Cinco Ranch Triathlon

Well, My first tri ever and I loved it. So here is my very first race report to go along with it.

Location: Katy, Tx (Houston)
Sprint Tri - 500 m open water swim, 15 mile bike, 3 mile run

The start of the race I had the jitters. I was watching the other age groups start as they seeded the swim with over 1000 participants. We all had different colored swim caps to show who was in each age group! I got lucky enough to wear a BRIGHT flourescent colored Pink Swim Cap! Woo Hoo!

So the swim starts and I took the advice gained from this website and started on the outside. This was a great decision as there were 47 women in my age group, which was the largest out of the age groups for the women. I began the swim doing freestyle until I noticed I kept getting of course. Having no lanes marks to guide you made this a little tough. Then I got stuck behind the women who decided to start off in a dead sprint and then died off about 50 m later. So I began to get kicked in the arms and had one girl keep grabbing my feet. So I decided to swim 6 strokes freestyle and 6 stokes breast stroke. This kept me going straight and kept me from getting kicked as much. This slowed me down tremdously, but hey, I didn't drown! I finished my swim in 12:07:7.

Next was the transition. I wore a one piece suit with cycling shorts built in so I never had to change clothes. So I had a damp towel down to wipe off my feet, put on my socks and cycling shoes, then put on my helmet and sunglasses and ran to the transition line where I could mount my bike. I guess this transition took a bit longer due to the many participants and the many rows of racks we had to pass in order to mount our bikes outside the transition area. 2:03:01 I was 32nd at this point.

So I mounted the bike and I was on my way. I can't tell you how good it felt to get on the bike. I looked at this as my way to catch up, get ahead in preparation for the run and to have fun. And that's exactly what I did. (I was on a road bike with clip pedals that I have had for two years now due to road riding) I began passing numerous people. We had a pretty god tail wind on the way down and some hills to go up and over but on the way back my speed went from 20-24 down to 16-19 mph. WoW! But I kept on passing! The only people who passed me were the older men who started the swim after my age group! Boy were they fast. I ended up being 11th after the bike! What a great ride. 47:13:4

Then came transition 2. My boyfriend and best friend were yelling at me to just run and not think about my legs. They were so excited and now I know why, because I had passed so many people that I was almost in the top 10. I began to take my helmet and sunglasses off after I dismounted the bike and started running to my rack where I took off my cycling shoes and put on my running shoes and I was off. 1:57:7

So I started the run! I knew how my legs would feel and I tried really hard to ignore them! Come on legs!!!!! So I was running and running and running and I had to walk a few times so then I got the idea to skip instead of walk because it was faster than walking and gave my legs a break. What a great idea and the other participants found this quite humorous. So as I was running I watched so many women in my age group pass me. But I just kept telling myself to run my own race. SO I did. I met a few men on the run who I ran with and tried to keep pace with. (note to self- next time don't try to carry on the conversation with them that they are trying to have with me, just drop them and run!!) So as I was heading around the last curve, I was about 1/8 mile from the finish and I saw another girl in my age group pass me and I had had enough so I headed out in an all out sprint and we both began battling each other and the crowd went wild. What a rush!!! I ended up beating her and finished the race with a huge smile on my face. Who cares if I went from 11th to 27th! I still have a great day! 33:17:3

An overall race time of 1:36:32:2! Time for my next tri next weekend!!! The last race of the season here for me. NOw it is time to start seriouly training for the half marathon and beat my time of 2:28:31 last year!

Janet
I am tri'in for the Iron Man