There were some extremely fast swimmers in my wave. I didn't expect that. I hung onto some really fast feet for the first couple hundred then realized I needed to dial it back, this was a decently long swim.

Unfortunately we were the last wave, so I had to dodge a bunch of slower swimmers basically the whole time.

My average pace was OK (1:31/100y according to garmin), but I would have liked to swim closer to 1:25.

I still don't have very much experience in racing long distance swims or triathlons in general so I'm not sure yet how hard it should feel. In retrospect I could have probably pushed quite a bit harder, maybe tried to stay on the fast feet longer.

textbook T1

nothing

As usual, the bike was my favorite part. My strategy going into the race was to swim and bike hard and see what I had left for the run. Running continues to be my weakness, so I wanted to take advantage of the bike as much as possible.

Coming out of transition, once I got my feet in my shoes I just put the hammer down. I reeled in most of the few remaining folks in front of me pretty quickly. My garmin was acting really funny though, my speed was all over the place so I wasn't sure how fast I was going. And my power meter is still messed up (I have been lazy and haven't sent it in yet). So I was really just going on RPE with a check of the HR every once in a while.

About 6-7 miles into it I had a couple of older guys pass me, with one clearly drafting the other. I tucked in about 20 meters behind the second guy and followed them for a while. At first I thought they seemed to be working together taking turns at the front, but it became clear that they were just wearing themselves out when not drafting. We were coming up to the Kemah mountain and I got tired of being around these guys so I put in a strong effort to go around them and then powered over the bridge hard. Never saw them again.

The rest of the first loop was pretty lonely, which I enjoy. The second loop was a cluster as I was passing tons of folks on their first lap of the Int'l as well as all the sprint folks who went off after the int'l. I just tried to keep my effort strong the whole way around.

Ended up not getting passed by anybody on the bike. I wasn't sure if anyone from my age group swam faster than me, but I had a good feeling about getting on the podium if I could put in a solid run.

Not much. Need to get my power meter fixed and would have liked it if my speed would have been more useful. It was a strong ride for my current fitness level.

Was moving a little slow getting the helmet off and shoes on. I could tell I pushed it hard on the bike.

Not much.

I had been scared of this run all week. I had planned all along to bike hard and see what I had left for the run, but still hoping to run well. As soon as I took off from transition I could tell that I wasn't going to come close to my hopeful pace. I was pretty fatigued and hot.

The first loop was actually the worst one for me. I don't know if it just took me a while to get into a groove, or if it was the thought of having the whole run in front of me. I was still running sub 8/mi, but I was walking 10 yards or so in transition to drink and dump water/ice on my head and down my suit. The ice in the suit seemed to really help cool me down.

Laps 2 & 3 were fairly uneventful. I wasn't happy with my pace and I still wasn't sure where I stood in the race, but no one had passed me up to this point on the run either. My HR was lower than it probably should have been, so I think I should have been pushing harder but it hurt pretty bad.

About a mile from the finish I had a guy come past me that could have been in my age group so I was happy when I saw an R on his calf. Picked up the pace the last half mile or so and crossed the finish line still not knowing my standing.

I think I wimped out a bit on the run. My max HR was 172 and my avg should have probably been higher than that. I need to get better at pushing myself when fatigued.

I was pretty disappointed with my split, but after looking at the results, I think it was hotter out there than I gave it credit for. There weren't a lot of fast splits.

water, pizza, coke, coconut water, massage, PODIUM!




Other than general fitness, I need to work on the mental side of dealing with the pain and pushing harder. On both the swim and the run this limited me. I think my plan to bike hard in a race of this distance was the right call.

I ended up winning my age group by 12 minutes and finished 4th overall.


Great race, good organization. I think I'm going to do their half iron distance race this fall rather than an IM branded one.