TexasMan Olympic Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

As I said above, I absolutely loved the sandy beach run start. Buoys were huge and easily seen. Plenty of support for those who couldn't handle the really big chop that was coming in from the south. So glad I have spent many, many weekends at the lake hanging out in the water - the chop, while making breathing and navigation a bit difficult, didn't freak me out at all.

Swimming out was when the chop was the worst, but actually helped a little swimming back in as we were going with the chop.

There were plenty of men who completely lost it in the waves before the 40+ females. They were hanging all over the kayaks and unfortunately the kayaks were drifting into the swim line...I'm sure it wasn't easy navigating a kayak in that chop. I had to swim around THREE kayaks which totally slowed me down and hurt my navigation. To make matters worse, when I swam around the 3rd kayak the man hanging onto it decided it was a good time to try and swim again and basically shot straight into me, and pushed me down into the water HARD. Shook me up a bit, but I just rotated around and gave him a little flutter kick to the jaw and problem solved.

Nothing - I went out really aggressive and was unapologetic at my efforts to stay at a good clip. Had to shove a couple of women out of my way who were a little hesitant due to the chop, but I don't think they took it personally. The kayaks really screwed me up, but there was nothing I could do about that.

First - gotta give it up to the race organizers for having "hose people" along the path up to transition - there were four different people at two locations with hoses spraying sand off your feet as you ran. Loved this! Very thoughtful and shows that the race was about the athletes and not making money. Plenty of wetsuit strippers and they even gave you a hand up.

I would like to already have my shoes on my bike and slip into them once I'm already out on the bike course, but I really need to get a pair of tri shoes to do that since my bike shoes aren't gonna cut it with their three straps. Can't afford the expense right now so unit then I'm stuck doing it the same way I always have.

Now, for my time: Yes, it was slow. As usual. But in my defense I had to visit the porta potty so all bets are off.

Practice transitions more.

There were a few really steep hills, and a lot of rollers. If I hadn't been out on my bike a lot hitting the hills this spring I would have not gone as fast as I did (which still isn't fast at all). The addition of aero bars this season really helped, too, as I found myself in aero position most of the time due to the wind (which wasn't supposed to be bad, but turned-out pretty stiff).

The bike is going to come down to my weight, and I'm still struggling with my weight so....

Lose more weight!!!

My rack position was the furtherest away it could have been to Bike In, so this doesn't surprise me. I've added a large bucket to my transition arsenal which really came in handy when changing shoes.

Rack bike, helmet off, change shoes, grab running hat and I was off.

Practice transitions more.

I'm still very slow when I run. The weather was quite a bit warmer than predicted, and I'm just not good in the heat, either. However, I went by RPE and just kept a good attitude. It seems the more I dread running, the slower I am. I just embraced this run as an opportunity to get to move my body and have fun with other people as they ran by. I even had two small children from one of the campsites along the run path come out and give me a high five. Too fun!!

Lose more weight.

Just sat in a chair and rested.


I'm still overweight....that's the biggest thing. I'm also still relatively new to biking/running. The heat is never a good thing for me, and it became pretty hot during the run. Also started menstruation the day before the race and that's always a huge energy drain.


This was a really fun race. The swim venue was awesome, the bike wasn't a bunch of laps with lots of turns, and the run was partially shaded with LOTS of support. Many opportunities to cool-off. I think a lot of RDs could learn a lot from this race. I felt like they cared about my comfort. Will definitely try to get back to this race either for a sprint or the X-50. Highly recommend!