Team Member: Louie Kirchner

Race Name: Tri the Parks – Richard B. Russell

Race Date: 8/14/10

Race Placement/Time/Qualification: 1st AG, 17th OA

Tell us about your race (limit 500 words)…: Since this race was in a state park and I love camping, my wife and I decided to make a weekend out of it and camp out in the park. Probably not the best thing for my racing though. The riggers of packing for both the weekend and racing, setting up camp, and everything that goes along with it got the best of me. I slept horrible – it was a bit steamy out for tent camping!

The water temp was about 90 degrees, and once I actually started swimming hard in it, I felt like I was boiling. Some speedy youngsters took it out fast on the swim so I was 7th or so out of the water. Once I got on the bike I couldn’t seem to calm my HR down from the swim, so I just went with it and maybe rode just a bit harder than I should have. I managed to ride myself into 1st OA by mile 19 but not a quarter mile later I got blasted by the eventual race winner.

I came into T2 in 2nd OA but my stint in the top 3 wouldn’t last long. I felt exhausted to the core and but was able to hang onto 5th through the first lap of the 10k, but the 2nd lap I just completely fell apart. Total bonkage. I got hungry and stopped sweating…both BAD signs. I walked a few times to avoid cramping. I rarely have races this bad so it was pretty frustrating, especially coming of an OA win at Tri the Mountains.

I definately learned if you want to race at a high level you have to really focus on taking care of yourself coming into the race. I pretty much waited until race morning to start getting ready and it didn’t work out to well.

The good news is that I had the 2nd fastest bike split on the day and still managed an age group win!

Post race picture below, inhaling an orange.