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 Swim
Comments: I am glad I did the warm up swim, and that will be a routine of mine from now on. It got my blood going some, acclimated me to the water temperature, speed and clarity, and what can I say, I look good wet. I jumped in, put my hand on the Polar start button and waited for the starter to say go. I was off. The 1st 100m was well done and controlled and nobody was on my feet. The 2nd 100m I started catching people and thanks to the 9' wide lanes, was able to pass without much fisticuffs. The last 100m was a different story. I somehow caught up to a group of 3 swimmers who were swimming side by side. At the 50m turn, I attempted to pass and was summarily head-butted, kicked and unintentionally (I hope) groped. So much for that. Good experience though. I will be a tad more aggressive next time in that situation. So off we went, those 3 taking up the entire lane and me swimming, stopping, swimming, stopping...I finally decided to not worry about it and concentrate on T1 and what I was going to do. I used the ladder to exit the pool, heard some people scream my name (way cool) and ran out to T1. What would you do differently?: Well, not much except be a little faster and perhaps more aggressive in passing in that situation. I was satisfied with my swim, log jam on the last 100 notwithstanding. I think it cost me maybe 15-20 seconds and some unecessarily expended energy with the start/stop...no big deal. I wasn't passed, to the best of my knowledge.  Transition 1
Comments: Remember the warm water? It made the run outside into 57 degrees with a north wind blowing at 14mph a bit of a shock to all things only covered by spandex. Ahem. I did remember I was in rack 4 on the left and exactly where my bike was located. The bike racks looked like opened cans of sardines. They really needed some more racks.. I don't want my ride scraping other bikes, and I am sure other people don't want that either. It also left little to no room to put both pairs of my shoes down. It was that cramped, at least in my rack. Maybe most of the bikes in my rack were Clydesdales? Anyway, goggles down, bike shoes on (sans socks or drying off), racebelt on (I wear it on the bike out of habit, which will change in my HIM and IM this year),, gu in my pocket, sunglasses on, helmet on and buckled and bike unracked. I ran to the mount line. What would you do differently?: Not much...considering my first tri last year had a 3:53 T1 and this one was 1:45, I'd call that an improvement.  Bike
Comments: Hi, I'd like to order pristine biking conditions with no wind and something warmer than mid-50's, please. Can you help with that? Thanks. The course was nice and conducive to fast speeds, but that didn't translate due to Motha Nature. I was 111/490 overall, so I am not complaining THAT much, but I sure would like a windless ride on my bike one of these days. I went sockless, like I do in training, and it saved me T1 time. My...uhhh...package went numb on the first loop and I immediately knew it wasn't due to my saddle. Nope, it was a combination of coming out of the water as the sun was barely out, the 15-20mph north wind, which was exacerbated by me riding 20mph, and next to no coverage of said package. I thawed out by the 2nd loop, which was nice. Frozen packages should contain vegetables, not the male anatomy. Just my opinion. What would you do differently?: Race in June? Transition 2
Comments: I went fast enough and got ready to leave for the run that I was sure I had forgotten to do something important, so I double checked everything prior to running out of T2. I did forget to do something: Trust myself. I was good to go the first time. It was great rolling into T2 and seeing very few bikes there. What a nice change. :) What would you do differently?: Not much except go through the transition in my mind as the bike is ending so I don't spend extra time wondering if I had everything right.  Run
Comments: I know exactly where I can improve in these sprints, and it is right here on the run. I started off on the run without any leg problems, which was good considering I didn't/couldn't hydrate enough prior to finishing the bike. I had a seriously high falutin' hankering to walk for a minute to get my HR down about .5 miles in, but my experience in past triathlons is that my legs and lungs will adjust themselves accordingly around mile 2. This held true today. What would you do differently?: I wouldn't use the wrong pacer. Some dude passed me and got about 50m ahead around mile 1. Slowly but surely I reeled him in and caught him at the turnaround. He evidently was chagrined by this turn of events and unbeknownst to me, slowed down a lot. I was just going to pace off of him and then kick it in the last 1/2 mile. Well, he got slower and slower, and I got slower and slower...I will admit, I did appreciate the HR cooldown, however briefly. Then he started doing the Ironman Shuffle and I followed suit. That lasted 10 seconds before I realized this was a RACE. I flew by him and only a handful of runners passed me the last mile. I finished strong, buoyed by all the BT'ers screaming at me as I rounded the bend to the finish. That was cool. Post race
Warm down: After I rounded the last corner, I crossed the line, but not before doing some ridiculous pose as I ran by Jeepfleeb while he was taking my picture. That's gonna be a funny one. Got my finishers medal (surprise) and headed over to the ever-growing BT contingent. At this point, there were about 10-12 there hanging out cheering on finishers. Then a bunch more showed up (total of about 20 of us there!), as there was a group ride planned post-race. I initially was going to ride with them, but Brian had some major GEE EYE issues last night and today on the bike and he was my ride home. Poor guy...but what a trooper! I got a couple pancakes, a cup of coffee and took some pictures, etc. We loaded up the bikes when everyone had completed the bike portion and headed home. What limited your ability to perform faster: The wynd, wend, wind. I know everyone had to deal with it, but the question is what made it harder for me to perform better, and my top choice is the wind. I also realized pretty early into the bike that my lungs are not completely recovered from the 2 week flu-yuck I just recently exorcised from my body. Event comments: It was a really fun time. I saw a ton of BT'ers, and got to meet some new ones. This race had a big turnout for us. Thanks to Brian and Aaron for bringing cameras and taking a lot of pictures. Thanks also to the BT'ers who just came to JS for the racers. That was way cool. If Aaron or Brian send me some pictures, I will post them here. Profile Album Last updated: 2008-03-15 12:00 AM
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United States
Dallas Athletes
57F / 14C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 167/462
Age Group = M40-44
Age Group Rank = 23/40
Woke up (heh...wait, that would imply I slept), got the car loaded quickly and did the proverbial checklist before we left. Temperature said 57 with the winds out of the west, and I had no reason to believe it was an April Fools joke, since this was the Ides of March with a twist of leprechaun thrown in. Anyway, I blew off bringing the wind pants and long sleeve shirt. I immediately regretted that decision when we got out of the car at the race venue and were slapped with a nice 14mph and gusting NORTH wind. I'd just like to do a race here pretty soon where hypothermia reduction is not a part of the pre-race routine.
I got Transition set up and went to get marked. Saying "41" to the girl doing the markings isn't any easier than it was last year when I said "40". Oh well! I went inside with Brian and saw Jeepfleeb and we chatted for a few minutes and he took some pictures of me and Brian. Then I decided I was going to do something on race day that I had never tried before on race day. Calm down, people. I warmed up in the pool. I swam a nicely paced 100m and got used to the water. It's a very nice pool, if not a little warm. I got out and got in line. I was about 125th to start out of 490 or so, and I was ready to race. I look across the pool after I hear this shrill whistle that no doubt had 100 or so people writhing in pain from bleeding air drums, and there was Brian trying to ask me something. We did the "what?" thing back and forth, then he points to his ankle. Oh yeah...that whole timing chip thing. Good to know. He was allowed to get mine (need to remember that when I race with Aaron next time), and I laced it up and got ready to flog the hydro.