Lonestar Triathlon Festival - Half Ironman

Well, by now, most of you interested (and I use that term VERY loosely) in this blog know that I had a rotten race day at the Lonestar yesterday. Below is my abbreviated race report. (It's abbreviated because my race was quite abbreviated!)

Friday, March 28.

Lisa and I caravanned (sp?) down to Pearland on Friday. She drove her car and I drove mine because I had to leave after the race Sunday to drive to Edinburg for my trial that was supposed to start today (more on that later). The drive was pretty uneventful, except that Lisa and I met at the Airport Hilton in Austin because she was coming from home up in Leander and I was coming from the office downtown. It wouldn't have been eventful at all, except that while she was waiting for me at the Hilton, a big tour bus that had been chartered for a wedding party pulled up and blocked the entrance, so that when I got there, I couldn't get in. Not a big deal, she saw me and pulled out, but little did I know that this was an omen of things to come for the weekend. :(

The rest of the drive was very uneventful. We called each other every now and then on the cell phones just to break the monotony. We arrived at Becca and Grant and Connor's house at about 9:00 PM. Connor was still up because he's been having teething issues. My GOODNESS, what a gorgeous baby he is! He was pretty fussy when we got there because he was really tired and his teeth hurt, but he let us (mostly Lisa!) fuss over him a bit before we all turned in for the night.

Saturday, March 29.

I had planned to get up early and head down to Galveston to watch the Lonestar Festival Sprint distance race, but I must confess, after a full week of trial prep work, I was beat. Plus, Lisa and I haven't gotten to see much of each other lately, so I was content to sleep in a bit (until 7:30), and snuggle with her. I made the right choice! I needed the sleep and we needed the snuggle time!

Eventually, I headed out to Galveston at about 11:30 AM. I met Mason at the race site and we hung out until 1:00 PM when we could check in and get our race numbers and schwag bags. While we were waiting, I was approached by this woman who said her name was Mary and she was from Denver and knew Steve. She said that she saw me and thought I was him, but didn't know he was going to be in Texas for the race, so she called him and he told her it was me. Very nice woman, and another one of those freaky "twin things!" That scenario would play out a lot over the weekend as I ran into a few more folks from Steve's past.

Mase and I checked in at 1:00 PM. I got my race number, race packet, and schwag. I was number 113. Thirteen. Another bad omen. After we checked in, Mase and I went to the hotel to check in, and since our room wasn't ready yet, we took the desk girl's recommendation to go over to Papa's Pizza for some pasta. It was very good and very filling.

After Mase and I checked in, we got all of our race stuff ready . . . and that's when I realized I'd forgotten my race belt. They do give you pins for your number, but I don't use those. I wear my tri top under my wetsuit and I just can't pin the number on there before the swim. It would've been shredded. So . . . I drove back to the race site and went to the expo to see if any of the vendors had any race belts left. The guys at the Zoot booth had one, but it was hot pink. Well . . . I bought it anyway!

When I got back to the hotel, Mase told me his friends from St. Louis had called. A guy he rides with regularly has a sister living in Texas and he and his wife and a friend had come down to Port Arthurt to visit her, so they drove over to Galveston to cheer us on for the race. That was pretty cool of them! So, we met up with them and hung out by the pool for a bit. At about 6:30 PM, Mason's friends left to go find a bar and a place to eat and Mason and I went to dinner with my work friend, Shelley and her Team in Training group that was down for the weekend. Mase and I got back to the hotel around 8:00 and did our final prep work for the race. We hit the hay around 9:30 or so.

Sunday, March 30.

We had the alarms (3 of them) set for 5:30 AM, but we were both up a bit earlier than that. My nerves finally started hitting me around 6:00 when we left to drive over to the race site. We parked and walked over to the transition area and got in around 6:20 or so. I ran into Steve's old racing buddy, Rodney Wagner right after I got into transition, so we chatted a bit. Rodney didn't race, but he was there coaching a Team in Training group.

At 7:00, I headed down to the swim start, which was a few hundred yards away from transition. I got half-way there before I remembered that I had never put on my timing chip, so I hoofed it back to transition to get it. That was another bad omen. It was beginning to look like my head wasn't in the game, which is a bit surprising for me. I'm usually pretty focused, but I was forgetting things and just not with it! I finally got to the swim start and found Mason. Apparently the bad luck and inattention was hitting him too. He had stubbed his toe on the way down to the swim start. It was a little bloody, but he seemed to think it was okay. We'd later learn it wasn't, but I'll get to that later.

The Swim:

I think the swim was measured long. It was 1.2 miles, and although I haven't been swimming THAT much, I wasn't too far out of shape. Still, my time was 41 minutes and 17 seconds, by FAR the worst time I've ever had in a swim. I didn't feel slower than I was at Buffalo Springs Lake 70.3 last summer, but my time was almost 5 minutes slower, and that was despite having a wetsuit this time and swimming in salt water, both of which are supposed to make you more buoyant, and thus faster. Everyone's times were slow it seemed to me. The swim itself wasn't too bad. For a while there, I thought I wasn't going to make it, but after 10 minutes, I settled into a comfortable pace and seemed to do just fine. I was VERY glad to see the swim exit, though!

Transition 1:

I had a really good T-1. I got out of the water quickly and got my wetsuit down around my waist. Oddly, not many people were using the wetsuit strippers, but I learned my lesson from the Iron Star in 2006. I knew they'd be MUCH faster than I could be, so I lay down and they had the thing off me in about 2 seconds. I got up quickly and was at my bike in no time.

My bike was racked on the "A" rack, which was the closest to the swim exit. That was good and bad. It was good because I got to my bike fast. It was bad because it meant a longer run with the bike. No worries, though, because I had decided to start the bike with my shoes already on the bike. That made running with the bike much faster and easier. I got to the Bike Out line very quickly and was on the bike in no time.

My total time for T-1 was 2 minutes, 5 seconds. That was the 8th fastest time in my age group. Only 3 guys went under 2 minutes, and 2 of those wer3e under 1:40. Impressive.

The Bike:

Well . . . here's where it all went downhill. I got out on the bike pretty fast. Although I had a little trouble getting into my shoes (I hadn't practiced much recently), I managed to get going pretty well. I was averaging over 23 mph and had gone about 5 miles when I noticed on a bump that my back tire felt spongy. After a second bump, I knew it was low, so I pulled over to check it. Yep! It was going flat. A quick check of the tire showed an industrial-sized staple lodged in the tire. I pulled that out and set about replacing the tube.

Keep in mind this is the FIRST time in 3 1/2 years of racing that I'd ever gotten a flat on the bike course. I know how to change tires, and I'm good at it; but, in the middle of a race, when you're just itching to get back on the bike and every second counts, it's VERY easy to get sloppy. I got sloppy. I only had one spare tube, so I ripped out the old one, put the spare in and reset the tire on the rim. Unfortunately, I didn't check carefully enough to make sure that the beading on the tire was snug under the tire rim, and as I started pumping air into the tire from my CO2 cannister, I suddenly saw the tube bulging out from between the tire and the rim. I tried to stop the air flow as quickly as I could, but it was too late. The tube exploded and ripped in half. Done; finished; race over.

I must admit, I got a bit angry. I threw the wheel into the grass and shouted a few curse words at myself for being so careless. All the while, racers a whizzing by me. I sat there for 10 minutes before somebody offered me another tube, but I declined because they couldn't give me a CO2 cannister, too, and I was pretty much out of air. Mason rode by about 10 minutes after that, but I didn't even tell him what happened. I just yelled out that I was done. Turns out he had 2 spare tubes and 2 spare CO2 cannisters. I could've borrowed one from him, but by that time, I was 20 minutes down on my time and just too frustrated. Still, I wish now that I'd had him stop and give them to me.

Anyway . . . it took the SAG (support and gear) wagon 45 minutes to get to me. The guy offered to change my tire, but I told him I was done for the day. Then, I heard those awful words: "I don't have room to give you a ride back to transition." Yay! I got to walk 6 miles with my bike back to Transition! Oh . . . and I had just put new cleats on my shoes, so I didn't want to damage them, so I walked back barefoot. My feet are killing me!

So, anyhoo . . . after getting all my stuff from transition, I called Lisa and met up with her and Becca and Connor so that we could cheer Mason on for the rest of the race.

Wrap-Up:

I wish I'd gotten to do enough of this race to give it an honest assessment. It looks like a fantastic race, and everyone I saw looked like they were having a really good time. The swim was fun, and I was on my way to a very good bike split when the flat happened. It just makes me want to come back next year and get it done!