Athlete Race Recap: Garmin Olathe 10K & General Smallwood Triathlon

Garmin Olathe 10K

Christina Barker traveled all the way to the Land of Oz (by airplane, not tornado) to race in the Garmin Olathe 10K in Olathe, Kansas on Saturday, April 26, 2025!

I know personally that the Garmin Olathe Marathon is a wonderful race.  It’s well-organized, enthusiastically supported by the local community, and Wizard of Oz-themed.  Chirstina has literally never strayed away from a race where she can wear a themed costume, so she was all too happy to accompany her friend Reanna (who has a goal to run a half marathon in all 50 states) to Kansas to check this state off of her list.

Christina sustained a pretty significant hip injury last year and she has been going to physical therapy for it since last fall.  She’s built up a lot of strength as a result of that PT, which gave her the confidence to tackle this 10K with a run/walk strategy while representing the Lollipop Guild during the race.  Her hip did start to tighten up near the end of the race, but it was a bit later than Christina expected it to and she was thrilled with her overall race experience and performance.

Congratulations, Christina!

General Smallwood Triathlon

Carolyn Classen kicked off her multisport season by racing at the sprint distance of the General Smallwood Triathlon on Saturday, April 26, 2025 in Indian Head, Maryland!

Carolyn loves to race and was very excited to do this particular race this year, as she’s tried to do it in the past and it hasn’t worked out scheduling-wise.  It started raining while Carolyn was in line for the swim start, and kept raining for the entire race.

The swim went really well for Carolyn.  She had a smooth transition and she headed out onto the bike course.  Carolyn is an experienced and wise athlete, and she does not shy away from training in adverse conditions such as rain.  As such, she was well-prepared to handle the conditions that were in play on this particular race day.  Too many of her fellow athletes, however, were not.  Carolyn saw many, many people on the side of the course with mechanical issues and many near-crashes due to the fact that these athletes didn’t know how to handle their bikes well, let alone how to handle them well while around so many other people.  Fortunately, Carolyn was able to safely complete the bike course.

The run was a pretty course and goes over a lovely wooden bridge that Carolyn said was really scenic.  At the aid stations, volunteers were calling out “Water!  Gatorade!  Splash!”  Carolyn had no idea what “Splash!” was; she wondered if it was some new type of sports drink.  Her curiosity got the best of her, so she called out “Splash!” in response to the volunteers.  Six volunteers then simultaneously tossed cups of water onto Carolyn as she ran through the aid station.  She ended up being very happy that she took this chance, as the cool water felt great and the volunteers’ enthusiasm boosted her for the final mile of the run course.

Carolyn finished as the first overall Masters female athlete and the fourth female athlete overall in the race.  Congratulations, Carolyn!