Texas Woman Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

I don't know what my problem is with regards to the swim. When I am in the pool, doing laps, I can easily do a 6:25 300 (yards). Now I realize a meter is a little longer than a yard, but a whole minute slower? I felt terrible in the water. Could not get into any type of rhythm at all. I did swim 9 seconds faster than the last race in the same pool, but I know I can do better.

Maybe it's a mental thing. It's not that I panic, it's like I forget how to swim. Having to duck under the lanes every 50 meters throws me off too. Need to get into a Masters program soon.

Not a bad transition. I fought with my socks a bit. I still prefer to spend the extra few seconds and put socks on. I decided not to dry my feet this time and it actually cost me a few seconds.

Spend 5 seconds drying my feet before putting my socks on. I am also going to practice keeping my shoes on the pedals and getting into them on the bike.

I love to ride. My goal was to try to catch Laurie but she started 7 minutes before me so I did not think I had a chance, but that kept me pedaling faster. I felt really good on the bike. I actually stayed in aero on the fast downhills which is a new thing for me. I usually get scared and come up so I can get to the brakes if I need to. Passed lots of people. (Never caught Laurie, she had a kick ass bike!)

I need to make my training rides true training rides. Sometimes I'm happy just tooling around but the only way I am going to get faster and not have my legs get so tired is to train harder.

I got confused about where my rack was so I went to the wrong one first. Realized it quickly and found my rack. Helmet off, shoes on. Ran out while putting on hat and race belt. As I ran out of transition, Steve yelled that Laurie was 2 minutes ahead of me. Turned out she was 3 but he wanted me to run faster.

I had issues with my race belt. Put it on upside down the first time, and then backwards the second time. It slowed me down a little trying to fix it.

I keep getting better on the run. This is the third time I have raced on this course, and each time I was a minute faster on the run! I concentrated on quick turnover. I knew I had a rabbit (Laurie) 2 minutes ahead of me, so even though I knew I could not catch her, just the thought of it helped keep my legs turning over. I passed her about 1/4 mile from the turnaround I was heading to the turnaround and she was heading back to the finish. She had a huge smile on her face and I knew she was having an awesome race. Took a gel before the turnaround but should have taken it a little sooner.

Have the gel on the bike so that I get the benefit on the run. Keep running. A minute a time for a 5K is a pretty decent improvement.

Gave Laurie a high five as I was coming into the chute. I was so hapy for her because I knew she had a PR race. Got some water and waited for awards.


The more weight I lose, the better things are going to get. My swim issues did not help the overall time.


I am used to Dallas Athletes putting on top-notch events. I was very disappointed about the fact that there were no timing chips at this event. I realize that there were only 125 registered, but I paid the same price that I do for all other DA events. The fact that there were no chips made it seem like this race was not as important as say Disco or Texas Man. The chip issue also caused confusion when it came time for awards. First, they did all the AG and that was it. We had to ask about Athena. Then, they came back with a list of 3 names but no times. I had to ask what those times were since I knew both Laurie and I had really good times. Come to find out, that the people who they said took 1-3 in Athena finished a good 10 minutes after laurie and I. I ended up 3rd, and got my medal, only because I had to go make them manually check the times. If there were chips, this would have been automatic.

Other than that, it was a good race and a PR for me. This is the third time I have raced this course and I keep getting a little faster each time so that's a good thing!