Tejas Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Best swim to date in this race...just not good enough for the field today.

Had to deal with some interesting lake grass early in the race. Very thin, long and stringy that would get caught up in the hands and feet. Quite a nuisance, but didn't affect my racing. Also encountered a second pocket of this grass about 100 yards in. After that, no more.

I felt like I had a consistent pace for the duration. I knew the field was strong when there were still several silver caps around me after the second buoy. It was also hard to judge where I was in the pack because the silver caps and the lower angle of the sun made it very difficult to see. In fact, even the purple caps of the wave ahead of me was hard to decipher.

I think mentally, when I realized that it was an exceptional group of swimmers, I decided to keep at a comfortably hard pace and get ready for the hammering that I wanted to do on the bike and run.

Pleased with the continued improvement of the swim, disappointed where I stand amongst the competition in the new AG.

Could have pushed more, but at what risk of destroying the bike/run?

Big improvement here...really keeping it simple in transition and getting out on the course.

For example, waited to put sunglasses on when I was already on the bike.

Only catch was I had a bit of difficulty getting clipped in.

Should work on already having shoes clipped in and flying mount.

Felt good for the duration of the ride...would consider the pace comfortably hard. Worked through the gears a little looking for a sweet spot. Think I did a good job of it. Cadence was higher than it typically is in training, so I wasn't purely grinding out there.

Push harder.

Another well executed transition. The only holdup was getting my spare tube out of my race pocket...it hung up for a couple seconds, but nothing major.

Learn and work on flying dismounts.

Another course PR, but still not pleased. All mile paces (according to Garmin) were relatively consistent. Tried to pick up the pace in the last mile, then finish strong in the last 800, but apparently I couldn't. Had a potential side stitch working late in the run, but it never got full-blown, thankfully.

Need to re-evaluate pre-race day nutrition. Too much of a heavy stomach before the race started and another side stitch trying to pay a visit on the run. Almost certain this is a nutrition issue.

Keep running. Some day I'll put it all together and go sub-9:00 pace for a race. Keep believing that, anyway.

Walked. Couple slices of pizza, grape Gatorade and water.


Being a horrible runner.

Overall, though, course PR by 8:52 (compared to 2010 with the same bike course) and 6:30 better than 2011 (on a different bike course).

2009: 12:38/38:32/32:25
2010: 10:58/38:25/32:12
2011: 10:33/39:48/28:21
2012: 10:19/35:10/28:05


Tejas never disappoints. Great course for racers and spectators, and post-race food is plentiful. Glad they changed the bike course back to the 2010 version as opposed to 2011 bike course. Favorite race of any distance that I have ever done.