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

The water was very choppy like nothing I had experienced before. Told myself I could do it and to stay calm, keep my breathing steady and hold my line. While my time was awful, the experience was a good one for me. It told me that despite the worst conditions I have ever been in, I could do it. I never once thought of holding onto on of the boards or quitting. The second turn went right into the waves and no matter how hard I swam I felt like I was going nowhere. The purple caps were intermixed, but I also started passing men that had started well before me. Realized it was tough for a lot of us and kept going.

I need to be a stronger, more efficient swimmer. I expended too much energy for the time it took me, but overall I was happy with the performance. It gives me confidence moving into Racine70.3 in Lake Michigan and IM WI.

Given my healing stress fracture, I walked out of the water, got stripped which was awesome and continued walking to transition. Took my time with sunscreen, shoes, etc. knowing the next phase was a structured ride from my coach and then I would be handing in my chip.

Nothing.

I've never done a race as a training day so it was hard to let people pass me early on in Z2. My stomach was upset from swallowing water in the swim so I spent the first 30 mins drinking H20 only. Felt better at the 10m mark just as Chris Lieto was coming back into town. Awesome to see such a strong rider. Continued to take in concentrated Sustained Energy/Hammer Gel every 10 minutes which worked well. Got to the 20m mark and finally was able to take it up to Z3 and I really started passing a lot of people. I think they must have started out too hard and were gassed. Tried to get my HR into Z4 the last 15m, but it was nowhere to be found. I felt fine, I was going about 19-20mph, but my HR wouldn't budge over 150. Hit the final turn and was blasted by the same headwind we experienced the day before, but it didn't matter, I was almost done for the day.





Nothing. The plan my coach had given me for the day was a good lesson in self control. I felt great coming into T2 and more than a little conflicted that I was stopping. I could have had a good run. It was the right thing to do, just tough when the rest of my friends were out there getting it done!

Packed up my gear, called Paul and met him to walk back to the room for a shower and some chocolate milk before heading back to the run course to see the SWBKRUN team finish.


Nothing.


Overall a great race.