HITS Triathlon Series: Marble Falls - Olympic Course - TriathlonOlympic

Water was so warm! Felt awesome. Almost too warm in a sleeveless wetsuit. All the olympic distance women went off at once. Positioned myself towards the front and got off to a strong start. Was able to settle into a more comfortable rhythm after the first turn buoy. Never did manage to find any feet worth drafting, so I just concentrated on swimming strong but controlled. Caught up with the slower men (who had started 3 minutes before us), which was rather annoying particularly at the turn buoys (bottlenecks). Nonetheless, the race was small enough that it didn't feel very crowded the whole time. Picked up the pace after I rounded the final turn on the second lap and cruised on into shore. Actually out of the water in 30:57.

More swimming in training would probably have helped with speed, but this went very well for what little training I had put in.

Took a little extra time to wipe my feet off and then realized I hadn't reset my bike computer (duh). Wasted a few seconds doing that. Otherwise this went fairly well. Fastest T1 in my age group.

Move a little faster and not bother resetting the bike computer (barely looked at it during the ride anyway haha).

Ah, the bike course. Pretty sure I used every single gear on the bike. I knew from looking at the course elevation profile that it would be hilly, but it exceeded expectations in that department. Going out felt more uphill than down, but there were some really awesome fast downhills. Stiff crosswinds threatened to blow me sideways a few times. Passed a number of people, and was passed by several (mostly men - only a few women passed me the whole ride). Then we turned around. Hello, wind! I had no idea I had as much tailwind going out as I did, but as soon as I turned around I realized the force of the headwind (18-20mph) that I would have the joy of riding into most of the way back. That and many climbs made the second half feel really slow at times. Unlike previous races, though, I made the decision to ride as hard as I could manage - not a maximal effort, but definitely more than my usual comfortable training pace. I knew I risked not having enough juice left in my legs for the run, but I wanted off the bike asap and was curious to see what would happen if I pushed myself harder than I thought I should. Ate half a pack of HoneyStinger chews at around 4 miles and the rest around mile 20. Drank water throughout when I felt thirsty (managed to nearly finish the whole 24 oz bottle by the end of the ride).

Nothing. Based on the hills and wind (and often rough road surface), this was as good as it was going to get for me today.

Quickly racked my bike, took my helmet off, swigged some water from the bottle I had stashed at my transition spot, switched shoes, then grabbed my visor, race number belt, and a Hammer gel and took off.

Nothing. Fastest T2 in my age group.

Woo boy. Warm, hilly, and windy. Legs were rather dead for the first mile or so, predictably. Just kept pushing at a moderate pace to let them loosen up. Ate the Hammer gel just before the first water stop at mile 1.5. Drank water at each of the 4 water stops. Most of the run out was uphill, so I just tried to hang on and keep my heart rate relatively low until the turnaround. Saw a lot of people really suffering out there, but I felt relatively okay. After the turnaround I started to pick it up a little. At mile 4 I turned up the pace a little more, and kept it comfortably hard until mile 5, when I ramped it up some more. Looked at my watch for the first time all race (since getting out of the water) and realized sub 3:00 was probably just barely out of reach, but that was ok. Decided to run as strong as possible to try my best. Last mile was rough - had a few small uphills and the sun was out for most of it. Kept reminding myself it was almost over and pushed. Rounded the second to last corner and passed a lady, then passed another guy in the final chute.

Nothing. Not that long ago, 55:30 would've been a good day for me in an open 10K on a flat course. To run that at the end of a hot and hilly oly tri is awesome.

Walked around, drank a bottle of water and a small cup of chocolate Recoverite (to try it), ate half a banana. Cheered on some of the remaining finishers, particularly my 2 classmates (one doing only her second tri ever, the other doing her first ever).


Hills, wind, warm temperatures, lack of structured bike and swim training.


Very good for a first-time event and new tri series. Beautiful, challenging course.