Oil Man Texas Triathlon - Formerly Iron Star Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

A normal lousy swim for me. Actually, I felt nice and relaxed the whole way, and, since I have not done any swim training in many months, I thought it was a pretty good effort. The lake is fairly clear, but it does generate some swells on the back part of the swim course.

A little training should knock at leasat 5 and maybe 10-minutes off this swim time.

Decent transition for me. No major issues.

I had a good bike for about 3/4 of the race....then....psssssst. I ended up flatting a couple miles after the bridge on Johnson Rd. This was my first flat ever in a race. I'm not sure how long it took me to change it, but I wasn't particularly fast. Guessing I lost 5 to 10 minutes....plus.....mentally....it kind of leaves you feeling a little checked-out.

I think I messed up pumping up my tires. I aired them up in the garage before leaving the house on race morning, and I was expecting it to be a cold ride. To compensate for the temps, I took them both up to around 120. Well, it was much warmer than I was expecting so both tires were probably overinflated. I know my bike was a lot more bouncy than normal. I hadn't gone through my spare kit in a number of months. Luckilly, everything I needed was in there and I didn't have any change-out issues.

Saw lots of race marshals out doing their thing on this ride. Overall, it was a very clean race. I didn't notice any pace lines or big packs, and most of the racers did an excellent job of staying over to the left.

Weather on the bike was just about perfect. Nice temps and almost no wind.

I have not really been wearing my HRM much this year since IM-TX, but dug it out and wore it on the bike leg. I'm a numbers kind of person, and having a target range to maintain helps me keep pace. Maybe not as good as a power meter, but it does work better than just RPE for me.

Pay more attention to the weather. My stupid mistake airing up the tires may or may not have been the cause of my flat, but it didn't do me any good.

Also, I had decided a week before the race to leave my helmet vents taped over and to wear toe covers. I took off the toe covers and left them in T1, but I would have been more comfortable with the helmet vents open.

Fairly smooth transition.

The flat on the bike took most of the race right out of me, so I just turned this into a nice training run. Maintained a decent pace for the first 3-mile, then took a gel that left me with some stomach cramps. Ended up walking for 3 or 4 minutes right before the end of the first loop and the cramp went away. Was able to run everything after that, but did walk through the aid stations. It turned into a warmer day that I was expecting. It wasn't too bad, but it was hot enough to make it kind of uncomfortable.

Went over and sat in the resort pool for 15-minutes or so. NICE!


Great race.

This is a small, local HIM. It doesn't have near the number of people that an IM-branded race has, and the late season and competeing races work together to limit participation. I've done this race twice now, and done the Longhorn race in Austin twice. Between the two, this is a much better race, as long as you are okay with the smaller nature of the event. Great way to end the tri season.