I felt ok on the swim. I consciously backed off a bit since this was a little longer swim than my first two tris. I still turned in a decent time. I had a lot of trouble sighting since part of the course was marked by green floating alligators that blended in with the water, plus it was dark when we started.

Working on sighting a bit. It was only my second open water swim.

There was a 1/4 mile run from the swim to the transition area. I brought an extra pair of shoes for this run. I trotted up to the shoe stop just fine, but with wet feet the inserts in the shoes kept wadding up inside the shoe. I finally had to sit down and hold the inserts in place to get the shoes on. I figure this cost about a minute. It did let my heart rate drop a bit though.

Once I got to my bike, the transition was pretty smooth. My rack space was close to the bike out so I didn't have to run very far in my bike shoes.

Get a pair of shoes that will slip on wet feet.

This was my very first time riding hills. I found the uphills to be somewhat challenging since I weigh quite a bit. (225 lbs) However, this worked in my favor on the downhill side. I found that getting into a decent aero tuck would allow me to pass most of the smaller people who could pass me on the uphills. My speedometer quit again in the race so I didn't get a decent reading, but I saw 32 mph at one point. I think I have finally figured out why the speedo quits on me every race so hopefully my next race I won't have this problem.

I saw a couple of people down on the side of the road. There were several sharp corners in the middle of downhills that could have been nasty if someone crashed in them. However, the two people I saw weren't near those corners. Hopefully, they got away with only a scrape or two.

Ride some hills before the race.

I took my time on this transition to recover a little from the uphill right before the bike finish. I downed a gu and a bottle of water, donned my cap and shoes and took off. Fortunately, my rack spot was close to bike-in so I didn't have to run very far in my bike shoes.

Not much.

My nemesis rises again. Just when I thought I was done with the hills in this tri, I round the first corner on the run and start up a hill. Now I know alot of folks wouldn't find the hills on this tri challenging, but I train and live in Houston and I weigh alot. So this was quite uncomfortable to me. Given that, I still managed to average a decent pace for me, but still not up to my tempo workout pace. I dropped 7 lbs since my last tri and I dropped 15 seconds per mile even with hills. So, even though my run is still very slow, I think it was ok for where I am with weight and training so far. I still believe there is 5 or 6 minutes out there for me on the run.

I would've liked to push harder, but I don't think I was ready for it. Especially just getting off my first hilly bike.

Just walked around and drank water and gatorade.


Weight on a hilly course is a killer. I'm working it down, but it was pretty punishing on the bike and run.


I thought the race was pretty well organized. There were a few questionable things like the shoe stop and the description of the swim course. But there was great traffic control, lots of volunteers, and lots of drinks and food. I thought it was a very well done event especially with 1100 people competing.