Lone Star 1/2 IM Relay: Team BT - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

(AG rank is among male swimmers, Overall is among relay swimmers... there were some speedy girls in there).
Less than a year ago I had terrible swims on sprint and OLY courses, averaging over 2:50 per 100 yards at both races. I was very uncomfortable in open water and all of the things I could do in the pool (like breathe and actually swim) seemed to disappear in open water. Last June I had a good 1/2 IM swim at Buffalo Springs. But I hadn't raced since then, so I was nervous that maybe my one good swim was an accident and the other poor performances were more my style in open water! So the point of doing this relay as the swimmer so early in the season was to sort of validate my swimming so I could move on mentally and no longer be anxious about open water.

I wasn't nervous at all by Sunday morning. I'd had some good practice on the course. By the time I was out at the start point I felt really good. I positioned myself on the right side of the pack, toward the front. I breathe to my left, so I planned to sight off the pack each time I breathe, and sight the buoy about every 10th stroke or so just to be sure. At the gun I started with no trouble. I found a good rhythm and I was surprised to pass a few breast strokers that were up front. I found some feet after about two minutes and drafted a little, but the pace was too slow so I passed him and spotted a pack about 10 yards ahead and caught them. I was comfortable the whole way, drafting or passing at will with no trouble. There was very little contact. I got kicked once or twice by breaststrokers, but nothing bad. After having several races where I had been caught and passed by several waves behind me, it was nice to not have to deal with that Sunday. And maybe 10-15 minutes in I started picking off green caps from the M30-34 wave. I counted 8 or 9, but looking at the results I passed 26 swimmers from the previous wave. :) The current and swells required a little bit of attention. I had to time my stroke right to be able to breathe, but I never missed more than one breath due to the water flowing over my head. Everything was going great when I was maybe 400 yards from the finish and I felt the back of my wetsuit open up a bit. Water was rushing in and filling the sleeves. I managed to take a big breath and reach back behind my head and mess with it a little. I re-attached the velcro flap and that seemed to hold it in place. My arms were a little heavy, but I can't say it slowed me down much. I passed three more guys on the last stretch after the final turn and no one passed me.

When I got to the exit ramp and stood up both of my hamstrings cramped up for a few seconds so I had a little trouble walking at first. Nothing too bad though and once I walked it out I was able to start running. There was a long run to transition where The Bear was waiting for me to handoff the chip. There was a line of guys jogging up the trail, so I sprinted around them and ran up the rest of the trail bypassing the wetsuit strippers. The handoff went smoothly and Bear was off on the bike. After the handoff I was leaning over the rail trying not to puke (the chop had me a little nauseated and the sprint to transition didn't help). I guess I was looking a little rough, because a second later there was a doctor all over me asking it I was having chest pain. :-o I told her she might watch her shoes, so I didn't throw up on them and that I was okay other than some leg cramps. So she rubbed out my legs for a minute and I wobbled over to the Gatoraid table and caught my breath.

As far as preparation goes, nothing. I finally feel like I've done my homework, worked out the bugs, and I'm swimming pretty close to my potential. In terms of speed, I think I can get faster but that hasn't been my focus. Open water technique has been the name of the game for abut two years now, and I think I'm good there. So now my focus will shift to speed, but in terms of preparing for this race I wouldn't change a thing. I was MOP for the relay, but I'm happy with that given the fact that relay teams genrally have people doing their strong event, and this is my weakest event. I was toward the back of FOP had I been in my AG, so I'm happy.

See The Bear's report. :) He averaged over 21 mph!

Our relay running had never raced over 5k, and she ran 7:05 per mile for the 1/2 mary. Really what she di was run a sub 18:00 5k, and then 10 more miles. :) She was awesome!

After I got settled down, hydrated, and changed my clothes, I went into jockstrap mode and sought out as many BTers as possible. I managed to find quite a few. Everyone looked like they were having a good time and racing strong.


Not much. Like I said there was a little current to swim against for the long stretch of the swim, but that wasn't too much of a factor and it affected everyone the same way.


We placed 3rd out of 9 in the co-ed relay division (11 with two DNF) and we hung out for the awards. They called us up to the podium and then organizers informed the announcer thay only had awards for the winning team in the relay division. So we got the podium time without the hardware. Not a big deal. I figured since we were calling ourselves Team BT and we had the BT booth set up in the expo, it would be bad form to no-show the awards thing.