 174bpm
Avg. Cad.: 171spm        Max. Cad.: 176spm
Avg. VO: 10.3cm          Avg. GCT: 248ms

Keep R/B/S-ing. -tds

~~__o

  _-/<,_

@/   @