Racing as a Clydesdale, we were in the last wave, with the Athenas (a couple of whom were fairly proud of their status as Athenas...) and the relays. There were 24 Clydesdales in all. And off we went!

In all, I felt rather at ease the entire length of the swim, never any stress or duress. I started on the outside edge, and aimed for the shoreline to try to swim the most direct route. Now, because I was in such a small wave, I couldn't rely on others around me to navigate, so I had to look up about every 12-20 strokes. Most of the time, I was pretty much on course, so I guess I am getting better at that.

However, I could not help thinking that I should not have played golf Saturday morning, followed by an easy 5/1 brick. I think that my arms were a little fatigued from five hours in the sun doing motions that they are not as used to anymore. That was probably good to find out in this race, as opposed to one of my higher prioritized races.

On the way back, the sun was peaking out above the trees to my left, so I needed to breathe to my right. It would have been nicer to breathe left, since that was where the buoys were, but no big.

Made the final turn and headed on in to the finish. When I got out, one of the pins on my watch broke, so it was hanging by one end. It's one of those velcro straps, so it stayed on my wrist... More on that later. I got out in 17:26, and I was hoping for something below 16:00. My swim split was 11th among Clydesdales.

I guess I could have pressed a little more on the swim. I felt very smooth and in control the entire way, so I could have picked up the stroke rate a little. I'm not sure if I could have held my stroke length constant, though.

The only reason that I am saying the swim was below average is that I did not hit my goal time. My next race is an Olympic distance, so the "easy" pace that I established will be nice for that race.

The one thing I will do differently before the next race is that I won't play golf the day before. It's just a little too draining to do that the day before.

My bike was on the first rack out of the swim. Good because it was easy to get to my bike. Bad because I had to run with the bike from the far corner to the bike start, which was in the middle of the transition area.

Wouldn't you know that I got stuck on my shirt again! That probably cost me a few seconds. I had that fixed at the last race, now it comes to get me again. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

At the start of the bike, I tried to push off, then get my foot in the pedal while moving. Didn't work. I had to stop, and then clip in, then get going. Riiiight.

Work the shirt better. Stop the bike to get the first pedal clipped in. Probably about 20 seconds off my time right there.

My bike split was 4th out of Clydesdales. Here is where I started making up time. I was sure that I was about 20th out of the water among Clydesdales, so I felt like I needed to gobble up some time. I was not passed on the bike by anyone. I was able to keep about a 21.5 mile pace on the way out, and about 19.5 on the way in, close as I could figure. Drafting was never a concern, because no one came at me from behind, and I easily passed everyone I came into contact with.

Looking at the splits, I passed 6 of the 10 Clydesdales that finished faster than me in the swim. With the Age-Groupers, you can tell which group the others are in, because they mark it on your calf. However, not all the Clydesdales had a "C". Oh well.

Start better with the pedal issue. Other than that, I was pretty pleased with the bike. I wish that someone could have passed me to give a little more incentive to go faster, but that is something we cannot control, no?

Bottom line is that I need to get stronger on the bike so I can hit 23 MPH or so, and I hope to be able to make some of those improvements over the off-season.

Ok, remember how my spot was right at the swim exit? It was on the far corner from the run start, so I had to negotiate 1.5X the transition area in T2, half with my bike. That's just luck, and the other Clydesdales were right there with me.

T2 went pretty smoothly. I took a second to slam some cold water, but it was time well spent.

Here's the good news: My run was 1st among Clydesdales! Now the bad news: I was hoping for something under 20 minutes. I think this is where we get back to how I spent my Saturday. Again, I played golf, which was 5 hours in the sun, with a little walking thrown in. Then, I rode 5 miles at a pretty good pace and followed that with a 1 mile run at pretty good pace. In all, I think it was too much.

The funny thing is that I ran a faster run in my previous race, which featured some moderate hills. Also, that week, I trained hard on M-Th, while this week was an easy recovery week.

I tried to force myself to attack the run, because it was only 3 miles. My splits were 7:07, 7:16 and 6:43. Only one other competitor passed me on the run, and it was a kid that was part of a relay team. Not bad. Turns out that I passed two of the remaining four Clydesdales on the run to finish second among big boys. Yay me.

Rest a little more on Friday and Saturday. Did I mention that I spent three hours mowing and trimming the lawn on Friday afternoon?

Walked around and drank Gatorade, water. Had a banana and some pizza.

I was pretty sure that I would finish somewhere around 10 in Clydesdales, so I surprised when I saw the unofficial results posted. The bad news is that meant that I had to stick around for another hour and a half to collect my plaque. Why do they always have to annouce Clydesdales last?


It's swimming again. Here's a funny stat. I was 1 minute faster than 3rd place, but 7 minutes slower than 1st. He beat me by ~3 minutes on the swim and ~4 minutes on the bike. I need to get stronger on the bike, better at the swim and still faster on the run. I am satisfied with where I am at now, so these are things to work on as we continue this journey.


Overall, it was a nice race. The T-shirt design is solid, and the setting underneath the centuries-old pecan trees is nice as well. I am thrilled that I finished 2nd, and I still have some things to work on.

I can't wait to test myself in July at the Olympic length. It's going to be tough for me to do very well there, because of the disproportionate length of the swim. (It'll be roughly double this race in all disciplines...) But it is going to be fun to get there!