Lone Star Triathlon Festival - Half Iron Relay - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

While Bill swam, I waited in the relay exchange area with the ten other cyclists. First relay swimmer came in at 27:39, a smokin' 1:29 per hundred pace. The second came in at 32:02 (1:40 pace)and handed off to a pudgy girl wearing a Camelback. The guy next to me said, "I'm going to be embarassed if I can't catch her." Pretty mean, but a similar thought crossed my mind as well, I was just too nice a person to say so.;)

Bill had a great swim, was the fifth relay swimmer out at 37:42 (1:57 pace) and humped it up the beach so quickly that he garnered medical attention. ;)

Read his race report here: http://www.beginnertriathlete.com/discussion/forums/thread-view.asp...

I was waiting with helmet and glasses on.The bike exit was directly catercorner from the relay exchange, so that I had to run the entire length and width of the huge transition area with the bike. I wanted to wear socks but felt it was too far to run in my cleats so chose to run in my socks and leave the shoes on the bike. Worked out pretty good.

Got the chip from Bill, then quickly unracked my bike and sprinted the perimeter of the transition area to the mount line. Screwed up a little , missed the shoe on the first mount attempt and jammed and cut my toe on the concrete. Recovered quickly and mounted correctly, got up to speed quickly and into the shoes, then we were off.

Hit the mount perfectly, though I couldn't have lost five seconds by hitting it wrong. We were the fastest relay transition by 12 seconds.

Started passing lots of people on the roads out, by the time I got to Seawall I had fairly well found my niche, where the riders ahead of me were staying there, with only an occasional passer or passee.

Settled in and focused on HR. Not even sure how exactly to pace this distance, but I decided to stay in Zone 3(136-142bpm) for the first three 14-mile legs, then blow it out on the fourth and final. Since the wind was blowing almost directly against us on the way out, that translated to 17-19mph on the first stretch.

Played "pass me, pass you" with three other guys on the way out, very careful of potential penalties since Janice (Cat 4 USAT official!) was following along on the motorcycle with her notebook and pen in hand. Sipped my three-hour bottle of Perpetuem, but realized about a half-hour in that I had lost my gel flask.

After the turnaround it was a different, happier story, with the wind behind us we were able to maintain minimum speeds around 25-27mph. Got back to Moody Gardens, rode the crappy roads into transition, where we had to turnaround and do it again.

By the second loop, the quarter-iron participants were on the course. Must have passed 200 people on the way out, seemed like many of them were doing 12-15 mph while I struggled to average 18. I quicky tired of saying "on your left" and started telling them "good job," "way to go," "hang in there" and other words of encouragement instead. Seemed to work just as well, and I got a lot of "Thank Yous" in return.

Near the turnaround, another USAT official/trainee passed me while I was passing one rider and being passed by another. She was writing furiously, so I hoped it wasn't me she was penalizing. I really didn't see how she could call a penalty on anyone at that point, with so many riders of varying speeds jammed onto the shoulder. Regardless, it gave me something to stew over until the turnaround.

Going into the final leg, I knew there was no reason to save anything as I had no run to do after I finished, so I opened it up. Don't think I fell below 26 mph for the 12 miles on Seawall, spent a good bit of time around 30. Saw John (jcagg90) on the roadside, found out later he flatted and was done for the day, but he gave me an enthusiastic "Go, bear!" as I passed. Got the same from Luke when I passed him later, managed to give him a thumbs up as well. Passed a lot of people, but also got blasted on two occasions by young guys who must have been exceeding 35mph. This leg was a ton of fun, made the struggle going out worthwhile.

Turned into the road going to Moody Gardens and got hit by the crosswind, still was able to maintain 22+ on the straights. Very congested with all the quarter-ironers, so I used caution on the corners. Got to the no-passing stretch behind a slower guy, hollered "Go, man, go!" He glanced behind at me, then picked it up nicely. I passed him after that stretch and he apologized, I said, " No problem, you did great!" From that point it was <1/2 mile to transition, so I got on top of my shoes and held my speed as long as possible.

Splits(each 14 miles):

Loop #1, out: 44:57, 18.7mph, 139bpm
Loop #1, in : 33:49, 24.8mph, 136bpm
Loop #2, out: 47:01, 17.9mph, 141bpm
Loop #2, in : 32:35, 25.8mph, 145bpm

Nothing. Maybe as I get more familiar with the distance I can maintain a harder pace earlier, but this was a solid fun ride for me in this wind.

I know it's not fair to compare since I only did the bike, but looking at my age-group results, only one of my age groupers had a faster bike time than I, and he was the AG winner. Only one other (out of 25 finishers) broke the 20mph average. So, yeah, my 21.2 was solid.

Perfect dismount, moving close to 10mph when I jumped off the bike running. Sprinted around the transition area, passed my spot by a few and had to go back to rack my bike. Met Jackie in the exchange area. She fumbled with the strap a while but got it on and took off.

Don't miss my rack spot. Also, I should have handled the chip for Jackie, as she was mostly unfamiliar with it. Still, that might have cost us a few seconds at the most, so no big deal. Among the relay teams we had the second fastest T2, by only six seconds.

This was Jackie's first half marathon and she torched it. As a 5Ker new to the distance, she ran an ~18-minute 5K, followed by a 10-mile cooldown. ;) Great performance by the young lady. Bill says when she gets the hang of swimming she is going to be Kona material.

After handing off to Jackie, I went scarfed down some food then hung around the finish line watching BTers and others come in. When Jackie finished, we saw we were third, so Bill and I (and Holly and Hannah and Angel) waited around for the award ceremony. Unfortunately, we neglected to read the website where it said only first-place relay teams would get awards. :( Still, we got our names called and represented BT on the podium, even if we didn't get the hardware.


The wind? That, and I'm still carrying an extra ten or so pounds, just getting started with bike training, and so on. Still, it was a good early season ride.


Good, well-organized race, huge endeavor to have three races over two days, yet I still think it's overpriced, at least 50% higher than comparable area HIMs that I've seen. And would it have hurt to have spend another $5 for 2nd and 3rd place relay team awards?

Great weekend with all the BTers around! Pictures above show Jackie running, couldn;t find any of Bill. Also the grou0p shot is before the Pasta Party Friday night, L-R jcagg90, davidb, tri_mommy, tri_it_cajun_style, DerekL, mama bear, me, whizzzz, and coredump