Clear Lake International Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Well, I almost messed this entire race up by "following directions" and falling forward once the water hit my knees. Unfortunatley, there was a large rock that left multiple 18" scrapes. About 200 yards into the swim I hit another patch of rocks and scraped by fingers again. Ugh. Anyway, this was a pretty good swim as I never got winded and wound up drafting several times. IN fact, I kept running into some guy in a dark red tri suit. I felt bad as I was trying to shift to the right to avoid him, but he kept moving in front of me.

I felt good about the bike. I tried to eat Sports Beans, but they apparently bonded to themsleves and was almost impossible to break apart. I eventually gave up and just used the GU in my Bento Box. Since we were the last wave, I wound up having to pass a number of other participants which helped me to keep my pace a little faster than normal.

Push a little harder.

Shoes came off easy. No other problems, except that I forgot to take my gloves off, which I didn't realize until after I was about 1/4 mile away.

I held a decent pace off the bike. I didn't feel any transition challenges, but it was hard to tell how hard I was working without the HR monitor. I felt a bit stronger heading into mile 2 and tried to start going a bit faster. Saw a friend of mine on his way back just before I hit the turnaround...I calculated that I was 2:46 behind him (2 x 1:23) which was a little better than I thought I'd do. Kept up a good pace, but found myself needing a little break on the bridge just before the event area. I allowed myself 30 seconds of rest before I started back to my normal pace. I probably didn't need the break, but I saw another guy walking and it made me really want to. After the break, I pushed hard to finish strong.

Resist the temptation to walk.

Light stretching, caught my breath.


This was a good solid event. There were a decent number of volunteers and PLENTY of food at the finish line. After Tejas I decided that these guys knew how to treat the athletes and will continue to support them. There were no lines and easy access to water, sports drinks, and sodas. Other events make you go through a line (like the big marathons) that make it hard to get your well deserved bounty.

Last comment - It is now the Sunday after the event and there isn't any sign of the official results. Ugh.

The only thing that I thought was odd was that there didn't seem to be as many lifeguards/canoes on the swim, but I may have been too preoccupied with my swim to notice.