Jack's Generic Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Thankfully this was a keep the buoys to your left swim, which accomodates my drifting left. I started off in the middle, 2nd row. Our wave started and there was some contact to the first turn-buoy, but none violent except for one girl that, for what reason I don't know, wanted to swim over me. I pushed her back as she kept hitting my shoulder blade. I actually had people drafting off me--wish I could've found some good feet to stay behind. The sun was directly in my eyes till that first turn buoy, so I sighted more often and came right up on the buoy, made the turn and had feet for a little bit, then lost them, then made the last left turn, had more feet, lost them. Just kept swimming, and trying to focus on good form. When I got towards the end people were getting up, in my opinion to early. Nasty bottom of the lake, and I just kept trying to swim till time to get out. Plenty of voluneteers to help. I took off running to T1, no walking for me.

Draft all the way. The water was gross, so it was hard to find feet. I really need to master this better. Otherwise, keep working on my form.

Pretty long run from the swim exit to my bike--at least 150m--found my rack, put on the shoes, put on the glasses, helmet, and went to the mount line. When I got to the rack, B was there already and I told her "go get 'em." Started bike computer enroute. This was really good for me, nice, smooth, no issues whatsoever. Considering the run, it was pretty fast too. 3rd fastest in AG.

Nothing.

This bike was a blast. Still not great at mounting the bike, but got up and going and was right behind B. It was up the access road, and it turned into a hill, and there were some slow pokes B and I both passed, and then I made the move to pass B and several over folks, and just took off from there on the attack. This is a sprint, no holding back. From that point forward it was a pass fest with lots of "on your left" said by me...and an occassional "you're supposed to ride on the right" and "ON YOUR LEFT" as several people found it better to ride in the middle of the road. Thankfully, there was virtually no traffic, and I was able to get around when I needed to do so. I nailed the downhills and picked up some great speed, and there were some flats where I was really pushing some high mphs just on my own. There was a little bit of wind on the backside of the course, but nothing worse than what I typically train with anyhow. At one point I wasn't seeing any more women at all, and received some nice encouraging words from the guys I was passing. When I got to the last hill on the I-35 access road I really let it go fast, even had to get on the chip seal. Was not able to get out of my shoes as you literally ended up at the bike dismount line from the hill, and it would've cost me more time to slow down on the hill to do that than to go to my rack with shoes on as my rack was really close to the bike-in. First time with the new wheels--and boy can I tell the difference, faster, I don't know...but the way the feel on the road, the way they take bumps...I love them!

Shifting on the hills could've been better, I should've done better of spinning up some of them rather than pushing as hard as I did, and it would've made me faster, I believe. I'm not the best at this--but it is improving. Continue to work mount/dismount...have someone give me a good class on it. Ration my water--I don't need more than the one aero-bottle, but I had finished it by mile 10 due to my effort on the hills. this is where shifting better there would've helped overall strategy. Otherwise, with the hills, very solid bike. I went out it attacking it whole-heartedly--it's a sprint, that's what you do--I focused on keeping a good solid cadence between 90-96, and early on passing as many as I could. Taking this course hard and fast is what gave me the win and put me far enough ahead of two faster runner's behind me.

Got to my rack really fast, shoes off, shoes on (no socks--body glide in shoes), helmet off, grabbed race belt and hat, and off I went. About a 75-100m run from my rack to the run start. 1st in my AG.

Nothing...the option to take bike shoes off wasn't wise this time, so that made it slightly slower, but otherwise, fast transition for me, especially with the run to the run start.

I still hadn't seen any other gals, and I just started trucking. The one thing I didn't do is take my Garmin with pace with me, so it was all RPE, and I just started going. The up-hill for the start was hard, I was passing guys who were very encouraging and I kept getting "run her down" so I knew there was another girl just up from me. I got up to the turn around, and the way the cones were it was hard to tell where exactly it was, I grabbed some water and started the turn around when I got "turn-around is here"--yeah, like 2-feet from me. I'm sure I could've kept running and have been fine...but I went back around it, I'll do the right thing. Someone even said, that was cool of you, you didn't have to do that...but yes I did. Anyhow, then it was mostly downhill and I was ready for it be over. I think it was here I could've used my Garmin to see what my pace was as I would've ran harder. It was also here that I had to go pee. I mean, I really did...I tried holding it, but we know that doesn't work. This is a sprint...there isn't time to stop, there are not even porta potties. I didn't stop, but I did go...this slowed me some as I didn't really want it noticeable...so yeah, gross, I know, but I knew I was either 1st or 2nd in my AG (my wave included 20-29, so the girl in front of me could've been the 20-24AG, and she was)...and there were a couple of girls gaining on me. So, that's that. Thus, I learned, if I can do it running, I can surely do it on the bike for IM...haha. Anyhow, the heat was starting to come out, and I saw B and she told me the other girl wasn't too far off, so I ran hard, and I gained some ground on her, but not quite enough. I had the chute to myself when I came in, and I was happy--I knew I had just done a good race, even though I had no idea what my final time was!

Not be so hydrated that I gotta GO during the run. Take my Garmin, it shows me my pace. Hit the turn around point right so I didn't have to go back--probably cost me 5 seconds. Also, I can run faster than this after a bike. Really during vacation I didn't eat bad food, just snacked on too much good food, and those gave me some of me I don't need. My bike kept me ahead of the 2nd and 3rd, but they out-ran me. I think I can get my sprint 5K to a 7:00, and I need to do that, at least 7-7:15. I think I could've pushed a little harder, but not knowing "where I was" on the run messed with me mentally some.

Umm, do to the "incident" on the run...I went to the water, as nasty as it was, and just rinsed off some. Better for everyone. I saw jkron and his wife and we exchanged congrats, I went back to cheer B as she came in and found J (her husband) and chit chatted some, got some water, got some fruit, and then we hung around for the post-race. The girl that got 2nd came and talked to me and she was really nice. She said she hadn't seen me before, and I told her it was my first year--she was very encouraging to how I'll do in the future. We chit chatted some, and I'll be racing her at Austin Oly and Longhorn as she trains for this year's IMAZ. It was nice to race with nice people all day long. Got a Skinny Cow Ice Cream sandwich, and veggie burger patty too...once all the racers were in they had the awards ceremony and I got to stand on a podium in first place, got a medal, and got an Organic Coffee set (2 nice mugs and 3 lbs of coffee), so that was awesome! Then it was time to pack up the bikes and head home.


Still working on the swim. Still need to trim down to be consistently competitive. I did ride 40 miles the day before, and stayed out later than usual before a race...but overall, no complaints. I was just going out to race, have fun, and practice the intricacies of racing again. It was a C race, but who could've hoped for a better C-race turn out than this. This race was 200m swimming longer than my first tri/sprint in March, same bike distance, run was .1 mile shorter, and more hills. Despite this one being longer, I did it 10+ mins faster than that one--yay for bike speed and transition speed!


Jack and Adam's puts on a GREAT Race! Tons of volunteers everywhere, events right on time, announcer the whole time, GREAT after-race food and events--truly high class race and if I can do it again, I will. For schwag everyone got a t-shirt, a running hat, and 1-lb of that coffee that I got more of for winning. The only bad thing is the water you swim in, but it's a sprint...you can live with it.

Had a great time today--my first USAT AG win! I hope there are more! Saw jkron grab 3rd place hardware--we both were sporting our BT shirts on the podium--not just T3 and Texas Iron place in races here!

The race gave me lots of confidence and further convinces me that I need to shape up in some personal discipline areas (i.e. really truly slim down back to where I was after deployment/during the marathon) and I will be faster. My bike training is definitely paying off and I am so glad I love the bike. So I love the bike, I love the run, and I tolerate the swim--not slow, but not first out of the water, that's for sure!