Felt like a good swim. When I got to the shallow area I saw Jason in front of me, so I know I was swimming alright (since he always kicks my ass in the pool). After making the turn around the first buoy I saw Jason again, so I was feeling even better about my swim and decided to keep after it. During the last race I beat Jason out of the water and didn't even see him in T1. I thought this was a freak accident, but I imagined it might happen again in this race. As I rounded the second buoy I decided to pick up the pace and kept thinking I saw Jason to my right so I swam harder.

Again, close to the water exit it got a little tricky with a weird turn to the right to get around some pink buoys and then a left turn to the shore. As I got out of the water and looked to my right I realized it wasn't Jason and expected to see him in T1.

It was a good swim for me and I don't think I would've done anything differently. As I get better, I'll try to draft more, but I find it difficult to find a set of feet traveling slightly faster than me.

Didn't see Jason in T1, so I figured I beat him out of the water again. The rest of transition was pretty normal. I had some trouble clipping in at the mount line and it seemed to slow me a bit, but after that I was off.

Nothing, just clip in faster.

As I was running to the finish line I knew i was slower than the previous race on this course and a bit upset, because I felt better prepared. Looking back on it, I actually went faster on the swim and run, but significantly slower on the bike. Admittedly, I wasn't as prepared for this race as the previous because I tried to fit in some intense rides before this race in prep for Longhorn. My legs felt heavy during the entire ride and it shows in my pace. I know I'm capable of a much stronger ride and need to continue to improve my cycling.

My bike fit is bad and that has a lot to do with it I'm sure, but nothing changed from the previous race on this course and I slowed over 5 minutes this time. Very disappointing.

If I had it to do all over again, I probably wouldn't have done anything differently, because the ultimate goal was Longhorn and not a faster pace at TexasMan.

First time I tried getting out of my shoes while on the bike. I did it pretty well, but it slowed me down nearing the transition. Jumping off the bike was easy, but there was a guy that made an abrupt stop right in front of me and I almost ran him over. I narrowly escaped the embarrassment and made it through the rest of T2 without a problem.

I remembered my socks this time, so no blisters! Also popped a couple of salt tablets before getting on the run course as a prevention.

As I was about to leave, I saw Jason pull in and this got me thinking that my bike was slow (or Jason kicked butt on the bike). I beat him out of the water, which means he made up time on me in the bike. Seeing him motivated me to run hard so he wouldn't catch me.

nothing

Run felt good. Last time on this course I felt really slow in the beginning, but this time it felt better. Saw Jason at the first little turnaround and he was only a minute or two behind me, so I knew he was capable of catching me and I started to push it a bit. I thought I was going to finish pretty close to the top of this race so I started counting the number of runners that went by on the way out of the park (race weekend moved, so I knew there weren't as many people racing this time and I would have a better shot at finishing higher). The number grew and grew and eventually I stopped counting and decided to run my race. After i made the halfway turn I was feeling pretty good and picked up the pace. This time when I saw Jason after the turn he was a few minutes behind, but still capable of catching me, so I got going.

Once I was about a half mile from the end it became a reality that I wasn't going to beat my time from the last race. This really SUCKED. I just ran as fast as I could and crossed the finish.

Looking back on my time, this was my best pace for a tri of any distance and I improved on my run time from the last race, so I hold onto those nuggets of accomplishment.

Nothing. It was a solid run and it will only get faster with training.

Grabbed some fluids and a couple of pieces of pizza before driving home.


Slightly fatigued bike muscles.


Good race, I had fun and felt safe.