Austin 70.3 - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

Swim felt awful for me. Swim training for last 3 months has not been so great. Not to start pity party, but had to have a skin cancer cut out of my left bicep. No swimming for 6 weeks. Went to swim for first time and reopened wound, and had to lay off again. Swam at Branson to about the same result. Just was not swim ready, and could never find a grove. Hopefully will get to spend lots of time in the pool in the off season.

Work on form a lot more pre race.

Only my third tri, and my first not being able to lay stuff out on the towel. I was not as organized as I think I could be. Also for got to stop by the strippers.

I just need a lot more practice.

Ride went about what I expected. I planned on being around 2:35-2:40. I was really concerned with saving something in the tank for the run. I really bonked hard after all the climbing I did in Branson. Had about as good ride as I could to save enough energy to run. Road surface was poor, and at times it got old not being able to find a nice smooth groove to ride in. Lots of unintentional blocking going on. People riding 2-3 abreast down the road not passing or getting passed. Was very hard to get around people at times without feeling like I was being rude.

Nothing, This is the one part of the race that really felt like it should for me.

Went OK. I forgot to get the CO2 out of my jersey top and went back to bag to drop it off.

Empty my bike stuff out of my pockets.

I completely fell apart on the run once we hit the trail running bits. I have been battling knee pain since Branson, and the down hill on the trail was a nail in the knee coffin. I felt amazing fit and energy wise, but every time I tried to take a real stride it would almost give out. I ran the entire way, but taking ity bity baby steps due to the pain. I was 35 minutes off my goal. It was very disheartening to have such a poor performance after all the prep.

Make sure to start the race injury free. I know I should have probably not even started the race, but I could not just throw away all the prep. I was hoping the steroid injection would get me through the 13.1, but no luck. I figured it would end poorly, but I was having the glass half full attitude.

Fall down on ground, bend knee to chest, and try not to look like I was not in huge amounts of pain. I could not really do much else. Walking bike to car was a huge effort.


It all came down to not having a healthy knee on the run. The swim and bike went about how expected. I know I can run into the 1:40s on the run, and thought I would go about 1:55-2:05 being conservative. I just could not go. I am paying for it now as I can still barely walk around my house. I knew better, but I had a lack of intelligence on this day.


I rate it average due the road surface on the bike. I also am not a fan of trail running. This made me feel like I was back in cross country in high school. Definitely not my favorite. I was also hoping it would be more through the nice scenic areas of Austin. It was a fairly ugly coarse.