Positioned myself to the right side of the start line, 3 rows back. Gun went off and I pushed it harder than normal for the first 200 meters and then settled in to a comfortable pace. There was about 1/50th of the contact of my last open water swim (IMAZ 4/08) The lake is fairly narrow so I could really just sight off the shoreline and the other swimmers. Occasionally, I'd still sight looking forward and was very pleased at how straight I appeared to be swimming. About 1/2 way to the turnaround, I found someone to draft off of. The water wasn't too murky and I could see the other swimmers from the knees down so found it easier to draft. I stayed drafting off my guy for about 5 minutes, but then started feeling guilty that I was tickling his toes so much, than I just pulled out and passed him. When I hit the two turn around buoys, there was very little congestion so I was able to turn right at the buoy with very little contact from other swimmers. The rest of the way back, I had open water and kept a comfortable pace until I hit the turn buoy for the shore. Then I started to kick my legs until I got to the shore where there were plenty of volunteers waiting to help me out of the water.

I guess I just settled in to too comfortable of a pace because I really should've been able to do this swim in under 30 minutes. Next time, I need to push myself so I at least get a little bit out of my comfort zone. I should be happy with top 40%, since I consider myself a very average swimmer, but I just thought I would be able to break 29 min from my practice swims.

25/127 in AG
Took wetsuit top off and slid suspenders down while running into T1. Got to the end of my bike rack and stopped to remove my bottoms before running in to get my bike. Bike shoes went on easily, slipped my nutrition in the back pocket of the mantard, helmet on, sunglasses on, grabbed bike and I was off. Shortly after exiting the transition area, I was expecting to hit the mount line. I was surprised to see that we had about 100 yards to run with the bike before actually hitting the mount line. After crossing the mount line, did the flying leap and got clipped in right away.

Nothing.

As usual, my heart rate was sky high starting the bike ride. I knew I just needed to slow down a little and it would come down into my target zone. It was starting to come down when I hit the first big hill going around the capital building and then it went sky high again. Jen and I had driven the bike course the day before so I knew about the hills going around the capital building and I decided I was going to attack the hills because there was enough downhill to recover on. On the back side of the capital building was another hill to attack and as I was going up that one, Desiree Ficker passed me. Coming south on congress, from the capital building, there was a slight downhill so I had a chance to recover there. The section on Cezar Chavez was pretty flat and I was able to maintain a good pace while keeping my HR in the zone I wanted. When I finished my first lap, I didn't specifically see the area to turn back into transition and told myself to try and spot that on the next lap. Basically the next three laps were similar to the first. Go as hard as I could on the hills, then use the downhills and flats to recover. The third and fourth laps started to get pretty congested and I probably yelled out "on your left" more than any other race I've done. On laps 2,3 and 4, I hooked up with a guy on a red Trek and a girl on a red Pinnarello and all three of us took turns legally drafting off of each other. Finally on my third lap, I spotted where I had to turn in at that finish of the bike, so at the end of my 4th lap, stayed right and rode into transition.

Nothing. I really liked this course. The short hills were challenging and I did a good job of legally drafting and just had to be careful of the slower riders who weren't hugging the right hand side.

18/127 in AG
Got my bike racked, shoes went on quickly and I grabbed my racebelt and hat and ran with them as I put them on.

Nothing.

Started out with my HR right on target. I knew it was hot and I was going to have to make sure to stay hydrated. It was nice to see that they had aid stations every 1/2 mile or so and I basically drank water and poured water on my head at every aid station. I had my hr right where I wanted it, but I didn't feel like I was running as fast as I wanted to. Decided to let my heartrate rule my decision making process. The first lap was pretty uneventful but I knew I wanted to push the pace for the second lap. I slowly increased my pace and went more by feel and stopped looking at my heartrate monitor for the entire second lap. During the second lap, I was passing a lot of other people in my age group. This made me feel good and motivated me to keep pushing the pace. About 3/4 of the way through the second lap, I realized that all the people in my A.G. I was passing, may have been only on their first lap and I was already ahead of them. Had a little chuckle to myself and kept pushing it. With about a mile to go, I pushed it for all I was worth all the way through to the finish line.

Considering the fact that 30 minutes after I finished my legs felt totally normal, I should've pushed harder on the run.

Grabbed a water and some nutrigrain bars and found a good spot to watch everybody come in on the run. Cheered on Jen, Tri-Z, TeeCris, JBrashear, friscobob, fasttoad, JeepFleeb.


Not pushing enough outside my comfort zone on the swim and the run.


Since I finished in the top 1/3 of my AG, I hit my goal of qualifying for the AG Nationals. Very good race and will probably do it again sometime. Two recommendations: 1. Have it marked better where you bike in to transition off of the course and 2. Have at least 1, probably 2 areas set up on the course for bike issues/repairs.

PS
Thanks to Jen who wrote up my RR as I dictated it to her on the drive back to Dallas. You are the BEST!