Lonestar Sprint Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

This was my 1st swim in a wetsuit, which made me a little worried. Down in Texas you never know what the weather will be, and just a few days before the race a cool front blew in and dropped the water temps over five degrees. Unfortunately, this meant trying something new on race day. The extent of my wetsuit experience included a quick dip in the backyard pool to see how I moved in it.

Race day, there were people in wetsuits and people without them, so I began to question whether or not I needed it. Everyone on BT says wetsuits improve your time, so I decided to go for it. Jumped in the water, wasn't too cold, but instantly noticed the extra float. When I started swimming, I hated the wetsuit. I felt like I was completely confined and I couldn't manage a smooth stroke. Fortunately, I am not one to panic in the water, but all I could think about was 'I want this to be over now!'.

My sighting was average- wasn't bad, but there was room for improvement.

practice in the wetsuit before the race! at the end of the day, i don't think i have a bad wetsuit or that i will ultimately hate wetsuit swimming. i just think i need to get used to the different feel.

First race with a wetsuit = first race with wetsuit strippers. loved them! after the confusion of the swim with the wetsuit, though, i don't think i had that great of a transition. nothing specifically went wrong, but the confusion (for lack of a better word) slowed me down.

again, practice with a wetsuit.

Starting out on the bike I was shocked by the conditions of the roads outside of Moody Gardens. I realize I am a bike newbie, but I have never ridden on such awful roads. I definitely slowed my pace afraid of all of the bumps and poor pavement. Once out onto the seawall, I was hit with a pretty strong headwind. I was so thankful Dianne had told me to expect it, or I think I would have been incredibly deflated seeing that I could't get my speed average past 16mph. I tackled the headwind in mostly a high gear and high cadence so that I could go hard with the tailwind on the way back in. After the turn around the tailwind was a godsend.

Averaged about 22mph until the cramp. Oh the cramp! I have never had such pain in my calf in my entire life. I nearly fell off my bike as my leg simply wasn't working. I reminded myself to use my quads to get a good push pull and keep going. Unfortunately I slowed down a lot until I managed to get the cramp worked out. Finally got back up to speed altering my pedal movements a bit, but was really concerned about how I would manage the run.

eat more bananas?

T2 went alright, but I was really concerned about the cramp in my leg. Racked my bike and walked out of T2 to make sure I could get going on the run.

After the first half mile, my cramp worked itself out for the most part. I wasn't running as fast as I wanted to, but I knew if it came back i'd be walking the rest of the way so I nursed it and slowed my pace. I walked all the water stops, and maybe two more 30 second periods. Looking back, I really wish I had not done that. My problem on the run always seems to be that I don't know the course; therefore, I don't know how far I've ran or how far I have left so I wind up being too conservative. I need to learn the course pre-race and get my Garmin working for accurate pacing and distance.

learn the course before hand; make sure the Garmin is working

crossed the finish line, walked around a bit, watched Dianne finish and chatted with family


no wetsuit practice; the calf cramp


this was an OK race. i think i've been spoiled by onurmark races.