LongHorn Ironman 70.3 Triathlon Festival - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I was debating on whether to push the swim or not before the race and decided I figure it out a few 100 yards into the swim. After merging with the wave in front of us, I made the decision it wasn't worth the energy... cruise the swim. The last stretch of the course into shore was pretty dang crowded, other than that it was much more spread out than last year.

Nothing

Wetsuit strippers are awesome! It was so weird coming into the transition area and only having my bike shoes and a bag sitting there. Threw on the shoes, wetsuit into the bag and ran out.

Nothing

As I left T1, I couldn't clip in because of the mud that got stuck in my cleat. It took a couple tries of digging out the dirt with my fingers to finally be able to clip in. After all this, looked at my HR and was way to high @162bpm, goal HR was 145-150. It took me a good 4-5mi to get my HR down, kept telling myself relax I'm on a training ride ignore all of these people around me. Once my HR came down I was able to keep it below 150bpm for the rest of the ride. The ride was pretty uneventful, great scenery and since I wanted to distract myself from the race I actually got a chance to enjoy it, first race ever I think. I kept my power under control, goal was 245W and I was actually at 235W because I coasted a lot of the downhill sections once I got up speed. My nutrition was 2 packs of shot bloks and a mix of gatorade and water as needed and it worked out perfectly for me.

Nothing, most relaxed 56mi ride I think I've ever had.

Dismounted the bike, starting running into transition and my dang shoe hit the ground and unclipped. Ran back grabbed the shoe and headed into transition, this was the first thing that really went wrong and I thought hmmm 10s time loss, I'll take it if that's the only problem :)

I really liked the two transition setup, makes each transition very clean and easy.

Nothing really, keep shoes on pedals I guess but not sure how I can control that :)

Start of the run I knew I was ahead of my stretch goal pace of 4:40 and because I went so easy on the swim/bike I had a ton of energy. Leaving the arena was mostly downhill so I was able to cruise and felt great, looked at my watch after a mile... 6:30, crap must slow down. I eventually settled into 7/mi pace and it was right on the line of where I could feel my quads wanting to cramp and if I pushed slightly harder they would have. The crowd and aid stations were great with support, my only complaint was on the largest hill of the course there was no crowd or support. Other than that, it was great and I got tons of comments about the polka dots :) Back to the race, first loop finished and I was feeling great but knew the next two loops will be all mental about holding that line right below cramping. 2nd loop, I slowed down going up the hills and pushed the downhill and every time I felt that twinge of cramping come on, pulled back slightly. 3rd loop, by now I was hurting and the sun was out one pavement, no shade the heat was getting to me so I took everything I could to cool down and kept moving. My last loop was definitely a little slower but not by much, after the last climb of the big hill and then the gradual uphill to the arena I knew it was over. Running into the arena with the crowd and music going was great and one of the best finishes I've ever experienced.

Not run so hard on the first mile, besides that nothing.

Sat on the ground for a good 15mins or so before I felt like I could move again.


Fitness


This was the kind of race I was hoping for at New Orleans and actually my fitness level was higher then than it is now. I far exceeded my expectations of what I thought was possible, my pre-race goals were...
Longhorn - Think of race as 3hr warm-up to a half marathon. EASY on the bike!
primary goal 4:44 (1:24/100m swim, 21.8mph bike, 7:30/mi run)
stretch goal 4:40 (1:24/100m swim, 21.8mph bike, 7:15/mi run)

This was without a doubt the best triathlon I've had so far. To top it off, our AG had 4 world slots and I ended up getting one so I will be at the 2010 World Championship in Clearwater :) Guess I better get some more speed in the next year so I don't get my butt kicked too badly there!