LongHorn Triathlon Festival - Sprint - TriathlonSprint

Started with the beginner group as this was my first OWS tri. Decided to pull out in front of the wave, which was probably a good thing. Got way off course after the first buoy, I picked the wrong median line buoy to guide me. Finally got pointed in the right direction and caught the previous wave. Turned to breath and caught a wave in my mouth and took me a while to get the H20 coughed out. Overall pretty good.

Check the buoy shapes before I get in the water

Decided to walk/jog out of swim exit to see if I could keep HR down starting on the bike. Cut my foot somewhere on the way in, but not badly. Took my time on purpose.

Try to jog/run all the way in to transition. Might try to practice getting on bike on left and swing over, would be a lot faster.

The first third of the course was really crowded and it was difficult to pass people. I could have averaged probably a couple more MPH if I had sucked it up and passed at the beginning. More hills than I expected. Should have been able to handle them better considering I live in hills. I was actually getting hacked off because I kept seeing hills and had in my mind there was only one tough hill on the course. Nearly lost my lunch on the really steep hill on the sharp right turn; right shoe came out of the clip when I stood up and spent half the hill trying to get it back in. On the long hill on 973 I threw my chain when shifting to low gear, so I lost at least a minute, maybe 2 getting it back on. Plus all my momentum was wasted.

Know the course better to mentally prepare for the hills. Get my freaking bike fixed so I can shift to low gears without skipping. Get away from the packs earlier to get to top speed. Go faster when I can. Drink more on the bike.

Felt like it went reasonably fast but obviously it didn't.

Need to practice dismounting. Drink more fluids.

Pathetic. Typical heavy legs after T2 for first half mile. Just got worse from there. The big downhill was OK, turned and saw the climb and thought I could make it up. Walked through the water station at mile 1 and slowly plodded up the hill. Incredibly slow until the hill at mile 2, walked through the water station, ran about 100 yards and walked to the turn. Plodded through the rest of the race. Wish I knew what the problem was, same feeling as my previous two tri's: feeling like I couldn't pick my feet up. HR was OK (even low), hydration seemed OK. Temp not too hot (low to mid 80's). I don't get it...

I wish I knew what to do differently. I suppose I need to get more long, slow rides in as well as long, slow runs. Maybe more bricks although I usually do them once a week now.

None.


The run and to some extent the bike. Gotta fix the run. Need to be more aggressive on the bike when I'm in packs, rather than wait for open space.


Good first OWS. Mediocre bike, could've done better especially if I had not thrown my chain. Horrible run. Gotta fix it.

Race logistics were good. Well run. Great post-race attractions. Had to bail because I was missing flag football and soccer games...