Capital of Texas Triathlon - Olympic - TriathlonOlympic

Even though I tried my hardest not to, I took off to quickly on the swim. A combination of swimming too fast, nervousness, and no open water practice made my first 200 M sloppy. Instead of breathing every three strokes, I was struggling for air and breathing every stroke, and about half of my breaths came with a mouthfull of water.

After rounding the first buoy, I finally settled into a decent stroke rhythm. Once I relaxed, I found that the wetsuit did much of the work and made my swim effort much less than typical. Even so, I still only calmed my breathing down enough to breathe every other stroke.

Somewhere around the halfway point, I started to catch up and pass a few other swimmers and thought, "hmmm... this has never happened before." I was feeling really good until I came upon Swimmer X. I don't think that he was trying to be a jerk, but it seemed like everywhere I wanted to go, Swimmer X was in front of me. I'd try to pass him on the left, and he'd move left... I'd try on the right and he'd move right. I was getting very frustrated when I finally decided that he was going at a fast enough pace for me, and just settled in behind him. I'm not sure, but I think I may have finally passed him at the very end of the swim.

Navigation was also a little challenging for me on this swim. Instead of going straight from buoy to buoy, I zig-zagged across the course. I don't think that I ever veered off course too much, but I'm sure that I could have saved a few seconds, if not a minute, by maintaining a straight line.

As a side note, I bought earplugs and wore them for the forst time on this race. It was really nice later on to run and ride without my ears full of water.

1) I need to practice swimming in open water more before my next race. I did not feel very comfortable in the water at first. With more practice, I hope to get more accustomed to open water and get better at navigation.

2) DON'T TRY TO KEEP UP WITH THE FAST SWIMMERS AT FIRST!!!! I write this in bold because I tell myself this every time, but I always manage to get carried away at the beginning of races.

I could have moved faster during this transition, but I was a little disoriented after the swim for some reason. Not tired, just disoriented and a little dizzy.

I had rubbed down the calves of the wetsuit with bodyglide before the race, but I could have used more because it still hung on my calves and heels a little bit. It was a loaner wetsuit, otherwise I would have tried out putting crisco on the outside of the legs to make it come off easier.

Instead of putting my Gel on the bike where it normally goes, I opted to lay it out on my transition mat. Well, this wasn't a good Idea because I completely forgot to take any before I left T1. I really could have used it later.

Running with the bike was fine, but I decided not to attempt the running jump & mount because I was still a little bit dizzy. Once I was on the bike, my feet slid easily into my shoes and I got up to speed quickly.

1) More lube on the wetsuit legs.

2) Put gel on the bike so I don't forget it.

3) jump and mount bike barring dizziness.

Holy cow! this was fun!!! The downhills were absolutely a blast. My top speed overall was 32.5 mph, and I hit around there pretty consistently on the downhill past the capital building.

Having not eaten any gel as planned during T1, I needed to get some calories, so I sipped off of my gatorade throughout the race. When I started lap three, I took in too much and the sweetness hit my stomach and made me queasy. All I could think about is how I didn't want to throw up in front of such a large audience, so I slowed down considerably until my stomach calmed down early in lap 4.

I struggled with the uphills and had to stand up on them every time. Also, My cadence was way lower than I would have preferred.

I feel that I could have done a little better, but this was my best bike performance in a race setting by far.



1) Eat a gel before the bike and stay away from the overly sweet gatorade.

2) Keep cadence higher. I didn't even realize that it was as low as it was until lap 4. I changed gears and increased it and felt much better.

3) More hill training - practice remaining seated on long climbs.

I was really starting to feel tired here. I timed my shoe removal much better than on the last race and rode in swiftly with my feet on top of my shoes. When I jumped off of my bike, My feet seemed to weigh at least 400 lbs each. They did not want to move. I hobbled / trotted over to the bike rack and sat for a minute to collect myself.

Once my shoes were on, I took a huge mouthful of gel, followed by another. It probably equated to about 3 gels total. I washed this down with several mouthfulls of water and headed out.

1) Eat more during the bike / less during T2.

The first part of this run was absolutely great. I was a little worried that I had eaten too much in T2 when my stomach felt like it was going to cramp, but the feeling quickly passed and I felt much better. My legs felt strong, my pace was pretty good, and my HR was in the 160 range. My only complaint for the first half was the heat. The sun came out right at the end of the bike and there wasnt much shade for a good portion of the run. I had a tough time keeping cool.

In looking at my split times above, I can tell exactly where I bonked! Right after mile three, I ran completely out of juice. My legs werent too tired, my cardio wasn't too tired, I just generally ran out of energy. I think that if I had eaten more on the bike and brought some gel with me, this would have been avoided.

I also caught myself drinking water at nearly every station. This helped to replenish my fluids, but by the last two miles, I really had to pee. By the end of the race, my bladder hurt so bad that I tried to just let it go, but I couldn't get anything out while still running (the crowd didn't help either). Strangely enough, after I finished the race, the need to pee went away and I didn't need to go again for several hours after the race.

I plodded along until mile 5 and six, when I finally had to stop and walk for a few minutes. Near the last mile, I cought back up to a guy in my age group that I had been playing cat and mouse with for the entire run and decided that my goal was to beat him. I kept up with him for the last full mile and sprinted it out at the end. I just passed him inches before the finish line.

1) Eat more

2) drink less (or learn to pee while running)

3) continue run training as I feel this was my weakest leg overall

Found Katie at the finish line and gave her a big hug. Then I walked around for 10 minutes looking for Tracie and her mom and dad.

Ate 4 sloces of pizza, 4 popsicles, a bottle of water, and a gross orange smoothie in a bottle.



1) undereating / overhydrating was the biggest factor

2) open water swim technique

3) bike cadence / hill strength


This was BY FAR the most fun that I have ever had at a race. It was highly organized, the volunteers were great (Tracie, my wife, was one of them), and the course was really fun. This race will definitely be on my list for next year and probably for years to come.