The Long Awaited Buffalo Springs Lake 70.3 Race Report.

I've been putting off posting my race report for BSLT 70.3 because it's the first time I've had to write a report of a disappointing race. Well, the race itself was not so disappointing as my performance was. I know I'm so much better than what I did, but I guess it was a good learning experience. Before I get to the long race report, as is my custom, I'll put the "short" version with just the results. Here they are:

1.2-mile Swim: 00:37:18
Transition 1: 00:01:45
56-mile Bike: 02:35:54
Transition 2: 00:01:43
13.1-mile run: 02:16:37

Overall Time: 05:33:19

This was about 3 1/2 minutes slower than my time at Iron Star (which had a longer bike leg of 59 miles). Obviously, my swim was poor (4 minutes slower than Iron Star), and my run was pathetic (9 minutes slower than Iron Star). My bike time was faster (by 10 minutes), but if you adjust for the distance difference, it's not faster by more than about a minute or two.

I'm pretty disappointed, since I expected to be faster. I'm in better shape now, with more base work and more running work. Still, I attribute at least part of my poor swim to the fact that I did not wear a wetsuit here, and that I did wear my tri top, which created drag. That's only a little bit of the problem, though. I quite simply need to swim more. Once a week will keep me from drowning in a long course tri, but it won't make me fast at all.

With respect to the run, I don't know what happened. I didn't push that hard on the bike (or at least I didn't feel like I did). I'm in much better bike shape than I was before, but apparently, I overdid it just a bit. Although I felt fresher off the bike this time than at Iron Star, my legs apparently weren't ready for the hot run. I never felt tired or spent on the run, but that stabbing pain in my left knee, which began at mile 3 or so, made it impossible to run up the hills and damn near impossible to run down them. Anyway, more on all that below. Suffice it to say that I will have to monitor myself much better on the bike in Madison to avoid the same kind of problem. Therefore, I'm revising my goal of 5:30-5:45 bike split to just staying at or just under 6:00. This ought to allow me to back off (more than I want to) and save some strength for the run. Hopefully, this will avoid the knee pain and let me actually run a decent marathon pace.

On to the report:


Pre-Race

I drove up to Lubbock with my bike on Thursday, June 21. I was staying with my friend, Victor, and his family, and he graciously agreed to have me in early. I got to Lubbock at about 2:30 PM after an uneventful drive. Victor and I took care of some work-related business for Texas Tech, and then we went back to his house. Not much to say, except that Victor's youngest son, Jack, took an instant liking to me. We were best buds for the next four days! He's an adorable kid.

On Friday, I got up early and drove out to Buffalo Springs Lake. I wanted to test out my wetsuit in the warm water. I was afraid that it would be too hot to wear, especially since it was a full Pro-motion suit. I was right. After 10 minutes of easy swimming, I was pretty darn warm! I didn't make the decision then and there, but I was pretty sure I wasn't going to wear it during the race. After my swim warm-up, I shed the westuit and got on the Sharkboy bike to do an easy spin up the first two hills of the bike course. They were a little steep, but nothing I hadn't seen before riding around Austin, and certainly weren't very long. Just enough to get the heart rate racing.

The rest of Friday, I spent driving around Lubbock looking for a shop that might sell me a sleeveless wetsuit. Apparently, there are only two bike shops in Lubbock that carry triathlon stuff, and only one that had wetsuits. They did have some Quintana Roo sleeveless wetsuits, but none in my size. Probably best, anyway. I can't really afford another wetsuit with the wedding day coming up. So, I bagged the idea and decided to test the waters again on Saturday and Sunday.

At about 3:00 PM on Friday, I went to the packet pick-up site and got myself registered. Then, at 5:30, I accompanied Victor's wife and kids to Jack's t-ball game. Victor had had to go to Houston for the day for Texas Tech business and was on his way back when the t-ball game started, so he didn't make it. It was so cute seeing those kids play ball. Lots of runs scored, but little Jack scored the winning run just before time expired!

On Saturday, I left Victor's at about 7:30 and went back out to the lake. I was supposed to meet the other Texas Iron folks and Steve out there for a short workout at about 9:30 AM. The group met, and Steve got there just before we went out for a group ride on the run course. It was funny to see the reactions of the group to seeing me and Steve together. I'd almost forgotten what it was like to be a twin!

It was at this point that the weekend started to go south for the Perkins boys. Steve was getting his bike off the car (he had driven Laura's car), when we noticed that the exhaust pipe had melted his rear tire. What was worse was that it had also melted and warped his carbon rear wheel, a Zipp 404 race wheel. Those are expensive wheels!! He was pissed! I felt bad for him! I know that must have been disheartening. Luckily, I had my spare rear wheel, although it wasn't a Zipp. At least he was able to ride!

So, we biked the run course and took mental notes of the hills -- two big ones in the middle of the course and one slight incline at the beginng. After that, we did a short (1-mile) run and then topped it off with a 10-minute swim. I tested my wetsuit again, and I was still boiling hot after a few minutes of easy swimming. I was pretty sure at that point that I would not be using the wetsuit in the race.

Just after we finished, Steve got a call from his friend, Matt, who had just arrived in town. We got a bit cleaned up and then met Matt at the entrance to the Buffalo Springs Lake Park. Steve told Matt about the melted Zipp wheel, and we decided to get some food and then set out looking for a new Zipp wheel for Steve. Here's where the disappointment got even worse:

First, I took the guys to Gardski's, a restaurant in "downtown" Lubbock that I'd been to many times in my trips there (although not for a few years). Oh my god it was awful -- not at all what it used to be! The sandwiches were okay, but the soup was luke warm and the fries tasted stale. The water tasted dirty, and it just wasn't a happy experience. After all that, we headed to the race expo to see if we could find some wheels. Major disappointment! Zipp was not a vendor at this race, so we couldn't go to the source. Both Lubbock bike shops were there, but neither one had any Zipp wheels in stock! WTF?!?!?! I would've expected them to have some, especially knowing that the triathlon was that weekend and folks might either need to replace one (like Steve), or might be primed by the atmosphere to buy some. Nope. No Zipps.

So, Matt was going to let Steve use his spare rear wheel (also not a Zipp, but better than mine). As the put the wheel on, however, they noticed one of the spokes was broken! (MORE disappointment). So, Steve was stuck with a Franken-bike. On a positive note, Steve did let me use his front Zipp 404 race wheel on my bike, since he knew this was a "race" for me going for a PR (personal record), while he and Matt were just using the race as a tool to gauge their fitness for IMoo.

After the wheel fiasco, we tried to go check Steve and Matt into the hotel, but they wouldn't let them check in until 3:00 PM. So, we took off in my car and drove the bike course. Wow! I didn't know Lubbock had that many hills/canyons! I was getting nervous about the bike ride as we drove the whole course checking out the roads and the climbs.

After that, we checked Steve and Matt in and went in search of a place to fix Matt's wheel spoke. At the expo, the bike shop booth told us to try their store, only a few minutes away. It was close to 5:00 and they were closing soon, so we high-tailed it over there. Unfortunately, the mechanic there couldn't fix the wheel. For some reason, he didn't have the tool necessary to remove the broken spoke. This picture basically illustrates our frustration! Plus, we had to wait FOREVER for the mechanic to help some yahoo with expensive HED trispoke wheels. I just about lost it when the mechanic started explaining to the guy how to fix a flat tire! Gimme a break!

On the plus side, at the shop, we did run into Lubbock resident and professional triathlete, Shanna Armstrong, last years(?) women's winner of the national championship Ultra triathlon race. She's pretty hard core, but nice as can be! She offered to let us borrow one of her wheels, but it wasn't really a race wheel, so we thanked her and declined. Steve just suffered through with my stock Ritchey DS wheel. It was fine!

The rest of the evening, we spent getting stuff ready for the race the next day and having dinner at Orlando's italian restaurant. Here are pictures of us at the restaurant:



(I promise Steve's not drunk -- just tired from the drive on Friday! He was the only one brave enough to get a glass of wine with dinner. I should have, too!)

After dinner, I said "goodbye" to Steve and Matt and went back to Victor's house to get my stuff ready.


Race Morning:

I set my alarm for 3:45 AM. The park opened for transition at 4:30, and I was a bit further away than most of the folks staying at hotels. I had everything packed up and in the car the night before, so that all I'd need to do was grab Sharkboy and head out the door. Good plan. But, I forgot about my morning breakfast routine. I was out the door and on the road by 4:00 AM when I realized I'd forgotten to eat my normal routine of 2 slices of toast with peanut butter and 1 banana. So, I improvised. I ate a Powerbar (mmmmm, vanilla crisp!) and a couple of packets of peanut butter crackers I had bought as "road snacks" for the trip from Austin. It wasn't the same, but it did fill me up.

I got to the park just before 4:30 AM and they were already letting folks in to park. I followed the crowd to the parking area and parked the car. Although there aren't really any other places for such mass parking out there, it seems a bit cruel to put the parking area at the TOP of the first hill out of transition. After the race was over, it really SUCKED climbing that hill to get back to the car.

Pre-race here was much like pre-race everywhere else, but just a bit longer. I had my bike set up and everything ready to go by 5:00 AM, so I had almost an hour and a half to kill before the pros would start. I had another package of peanut butter crackers at about 6:00 AM and chatted with other racers. Ran into a couple of guys from Austin and, after chatting with them, decided for sure I would NOT wear the wetsuit. The water was just too warm for it.

I found Steve and Matt. Steve had a great transition spot. He was right on the end near the "bike in/out" area. Mine sucked. I was on the same row as him, but all the way down to the other side and in about 4 spaces. Matt was on a different row about 10 rows away from us. He was closer to the "swim in" area, but a LONG way from the "bike in/out." He was also in the middle of the row, so he had the worst spot of the three of us.

Other than just putzing around, there's not much to tell about the rest of the pre-race. I saw a few Texas Iron folks and chatted with them, but mostly, I was just nervously walking around and trying not to think about the swim too much.

Here's a picture Steve snapped of me about 15 minutes before we went down to the swim start. I think the look on my face shows my concern over the impending meltdown I was about to have on the run:

At 6:15, we made our way to the swim start for the pre-race announcements. After that, the gun went off at 6:30 for the pros. We were the fourth wave, so we waited through 2 more waves and then the gun went off for us at 6:45.


The Swim:

The swim wasn't too bad. I never got jostled or swum over, nor did I jostle or swim over anyone. I started a little far to the inside and had to cut over a bit to avoid too many people, but all-in-all, it was very uneventful. It was, however, a VERY long swim for me. I noticed about 5 minutes in that my tri top was unzipped a bit and was creating a lot of drag. Funny thing, though, I felt like I was moving along at a pretty good speed. I knew I was in for a slow time, though, when I got to the back side straight-away and saw a red, green, blue, and white caps mixed in with me. I was wearing purple. It meant I'd caught a few from the previous wave or two, but had been caught by folks from the waves after me. I knew that would happen, I just thought it would happen much later.

Also, without the wetsuit, I wasn't terribly bouyant. My legs were dragging quite a bit, slowing me down. I was secretly regretting not wearing my wetsuit, but I bet if I had worn it, I'd be secretly regretting that, too. Oh well, it was a bad swim. I simply haven't been swimming enough, or doing enough shoulder/lat exercises to keep myself in good swimming shape. I've been getting progressively slower because of this, and the swim at BSLT showed it.

Swim time: 37 minutes, 18 seconds.


T-1:

Thankfully, when I got out of the water, I couldn't see a clock. I might've been really pissed off. I high-tailed it up the incline out of the water and over the timing mat to the carpeted run into the transition area. I knew my swim was slow, but I had no idea how slow. My goal was to get to Sharkboy, get my gear on, and get out ASAP. Thankfully, I was able to do just that.

My T-1 time was pretty fast, especially compared to my age group, but 2 things factored into that: (1) no wetsuit to take off; and (2) I didn't put on my socks for the bike. Neither of these "time savers" was ultimately worth doing. Swimming with no wetsuit probably cost me at least 2 minutes on the swim, maybe more. It would've taken 10-30 seconds to get the wetsuit off because I'd be half out of it by the time I got to the bike. Not putting on the socks probably saved me 10-20 seconds. That's free time, but I think I started to get the makings of a couple of blisters toward the end of the bike. Those hotspots were aggravated by the run. It probably would have behooved me to take the extra 10 seconds and wear the socks on the bike.

Anyway, in this race, started with my shoes off the bike instead of clipped in. In retrospect, that was a mistake. The run out to the "bike out" line wasn't far, and I'd have had plenty of time to get my feet slipped into the shoes before the first hill. The reason I didn't do this was because everyone I talked to who'd done the race before said the first hill was too close and I'd lose time. I think I may have lost about 5-10 seconds trying to run in my bike shoes. I just don't like doing that. In any event, I got to the mount line, ran over it by about 3 yards, and then hopped on the bike and started going.

T-1 Time: 1 minute, 45 seconds


The Bike:

This course promised to be punishing, and in a sense, it was. Riding hills in Austin is different than the "hills" at Buffalo Springs Lake. In Austin, the hills are undulating and you generally go up, then immediately down. They're tough, but you have that whole downhill as recovery. Not so in this triathlon. At Buffalo Springs Lake, you generally go down, then immediately up, and then right into a flat straightaway. It doesn't sound too bad until you realize that you don't get that rest after the hill climb. You have to start hammering right away to keep your speed up. If you rest too much initially, you lose time and have to hammer that much harder. It's best to just keep accelerating until you get to your goal and just spin out a bit as your lungs recover.

So, the first hill out of transition is maybe 100 meters from the bike mount line. By the time I got there, I was into a decent acceleration. The hill wasn't that bad . . . maybe a quarter of a mile long and between 6% and 8% grade. It wasn't a piece of cake, but I started in a small gear and just spun up it without any real effort. It was followed by a short flat, then a downhill, across a short bridge, and back up on another very similar hill. After the second hill, it was a flat several miles to the park entrance, and then out into the Lubbock flatlands.

The early flats weren't bad at all. The sky was cloudy and the weather pretty cool. I had gotten on the bike at a bit before 7:30 AM and it felt great. In fact, it was never very hot for the entire time I was on the bike.

About 2-3 miles after I'd gotten out of the park and onto the straight aways, I saw Steve up ahead of me. Before the swim start, he had been sandbagging me about how bad his swimming had gotten and that he was going to have an awful swim. In fact, he kept talking about how badly I was going to beat him on the swim and that he just couldn't swim much anymore. As I rolled up on his left side on the bike, I kicked it up a notch and spun past him saying in a mock-whiney voice: "Wah, wah, wah! I can't swim anymore!" He flashed me a big smile, but I think he was surprised to see me behind him. He told me later he had thought I was way out ahead of him.

The rest of the ride was pretty much uneventful. I caught up to a guy I knew, Carlos, from the Saturday morning ATC Taco Rides. Carlos is a STRONG rider and runner, and is in the Male 30-34 age group, so he started 5 minutes ahead of me. He's not a strong swimmer, though, so even with my bad swim, I made up some time on him. We played leap frog a LOT for most of the way from about Mile 10 through about Mile 40, when I decided to kick it into higher gear and get my butt back to the transition area to start the run.

Most of the ride was pretty uneventful. I saw quite a few people I knew/recognized out there, but didn't have time or energy to say much to them. The ride was mostly three separate "out-and-backs," so I saw Steve a few times and could gauge how he was doing. I wasn't putting as much time on him as I thought I would on the bike. For a guy who didn't train much, he was doing VERY well.

There were several hills to contend with along the way, all of them in the same "down, flat, up, flat" pattern. It took alot out of your legs to do things that way, but I tried to stay fairly conservative. Two of the hills were just plain FUN. They were both kind of spiraled with switchbacks, not terribly technical, but definitely not straight down either. The first one was an "s" curve that climbed at a darn steep angle. Fortunately, it wasn't long, and you had a pretty long flat at the top to spin out on to get your wind back. The down hill for that one was fun, but a little hairy because some of the folks coming up were wandering precariously close to the downhill lanes. You had to pay attention.

The other fun hill was on Spiral Staircase Road. That is a darn accurate description of this hill. It came about 3 miles after you descended the "S-curve" hill, and about 1 1/2 miles after a water bottle hand-up station. It was longer than the "S-curve" and seemed a bit steeper, but I'm not really sure that it was. Anyway, getting up required me to sit up out of aero position and even stand on one particularly steep part. I had tried to get through the race without standing on any of the hills, but the Spiral Staircase got me. The descent on the staircase, though, was more fun than I thought it would be. Driving it in the car made me think I wouldn't be able to descend very quickly. When I got to the descent on the bike, though, it wasn't as hard to navigate as I'd originally thought it would be. Snaking down those turns was the most fun I had out there.

The other cool thing about the Staircase is that it was the last big hill. We still had to climb a bit of an incline to get back to the main flat ride, but it wasn't much. Also, I knew I'd have one short steep, straight climb once I was back in the park, but that would be nothing. The last 16 or so miles were mostly just flat spinning to the park. The downside, though, was that the wind had been picking up, and it was mostly a crosswind or a headwind.

The ride back to the park was not exactly pleasant. The winds were just hard enough to force me to push a little harder than I wanted. Plus, my ass and back were hurting from being on the seat and in the aero position for so long. I'd also forgotten to use Body Glide on my shorts and my taint, so I was getting some rub in some pretty sensitive places. When I finally got up the last hill and headed to the descent into T-2, I was pretty darn happy to be getting off the bike.

Bike Time: 2 hours, 35 minutes, 54 seconds.


T-2:

My T-2 time was also very respectable. As I descended toward the bike dismount, I got my feet out of my shoes and decided to leave the shoes on the bike. I did a rolling dismount and ran into T-2 barefoot. Some folks who did this thought it was a mistake because of rocks/gravel in the T-2 area. Not me. I didn't step on anything too sharp, and I definitely ran faster without my bike shoes on.

I got to the rack and re-racked Sharkboy, rolled on my socks, pulled on the shoes, turned my race number around, put on my hat and grabbed what was left of my Gatorade for the run. I slugged most of the Gatorade and tossed the bottle in a trash can as I ran over the "run out" mat to start the run.

T-2 Time: 1 minute, 43 seconds.


The Run:

This may have been my most disappointing run ever, primarily because I didn't see or feel this meltdown coming. When I got off the bike, I felt better at that point in the race than I have in most, if not all of my other races, including the sprints. My legs were not really tired (considering that I'd just bike 56 miles at an average pace of just under 21.6 mph). As I ran over the run start timing mat, it was just a couple of minutes after 10:00 AM. The sun was just starting to come out from behind the clouds, and it wasn't even too hot yet. I checked the time and realized that all I needed was a 2 hour half marathon and I'd hit my goal of 2:15:00. Considering how good I felt and that I'd been running more than I had before Iron Star, I thought it wouldn't be too hard to do. I ran a 2:07 at Iron Star on very little run training. I really thought I was golden.

The first 3 miles were cake. I felt like I was going slow, and I was. I purposefully tried to stay slow and easy to keep my heart rate down and conserve energy. I knew I'd need it on the hills and for the back half of the run. My legs felt great. No cramping, no straining, no pain of any kind . . . until . . .

Just after the aid station at Mile 2, all hell broke loose on me. I took a step on my left leg and it felt like somebody jabbed a knife into the outside of my knee. I immediately stopped and rubbed it a bit, walking a bit to see if I'd just stepped on my foot wrong or something. No real issues with walking, so I started jogging again. Not too bad, but as I passed the Mile 3 aid station, I could feel a light pain in the same place. It got worse and worse until I just had to walk to relieve it. I walked up the first big hill and jogged slowly out of the park. I was able to jog down the second hill and as I jogged slowly toward the BIG hill, I passed my coach, Andrea Fisher, a pro, coming back in on the back half of her run. She shouted at me to stay strong and focused, but by that time, I knew my knee was done. I managed a slow jog/fast walk alternating pace out to the turn around and back toward the down part of the BIG hill, but by the time I got there, it hurt so bad to run downhill, I had to walk it.

One thing I didn't mention before this part, though, is that after I hit the turn around, I saw Steve again heading toward it. At that point, he was about 20 minutes behind me. He saw me first and with a big smile, yelled at me in his best Forrest Gump voice: "I ain't got no laigs, Lieutenant Dan!!" That guy is so funny! Cracked me up, even though I was having a bad day.

So . . . back to the suffering . . . . By the time I got to the last 2.5 miles, my knee was hurting with every step, even when I walked. I manged to continue the walk/jog limpfest until the last mile, when I just had to walk as my knee felt like it was going to explode. I ran into Matt just a few hundred meters after the 11-mile mark. He had stopped his race right there -- on the way out -- because of bad cramps. He didn't have a good bike and barely made it onto the run before his legs siezed up on him. He was very encouraging, letting me know I didn't have much further to go. I just walked until I got to about 200-300 meters to go, and then jogged in. I didn't want to finish at a walking pace!

What a disappointing run. I thought I had a 2 hour half marathon in the bag when I started, but my knee just blew up on me.

Run Time: 2 hours, 16 minutes, 37 seconds.

FINAL TIME: 5 hours, 33 minutes, 19 seconds.

After-Race:

The post-race festivities were lacking at BSLT, in my opinion. There wasn't any food like pizza or anything like that. Lots of fruit, Gatorade, and water, but I was disappointed with the spread. I chatted with a few folks after the race and got some feedback from Andrea about my knee and what to do about it.

When Steve finished (he finished in about 5 hours, 57 minutes) and Matt made it back in, we packed up our stuff and headed out to get some food and then to Victor's house so Steve and Matt could shower and head home. I was staying over the night and would drive back the next day. Here's a post race picture of us:


I know our expressions, especially mine, don't fully convey the disappoint-ment of the day. Maybe it's because we had fun anyway, and I learned a bit. Who knows? It was a fun race and a good one, and I'd like to come back next year to try my luck at it again.

I'll post another entry on the blog later about all that I learned and such. Right now, I'm tired after writing this thing!

See you next year, BSLT!

RunFAR Bike Time Trial - June '07 Super Time Trialers

Tonight, I skipped my Texas Iron run workout to do the RunFAR Bike Time Trial on South MoPac. RunFAR holds an informal time trial on the third Tuesday of each month, from April through September. The route is a very simple out and back course heading south on MoPac from LaCrosse Ave. down to Camp Ben McCullough Rd. (where MoPac dead ends), and then back up to LaCrosse. The course is roughly 8 miles long and is pretty flat with just a few minor grade changes.

Here's a link to a "Map My Ride" map of the course: Time Trial Course Map.

So, anyhoo . . . I took Sharkboy out there for a test of speed. I did pretty well. Averaged 26.4 mph and rode the course in 18 min., 11, sec., finishing with the fourth fastest time of the night. Of course, the top 3 guys all averaged over 27 mph and were just SMOKIN' fast, despite the headwind on the return leg of the course!

Here's the link to the results: June '07 RunFAR Time Trial Results.

I probably should have gone to the run workout to get some light running in to test out my hamstring, but I missed this ride last month and really wanted to give it a go. I'm glad I did. My hammy feels okay tonight, despite pushing hard on the TT. I may do some light jogging tomorrow if the weather holds out.

Thursday, it's off to Lubbock for BSLT 70.3!

Ten Days to Buffalo Springs Lake 70.3

I am exactly 10 days out from the Buffalo Springs Lake 70.3 Half-Ironman Triathlon. I'm getting a bit nervous about it, since I haven't really done a LOT of longer distance work either on the bike or the run. I'm not so worried about the bike since I know 56 miles isn't too bad . . . after all, I did two 50-milers back to back last weekend before the Tejas Triathlon.

No . . . as usual, I'm worried about the run. I'm not worried about fatigue, however, as much as I am worried about my leg. On Tuesday at run practice, I felt a slight strain in my left hamstring. In two days, despite icing and gentle massage, it's not feeling much better. Still achy and tight. I swam last night, but didn't do anything today for fear I might aggravate the strain. I'm REALLY hoping tomorrow is a better day. I still think I can be healthy for the race, but I'm concerned that a big drop-off in my training this week will work against me. I know it's taper time, so my volume and intensity should be down anyway . . . but I still worry about it.

Then, there's the concern over the heat. I'm going to need lots of fluids and electrolytes on the bike and run, but I don't want to weigh myself down with extra water bottles. I'm still trying to figure out how I'm going to do get all the nutrition I will need, especially since it will be hotter than I'm used to. Not a good place to be less than 2 weeks from race day.

Maybe I'm just doing that typical obsession thing I do when I get nervous, but this feels a bit different. I don't really feel ready for this race. On the other hand, I know I'm stronger now than I was in October at Iron Star. So, maybe I'm worrying needlessly.

I guess we'll find out! Keep your fingers crossed that my hammy heals up fast.

Sharkboy's First Race

I had my first race with the new "Sharkboy" wheel cover stickers yesterday in Sugar Land, Texas, at the Tejas Triathlon.

What can I say about that race other than the fact that it was a FAST course . . . pancake flat bike and run with a warm water swim. Below is my race report in standard format (quick results first).

The skinny:

600-m swim: 11 min. 14.3 sec. (56th overall/13th age group)
Transition 1: 57.7 sec. (3rd overall/1st age group)
11-mile bike: 25 min. 52.7 sec. (15th overall/4th age group)
Transition 2: 50.3 sec. (83rd overall/6th age group)
3.1-mile run: 19 min. 24.6 sec. (26th overall/9th age group)
Total time: 58 min. 19.7 sec. (11th overall/5th age group)

Overall results
Age group results


FULL RACE REPORT:

I wasn't going to do this race. I signed up for it a month and a half ago, and then decided that since it was only two weeks out from the Buffalo Springs Lake 70.3, I didn't want to risk injury or give up any long training days for it. Then, Hao called and wanted to hang out this weekend! He was off work on Friday, June 8, and wanted to get in some good riding this weekend. Who am I to say "no?" So . . . Lisa and I chatted about it and she said "go on!" So, I packed up my stuff on Friday morning, loaded up the two bikes, and drove to Houston.

Preamble:

I had decided that, since Hao and I would be doing some riding on Friday and Saturday, I wouldn't go out hard in the triathlon and would just use it as a nice training day. Those of you who know me, though, know I can't resist the competition, so that idea ended up going out the window on race day. But, that didn't stop Hao and me from doing two 53-mile bike rides -- one Friday and one Saturday -- before race day.

On Friday, when I got to Hao's house, we got our bikes (I took my Colnago), hopped in his car, and drove out to West Oaks Mall to do Hao's usual Saturday morning route. We took it pretty easy on the ride, only averaging about 17-18 mph over the course of the entire ride. Turns out that was a good idea because it was HOTTTT! Although I was tired from the sun and heat after that ride, Hao was pretty torn up. He just doesn't do well in the heat and humidity. Plus, he'd been stuck at work the previous two weeks and hadn't gotten much riding in. Of course, that didn't stop us from going out again the next day!

On Saturday, we got up early and went back out to West Oaks Mall for the group ride. They were supposed to leave at 7:30, but only about 10 guys were there by then. We waited around until 8:00 AM, and that's when about 25 more folks rolled in. Before they arrived, Hao and I passed the time by chatting with a couple of Cat 3 racers that were hanging around for the ride. They were good guys.

Well . . . the ride took off and we eased out at about 20 mph for warm-up. After about 3-5 miles, they ramped up to about 24-25 mph. It was a fun ride, but I stayed near the back with Hao because he wasn't sure he was going to be able to stay up with the group for long. Sure enough, at about mile 15, he fell off the back. I slowed down and just rode with him for about 8 more miles before we ran into about 8 guys from the group. Apparently, there had been a crash and a couple of guys went down. Nobody looked too bad, but some of the guys were ticked off and had turned around and started home. We caught two other people from the group and just did a nice 4-man pace line for the rest of the way into the turn around where we hooked back up with the main group.

On the way home, the group was going pretty fast. Hao told me he wasn't feeling great and said to just go on with the group since he knew the way home. So . . . I did. Great ride! We averaged about 26 mph on the way back. I waited at the car for Hao for about 45 minutes and was about to go back out and get him when he rolled up. Good thing, too, because the last time I left him on a group ride, he ended up in a car/bike accident that totalled his Cannondale! Turns out, he stopped off and got some water to pour down his back to cool off and just relaxed for a while. Smart guy! Anyhoo . . . he was toast after that ride, and while I was tired, I felt okay, but thought my legs would be jello the next day.

Pre-Race:

So, I went through my whole pre-race ritual Saturday night . . . laid out the clothes, packed up, went through my check list of things I needed . . . all was well. I wanted to get up at 4:40 am to get out and get to Sugar Land quickly. Transition opened at 5:30 am, and I hate being late. So . . . the alarm went off fine. I had my usual toast and peanut butter for breakfast . . . all fine. Grabbed my bags (except my transition bag) and headed out to the car to load up. Well . . . I didn't check the back door to make sure I'd left it unlocked. You guessed it . . . . I locked myself out. I was still able to get into the garage and get my bikes and wheels, but once I was all loaded up, I knew I'd left my transition bag in the house. I had no choice but to ring the doorbell. Luckily, Hao was up quickly. I apologized profusely, but he was cool about it. I just hope I didn't wake Mari and the boys. Mari had been out of town all week and NEEDED to get good sleep. I still feel so badly about that!

Anyway . . . I got on the road by 5:05 am and was headed to Sugar Land. I made it into the parking lot by 5:35 am and was walking Sharkboy to the transition area in no time. The rest of the pre-race was pretty uneventful. I was in the first wave to go and the gun went off just about right at 7:00 am.

The Swim:

Not much to say about the swim. The water was very warm and the course a bit convoluted, but it was a nice venue in a very decent subdivision lake. Not as gritty as Silverlake. I was pleased. My only gripe was that I spent too much time talking to another Texas Iron guy I saw before the race and got a bad place in the swim start. I had to swim through a few guys and cut to the outside to avoid the crowd. We had 100 guys in our age group, so it was a big start. As for the swim itself, I felt pretty good about it. I always get tired early on, but I managed to settle in and not get too concerned about the guys ahead of me pulling away. I came out of the water in 13th place.

Swim time: 11:14.3


T1:

I rocked the first transition! Fastest split in my age group. I know that sounds corny, but races can be won or lost on good/bad transitions. My set up was perfect. Since I was already wearing my tri top when I came out of the water, all I had to do was put on my glasses and helmet, and I was out of there! This was probably my best transition ever.

T1 time: 0:57.7


The Bike:

Oh, what can I say about the bike? I always have at least ONE problem on it. At Silverlake, it was getting into my shoes. Same thing at the Rookie. Today, no such trouble. I got my flying mount down pat and took off. Got up to speed, slipped the feet in the shoes and I was rockin'! Took a while for my heart rate to settle in, but I was moving pretty fast. I rocketed by a number of guys . . . turns out I passed 10 of them. At the bike finish, I was in 3rd place, but THAT is where my bike trouble manifested itself this time . . . .

The course was pretty well marked, but as I came screaming in towards the finish, there were no markers for where to go. Two guys with red flags were sitting there near the bike start, but they just watched as I rocketed past them. All of a sudden, I figured I had missed something, so I quickly turned around and went back and some people (not the two flaggers) were screaming at me to go back into the bike entrance . . . Turns out it was BOTH the entrance and exit. I'm still not sure why the flaggers didn't wave me in, but who knows? It cost me about 15-20 seconds. So, I roll into T2, do my rolling dismount, and run into the transition area.

Bike time: 25:52.7 (25.5 mph)


T2:

I thought I had a really good T2. If you look at how others did overall, it's average. It was 8th fastest in my age group. I think, however, that the overall comparison may have to do with the fact that the M35-39 age groupers were a long way from the run exit, so it took longer for us to get to the timing mat. Anyhoo . . . it wasn't a bad T2 time for me.

T2 time: 0:50.3


The Run:

My running times are definitely getting better. Granted, this was a flat course, so it wasn't TOO difficult, but still . . . I think I'm getting better. I came out of T2 in 3rd place in my age group, and the guy in 2nd place wasn't too far ahead of me. I could see him only about 20-30 meters ahead. I ran pretty smoothely with decent turnover and was closing some ground on him after the first mile and a half. Right before Mile 2, I got passed by a guy running really fast. It was the guy that won the Silverlake Triathlon a couple weeks ago. At least I managed to get well into the run before he caught me. I quickened my pace as he went by, but there was no way I was going to keep up. I got to within about 10 meters of the other guy in front of me, but I just couldn't keep up that pace, so I had to let him go.

The end of the race was just across a small foot bridge in the park. I could hear another guy right behind me as I got to the bridge, and he passed me just after it. That was about 100 meters from the end of the run. So, I finished up in 5th place in my age group. I finished 2 seconds behind the guy that caught me at the end. So . . . my little mix up on the bike cost me a 4th place finish. Oh well . . . at least I ran it well, and did VERY well considering how much riding I'd done the previous 2 days. I am very pleased with this result.

Run time: 19:24.6 (6:28 per mile)

Overall: 58:19.7 (11th place)

I had a great time!