Capital of Texas Triathlon 2008

Yesterday, I competed in the Capital of Texas Triathlon in the olympic distance race. This is a race Steve did with Team in Training back in 2003 or 2004, I believe. In 2006, I did the sprint distance race at CapTex and was going to do it again last year, but the race was canceled because of torrential rainstorms. This year, the race went off without a hitch. The only problems were the horrendous heat and humidity.

It's been like August here this week. Ever since Monday, the temps have been running in the mid to upper 90's and the humidity has been like Houston. Still, unless there's a downpour like last year, the event organizers are going to have the race. So . . . we raced! Unfortunately, it was a very disappointing race for me. Unlike the Silverlake last weekend, this one really WAS a disappointment. Here's the skinny:

The Short Story:

1500 meter swim, 40 kilometer bike, 10 kilometer run

Swim: 30 min. 33 sec. (2:02 per 100 meter)
T-1: 2 min. 55 sec.
Bike: 1 hour 4 min, 53 sec. (22.9 mph)
T-2: 1 min. 55 sec.
Run: 1 hour 6 sec.
Total: 2 hours 40 min. 25 sec.

This was my worst Olympic Distance time ever. I knew it wouldn't be good, but I thought I'd be closer to 2:30 than over 2:40. The run was pretty brutal. Aside from the oppressive heat and humidity, I had to contend with a sore back and the fact that my legs just felt heavy all day. As I keep noting, I haven't swum or run much. The swim wasn't too bad, though. It was long, but not unexpectedly so. The run, however, should have been much better. By contrast, at the Toyota U.S. Open last October, I ran the same distance about 12 minutes faster. I was really expecting to run close to 8:30 per mile rather than 9:40. I just didn't have it. Maybe it would have been better if I just would put in the run training. I plan to do that, but I just haven't been consistent, and with the recent bike racing, I've been neglecting it too much.

The Specifics:

I got up at 4:30 AM to get ready. Lisa and I had decided that she would come with me early so that we wouldn't have to have 2 cars stuck down there. Plus, I wasn't sure she'd be able to get parking if she came later. So, I let her sleep until about 5:15 before I woke her. During that time, I got dressed for the race, made sure I had all my stuff, and made breakfast. I had two cups of coffee, a bowl of oatmeal, and a banana.

Lisa and I left the house at about 5:30 AM. Unfortunately, I forgot that the transition area was going to close at 6:30 AM, so that meant we only had one hour to get downtown from Leander, park, walk over to the transition area, and have me get all my stuff set up. Lisa was a real trooper. She was sleepy, but bounced up quickly and got the camera ready right from the beginning. She got lots of great shots of the race.

Here's one she snapped of me as we were walking over to the transition area. Sorry it's a little blurry.

We parked in a parking garage next to Threadgills and walked on over to Transition, which was, as always, set up in the Auditorium Shores area next to to the First Street Bridge. Lisa got a great shot of the bike racks in Transition:


It always amazes me how many bikes they pack into that area. The cluster on the right side is mostly the pros', elites', and other "invitational" competitors' bikes. They do have a few of the first few age group waves' bikes in there, too, though. On the left is where most of the bikes are for the Olympic distance race.

It turns out that the race was running a bit behind schedule, although we didn't know that when we got there, and they didn't act like it with how quickly they were pushing us to get out of the Transition zone. Once I actually got to my bike, it was 6:15 and I only had 15 minutes to get all my stuff together. I wasn't sure I was going to wear my wetsuit because the water temp was 75 degrees. I kept it with me and was going to leave it with Lisa if I decided not to wear it. My wave wasn't set to go until approximately 7:48 AM, so I had some time to kill with Lisa at the swim start. So, we sat by the water and waited.

Here's a shot of the swim course that Lisa got from the First Street Bridge.





As the time wound on, it became clear that the race was running way behind schedule. The pros went off at 7:20, about 20 minutes late. As it turned out, my wave went off almost an hour late, at 8:30 AM.

While we waited, I ran into several Texas Iron folks and we chatted. Everyone seemed to be really concerned about the heat.

I also found my friend, Shelley from work, who was in the Womens' 35-39 age group. Shelley got a complimentary entry into the triathlon because she represented the Governor's protective detail (a branch of the DPS) in a lawsuit recently. Since the Gov was doing the race, he and his protective detail guys got comp'ed entries and had some pull with the organizers. Shelley is so lucky sometimes! Anyhoo, Lisa got a few shots of Shelley as she was lined up waiting for the swim start.


Here's Shelley about 10 minutes before her wave went off. I didn't see her again for the rest of the day. I know that Lisa got a couple of shots of her on the bike at the bike start, but that's it.

So, at about 8:30 AM, it was finally our time to go. Here are a few shots that Lisa got of me waiting for the start:

Here's me, on the way down to the dock to jump in the water. I'm the one in the wetsuit with the green on the shoulders.


Here's me bobbing in the water just before the gun goes off. I'm the top guy on the left.



The Swim:

So, the swim was pretty uneventful. Unlike the Silverlake the week before, I decided to go easy instead of pushing hard at the beginning. This worked out great. I never felt tired or spent, and although that meant a lot of guys got finished well ahead of me, I was determined to race my race. The course took us west in Town Lake (now known as "Lady Bird Lake") under the railroad bridge and half-way between the pedestrian bridge and the Lamar Street Bridge. Then, we turned right, swam about 50-100 meters, and turned again back east toward the First Street Bridge again. The swim exit was at Auditorium Shores, just before the First Street Bridge. After hitting the last turn buoy, it was smoothe sailing until the exit.

Total swim time: 30 minutes, 33 seconds.

T-1:

The CapTex Triathlon has some of the longest transition runs I've ever seen (except for maybe that T-1 at Ironman Wisconsin). After getting out of the water, we had to run up a few steps and then run west along the lake front about 50-75 yards. Well . . . I stumbled going up the stairs and fell. I gashed my foot a little, but it wasn't bad. Just embarassing more than anything. I managed to get my wetsuit off pretty well and got to my bike pretty quickly. Unfortunately, my bike was very close to the swim exit and very FAR from the bike out. I got out of the wetsuit quickly and got my helmet and sunglasses on quickly. I got the bike off the rack and headed out for the bike exit. There's not much I could do to make it faster.

Total T-1 time: 2 minutes, 55 seconds.

The Bike:

The bike course was fairly flat and could have been really fast. The biggest problem was that by the time I got to it, it was VERY crowded. Additionally, there are lots of turns that make it necessary to slow down. There's not much to say about it other than that I was disappointed with my time. I never felt great on the bike, but I didn't feel bad on it, either. I just never felt I got into a real rhythm.

The really good thing about the bike is that in the Olympic distance race, we do four laps, so it's very spectator-friendly. Lisa was able to get lots of good pictures. Here are a few of those shots.

Here's me getting on the bike. The guy who had been in front of me stopped to get on, so I had to stop. Usually, I get on while moving . . . a flying mount. No such dice here.


Here, I'm just going out on my first loop. You can see that my feet aren't in the shoes yet, but I got them in pretty quickly out on the course.

Here's me on my way out on my second loop of the bike. This part is slightly uphill and I'm working on getting up some speed as I've only recently passed the turnaround and had to slow down for it.

This is me coming in on the second loop. Check out the new skyscraper that's gone up in Austin behind me. There's also another going up in the left part of the picture. We're supposed to have 9 new skyscrapers by 2012.


Here I am coming in to the final turn on my last loop. I love this picture because Lisa managed to capture my shark wheel in a really cool position.

Finally, here's the last bike shot Lisa got of me. This is me coming into Transition after the fourth bike loop. I'm reaching down to pull my feet out from the shoes so I can do a flying dismount.

I was a little disappointed with the whole bike leg. Because of the congestion, I found it difficult to maintain a decent speed. Also, since I'd been having back trouble all week, my back started revolting at being in the aero position after about the middle of the third loop. It was hard to keep myself in the aerobars, and I started worrying about how painful the run would be with a bad back. I just never felt comfortable again after that.

My total bike time was 1 hour 4 minutes, 53 seconds for an average speed of 22.9 mph. I expected to be much faster than that.

T-2:

Again, T-2 wasn't too bad, but was just long. I had a long run from the "Bike In" area to my bike rack. Once I got there, I was fast. I was already out of my shoes, so all I had to do was jump in my running shoes, remove my helmet, and grab my cap. Didn't take long, and I was on the road quickly.

Total T-2 time was 1 minute 55 seconds.

The Run:

Well, it always comes down to the run, and I still always melt down there. Most folks would say I go too hard on the bike, but I've played with this a little bit and have found that I often have bad runs regardless of how hard I bike. One thing I could have done better was to be careful on those few "hills" we had on the bike. I think I let them take too much out of me. Still, I don't think that would have changed the run much.

It was just too darn hot and humid. I had to take in a lot of water and for that, I had to slow down at the aid stations. Also, my back was hurting a bit and my quads were spent, so I even walked a bit between aid stations. I hated to do that on just a 10k, but I didn't have much choice.

Lisa did get a few good pics of me on the run. Here are two of them:

Here I am coming by the finish line (it's on the left side by the guy in yellow) after finishing my first lap of the run. I don't look to bad, but I was hurting here a lot.


And, finally, here I am about a mile into my last lap going back by the finish line heading east. The worst part of the run came a few minutes later when I just had to walk.

The long and short of it is that I just have to run more. I was good about that in January and February, but I've fallen off way too much since starting up the bike racing.

Final run time was a dismal 1 hour 6 seconds, which was over 9 minutes 30 seconds per mile.

Total race time: 2 hours, 40 minutes, 25 seconds.