It's not very often that Paola, Kansas, is abuzz with anything other than farming equipment at the wee hours of 3am. Yesterday was the exception as a few hundred triathletes descended upon Paola for the Midwest Meltdown Triathlon and Duathlon presented by Cycle City.
See slide show below
Packet Pickup & Goodie Bag:
Event Shirt - Race organizers revamped t-shirt design with Oakley Glasses sponsoring the shirts. Many athletes spoke highly of the new design and wore the shirts proudly at the race.
Give-a-ways - GU Gel, Race Fliers, Coupons to Cycle City, Advertising for local coaching organizations, Verge socks.
Goodie Bag - Reusable Maxxis cloth bag.
Check-in Process - Organized, Accessible, Multiple Opportunities.
Setup:
See Race Preview for Logistics of the race.
The forecast was for low 90's, sun, medium humidity. With the past week being very mild in the metro area, Lake Miola was recorded at 78 degrees which was wetsuit legal for those fortunate enough to bring them on August 29th! With bright sun, few clouds and a mild breeze, midwest weather does not get much better for late August for triathlons.
Pre Race - Parking / Trek to Transition / Check-In / Body Markings:
This venue allowed for easy access to transition from parking area. All athletes had to do was cross a road, and there was transition!
Body marking was very smooth with lines for long and short course, moving participants through quickly.
Transition Setup:
Entrances and exits were marked with signs on the ground and denoted by the timing mats. Bike racks were low profile wooden slotted racks that racers must place the rear wheel in accompanied by the more traditional hanging bike racks made of steel. Race organizers patrolled the transition area pre-race to assure participants were racking their bikes properly to avoid transition entanglement of handlebars.
Port-a-potty Situation:
One location of 6 to 7 port-a-potties served the entire event. Towards heat 1 start, the line was growing long, but it was nothing out of the ordinary for a multisport event.
SWIM!!!:
The swim course consisted of a 750 meter trapezoid. Long course athletes completed two laps by running from the finish area back to the start and completing their second lap. Swimmers were surrounded by boats, kayaks and divers to help them navigate if they got off course from the buoys lining the course. After turn one on the swim course, racers were faced with the sun when sighting to the next buoy. This caused a few racers to veer off course and use up effort to get back on course. It's hard to offset this effect, but maybe a shorter distance between buoys would have eliminated a few issues. Race organizers also decided not to have a break between long course and short course heats to avoid racers being in the late morning heat.
BIKE!!:
It doesn't get much more pancake flat than this course! See slide show for profile of course. The course consisted of a loop of 5.2 miles. Short course racers completed 2 laps while long course rode 4 laps. The only major obstacle was a few rough spots from pavement repairs and the "head wind" on the back stretch,
RUN!:
The run traced the same road as the bike. This did present a few logistical problems around transition and on parts of the course where one way bikers were sharing the road with two directions of runners for about a mile of the course. Long course ran the entire bike loop while short course was an out and back. The steep slope of the road for drainage did get noticed by some racers, but it wasn't anything causing a dangerous situation.
Top 5 Short Course
1 - David Reed - Leawood KS - 1:00:01
2 - Tom Pickert - Kansas City MO - 1:00:21
3 - Brandon Simpson - Olathe KS - 1:01:42
4 - Michael Carlson - Overland Park KS - 1:02:18
5 - Ryan Falkenrath - Olathe KS - 1:06:30
Top 5 Long Course
1 - Brian Goddack - Lawrence KS - 1:48:28
2 - Thomas Woods, Iv - Lincoln NE - 1:48:55
3 - Jeff Messenger - Lenexa KS - 1:55:06
4 - Kevin Wait - Lenexa KS 40 - 1:55:07
5 - Mike Garven - Lawrence KS - 1:55:42
Post Race / Finish Line:
The usual grub and drinks were at the end. There was a plentiful supply of Gatorade, water, bananas, pop and beer if that's your thing. Also on hand were Oakley Sunglasses reps with an ice bath along with local coaching organizations with info tents set up.
Overall the event went smoothly, packet pickup went according to plan. Sadly that concludes the local Kansas City area Triathlon season. There are a few more races nearby Kansas City, such as the Branson 1/2 Ironman, but you will have to drive 4 hours to get there.
Organizer:
Bill Marshall along with Cycle City were the event organizers.
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