Swim was a little long, no way I swam that slow. Water was very salty, glad it wasn't an Olympic or longer race in that water I would have ended up with an upset stomach.

Our wave was the first to start and 2 guys bolted off the line, first time I think I've seen a 6-beat kick in a triathlon. I went with them to the first buoy and thought man I can't hold this the entire time, we were easily going 1:10/100m. Thankfully they both dropped back after we rounded the buoy and I took the next ~200 easy, rounded the last buoy and pushed it hard into shore.

Nothing

As I was at the mount line I heard Jana call Milford's name out as finishing the swim. Crap I thought that's no where near enough lead to offset his run.

Nothing.

I started off the bike strong but semi-conservative and tried to hold power ~300W. Once we left transition it took a bit to get to open road, lots of turns and speed bumps to navigate around. It was very nice having the lead vehicle to follow, something new for me :)

Hit the bridge (1/4mi climb) and felt that I climbed it well, avg power 350W, hit 35mph on the way down with some crazy cross winds that for the first time ever I felt my front wheel wobble. Immediate left hand turn at the bottom of the bridge, straight into a major headwind the next couple miles. Got to the turn around and saw that I was maintaining the lead on Milford. To even have a chance, I needed to gain some time now...

Got a nice tailwind after the turn around for ~2mi, was fun averaging 30mph for that long. Over the bridge again, avg power 385W. I kept looking behind me near the end but there were so many turns I had no idea where Milford was.

Avg power: 304W

I still think I can push harder than this, at no point was I breathing heavy or my legs screaming at me.

Nothing special, in out and off to run...

Ran out of transition with no idea how close 2nd place was. Made the decision there right out of T2, don't look at my Garmin just run hard. Legs felt good and the reduced humidity helped a ton. I pushed hard but I still don't have the ability to make myself hurt bad in the sprint, to much longer distance training I suppose.

I kept looking over my shoulder expecting to see Milford any time now. Finally it happened at mile 2, we had a little loop in the course, I was leaving it and he entered it. I couldn't judge how much time I had before he caught me but I could see the finish line across the bayou. Thought just hold on to my pace and hope it doesn't come down to a sprint to the finish. Rounded the last turn into the finish line and knew there wasn't enough time for him to catch me. Finally my first OA win! My previous best sprint run pace was 6:35/mi so was very happy with 6:16/mi which matched my pre-race goal of 6:15/mi. Congrats to Milford for a smoking fast run (5:50/mi) and a great race!

Nothing

Talked w/friends & re-hydrated


My sprint speed still needs work but I'm happy with the progress.


Great race with a challenging (for Houston) bike course. Was glad Milford was there to race with, made it fun and pushed me harder than I would have gone otherwise. Look forward to the rematch but sorry Stephen you might have to wait a while with IMTX on the schedule :)