Topeka Tinman Triathlon Preview

It's now just a couple of days before this weekend's Topeka Tinman so I thought I would talk a little bit about how I'm feeling and my history at this event. This was the first race I ever competed in back a few years ago so it has a special place in my heart even though the race didn't go very well. I struggled through the swim but still came out with the lead group and we all managed to get lost on the bike course and ended up back at transition well before we were suppose to. I later got a little lost on the run course too! Even so, I finished 7th overall and won my age group with a little help of some disqualifications of others who also went off the course. In all truth I probably should have been DQ'd also... shhhh don't tell. The event basically needed more volunteers. Last year I produced probably my best race of the year at this event and finished 6th overall, with the 5th and 4th places only finishing a few seconds ahead of me (the 5th place guy out sprinted me to the line and we ended up with the same time!). Because of how close that finish was I feel like this race holds some unfinished business for me. This year the event is under new management and the course seems to have been pretty much completely changed, so that should make it pretty interesting. The main reason why I'm doing this race is because I was peaking for last weeks Hy-Vee Tri but since that got shortened due to weather I have been working all week to hang on to that fitness with the hope of using it to a solid result on saturday. I'm feeling really strong and solidly recovered so expectations are pretty high for this weekend and barring any bad weather, which i'm getting really sick of dealing with, this weekend should provide a really fun event. I'll post some photos and a recap sometime after the race on sunday or monday...