The logistics of this race were a little complicated. There were two transition areas. Lake Wyandotte is about 3 miles northeast of the racetrack. That is where T1 was located. Meanwhile T2 was located in the infield of the Kansas Speedway. To make things worse, there was no parking at the lake and the race officials arranged to bus the athletes to the lake the morning of the race.

So you might ask, how will you get your bike to the lake if you can’t take your own vehicle? Well you had to check you bike in the day before, where a bunch of volunteers from local bike shops would load it onto a semi trailer with hundreds of other bikes and deliver it to the lake. Needless to say, most people were not happy with this at all.

I could just imagine what surprises I would find with my bike in the morning – flats, broken spokes, or worse. However, everything went well and my trusty steed was in its designated spot the next morning just like I left it. In fact, I did not hear of anyone having problems with their bike from the transfer. One nice by product of this was that you had assigned spots in the transition area. You just found yours and made it work.

There were a couple of well-known pros at the race. Chris Legh and Wendy Ingraham. I got to meet Chris and talk to him for a minute or so. He was getting a lot of questions about nutrition and when he eats his meals before a race. He said that his last ‘normal meal’ is 22 hours before his race start.

I also got to get a picture with him. He won the ½ iron by about 20 minutes. I happened to be at the lake when he exited the water and got to see him. He was first out of the water and out of T1 in less than a minute.

The lake was 84 F so no wetsuits were permitted. It was a deep-water start with about 30 to 40 people per wave. The course was basically one lap of the lake. They had a ton of water safety folks on the water – 2 pontoons, ½ dozen kayaks, and if you can believe it, two or three divers with SCUBA. Never have I felt so safe during a swim.

The bike course was tougher than I expected it to be. Mostly because the lake is pretty low in elevation and the track is on a high plateau. So the first three miles are all up hill and you never get that elevation back. The wind was high enough to be a factor and it was definitely going to be a scorcher.

I’m sure you know that Kansas City on August 1^st can be hot. Now imagine racing on fresh blacktop and roads that seems to reflect all their heat right back onto you.

Once you got to the speedway we made two loops of the roads around the track area (the perimeter roads not the race track itself) and then entered the infield of the track by going through a tunnel that passed under the track (pretty cool).

Once on the infield, you were directed onto the track itself and completed about ¾ of a lap before heading into pit row for T2. I was surprised at how step the bank on the track was. The farther up you went the steeper it became. I would guess that it would be difficult to stand on the upper portion because the angle was so great. Because of that, everyone biked on the lower, flatter portion.

The run was a single lap of the perimeter roads and then returning to the stadium for a final ½ lap on the track itself. My only problem came with about two miles left in the run. One of my contact lenses came out in my eye! I could feel that it was still in there, just not in the right place. Really it was just annoying, and it actually distracted me enough from noticing how tired I was.

The finish line was just off pit row and even though I was finished before 10 AM I could feel the effect that the heat was having on me. I knew that the ½ iron participants were going to suffer on the run.

Another thing that I was surprised by was the peoples’ reaction to the Team Nebraska uniform that I was wearing. Both before and after the race people would come up to me and ask about the club, races in and around Nebraska, or to say that they were from Lincoln, or Holdredge, or used to live there.

Also on the course, I heard a lot of Go Nebraska, or Go Huskers! I know it seems silly, but it picks you up a little bit when you are tired and you hear that stuff during a race.

I have some pictures of the race and the venue. They turned out really well.  I’ll have to bring them to then next meeting or event. The race was well run and I had a great time. If you can tolerate the heat you might look into entering this race next year.