LongHorn Triathlon Festival - Half Iron - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

All in all I just never seem to have much to say about my swim. I never have time to swim laps or really train much at all and I don't work on my technique at all. I just get in the water and go. There were definitely times that I was thinking "Wow, this is a long swim!" but then I would just plug ahead and eventually I get there.

I would like to concentrate on doing more upper body strength training and improve my swim time. Getting in the pool once in awhile might be helpful!For all of 2007, I have managed to log 10 and a half hours swimming and much of that has been in different tris.

I was a little disoriented getting out of the water. I did hear someone calling my name and saying "Go Jill", but didn't even look back to see who it was. I tried to move quickly to transition, but then took a bit of time squirting off my feet and getting them cleaned up before putting on my socks. I figured it would be a long day if I had stuff rubbing in my socks. Saw Marcy (Dodgersmom) heading out of transition as I was heading in. It really was great to see familiar faces.

I would put on bodyglide and sunscreen

I chatted with people as they went by and tried to enjoy myself. One guy passed me and as he was passing I hollered out "Hey, didn't you see that NO Passing Zone sign?" I think he was a little stunned at first, but eventually laughed. The cloud cover was really nice for the first part of the ride and at one point I got up to 38 mph on a downhill. I think my nutrition was good on the bike and I ate and drank throughout the ride. I didn't stay in my aerobars as much as I thought I would since I am not that comfortable in them yet. I rode alongside Gaaaary for a brief bit and really enjoy the folks on the course who don't take things too seriously. I know I can be competitive at times, but I also tried hard to cheer people on as I was cruising by. I think I only got passed on the bike by about 5 or 6 people and I passed quite a few. I was in the second to the last wave so there weren't that many people behind me. Overall I felt good about the ride, the last hill was a KILLER!!

I don't really think I would do too much different. I worked hard and couldn't have pushed it much harder knowing that I still had to run 13.1 miles in the heat and humidity.

I still have lots of work to do to speed up my transition times, but it just didn't seem that important considering an almost 7 hour day!

I did get a little lost trying to find where to rack my bike and probably lost about 30 seconds backtracking, so maybe I could do better at remembering where to go. I would also put on bodyglide and sunscreen.

Did I mention it was HOT? I had lots of cloud cover on the bike, but by the time I got to the run, it seemed that the cloud cover was gone and there was NO shade. I started off slowly thinking "One foot in front of the other." I remember coming up on the mile 7 or 9 or something shortly into the run and thinking what a cruel trick that was knowing that I had to do two laps. I walked much of the course and kept trying to convince myself that I needed to run. I was just too darn hot and couldn't seem to cool off. I saw lots of people I knew which helped pass the time and I played all kinds of mind games to help keep me going. I caught up to Karen (KSH) on the course and walked with her briefly and chatted. I knew she was planning to walk the whole course and I was certainly tempted, but finally convinced myself to run a bit more. Then I came up on Sue and Kelli and was shocked that they weren't way ahead of me. It seemed that Kelli had gotten sick and Sue was just recovering from being sick and I think her energy was zapped. I slowed down briefly to chat with them, but decided that if I didn't keep running the day would never end. By that point, I was feeling like a french fry and knowing that I was getting way sunburned as I hadn't put sunscreen on since the beginning of the day. I also was having major chaffing issues under my arms and was desperate for bodyglide. I stopped a official race vehicle asking for bodyglide, then I jumped off the course briefly to try to get some from the info tent. No luck. I tried running with my arms stretched out to my side which I am sure was an interesting site. I caught myself singing out loud a couple of times to help pass the time. With about 2 miles to go Sue caught back up to me and we walked/ jogged the rest of the way across the finish line. My motivation for speeding up was just gone. I was way too hot, sunburned and chaffed to push myself. I was a little disappointed because I was hoping to have a better run, but given the conditions and after hearing about the Chicago Marathon I was glad just to finish and feel good.

Change the weather

Well my warm down consisted of being accousted by 2 of my kids who at that point were rather irritable and my dad who was trying to get back to where my mom was so that they could leave. I did briefly go through and get a burrito and a drink, but then headed to try to find a shuttle bus with my dad so that he could get to my mom and so that I could get the kids stuff out of their car that they couldn't live without since my parents were heading back to Ft. Worth and we were spending the night in Austin.


Did I mention it was about 90 with high humidity on a hilly course?


The aid stations were AWESOME! I was so excited to have ice to dump over my head at every stop. The volunteers were friendly and encouraging on a hot day. Did I mention it was HOT?

Next time, I am leaving the kids at home!