Lone Star Triathlon Festival - Quarter - TriathlonOlympic

Goal was to push pretty hard in the swim, but stay comfortable. I lined up right in the front. My attempt to simulate an IM swim start as much as possible. The gun went off and I jumped onto the first set of feet I could. I was obviously not fast enough for the first group of guys but too fast for the second so I ended up in a pretty akward spot. About half way to the first bouy I grabbed onto some feet and held them all the way to the bouy. We then made a left turn that would take us all the way to the last left turn that would take us to the swim exit. I flew around the bouy and continued to sight as best as possible. At this point I was feeling a bit fatigued but I knew I had gone pretty hard at the start. ALl I needed to do now was find a good stroke and some feet to hang on to, and thats exactly what I did. Held onto this guy all the way to the last turn. My breathing was right on, and the QR full suit felt AMAZING. About half way to that bouy I went to breath and saw GAAARRRRYYYYY!! It was hilarious. Everytime I would breath I would say "GARRRRYYYY".. *breath*... GARRRRYYYYY!".. *breath*... haha. Took the last turn and headed straight to the swim exit. I kept seeing the same guy on my left, so I focused on beating him to the swim exit which I did. Swam all the way till my arms hit dirt and quickly ran out of the water while flying past the people walking..

Do a little better job of hanging on to some fast feet at the beggining. Other than that awesome swim. Probably my best tri swim to date.

ARGH! Found the first wetsuit peelers and let em' rip. Those little girls werent too bad actually. When they pulled my suit off I had let go of my cap and goggles, so they ended up inside the arm of my wetsuit. Im sure they both fell out on my way to T1. Grabbed my stuff out of my helmet, helmet on, bib on, and I was out. Felt really good and smooth. No problems with the new helmet.

Hold on to my goggles tighter.

Went out a bit too hard. Goal was IM race pace. Which for ME is 21.00 mph AVG. Was easily holding 22.2-22.8. Stuck with that figuring I would have a good headwind on the way back like the ride the day before w/ Aaron. This is the part of the race that got a bit frustrating to me. Watching guys in my age group fly past me was difficult, but I knew... on April 13th it would pay off, So i let them go and just focused on staying comfortable. The whole time I just stayed as aero as possible while staying comfortable. Took my gels and sport legs right on time. Carried Gatorade Endurance and H20 on the bike which worked out very well. The conditions were VERY overcast and foggy. Was actually pretty cool getting to ride through the fog. This was a good test of my self control, which I feel i did a pretty good job w/. I hit the turn around expecting this crazy headwind. No such thing! Quickly realized it was a cross wind. So I basicly held the exact same pace back to T2. I was in the 55T chain ring the whole time. Out and back. It felt good. On the way back to T2 I really focused on tucking right behind a person as I passed them. Felt good. Arrived back at the sea wall and took the left turn back to T2. Probably took my feet out of my shoes too early, but I wasnt too worried about time here. Really good dismount.

Take it a bit easier on the way out. Keep in mind it IS a training ride, nothing more. IM race simulation.

Solid T2. Once again IM race simulation so I put my socks on, Visor on, and grabbed my gels. Took a few seconds longer than it should have to put my shoes on.

Practice feet in a bit more w/ my Newtons..

This was by FAR THE HARDEST part of the race for me. IM race pace is 8:00/m. That was my goal pace for this run. Just under 8s. Well, let me start off by saying the course wasnt properly measured for the running mile markers. My first mile read something like 6:42ish. HA! I KNEW it wasnt that fast. It felt faster than 7:30ish but not 6:42. Well that totally freaked me out, so i backed off A LOT! Trust me when I saw A LOT. This is where I really started noticing age gruop guys passing me. So I began to count. EIGHT total. :( But the whole time i just focused on the goal. A KONA slot @ IMAZ. Not this little quarter. So I just stuck to my race plan and ran my 7:30ish pace. Overall I really had a good run. I had fun talking with the volunteers and just stayed relaxed. The last mile I did push just a bit, probably around 7:15. The last two miles I ran breathing just through my nose to focuse on steady breathing and just staying relaxed. I crossed the finish line and felt like I had just started. Good sign.

Not be a tard and slow down that first mile. IMAZ will not be that fast.

Walked around looking for Fleeber and BigRed.


My race plan. It was a taper/training race. Nothing more. A precursor to IMAZ.


The only reason I give this race a four is because I freakin hate the run course. AWESOME post race and bike course. Everything is really organized except for the mile markers on the run course. Overall its a solid race and great for an early year OWS.