LongHorn Ironman 70.3 Triathlon Festival - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

felt strong. Course got very busy on the return leg- waves were only staggered 5 minutes and we had a couple of slow age groups ahead of us. Somewhat challenging sighting on the return leg- looking for dark orange buoys with the low sun right behind them.

no hurry; put on a tri top and loaded my pockets with food.

a pretty, relatively flat course with fairly rough roads, especially in Bastrop County. My friend Dave and I rode the course the week prior; in that time span, they actually freshly paved about 8 miles of the route and shaved down a very dangerous bump (critical- we almost both crashed on it previously). The course had good signage and traffic control and they did an awesome job taping off cracks and potholes. Nonetheless, plenty of folks flatted and there were bottles/ tubes/ bags/ etc all over the road.

It hurts to grab a water bottle hand-off at 15 mph! Was very cognizant of needing to get in a lot of calories while on the bike. Ended up having three gels, 1.5 Clif bars, 2 water bottles and 2 Gatorade bottles. I found it easy to down gels during the ride and quite difficult to put down solid Clif bars- little desire to chew. I ending up starting one, tossing the wrapper, then putting two-thirds of it back into my pocket opened (finished it later). It was a chocolate almond fudge- whole almonds are particularly tough to chew! Hopped on the bike once at 40 miles to pee in the bushes; realized that my saddle was loose –dang. Rode the rest of the 16 miles back in as-is; it had slide back an inch or so but was holding its angle, so the only real change was that I was fairly stretched out while in my aero bars. Wind wasn’t much of a factor except for a two-mile stretch through a field; lucky, as it can get gusty out in those parts.

decent turnaround, got sunscreened up. Entered at exactly the same time as the guy racked immediately next to me – odds of this happening were approximately 1-in-2070.

Two loops from the Travis County Expo Center, down the road to the Walter E. Long Park, a mixed terrain-and-hills loop in the park, then back to the Expo and repeat. The park loop was pavement, grass, wood chips, and packed dirt, and I appreciated the change-ups (I heard mixed reviews from folks on the surfaces). Excellent aid station support- water, ice, Gatorade, defizzed coke, bananas, oranges, cookies, gels, and cold-water sponges, plus good music (2 bands and a guitarist) and lots of spectators. Prior to this event, my longest run ever was around 8 miles, so this was, by far, the longest run I’d ever done in my life. I was cramping a little (quads and calves) toward the end of the bike so was very worried about the run- I fully anticipated cramping somewhere on the run but was troubled that it started coming on so early. Anyway, I felt great starting out the run. Ran the first few miles at around 8:40 pace. Lots of folks cramping/ walking/ hunched over; a few vomiting and a few sitting/ crumpling on the ground. The park had a couple of decent hills and many people had the strategy to walk up the hills.

I still felt strong after lap one, taking in a gel at 5 miles, a banana, plus Gatorade and water; a nice boost at the end of lap one/start of lap two at the Expo Center from all the spectators who had accumulated at that point. Lap one was around 1:02. Felt the onset of some cramps again around miles 9-10 and started putting down some more bananas and gels (I had cramped a little in the CapTex Olympic around mile 4 of the run and one well-timed gel staved it off and brought me home strong; I was operating under that same assumption here). I avoided locking-up or anything else major thankfully. I felt really good around mile 10.5-11 but held off on upping the pace until around 11.5, where I began a pretty good stride. Decided I had the juice and wanted a negative split on the run, so I had a quick final mile and a near-sprint for the last few hundred yards, finishing lap two in around 00:59. The finish line was inside the Luedeke Arena, so: (a) it felt really dark in there after 5 hours on the bike and run courses, and (b) there was plenty of noise and cheering and energy.

felt decent. Not as exhausted as I had expected, but definitely sore quads and hamstrings. Ate some BBQ, drank a lot of water, got my finisher’s medal and photo, and got a lei from Cate (Kona-inspired). Got a 10-minute free massage – felt wonderful and really loosened up my legs. Checked results, gathered bike and gear, headed out. That afternoon, ate a ton of food and drank a bunch of Coke (I rarely drink anything other than water).

Following day: I was fine standing and fine sitting but it was somewhat challenging to transition between these two states.


Successfully completed my first tri season. Furthermore, went from never having participated in any race of any kind (besides swim meets) in April to having completed, in order: a 10K in Austin at UT (May), an Olympic tri (CapTex, May), a 5K (along the water in San Diego, July), 5 weeks without any training or any cardio in Alaska (July-August); a sprint tri (Austin tri, September); and a half ironman (October). Definitely a weird pattern of events and training. Part of me wants to do a full ironman someday, part of me wants to do a marathon. I don’t think I’d love to commit the time to training appropriately for either of these but I think I could complete either one; perhaps a 3:30-3:40 marathon and maybe a 12:00-12:30 ironman?

In the meantime, looking forward to more climbing, more tennis, and getting fat(ter) and laz(ier). I definitely think more sprint tri’s are in my future- that was a ton of fun to go out and hammer for a really short time and still have energy left in that afternoon. It would be neat to win the swim at a smaller event but ultimately my training time is better spent learning how to ride a bike without being slow as molasses. I need to learn intervals and I need to get on some shop/group rides. I’d love to hit a 1:10 sprint tri next season.