Kenny Rakestraw

Thanksgiving Day: Raced My First Open 10km Run Race!

2009-11-26T19:38:00.000-08:00

First off, I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving full of family and a delicious homemade dinner! I was lucky enough to fly home where I was welcomed by my immediate family along with both grandparents and my wonderful Aunt who had a large role in launching my triathlon career. It was quite a treat!

So now for the juicy stuff, a race report on my first open 10km run race at the local Dana Point Turkey Trot! While I have raced many 10km runs, they have always been at the end of triathlons. Even as a strong runner, I never had the pleasure of running amongst great runners in a 10km run solely. And that's just what I got at Dana Point's Turkey Trot...great runners! With purse prizes of $1k, $500, and $250 for the top 3 male and female athletes, it was a given that some legit athletes would show their faces. Not to mention this race harbors over 10,000 runners, 4,000 of them planning on shedding some calories in the 10km run prior to a Thanksgiving feast. Amazing!

I decided to sign up for the race just a week ago after healing from a bad fall off my bike 2 weekends prior while maneuvering down a wet descent in the Berkeley hills. While my bike was lucky, I wasn't as fortunate. I took a nice slide across the asphalt and gravel that led to a bruised hip, knee, and ankle in additions to wounds on my shoulder, ankle, and both hips. This led to some stiffness in my running stride for a week as my bruised hip made was aggravated by the muscles flexing around it. So basically I am all healed up and I decided that I'd like to use a great Turkey Trot like the one in Dana Point to test where my fitness level was at in the fall base period when I have simply been running on hilly trails and kept off the track for speed. I was all set for a great test!

And that's just what I did! I woke up at 5AM, showered, inhaled some oats, and was off to cruise down the beautiful Newport Coast towards Dana Point. Just as I was getting into town, the view of the ocean horizon was revealing a red glow that looked stunning along the protruding coastline. I parked, got my bib, and did my warmup as I prepared myself for some quality competition. The winner from the previous year had posted a smoking fast 29:28 10km...yea, FAST! And I thought my 32:30 at the end of a triathlon was quick, I guess not.

We all lined up behind the start line, all 3,978 of us. I snuck up into the elite starting area..shhh, don't tell! "BANG!" said the starting gun. And we were off. I was about 4 rows of runners back from the top elites at the starting area, so I worked my way around as we headed down a flat straight shoot. After just 400 meters, I had to make the decision of whether I would be able to catch the top 12 runners and risk blowing up or run my race and hope that I'd catch at some point. So I chose the latter and used the top runners as a carrot that I didn't want to get any further away. I was sort of in no man's land except for 1 other runner who was drafting off me for a while. At the mile marker I mentioned the idea of working together to catch the front pack with my follower. He was tentative at first and said he might not be very helpful, but he warmed up to the idea and we were soon taking off turns with the slight wind and mental effort of pushing the pace. As we were running through the 2 mile marker after turning around and heading back the way we came, we were met by masses of runners. They were ridiculous, taking up the entire lane and I almost had some close head on collisions.

We stayed safe luckily! And made it through the halfway point, 5km in 15:54. The two of us stayed together while I did most of the work, but finally he took over and pushed a blazing pace for the next 2 miles where we caught 2 of the top runners who were fading. We kept pushing forward and saw the splintered front pack, still moving fast, but not intact. With the 5 mile marker upon us, I took over pulling and started to push the pace in order to gradually work my way up to a sprint for the final 400 meters. We passed 1 other runner and we had our sights set on the Finish line. As I got into a full sprint for me, or rather a long strided run, I heard the loudspeaker addresses the racers, "Are you more focused on that big Thanksgiving Turkey for dinner or the Finish Line?" My mental answer, "FINISH LINE!!!!" And I picked it up to a sprint as I kept anyone from outsprinting me and came across the line in a personal best time of 31:45!! That's 5:07 per mile pace if you were about to grab your calculator.

I was very happy with my time since my previous best was at the end of a triathlon in what I thought was quick, 32:30. I congratulated my fellow athletes, drank a recovery drink, said hello to my family, and went off on a cool down. It was a great start to a great Thanksgiving. Later on that day I decided to go for a nice open water swim in the ocean and was amazed by the crystal clear view of the ocean bottom 50 feet below. Light was bouncing off of Kelp below live a techno rave light show. Spectacular! Oh, and then I pretty much ate half a Turkey.

Hope the holiday was good to you all!

Veterans Day 100 Mile Bike Ride to Davis!

2009-11-13T12:23:00.000-08:00

Today was Veteran’s day and there is no better way to spend a day off of school than in the saddle for 100 miles with my fellow Cal Tri hotties! I’m going to keep this short…not! Well anyways, here we go! For your information, this story was written under a massive endorphin high, so you may see random thoughts pop into my head.

We departed from North Berkeley with twelve studs at 8 am on a crisp Veteran’s day morning. As soon as our cleats hit the pedals, the singing began. Due to the amazing vocal chords of Louis Vayos, the entire group was quickly serenaded by an eclectic assortment of songs. Basically we had a human boom box, which comes in very handy for long bus rides, car rides, and most importantly bike rides. Well we were doing just that, a long bike ride, and we never stopped singing. As someone who finds trouble remembering lyrics, Louis was the perfect remedy. And so we rode…over the Berkeley hills, down the twists and turns of Wildcat, and up over the three bears (three hills that in our case go in decreasing steepness).

Side note: In last year’s Bearathlon tri race that our team hosted, I passed the one and only John Dahlz while on the bike after being over 2 minutes down after the swim. I was feeling like “the man of the hour", until suddenly I got a flat on the last of the three bears. With no way to fix the flat, I then proceeded to pull my feet out of my cycling shoes and run for the remainder of the bike course over rocky pavement and drains, barefoot. Some say I ran half a mile, others say five miles. Well with the help of my trusty Garmin, I was able to set these myths straight, and calculated accurately that it indeed was 2 miles of barefoot running that later led to 2 large blood blisters, one on each of the balls of my feet. Well back to the adventure…

As I was saying, we hauled ourselves over the three bears with our human music box alongside as we all sang ‘Aint no sunshine when she’s gone’, John Mellencamp’s ‘Hurt so good’, and ‘Be our Guest’ from Kevin Haas’s favorite movie, ‘Beauty and the Beast’. With music, we headed out onto the Pig Farm route (named so due to a pig farm that now does not exist, most likely due to the swine flu epidemic). This is where the first of two flats occurred. CJ, a stud, got this early flat. With the Kevin & Kenny Pit Team (“KK Pit team”) right there to help, the mysterious thorn was removed and the fun continued. I’m just going to jump to the crossing of the Benecia bridge because it was epic. The crossing was amazing. Period. That’s all there is to say about it. Well and the fact that we were crossing…“The 1962 bridge that consists of seven 528-foot (161 m) spans which provide 138 feet (42 m) of vertical clearance, carrying four lanes of traffic in the southbound direction, as well as a pathway for pedestrians and bicyclists.” Yes, that was from Wikipedia if you were wondering. We then continued singing into Benecia and along the waters of the Suisun Bay. We then stopped at a local gas station, GAS CITY. A quality establishment, they even put up a sign on the Women’s restroom entrance that reads, “No guys in here!” While at this fine gas station, many snacks were eaten. Some were purchased such as Snickers and some were beautifully made prior to the ride. I was part of the group with premade treats as well as Melissa Peabody. We both rocked 2 whole-wheat PB&J sandbos, sooooo good. Sooooo good! And then more riding…

The next segment was fun, fast, and foxy (sorry just wanted three words to start with ‘f’, sudden alliteration impulse). We started up a mean pace line of 10. We cruised at around 24 mph for about 20-30 minutes. I lost track of time; I was having a ball. We setup a standard pace line with the front guy pulling off into the wind. We then stopped to wait for the group and proceeded to sing Red Hot Chili Peppers ‘Californication’, Bob Marley’s ‘Buffalo Soldier’, and a few Reggae tunes. We then continued on together until my rolled up jacket fell out of my jersey pocket. I went back to pick it up and the group didn’t slow down one bit, they actually made a pace line and cranked the power as almost everyone was blown out the back of the train. I was far behind now, well actually only 2 minutes behind. As I pushed forward to catch the leading 2 guys, Kevin and Ron, I passed many of the casualties of an increased effort. While passing the human jukebox, I said “Hop on!” and the two of us, with rather low volume on Louis’s vocal chords, headed off on the chase. I would pull hard and then Louis would do a darn good job while I recovered for another push. With twists and turns, ups and downs, we finally saw the faintest glimpse of the breakaway. They were putting 100% effort on their engines as we got excited for the kill. I rested once more and then we sprung on them like bats out of hell. And all I hear from Kevin is “Sh@t! I told you Ron! I told you…we eased up to 90% and they got us. F@#k!” Sorry for the language, but I want to document this with facts, not a fictional censored version. We then continued on, Kevin still making a fit about how they were so close to keeping us away, as we headed for the nearest water stop. Next to the hose for water was a fenced area that contained the friendliest horse, which allowed us to pet. In just a few miles, we were in the small town of Winters for a delicious big burrito. Before we got there, Kevin, Ron and I stopped at a random fruit stand on the side of the road to buy fresh handpicked strawberries, carting them off to the Mexican joint.

After stuffing our faces with large amounts of burrito and strawberries, we made the journey over the last fifteen miles to Davis. On our way we sang again, including ‘Tootsie Roll’, ‘Great Balls of Fire’, and ‘Free Fallin’. We all got went single file as we passed many farms with trees transplanted into mature trunks of trees previously cut down. This gives the newly transplanted tree a pre-existing root system, but also will limit the size of the tree so that it suits the needs of the farmer. Learn more by watching the Discovery channel, in general and about trees. As we moved onward, we came across a neat little bridge with graffiti all over it, where we stopped to take some model pose pictures. Great fun! The last few miles were relaxing as we found ourselves in the town of Davis, which we later reflected on as a “great family town; genuine, down-to-earth, and free from the worries of the world.” Sadly, we didn’t spend much time in Davis. We headed straight for the Amtrack train station, bought our tickets, and then laid around on the ground waiting for the train. With 45 minutes to spare, I began to do what anyone would do, lead a core workout with an Australian accent. Five of us began to do pushups, side plank, bicycles, and mountain climbers, mate! Of course we were shirtless, only way that Crocodile Dundee would have it.

The train arrived and then we had to stuff our bikes in the seats of the front car after arguing with one of the train conductors. After storing the bikes randomly, we headed upstairs to the train’s bar and bought ourselves some cold beers and red licorice. We sat around and enjoyed the view as the sun was setting over the hills and bay. The long day of fun in the saddle was coming to a close. We got off the train in Berkeley and headed into the darkness up the hill to our respect homes with our warm showers and enormous dinners hopefully waiting upon our arrival. It was a good day…soooo goood!

Directions:

1. Pig Farm ride – down wildcat, over the bears, up and over pig farm.

2. L at Alhambra Valley Road

3. Stay on Alhambra Avenue

4. R at Marina Vista Ave

5. L at the Benicia Bridge

6. L on park

7. R on Jefferson

8. R on Military E

9. R at East 2nd Street

10. Continue on to Lopes Road

11. L Lopes Road (at 680) 7.4

12. X Gold Hill Road/Mini-Mart for Food

13. R Lopes Road 2.5

14. S Green Valley Road (begins N of I-80) 2.9

15. R Rockville Road 4.3

16. L Abernathy Road 1.8

17. R Mankas Corner Road 0.7

18. S Mankas Corner becomes Waterman 1.6

19. L Hilborn Road 2.3

20. L Lyon Road 2.2

21. L Cherry Glen Road 0.8

22. L Pleasants Valley Road 12.5

23. Stop in Winters for Massive Burritos!

24. L Putah Creek Rd

25. Then magically appear in Davis at Amtrack station, last part is blurry

Flashback: Last season's Bearathlon Race!

2009-11-13T11:26:00.000-08:00

22 March, 2009: RACE Day

I awoke at 4:30 A.M. to the adrenaline-pumping cell phone alarm clock at the side of my bed. I flopped my legs over the side of my bed and prepared my eyes for the brightness as I turned on my room light. Race day was upon my thoughts as I began the familiar process of waking up by starting to brew fresh coffee and hopping in a warm shower. Just as I finished getting my uniform and necessary warm up gear on, the coffee was prime and I sat down with my dad for a not so appetizing bowl of plain oatmeal with a pinch of brown sugar. Only 25 minutes had passed and buddy and training partner Bee-Oh showed up with his goofy demeanor after he got a mere hour and half of sleep. We mounted our bikes on the top of my car and threw our gear in the back as the three of us to ok off into the wet and dark streets of Berkeley. After a quick transition to pick up Mike Sontag, we headed to the race site at Lake Anza. Of course we listened to appropriate music that slowly got louder and louder and when we were in the Lake Anza parking lot, music was blaring Infinity 2008 as Bee-Oh and I danced and got the nearby racers pumped. I once turned off the music for a second, and I heard about 10 moans, so I put it back on and everybody was happy, including some older age groupers.

It was time to set up our transitions. I got a great location 4th bike on the last row closest to the bike out. I threw down my transition towel, bike shoes, sunglasses, nutrition, and swim stuff next to my bike. Bee-Oh and I headed over to grab our timing chips and throw our T2 equipment in the back of the truck that would take it to T2 (Note: if you don’t know about this course, there are two different transition locations. Swim to run up at the Lake Anza site, and bike to run at the Briones overlook 5 miles away). Due to a good amount of hydration, I constantly went off into the darkness to due my business. Thank god it was so dark that morning, I think I went 3 or 4 times before the start. Next step before warming up was to get my body marking with my number on my left arm, hand, and calf. It was a dreadful thought to strip down to get marked when the air temperature was a freezing 36 degrees.

With the boom box playing Kevin’s loud techno music, a group of us got our bikes hooked up to the trainers and began the warm up routine. With 4 layers on (uni, t-shirt, sweatshirt, warm up jacket) I quickly got warm, which was a relief in the chill of the air and the thought of getting into Lake Anza. After 25 minutes on the trainer, it was time to get the T1 organized: cycling shoes, arero helmet on bars with sunglasses inside, and gels taped on top tube. With 15 minutes until race start, I slid into my wetsuit, zipped up, and headed with the masses with goggles and neoprene cap in hand. As I headed down, I somehow remember hearing our very own Dave Penny’s on the loudspeaker spit out something about “don’t forget your ear plugs and butt plugs.”

Swim

After a few minutes to get acquainted with the 52 °F lake temperature, the race was off. The collegiate men were off on the first of 2 swim loops that included a run along the water’s edge before diving back in. On the first loop, I quickly got into a good rhythm with the adrenaline creeping all over my body, or that could have been my last pee to warm my body up. Who knows. I finished the first swim lap with teammate and accomplished high school distance swimmer, Mike Sontag, and quickly ran past him before he caught and pasted me on the second lap. Towards the end of the swim, I began to visualize the bike course and began kicking my legs harder to warm them up. I swam a solid 16:30 on a 1250-meter swim and was 8th out of water. I quickly ran into T1 and couldn’t help from laughing when I saw Louis Vayo (the 1s out of the swim and teammate who swam NCAA) seriously being dressed by our coach. He had his hands straight out in front of him as Coach Andy draped him in a biking jacket and strapping the Velcro on his gloves. With a smile on my face, I got to my T1 and quickly pulled off my wetsuit and attempted to get my biking shoes on. The first attempt just led to one shoe flying off due to such cold hands and toes. I quickly got both shoes, sunglasses, and helmet on and headed off on the bike.

Bike

I began with a high easy cadence to get my legs warmed up. I got off to a great start as I went from 8th to 3rd in just the first 4 miles, even before the top of Wildcat hill. Louis gave me another laugh when we were close to each other and we both saw a deer crossing the road. The deer was seriously right in our path and I closely avoided it. I looked over at Louis while passing it, and with his excited voice like a kid, asked me “Did you see that? Did you see that deer?!!” Yes I did see it. The next obstacle was the technical decent of Wildcat hill. Sharp left, sharp right sharp left and so on. I took the entire descent quite aggressively. I passed 1 more guy descending before getting to the bottom and taking a sharp left onto San Pablo Dam Rd. Just as I turned left, I saw one more guy in a Cal uniform ahead of me, but was unsure who it could be. I figured it must be Bee-Oh since he is a strong swimmer, but as I got closer the last name of the butt was visible and read “Dahls”, which I think is misspelled rather than Dahlz. I thought to myself, “this can’t be right, I must be imagining it.” John Dahlz is a respectable elite triathlete and teammate who is one of my role models in the sport of triathlon. He is a very strong swimmer as well as an excellent cyclist, but I would never have thought that in just 8 miles of cycling that I would have bridged a 2-minute gap. It is at these times in a race when you start to think to yourself, “Am I going too fast and will I blow up at this pace or can I keep it up and pull away?” I convinced myself that my legs were feeling good and picked the latter of the two. I kept trucking on and read my speedometer flirting around 25 to 30 mph on the flats and slight descents. One thing I have learned in the years is to never look back if you pass someone. It’s not a way of showing dominance, but a means of staying focused and assuming that your opponent is always on your heals. I kept my focus ahead and pushed over the first two big hills known as Mama and baby bear. As I got closer to the final and biggest hill known as papa bear that was jus 2.5 miles from T2, I looked back and John was nowhere in sight. I was getting excited and began to visualize the next leg, the run. This was quickly interrupted when I was just 1/4 of the way up the last difficult climb when I heard, “psss…pssss…pssssss”. I had a flat in my front wheel. I knew there would be no air soon so I made one last surge up the hill and got half way up before I got off and saw that I would be riding on rims if I went further. My instincts quickly kicked in with the thought that I could still salvage this lead since during the race I thought it was only .5 or 1 mile away (I thought 1 mile, but after the race I calculated it to be 2 miles to the T2). I took my shoes off and clipped them both back into pedals and took off up the hill on barefoot pushing my bike. With my aero helmet and sunglasses still on, I ran hard up to the top of papa bear. About 2 minutes after I began running, John Dahlz came whizzing by with a sympathetic question, “Flat?” Yes, but I kept running hard with my left hand on my seat pushing my bike up and myself most likely at around 5:30-5:45 pace. Adrenaline was fuel. Nothing could stop me now. I began by running on the asphalt covered in uncomfortable pebbles, but I didn’t mind it too much at first since my feet were still a bit numb. But I soon began to feel my warm up and found the cement and smoother storm drain to be more comforting. The drain was rounded and was about a half foot lower than the road, so my bike was way up. As I kept going, I began to sing aloud. Yes, you heard me right, I began to hum and sing. If you have ever ran on hot sand at the beach and started chanting “ohh ahh yikes ohh ahhh,” that is what I was doing but with a tune to it. “Ohh ahh yess I’m going to run across the street now doobie dahh lalala”; something like that. The entire run included the 1/2 of papa bear, a short flat section, then 1 big dip down and then back up, then a steep .5-1 mile downhill into T2. Another teammate of mine, Craig Fellers, an extremely strong cyclist came whizzing by with another sympathetic expression to my circumstances. As I came tearing down the last hill as fast as my raw feet could take me I came down the last hill singing and another 5 guys passed me as I got to T2. My dad was awaiting me at T2 with a video camera, and yes there is footage of me running down the hill. The first thing my dad said was “Ohh noo…” haha. As I came in I shouted out “I just went for a mile warmup” and “It hurts sooo good!” I quickly parked my bike, grabbed my running shoes and was quickly off.

Run

I came into T2 in 6th or 7th, but had a quick transition and was out on the run course in 4th, ready to do whatever had hunting I could do. John Dahlz was long gone, but my new goal was to pick off a UCSD triathlete and teammate Craig Fellers to the best of my abilities who had nearly a 2 1/2 minute lead on me going into the run. I started off on the treacherous and very hilly run course. For those unaware of the course, the first 1-mile is relatively flat, but then the next 2 miles are all on a steep uphill on now muddy and slippery trail. Then you turn around and head straight down the cliff of a trail. So I began on the flat beginning with a blazing pace. Just a 3/4 mile or so into the big hill, I caught both of them and was now in2nd place. But I knew I had a long way to go and I began to feel the effects of running on asphalt barefoot for 2 miles. It felt I had glass and sharp rocks under my toes and with every step the balls of my feet seemed to stick and unstuck as if blood was covering my feet. I tried to keep my focus on the race and fight through the pain. After the race, teammate Bee-Oh noted that after the halfway mark “you didn’t look so good.” And I didn’t feel so good. I was constantly slipping on the mud that was everywhere on the trail. Mud would build up all over the bottom of your running shoes adding a lot of weight and mud would go flying. I started heading down the step face of the hill towards the flat section at a very cautious pace to my standards since my feet hurt more with the extra pressure on them with the descent and uneven ground. With 1/2 mile left until the finish I bonked harder than I have ever felt in my life. My nutrition had been thrown off due to the flat. I had taken 1 gel earlier in the bike leg, but I planned to take 1 more gel right before going into the run, but was preoccupied with running barefoot to remember. I now felt like I was running in place. Trying to grab the air to push my way forward. I now gave up on what I said before about looking back at your opponents. I kept looking back to see Craig Fellers 30 seconds back. I felt like he was getting closer and closer. With 1/4 mile and one last climb to the finish I was flirting with fainting. I seriously began to lose my sight. I saw stars zipping by and then all colors got darker. I knew I just had to take one step at a time. It was like an endless crawl up the last hill. When I finally put one foot over the finish line, I was so relieved, worried about my feet, but more importantly hungry!

Post-Race

I had finished! I now limped over to the first aid tent and sat on the massage table to examine my feet. I didn’t know what to expect. After removing shoes and socks, there was blood all over the toes on my left foot and two silver dollar size blood blisters staring at me from the balls my feet. As I sat down getting cleaned up, Danielle Moultak generously offered her warm jacket and brought a feast of food. I was so pale, cold, and hungry. But I still had enough energy to laugh about the whole event. My other teammates came over to check in on me and we exchanged a few laughs. I didn’t get off the table for another 10 minute as I ate about 15 orange slices, 5 bagel slices, and a bottle of fluid recovery as I waited for so me padding to put on my feet. My dad came over with my clothes and I put on 2 pairs of socks, running shoes, 2 jackets, and sweats and then I limped over to the food table trying not to apply any pressure.

The awards for the race were soon announced and Cal had dominated as the men went 1, 2, 3 and the women went 1, 2. I ended up placing 2nd overall and actually had the fastest run time as I ran on blisters, which amazed me.

The rest of the day was filled with eating a delicious burrito and icing my feet at Cancun, sitting in the hot tub at the school pool, ordering fresh blackberry frozen yogurt, and watching coverage of the 1992 Kona Ironman World Championships with Mark Allen and funky outfits until both Bee-Oh and I passed out halfway through and slept for over 2 hours. We then ate a delicious meal at Zachary’s Pizza.

Overall it was an incredible day and I enjoyed every moment of it. I want to thank everyone who organized the race, volunteered, cheered me on, and left everything on the course. Great job everyone! And thanks for reading this extremely long race report.

One last note about the weekend that I can’t

leave out was on my drive home from Berkeley to Newport Beach. As I was driving my dad and I just north of LA, we were discussing the whole ordeal that had gone on the day before. My dad asked me, “So would you remember exactly where you flatted on the course if you went over it again?” I barely had enough time to say “Yes, of course” when a loud sound came from the back of the car, “clunk…clunk…clunk”. ANOTHER FLAT TIRE!! (As Norman Stadler once said at Kona Ironman a few years back. If you haven’t seen footage, youtube “Norman Stadler’s meltdown”) Yes, I now had a flat tire on my car. The back left tired had popped and I veered off from the fast lane to the center divider area. I told my dad that I could to start running barefoot if needed. My dad was able to quickly change the flat tire with a spare faster than most people on our team can change a bike flat.

Welcome to my New Blog!

2009-11-13T11:14:00.000-08:00

Hey all...thanks for checking out my new blog. I am working on launching a website, but I wanted to keep in touch with those of you who enjoy following my story.

As of now, I am in my senior year at UC Berkeley studying mechanical engineering, training in the offseason for triathlon, and plan to get my pro card in January 2010.

I wanted to start my blog off with a few reports I wrote up. The first is one from last year's Bearathlon triathlon out here in Berkeley, CA. It was an unique and painful experience, one that I will remember for a while. The second was from this past Wednesday, Veteran's Day, when I went for a 100 mile bike ride with a number of my awesome UC Berkeley tri teammates. It was an epic holiday ride!

Peace,

Kenny