Although I continue to be slow, this is one of my best swims yet. Totally relaxed, easy breathing, pretty good sighting, never stopped swimming. Followed my plan of 10-13 strokes and looking up; on a handful of these I actually only looked up long enough to stay on line; for the rest I paddled long enough to take 3-5 deep breaths to stay relaxed. At varying times, I actually practiced focusing on aspects of the swim stroke: hip rotation, high elbows, maintaining a straight line, the finish, etc. Kept the mind active and on continuing progress towards the finish. I still ended up one of the slowest (maybe 7-8 after me) but it felt like a great swim.

Only thing I can think of is maybe staying on line a little better, because my Garmin indicated I swam about 1000 yards, but I think that may include my run to transition, movements inside transition, and my run with the bike out of transition, all because I forgot to hit the lap button on the watch until I actually LEFT T1. In fact, I totally screwed up the Garmin for the race (see more on the bike section).

29th overall. Went sockless for the bike, so this went relatively quick. i did slam down a Gu packet, so between that and getting the wetsuit off (came off pretty decently), a few seconds were lost, but pretty good overall.

Nothing; good transition for me.

Right in the middle of the pack here, and aside from the horrific road conditions that rattled my teeth, my bones, my muscles, and seemingly everything on my bike, I thought this was a dang good ride and pace for almost 25 miles. Only issue was it probably cost me on the run. Chip-seal roads for the first and last eight or so miles on the bike were just terrible. Roads hardly had any traffic on them, and were actually closed to traffic at some spots, and it was a really pretty area, but I felt as if my bike was going to come apart at the seams any moment. The aero bottle holder rattled so hard and loud that I was on the verge of yanking it off and throwing it away, the noise about drove me nuts. On top of that, the battering shook about a third of my Gatorade out the top of the bottle and all over my frame and legs. Everything changed for the better when we left Van Zandt County, then changed for the worse when we rode back across the line; I can't help but think they should be ashamed of themselves.

I'd probably pace myself better, slow up some. Although it didn't feel like it at the time - my pace felt pretty sustainable overall and not too difficult - my subsequent experience on the run leaves me thinking the pace was too hard. This was something I was concerned about given the longer bike ride.

40th overall. Chose to put socks on here, mainly because I haven't yet trained to run sockless and, if I'm honest, I'm not yet ready to trash these wonderful Hoka One One Bondi 5's by filling them with powder and sweaty feet. I also downed another Gu here...not that it helped much, or maybe it did (see Run section).

Could have saved time going sockless; I mean, I actually sat down to put on my socks, so I certainly could've gotten out of here quicker.

Brutal run. One of my concerns coming in was that I'd be in danger of pushing harder on the longest bike segment I've ever done in a tri at the expense of the run, and I'm thinking that was a big part of what happened here. Well, that and the wooded section at the beginning. Oh, and the hills...ah, the hills. I intentionally went very slow, even walking at times, through the wooded section because it was very reminiscent of Diamondman last September when I trashed my ankle on a similar course. In addition to roots, rocks, and ruts, this short section of trail was also muddy as heck from the all of the trampling feet that had gone before me. So that made for a slow start. Out of the woods, turn right, and what? A hill? A long hill? I fell in with a bedraggled group of Oly distance runners starting their second loop. Actually, most of the people I saw were bedraggled and worn out, whether Olympic, or Texas Sprint. No shade, hills, rising temperatures, a hard bike leg, and I was blown out before I'd even gotten halfway. Wanted to try an interval-type approach, but that went out the window pretty early, and the walking came on. Heart rate was maxed and I just couldn't keep anything but a jog, walk, jog, walk, trudge, jog, walk approach through the finish. A little embarrassing.

Will have to think on this because, despite the really bad run, I was maxed out when I crossed the finish; I mean, "hands on the knees and head down gasping for breath" maxed. No effort left to give. So it comes down to conditions, training, and a conscious decision to take the offroad portion of the course deliberately slow. I think the biggest factor regarding training was not being trained for a tough run after riding 25 miles. I'm used to average runs (i.e. not particularly tough courses) after 12-15 miles on the bike. Something to think about in the future.

Hands on the knees, head down, trying to breathe. Walking around in a daze, slurping down some Gatorade.


Mainly not being trained to run adequately after a much longer than normal bike leg, But this was a C race for me, purely for fun, no expectations, a chance to do a longer open water swim (my longest yet), and get a feel for running after a longer bike ride (turned out to be much tougher than anticipated).


Tough, challenging triathlon, certainly a good place to test yourself. And Big Earth did a great job with organization, plenty of volunteers, quick race results, awards, and damn good burgers afterwards. Oh, and those little mini pound cakes (wish I could remember the name) were spectacular. Race went off about five minutes late because they were taking some kind of 360-degree photo with all of us on the beach. I've wondered why this race wasn't more popular, given it's no further from where I live than last week's TexasMan race. But it only had about half the competitors as that event. I'm thinking it's because this location, despite being no further than Lake Ray Roberts, is much more rural, with narrower and more winding, rough roads, and therefore more difficult to get to than TexasMan, which is basically a straight shot up I-35E. And then there's that damned road surface on the bike course; TexasMan was rough roads on the bike, but this was at another level. And frankly, I bet the difficulty of the run because of the hills keeps the number of contestants down.