I seeded in the front row, on the buoy line. Went out HARD from the start, and got ahead of the main pack. Not too many draft targets out here, but I found one to hang onto for about 1/2 the course. He started to go off course a bit, so I left him and then watched him fade back. Felt a few taps on my feet, so I knew I had my own lampreys. I decided to have fun with them, and changed tempo a bit and did a roll. I think I shook them off, as nobody tapped my feet anymore after that.

I was in the first 10 or so people my wave ( 2 ag's ) out of the water.

I was VERY happy with this swim, considering some of my shoulder/back/neck issues the past few months. I was smooth and solid in the water, and everything clicked.

Time seems long on the swim, but there was also a good little run-up after the exit to the transition area, and we were swimming into a bit of wind-blown current ( yay! headwind on the SWIM! )

Wetsuit strippers were a nice touch. That was fun.

Had a good transition. Nearly full bike racks since I was out of the water so fast. That was cool.

Hit the powertap to turn it on, helmet on, sunglasses on, and GO!

I think this included some of our time from the swim exit through transition.

Nothing

Holy HEADWIND! It was rather brutal on the way out. I'm really glad of the new bike and more agressive aero position. It really made a difference. When I sat up slightly to take a gel, I noticed a huge increase in drag. Once I hunkered back down, it was a lot better.

I went with only my aero bottle, since I was doing the quarter, and there were two water handups per loop. This worked out well. I took water at the second handup, and was fine. Spare tube and co2 was taped up under my seat, with the folded up tube sticking almost straight back from the seat. Tried to do everything possible to keep the lines clean and uncluttered. Think I succeeded.

I saw Whizzzzz about 2 miles before I hit the turn around. I made it my goal to try and catch her before she started her second loop. She had about a 40 minute head start, but swam twice as far. I was still cranking into the headwind, and she was on the return with a niiiiice tailwind pushing.

I was cruising on the way back. I was keeping speed up over 27mph the whole way, hitting 30 for some sections. Big mental boost after suffering through the headwind on the way out.

Peak 5s: 538
Peak 10s: 451
Peak 20s: 345
Peak 30s: 282
Peak 1m: 244
Peak 2m: 236
Peak 5m: 231
Peak 10m: 218
Peak 20m: 207
Peak 30m: 202
Peak 60m: 199

Average Watts (entire ride): 190

Push harder into the wind. It's a tough mental game to keep pushing hard and not let up at all. But with the headwind, if you slack off for just a second, you dropped 1-2 mph in speed.

I lost a bike shoe at the dismount line, so I had to backtrack slightly to get that. Then I ran past my spot on the rack and had to backtrack there too. If I'd not had to do both of those, I would have had a sub 1:00 T2.

Helmet off, socks on, shoes on, grabbed visor and racebelt and took off like I was on fire. I was near the front of the quarter race at this point, since I was in the first wave. As I was coming out of transition, heard the announcer say they only had a couple of quarter people out on the run. Announced my name as I came out of transition and onto the run. That was cool. :)

Nutrition on the bike:

Gel at 15 and 60 min. Aero bottle of water plus a bit more from the bottle hand up.

Not lose a shoe, and not run past my rack spot. Still, I managed a pretty blazing T2.

Run went a little off of plan. Felt good for the first 2 miles or so, then we started winding through a bunch of tight little turns on cement through Moody Gardens. That slowed me down a bit as it threw off my stride. Felt kinda crappy after about mile 2.5. Got passed by DavidB a little bit past the 3 mile mark. Tried to hang with him, but legs were a little off. So I just kept plugging away.

I didn't see any mile markers past the mile 2 mark, so I wasn't sure what my splits were.

I also was a bit confused with the winding run course. My own fault, as I should have been more familiar with it. I got passed in the last stretch, where I should have kicked since it was within a 1/2 mile of the finish. I didn't kick because I didn't know how close the finish was.

No HR data since my 625 apparently doesn't pickup the unencoded HR data from the powertap HRM strap. My 410 did, so I don't know what that's about. Will have to fiddle some more with that I guess.

Run faster. I lost a lot of ground on the run. I was in 3rd or 4th in the AG when the run started. I dropped a couple places by the end, as I lost ground on the run. Legs just lost their "spring".

First race of the season, so I wasn't expecting a breakthrough race, but I was hoping for a bit better than this. Should have been in low 7's. We'll see how later races in the season go.

Finished the race, got a towel and water bottle. Had chip removed.

Walked around a bit, then went and got my name of the list for a massage. Got my spare shoes from the expo tent, and changed back into those, as my race shoes were damp from the run ( pouring water on myself to stay cool ).

Got some food ( bagel + peanut butter, slice of pizza, iced green tea ). Then got my massage. Walked around and found the rest of the BT crew. Cheered in Bill and Bears ringer on the run ( she smoked a 1:33 1/2 marathon! ). Congratulated all the other quarter and 1/2 BT'ers that were there.


The run. Not sure what happened there. Swim and Bike were great, run was okay, then my legs just turned leaden from miles 2-5. Felt better after mile 5 ( I had some coke at an aid station ), so perhaps not enough nutrition during the race?


Keith and EndorFun put on an awesome race. Seriously, one of the better organized and put on races I've done. Stellar performance by all the EndorFun folks and of course the countless volunteers.

Seriously considering this race again for next year. It's a good start to the season for us Northerners, and hopefully we won't have 6" of standing water the day before the race to contend with. The BT Beach House was a great idea. Definitely made the time much more enjoyable being able to hang out with all the other BTers in person.