Lone Star Triathlon Festival - Sprint - TriathlonSprint

26/59 in age group and 252/868 overall. very telling that i need to spend some time swimming. that and how sore i am today (a day later filling this out) lets me know there is alot to be accomplished in the pool. i liked this swim though. the water wasn't too cold and almost every person in the wave started wide of me or behind me. that allowed me to be only behind one guy and only about 20 feet to the right of the bouy. made it really nice even though there were lots of people in the water since they started the 40-44 and 45-49 in the same wave. never got bumped, jostled, or swam over. at one point i was body to body with a guy, he and i breathed on opposite sides and we were stroke for stroke so we looked each other in the face from a foot away for about 30 seconds. that was really funny to me. nothing really bad to say about this swim. i tend to pull to the right again but i didn't get as off course as last year. swam just about exactly the same pace as last year.

i just need to swim more and maybe its time to get some coaching. for all the effort i put into the swim i should get a faster perfomance out of it. i am right in the MOP and i should be better.

good transition for me, my time got me 5/59 so i can't complain. one of my favorite comments came from one of my fellow age groupers. after the race he told me "Man, you had the fastest transitions i've ever seen! I was in transition, i saw you come in then i looked up and you were gone!" looking at the times i see he finished the swim 40 seconds ahead of me but took a minute longer in T1. its free time, got to take advantage.

nothing, maybe run faster. there was a long run from the water to the strippers that i decided to use this year. my shoes were attached so i was able to haul out of there steering the bike from the seat. style points count.

i love the bike. i want more speed and only more training will get me there. i started about the same time as one other guy in my age group but he left me behind as soon as we made the last turn onto the seawall. i was never passed again until the last 300m or so and i didn't let him get away and passed him in T2. i passed what felt like hundreds of people but didn't notice anyone in my age group. makes me think that the people who beat me out of the water all stayed ahead of me. looking at the times that is the case. all the guys ahead of me in the placings except one, my nemesis, got out of the water 2-4 minutes ahead of me and had faster bikes.

some day i would like to start racing with a power meter to be able to guage my output.

a guy in my age group passed me with about 300 meters to go which got me pedaling harder heading to the dismount line. with about 50 meters to go there was him and 2 or three other people all heading for the line. my dismount was sweet, i rode in balanced on one pedal and steered right through them all and jumped off my bike running. i passed every one of them including the guy in my age group who was plodding in his shoes.

i would take a little less time. i was a bit winded and i took my time pulling on my shoes and putting on my number. overall not so bad though because the fastest T2 was 0:48. i didn't lose too much time.

this run was incredibly hard for me. i was as stiff as a board coming out of T2 and every cell in my body was screaming "STOP". i pushed through because i really wanted to get a good placing. i felt really good coming off the bike about my prospective finish but as soon as i started to run i knew i was doomed. i got passed by three people in my age group in the first mile of the run. i did pass a few people eventually but i couldn't stay with my age groupers. i loosened up after about 3/4 of a mile but then i got a side stitch that was hurting like a bitch. i ran through it and picked up some speed when it went away only to have it come back. that was frustrating and i felt like i was running 10 minute miles. turned out i was going a little faster than that but i actually lost this race in the swim. i gave up 4 minutes to the leaders there.

with about 150 to 200 meters to go someone in my age group came by and spoke to me. i thought it was Jonah from brooklyn but it was a fellow from here. anyway, he calls me by name and goes by and i knew i needed to beat him. as far as i knew only 4 people were ahead of me, the 3 that passed me and i had also seen Dgunthert heading back on the run so i knew he was about 5 minutes out front too. as far as i was concerned i was in 5th. my coach Bonnie screamed out just after he passed me and that got me moving. he was running about 2 feet from the left side of the path and he looked over his right shoulder as i flew by on his left. i heard him see me and we were both running like wild men toward the finish.

i couldn't see it yet but i could hear the announcer and i was hoping i could outkick him. he kept talking but i can't remember what he was saying. i heard him give up and i took a look over my shoulder to make sure. it was a great finish but i was completely spent. if he only knew how close he was to cracking me on that sprint he probably wouldn't have given up. i ended up beating him by 7 seconds. he ran 7:01 miles to my 8:19's. if i could run faster he never would have caught up in the first place.

i need to run more. it is and has always been my weakness. there is no reason that i can be 65th overall on the bike and then 256th overall on the run.

none really, just relief that i was done. forgot about the food because it was inside a big tent but i did see the budweiser people so i got a cup of beer.


my swim and run


as before there is nothing bad to say about this race. all race directors could learn from Keith as this race, and i hear his others, are the nearest to Ironman events as you can get without it being an Ironman