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 Swim
Comments: First swim in open water, first swim in a group, second swim in a wetsuit. Can you say recipe for disaster? I was in the second wave to start. Prior to starting, I was getting nervous. I kept looking at the water and thinking "This is going to suck". I should have known when I couldn't get the damn wetsuit zipped up. I had to get help from a guy standing next me. As soon as I get in it, I realized I had to pee again. What is up with my bladder? There was a bathroom nearby, so I waddled over there and had to get the wetsuit off my upper half, which was easier than getting it on. Made it out of the bathroom just after the national anthem. Starting putting on the suit top, and couldn't get it zipped again. Once again, a kind soul helped me out. Finally, I'm ready to go. My wave started heading out, and I walked my way to the start. Wow, getting really nervous now. All of sudden, everyone started swimming. Ok, here we go. First couple of hundred went ok. I got hit a little bit, was sighting ok, and was doing a pretty good pace. All of sudden, I took a giant drink of salt water and got a little freaked out. I had to roll over and back float for a while to spit out the water and catch my breath. I started swimming again and was just trying to make it to the end. I had to back float a couple of more times to breath and spit out salt water. I made it to the end..somehow What would you do differently?: More practice in open water. Totally different experience than my warm little gym pool  Transition 1
Comments: Had some trouble with the wetsuit strippers. For some reason the girl grabbed my goggles out of hand and dropped them behind her. What's up with that? I guess I should have put them on the ground beside me...lesson learned for next time. I got them back and slow jogged to my bike. I got into my shoes ok, helmet on with no problems. When I put my sunglasses, they fogged up instantly. I had to take them off and wipe them with a towel. What would you do differently?: Not let someone toss my goggles and put anti-fog on the shades. Otherwise, just get faster.  Bike
Comments: The bike went pretty much as expected. I passed some, and got passed too. Saw some $5000 bikes whirring by me. Overall, I tried to average about 20 mph. I did good going out, but slowed coming into the wind on the way back. I also experienced some trouble with my rear derailleur. It kept ghost shifting to a lower gear. I didn't want to experiment with the dial to adjust it while riding, so I just dealt with it. I don't know if this hurt me, but it sure didn't help. What would you do differently?: I was afraid of burning out for the run, so I didn't push too hard. I probably could have went faster, especially going out. Get my bike tuned before the race. Transition 2
Comments: Came into transition with my shoes still on. I thought about jumping off barefoot, but had never practiced this. I jogged into transition and got to my rack and changed shoes. I put on my running hat and race belt and took off. Overall, about what I expected. What would you do differently?: Learn to leave my shoes on the bike. Changing shoes took too much time.  Run
Comments: I felt pretty good coming out of transition. No leg stiffness or heaviness. I decided to start slow and gradually increase the pace to the end. I did the first mile at about 7:50, and wasn't winded at all. I increased the pace, and finished overall with a 7:38 pace. I passed more people on the run than passed me, so that helped my ego a little bit. When I was coming to the finish, I felt good and realized I was about to finish my first triathlon. What would you do differently?: It felt like I had a good run. I could have started out faster, but overall no real complaints. Post race
Warm down: Kissed the wife and listen to her tell me how proud she was. We went to the expo tent and I split a little pizza with my wife and had a diet pepsi. We were going to watch some more finishers until the sky opened up, so we stayed in the expo tent and listened to the band for a little while. What limited your ability to perform faster: My own limitations. More training is what it takes to be faster. Event comments: I don't think I could have planned for a better first triathlon. It was well organized and there was lots of swag. I'll be back next year for sure! Last updated: 2007-03-02 12:00 AM
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Overall Rank = /
Age Group = M35-39
Age Group Rank = 26/65
I was way too anxious to sleep well the night before. I bet I slept maybe 4 hours overall. I kept going over my training and what I wanted to do in the race. I Set 3 alarms in the hotel room for 5:00. Sure didn't want to oversleep for this one. I got up on the first alarm and started getting ready. My wife made me a PB & J sandwich while I went over my gear one more time to make sure I had everything. I had some coke zero and my sandwich before we left. We stayed at Moody Gardens, so we had a short walk to the transition area. We got to the site just before 6 am. I got my body mark from a nice volunteer, #141.... I'm branded!!! How cool is that? I then went in and set up my transition. I looked at it 10 times before I was convinced it was ready.
My warm up consisted of continuous trips to the porta john to pee. I went 4 times from 6:00 to 7:30. Must be the nerves, I only had one bottle of water. After I thought I was empty, I decided to put on the bottom half of the wetsuit before walking to the swim start. I gave the wife one last kiss, and she took a picture of my cool tri outfit...and it was off to race.