Lone Star Triathlon Festival - Quarter - TriathlonOlympic

Where to begin. This was pretty much a swim from hell for me. Mike and John got me in the water for a warm up, and I felt pretty good. Who knew that would be the extent of feeling good in the water for me. Watched all the guys go off and then it was our turn to get into the water. Swam out to the start and waited for the gun. This was my first wetsuit swim and I was really excited about the extra speed I would get. My wave started and for the first 100 yards, swimming out to the bouy, I felt really good. Then, the wheels fell off. As soon as we made the left turn to parallel the beach, I felt the waves. For those of you who don't know this, I am very prone to motion sickness. After about 100 yards, I felt the all too familiar feeling of it. My head started spinning and my stomach was churnning. To make a long swim short, I had to stop and tread water about every 100 yards until the feeling went away and I could continue. Add to that the fact that I missed an area of my inner arms with the body glide and was chaffing very badly. All I can say about the swim is that I was never so glad to get out of the water in my entire life. If I ever had a thought of DNF'ing a race, it was on this swim.

I made an appointment with an audiologist to get some fitted ear plugs. I have been reading that they may help. Definatley pay more attention to where I put body glide. The problem for me, I think, is that this is going to haunt me and make me scared of doing another race in water other than a pool or lake. Yeah, no Hawaii or Florida IM's for me anytime in the future!

Hit dry land (thank God) and ran up the carpet. Since I was one of the last people out of the water, and the ground was saturated from the rains the night before, and all the athletes before me, I had to be careful because the mats were really rutted and muddy. No real problem though. I actually remembered to unzip and pull my wetsuit down. Got to the strippers and hit the ground. One yank and it was off. That was fun! Ran into transition and got ready to head out on the bike.

Nothing really. I was still feeling dizzy from the swim so I took it a little slow. Had to sit to put my socks on but all in all, happy with the transition.

Wind, Wind, Wind. The headwinds as soon as I hit the seawall road were pretty strong. I was still not is a great place mentally after the horrid swim, and I was definatley letting my deamons get to me. All that I was thinking about is why am I doing this, this is stupid blah, blah, blah. It was after a mile or so when I started passing people that my spirits started lifting. I passed a lot of people on the bike out, even though I could not get about 13 mph. Made the turn and then I was having fun! Went from 13 to 24 in about 30 seconds. It's funny, the ride out was so loud with the wind in your face but as soon as you made the turn, it was silent. I just tucked into aero and hammered away. Passed more people. At one point I saw John on the side of the road with a flat. I slowed down but he yelled at me to keep going so I did. I felt really bad about it though. Ended up averaging over 16 for the ride. Not bad for me.

My nutrition and hydration was non-existant. I really need to take better care of myself. It really showed once I got to the run. Other than that, I was happy with the ride.

Got out of my shoes while still on the bike. Got to my rack area and the girl next to me was sitting down right where my bike goes. No problem, she moved out of the way. Racked the bike, grabbed a gel, put on my running shoes and hat and ran out. T2 time is an estimate since my times were messed up. It showed me at a 1:47:00 T2 and no bike time. It may have been a little faster but no more than this.

Nothing. Things went well.

This was the longest 6.5 miles I have ever run. It seemed like every time I thought we were heading back, they looped up around more backroads. It was great getting to the BT aid station at mile 2 and seeing Steve, Laurie, Derek, Ron and Angel. That definately gave me a boost. The chaffing under my arms was pretty bad so I had to run like a chicken with my elbows sticking out.

Eat more. I had a gel right out of transition and then another one at about mile 3 but it was not enough. I also did not drink enough. I just need to run more.

Crossed the line and John was there waiting for me. I was just happy to be done. Waited around for Steve. He tried to get there to see me finish but the BT aid station was really busy and he could not leave. Ran into many of the other BT'ers. Sat on a retaining wall until Steve got there. Walked around a little to find our new friends and say goodbye. Loaded up the car and prepared for the long and smelly ride back to Keller.


Early race so my training is not where it should be. Seasickeness really affected me both physically and mentally. Chaffing did not help at all either.


I have only heard great things about Endorfun races and I was not disappointed. Other than some confusion with dinner tix for friday night, the race was great. Keith can not control the water! The best part was meeting some great people. I had a blast and will be back next year. Thanks to Ron and his family (Carol and Virginia) for taking care of things at the house. Other than some minor flooding, things were great.