Swim
Comments: How boring. I was one of the first people out of the gate, and there was no one to hang with. I saw a few girls to my FAR left (why the hell would you start a right-handed course on the extreme left hand side?!?) that took off pretty quick, and stayed just beyond my reach. I thought about sprinting to catch a good drag, but they were so far off line, I decided not to. I don't know where they went, but I never saw them again. So it was all me, all by myself. I wasn't about to go balls out just to brag a sub-1:30 pace mile, especially when I wasn't feeling overly confident about my bike or run ability right now. So I put it in neutral and cruised the whole thing, just focusing on keeping a straight line and not over-exerting myself. I can't believe how easy it was to stay straight... mainly because I didn't have to dodge hardly anyone. Somehow, it seemed like no one but me drank their V8 today. People were off in almost every direction. I saw some people a few yards from the shore, some swimming seemingly down the center of the lake! Fine by me... I'll take the straight shot thankyouverymuch. Passing people was cake because the waves turned into swiss cheese! What would you do differently?: I suppose I should have sprinted to catch those girls - I surely would have been sub-1:30 had I grabbed their heels. Oh well. Transition 1
Comments: I think the time speaks for itself on this one. Completely crap-tastic T1. From now on, I will lube my ankles and calves like it's my job. That damn wetsuit wouldn't come off to save my life. I actually considered sitting down at one point - that's how bad it was. My transition area was in the dirty sand (there was no avoiding this - half of transition was a dirt/sand beach), so by the time I got the stupid suit off, my feet were covered. I tried to dust them off as best I could, and from that point, it went ok. Running in sand with cycling cleats and race bike in tow was less than fun. I almost ate it a few times during the never-ending run to the mount line. Can you tell I hated every second of this transition? What would you do differently?: Um, just about everything. Use an entire stick of Body Glide. Bike
Comments: This ride wasn't all that bad, especially with how little TITS I have (hahaha, that gets me every time). I enjoyed the first loop, although I never really settled into a comfortable rhythm until the second loop. But by that time, there were so many people on the course, it was mass chaos. I had my new XRP 50mm race wheels (Aaron, I figured out what they are!) and after the 2nd lap, I wished I had kept my normal front wheel. The wind through the city buildings made it very difficult for me to control my bike. Granted, I know I just need more practice with the new wheels, but I had to come up out of aero a few times to make sure I didn't take a spill! The nice thing about multiple loops, is I felt like I descended the loops. I felt like by the 4th loop, I had finally learned the course. What would you do differently?: Way more TITS. Transition 2
Comments: Compared to T1, this was stellar. Nothing eventful to report. I opted for socks, and boy am I glad I did. The sand would have torn my feet to shreds in bare shoes. What would you do differently?: Nothing really. Run
Comments: Ugh. Just plain ugh. I really didn't want this run to be as miserable as last year's Ironhead 10K, so I figured I'd ease into it and build the whole way. That was the plan. Reality = I walked every single aid station because I felt like I was on the verge of heat stroke. When I was running, I was able to hold a good pace, but I needed every ounce of water and every piece of ice I could get. I would imagine that my run segments were more like 8:30min/miles or maybe better, but the walking killed me. I can't expect to place in my AG by walking the aid stations. I'm disappointed I walked any of them. What would you do differently?: Not walk the aid stations. Post race
Warm down: I found my friends (both race participants and spectators) and hurried to get everything together so we could leave for the party boat that we had planned. One of my friends' sister had a party cruise planned for the afternoon followed by a party at a lake house they had rented for her birthday. It was a most excellent way to spend the rest of the day and "warm down" after the race. We cut it so close that when we arrived at the boat, we all still had our race gear on - now that's dedication! Cheers. What limited your ability to perform faster: My own lack of training. Event comments: Not a bad race considering how many freaking people there were and the fact that it's smack dab in the middle of the capital of Texas. I'm not a huge fan of a 4-loop bike course with almost 1300 athletes whizzing around, but it wasn't as bad as I suppose it could have been. Last updated: 2008-02-17 12:00 AM
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United States
Capital of TexasTriathlon
85F / 29C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 63/568
Age Group = 25-29 F
Age Group Rank = 12/124
I stayed with my college friend who is also a triathlete and was competing in the race. I went to the OWS early Saturday morning and then drove down about 10:30am. We went to the race expo, stood in ridiculous lines to get our packets, picked up a few other friends who came to town, and went to Iguana Grill for dinner. We went to bed relatively early Saturday night, and woke up at 4:40am to head to get body marked and set up our transition (minus the bikes which we racked Saturday).
Come to find out, after I racked my bike in the appropriate location (not assigned spots, but grouped by wave/age-group), they apparently changed the rack to the age group up. It took me a while to find my bike, and for a while I almost panicked and thought it was stolen. I found it, realized what had probably happened, and figured "screw it" since there were no empty spots on the appropriate group racks. If anything, it would likely help minimize the congestion in transition for me, so I wasn't too worried.
My friend Carla and I set our stuff up, went to the bathroom, and headed for the water to warm up. The night before, I had discovered a lovely rip in my wetsuit up by the collar in the back - I have absolutely no clue how it got there. It wasn't terrible, so I just figured I'd deal with it and get it fixed later. It's not like I'm using it for Alcatraz or warmth anyway.
Well, I wiggle into the suit, zip up the back, and jump in. I noticed I felt a lot more water on my back than normal, so I reached back only to find that it wasn't zipped! Wtf? I get out, go over to Carla to see if she can help me figure out what the deal is. Turns out the zipper had come off the teeth on one side. Grrreat. I had to take off the wetsuit so we could dig in the back, find where a tooth had come out (and presumably the zipper came off) and fight to get it back on. Then the fun part - getting BACK in the stupid thing. I had all of 2 minutes to splash around after all this wetsuit drama before we had to be out of the water. Hot and out of breath, I was now looking forward to waiting 30 more minutes for my wave to go.