Photo By Maj. Michael Odgers | Capt. Robert Killian, Colorado Army National Guard, is shown in the middle of a 13.1...... read more read more
BOULDER, Colo. - Capt. Robert Killian, from 2nd Battalion, 135th General Support Aviation, completed the first ever half ironman at the Reservoir in Boulder, Colo., Aug. 8. He completed the 70.3 mile long race in 4 hours and 10 minutes, 18th overall, and the 7th amateur to finish. His time made him the top competitor to fill the male Army slot at the world championship Ironman race in Kona, Hawaii.
To convince the Army that he had what it took to compete, he actually paid his own way to compete in last year’s world championship. He ended up beating the Army’s competitor by a few minutes.
Currently the big race in Hawaii only has two slots per service, one male, one female. Therefore guard, reserve and active component athletes alike compete for these two slots.
This 28-year-old Signal Corps officer is originally from Charleston, S.C., and a graduate of the Citadel. He has only been competing in Ironman triathlons for less than three years. He has been a long distance runner since high school and has been competing in road races for a number of years. He has just recently added biking to his repertoire – competing in his first triathlon in 2007.
The Boulder race consisted of a 1.2 mile swim, a 56 mile bike ride ride, and 13.1 mile run for a total of 70.3 miles, half the distance of a full Ironman. Something Killian trains for a few hours a day. Switching up long runs one day, a long bike the other. And a long swim once a week.
The race began at 6:30 a.m. with the swim. It was cool and cloudy. The professional athletes, the ones with paid sponsors and all the time in the world to train, went first. Then waves by age group began oldest to youngest. Killian was in last wave.
The swim is admittedly Killian’s weakest event. He was a full ten minutes behind the race winner. By comparison, his run time was only 6 minutes slower, and his bike time seven minutes slower than the race winner.
“I start out as far front as I can and then I try to draft in the water and stay as close to the buoys as I can, “said Killian. Drafting in the water is often referred to as tickling the feet. Something Killian said he felt the whole swim. Not only does this technique reduce your drag, it lets you know where you are without having to look. “Also I try to use just my arms, to save my legs for the run and the bike.”
Immediately after the swim the athletes make a slow 100 yard dash in the deep Boulder Reservoir sand to the transition point. From there competitors find their bikes among another 1,600. Here competitors get out of their wetsuits, dry off, don socks and biking shoes and down a snack before they start their 56 mile bike ride.
Each athlete’s bike is located in a specific area based on their bib number. However that doesn’t stop a few disoriented athletes from heading to the wrong location first. If you were to add a few three-wheelers to this frantic mass of runners and riders crisscrossing each other it would resemble rush hour traffic in Bangkok.
Once on the road Killian did nothing but pass and no one ever passed him. With wave starts an athlete never knows for sure if the guy at his heals is really behind him or ahead of him in time. So he has to ignore that and race his own race. The race is about endurance and maintaining the best pace you can. He knew what pace he was capable of and maintained it throughout the entire bike race disregarded the athletes around him.
Killian admits that in a mass start, with everyone starting at the same time, there is a psychological effect knowing that the guy that just passed you is ahead of you. But you still have to concentrate on running your own pace.
Determining and maintaining the best pace possible is the key to a good finish. Like a NASCAR driver has to account for fuel economy, tire wear and pit stops to win a race so does the endurance athlete. It’s an issue of exerting the most amount of energy possible without over fatiguing yourself.
The byproduct of exerting your muscles is Lactate Acid. If your muscles produce more acid than can be processed your muscles fatigue, if you are not pushing your muscles to the limit you’re not being competitive. Sprint athletes worry about processing that acid after the race. Endurance racers don’t have that luxury. They have to manage food intake, hydration, processing lactate acid and the byproduct of hydration shall we say – something that has its own techniques all while continuing to race.
Keeping your muscles just under that edge is where endurance racers try to be. Racers can use a heart rate monitor or a power meter attached to their bike to ensure that they are maintaining the most out of their muscles without over fatiguing them. The power meters are the most accurate but also the most expensive. Like a pilot has to trust his instruments and ignore the seat of the pants feel, endurance athletes must trust their instruments to know if they are over or under exerting themselves.
A top level athlete can spend upwards of $10,000 on a road bike with all of the accessories, power meters, and lightweight materials to be the most competitive.
Killian entered the transition area with his best bike time. It was a full eight minutes faster than his previous best. “When I finished the bike I knew I was going to Kona,” exclaimed Killian. “Anything can go wrong on the Bike; you could have mechanical problems, a crash, anything.”
The last event was the run. By this time it was 75 degrees and the sun was beating down on the competitors without a single cloud in the sky. Additionally there wasn’t a single stray tree branch reaching across the 13.1 mile course.
Every so often there were refreshment stations to get damp sponges, water, Gatorade, and coke, yes coke. Many of the athletes find a shot of the sugar-filled fizzy refreshment to settle their stomach which has been bouncing for miles and a sugar rush to keep you going.
The sponges often ended up tucked under people’s jerseys to give a gentle squeeze now and then to provide some much needed cooling.
“God you’re fast, I could hear you coming up behind me quickly and then blowing past me. All I saw was a yellow blur remarked a female fellow racer that came up to Killian at the finish. She was stepping side to side the entire time as if her legs didn’t realize the race was over.
And he was indeed fast. He finished the 13.1 mile run in1 hour and 22 minutes. The lack of shade and warm sun weren’t a hindrance to him. He started the run high on adrenaline knowing that he was going to Kona, that this was one of his best times so far and it was at altitude, thousands of feet above the sea-level course of Kona. This adrenaline carried him through the run on cruise control maintaining a 6 1/4 minute per mile pace.
He will be competing as a team in Kona. His female partner is Capt. Erica Chabalko, an active-duty soldier from Delta Company 187, Fort Sam Houston. Together they will make up the Army team.
Out of 2,000 plus athletes who will be competing in this year’s race, Killian wants as many as he can in his rear view mirror, but there are about eight who are the most important, the Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard teams.
| Date Taken: | 09.09.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 09.09.2010 12:08 |
| Story ID: | 55960 |
| Location: | BOULDER, CO, US |
| Web Views: | 32 |
| Downloads: | 7 |
This work, Big Island Bound: Colorado Guardsman makes Army team for Ironman world championship, by MAJ Michael Odgers, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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