The second half of the season

pic of Don O. (thanks for letting me borrow your race shorts Don!)

Halfmax Nats

Well I have not posted much about my races lately. Part of the reason is I have just been really busy with work and taking care of other things when not training. The other reason is i just was not incredibly thrilled with any of my performances as of late (except for Halfmax on the 18th). The second half of my season has been a learning curve for me in finding out how much racing I can handle in one season. Also how quickly I recover and how to train to peak for a certain race.
Anyways here is how the season progressed after my last race report on August 4th.

Hulaman Half Iron- Last year I won this race at my first attempt for this distance. this year a little bit more competition.
33:30-swim- average for me. Water was a little rough.
2:33:31 Bike- 1min faster than last year, plus the road was all torn up, plus i was riding solo the whole time instead of last year where i raced with Bill Thompson and tried to keep him in sight.
1:37:09 Run- I suffered here. I new it right away. I have never felt worse on the run...even felt worse than PAc Crest. It was humid & hot, i felt like crap. After the first lap I found out Chris B (who was kicking my butt), pulled out of the race and I was in first. Problem was Aleck was close behind me. I tried to pick it up and was able to hold of Aleck as he was nipping at my heels for a few miles. Aleck eventually passed me and he really deserved the win since he had made a wrong turn and ridden 3 or 4 miles off course on the bike. He was still able to run me down too. After Aleck passed me i though i would just jog in for second place. Instead with a mile to got Adam Blalock was closing on me so i had to pick it up and run a 6:20 mile the last mile......finished 2nd place behind Aleck who was really strong and never gave in and had a great race. Props to Athlete's Lounge for putting on the race (free race/transition bags for everyone plus Primes and $500 1sst place, $200 2nd place).

Portland Tri- Great race here with a swim in the willamette, multi loop (spectator friendly) bike and run courses in the heart of downtown portland and a cool enviro-friendly race director.
Decided to have fun with this race and just go without a watch or bike computer the whole time.
Swim- 27:36- slow course as you have to swim against the current the second half of the swim. prob equiv to a 25min or 24:30 no current 1500. out of water in 27th place.
bike- 1:09:44 (24miles)- 3 lap course with 3-4 miles going up each lap.....12th fastest split
run- 36:44 10km- this felt good. although i only passed up a couple guys i felt good out there and stress free running without the watch. Ended up 11th overall in a fairly competitive field of 217 athletes.

USAT Age Group Nationals-
Felt great coming out of water in 23 minutes. was really starting to lay the hammer down on the bike and felt better than i had all season long! Then I flatted 10miles into bike. Had no spare since it was Oly Distance. was a spectator the rest of the day. I did make it onto the Championship Video though! I am right just before halfway through this video running into T1 and stripping my Zoot wetsuit, exposing my Team ZootGu gear- (notice how easily that suit comes off)
http://www.endurancefilms.com/TheCompany/OurSponsors/NAGCHIGHLIGHT.aspx

Best Dam Run 10k- Official results say 34:00. My watch said 33:59.7. I'll call it a sub 34! 4th place overall. felt good

Kaiser Permanente 5miler (part of POrtland Marathon)- 28:23....5th place. Tough slow course. Was fun running and getting cheered on by all the portland marathon spectators!




Halfmax Nationals- 13th place overall, 3rd place age group. Had a decent 32 minute swim. Bike time was 2:44 on the 55 mile course, but 6000feet of climbing made that a decent split. moved my way from 50th overall to 14th during the bike. I was racing out there and feeling great. The last climb on the bike is 6miles @ 8%. And you roll straight into t2 after that climb. so no spinning easy after the climb! The first half of the run was all down hill pretty much. but it was getting hot and i was trying to recover from that bike, so i never got going. Hit the turnaround and the rest of the run was uphill and me just trying to hold my overall finish aroun 15th place. ended up getting passed by 2 guys, but passing 3 so i moved to 13th overall. This was a good result for me at a National Championship event. And one of my favorite races this year because of the challenging course and because it was my bike that got me on the podium in my Age Group!

Overall the was a really cool season for me. I had four Running only race and 9 Multisport races. I confirmed that I am much more of an "elite" if racing Duathlon vs. Triathlon. But I would still rather be a "pretty good" triathlete, than a "very good" duathlete. My 1500 swim PR went from 26:30 last year to 23:20 this year. I can go sub 34:00 on a 10k now. I ran a 35:00 10k off the bike at worlds!

I want to thank my Coach, Mark Kendall for guiding me through another successful season and helping me hit numerous PR's yet again. I'd also like to thank Doug, Mike & Darlene of Columbia River Swim Team for letting their High School kids beat up on me! I have really become much more fit in the water since training with these guys.

Thanks to Team ZootGU for all their support and keeping my energy stores stocked up throughout the season. And thanks to my TeamZootGU teammate Don O. for letting me borrow race shorts for Nationals!

Thanks also to my training partners this year:

Matt Urbanski, Jessie and Eric Doelzal- For whoopin me on the track on a regular basis.

Sal- My swimming and Tri related topic chatting buddy

Chris B- For getting me to swim hard in my open water swim workouts. And for giving me history lessons about our sport!

Thanks to all my teammates with Speedshot Racing (Don, Sue, Don, Andy, Bob & Karen, Allana, Brandon, Jerry, John Colleti), it was great to train and race with everyone again this year.

I'd like to thank all my family and friends for all their support in this journey. And I also want to thank my Wife, Kelsey for trying so hard to put up with all the training and racing. I love you babe.

1st Annual Walk-Mile-For-Kyle!!

This last Sunday we held our 1st Annual Walk-A-Mile-For-Kyle. The walk in Kyle's memory was originally Kyle's Mom's (Debbie) idea to hold an annual walk. When Debbie met Mamie (the Portland marathon Charity contact and Medical director), we were set with an event day and a great organization (the Portland Marathon) to support our cause.
Choosing Open Meadow Alternative Schools as our Charity was the perfect fit. Me, Kyle, Andrew and Adam all went to Open Meadow and the school played a major role in helping each of us turn our lives in a more positive direction when we were struggling in High School. When it was all said and done, we raised more than $2200.00 worth of Donations for the excellent program.
Our Walk was a 6.2mile (10km) hike along the last miles of the Portland Marathon course. This worked out really great because we were able to cheer on all the Marathoners at the same time. Among the marathoners was Open Meadow's Executive director (Andrew Mason)who finished in a solid 3hrs 31min (over an hour faster than his previous marathon time)!! Now there were over 9,000 people running the Marathon on Sunday. We must have really stood out though because I cannot tell you how many volunteers, spectators and police officers who asked me "who is Kyle?". It was so cool to be able to tell complete strangers about my best friend and how his nick name came to be "Walk-A-Mile", hence the event name Walk-A-Mile-For-Kyle

Now on to the Walk:



This is the park where all 60 of us would meet the morning of the walk. Notice two things in this picture:
1: Grammy Wammy (Kyle's Grandma) needs to set the correct date on her camera!
2: You see that strange light up in the tree? Kyle was with us on this day. Smiling down on us the entire time. Probably laughing that we were having to walk in the rain like he had on so many occassions when he was earning his nickname "Walk-A-Mile-Kyle"
 Walkers getting ready to get the show on the road!

This was the wide part of the road that we could stay to the left of all the Marathon runners and out of their way. There were some sections though where Marathoners had to weave through a sea of green Zupan logos!
Yep I wore my blue tights! And yep, Orion wore cut off jean shorts with a hole in the butt!
Thanks for the awesome Water Bottles and GU2O, GU Energy!!
Everybody seems really happy in this picture. This must have been taken before we started walking!
Walk-A-Milers-For-Kylers all over the place! Grammy Wammy and Aunty Mary made cool picture-pins of Kyle (you can see on the shirts) that we got to wear!
2hours of Walking in the rain and we were finished! 6.2miles proved to be a long distance to Walk. Everyone hung in tough and finished for Kyle though!
A big thanks to Mamie Wheeler, Les Smith and the Portland Marathon for letting us participate in their event.
Huge thanks to Zupan's Markets for sponsoring our team and their generous donation.
Thanks a million to Gu Energy for keeping us all hydrated by supplying waterbottles and GU2O for the entire team. (We have extra water bottles and Gu2o that was not used and will be given to Open Meadow students to use)
Thank you Debbie Kepic for getting this event going!
Thank you Grammy Wammy and Aunty Mary for doing such a great job promoting this event!
Thanks to everyone from Lane Powell who participated and donated! You guys really came through for us!
Thank you and Congrats to Andrew Mason, Paul Shoen and Mondo Espinoza for joining our team, donating to Open Meadow and finishing the entire 26.2mile run strong on Sunday!
Thank you also to the staff of Open Meadow. Especially Donna Schaeffer, Michele Taylor, Bob Kellett, Andrew Mason, oh and you too Hoover! It meant a lot to us to be able to raise money and recognition for your program. We appreciate all the support you gave us to make this event run smoothly.
I also want to thank the entire team who walked on Sunday and everyone that helped donate in memory of Kyle. YOur support for this event in its first year was huge, and I am looking forward to growing and improving this Walk for years to come!
Thanks Everybody!

Kyle Robert Kepic
"Walk-A-Mile-Kyle"
Rest in Peace Bro!