6 peat, 3 peat, and a flat tire

The weekend following Galveston I got right back at the local tri circuit and defending my title at the Spring Migration Triathlon. This race is almost always the windiest I do all year and this year was no different. It's a true Kansas race and I enjoy the challenge it presents. Although it was not one of my faster performances on the course it was a good effort coming off the half iron the week before.

Two weeks later we were on our way to Columbia, MO for TriZou. Not counting the year I wrecked this race has been good to me with a couple of amateur titles and now three elite titles. We love staying with Joe and Amy Company and it's been fun watching our families grow year to year to where our kids are now old enough to interact and play together. RD Mark Livesay once again trusted me with the mic so I could thank my beautiful wife, coach, and the amazing people of Columbia I get to hang out with for a weekend every year.

Last weekend we let our sense of adventure finally get the better of us as we decided to camp out the night before KS 5150. Now we love to camp, but this time we had a 10 month old and there was severe weather in the forecast. Severe weather in KS in May means thunderstorms and high winds at the best and tornadoes at the worst. By midnight the storms hadn't even arrived yet and Stephan had already decided he didn't want to sleep. I ended up sitting with him in the van and watching the storms come and go as Yvette and Corynn held down the tent and actually got a little sleep. In the morning the lightening had not subsided and the race was delayed a half hour. Once we got underway at 8am they had cancelled the swim despite clearing conditions and we headed out in TT start format on the bike.

I rode solid, however my day would be plagued with bike problems; first a chain that jumped off a pulley and I had to dismount to pop it back on, then with two miles to go a punctured tire (glass?) which was big enough that the fix-a-flat couldn't seal it and I had to pull off the rear wheel and change the tube. All in all I lost about 6 1/2 minutes according to my garmin. That is also about the time I lost by overall so it may have been a close race for the win but that's all part of racing and I was glad to rally for the day's best amateur run split. 

 In two weeks I'm back on the same course at Clinton State park for Kansas 70.3. Hopefully the result is a little better.