Clear Lake International Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

You can't tell from my time, but this was my best swim performance ever! I atually free-style swam from start to finish (no dog paddling, backstroke or hanging off buoys.)And, I finished with a little energy left over, in fact, I think I could have swam several 100m's more if I had to.
I just swim slow! My navigation was pretty poor too. Going out we had the Clear Lake Hilton Hotel to site off and I still managed to swim to the right over and over again. A life boat actually waved me back on course a couple of times. I'm too slow to be swimming extra yardage.
Also, there was one guy who repeatedly swim on top of me from about 500m to 1000m. I eventually said,"DUDE, YOU'RE KILLIN' ME!" and he finally stayed away.

Keep practicing swim...maybe get some lessons.

I ride with my socks and running shoes on (strapped in). After all the pre-race preparation, I couldn't find my socks...someone must've accidently grabbed them, though I don't see how. Left sock in left shoe and right sock in right shoe prior to leaving transition...but they were gone. Luckily I brought extra...dug through my bag, got'em on, grabbed my water bottles (which were on ice) and out the door.

I bought clip-on aerobars last week and only did one 20 miler to test them out. Definitely need a professional fitting but felt pretty comfortable throughout.
BIG problem! I started out about midway in my large ring. When I got to Kemah Bridge (monster hill for me), I could not shift to small ring. I worked at it for several hundred yards before deciding I would have to tough it out. Man my legs burned on that one. Actually passed two people who got off a walked up after about half way. Went so fast coming down I thought my rig was about to come apart...just held on and coasted down.
Pretty uneventful the rest of the way. A few miles were kind of rough, but most of the course was pretty smooth and there seemed to be adequate police presence at the major intersections.


I was a bit concerned with how the heat would effect me on the run, so I kept some energy in reserve. Turns out I probably could have pushed a little harder on the bike.
I'm really impressed by how fast some of the guys and gals did this bike course...it reminds me that I have a long way to go.

Went OK. I felt a little disorientd for some reason and made a complete loop around transition before finding my rack. But eventually ditched my bike, grabbed a drink, a wet towel and was out the door.

Not sure

It took a full 2 miles for me to lose my bike legs (doesn't usually take that long). It was just hot enough that I felt like I needed to be cautious. So, I ran pretty conservatively on the way out. I drank at every stations (water and gatorade). With about 3 miles left, I started to stretch it on out a bit. Felt like I finished pretty strong. By finish time, it was downright hot.

Drink a bit more on the bike.

Ate, Ate, Drank, Ate somemore. Pizza, grapes, oranges, bananas...I couldn't seem to get enough. Tells me my body was on the edge of crashing. I need to work on nutrition a little more for the next one.


inexperience, more practice.


I enjoyed it. Great location. I will point out that Clear Lake is a proper noun given to a body of water and not a description of where we swam. I kept tasting gasoline.