Lonestar Qtr Iron Triathlon - Gavleston, TX

Everything about the build up to this race was weird, and then the gun went off and it was very calm. Strange.

I was actually writing this blog post in my head with the title, "What Not to do Before a Race." Except, the race didn't match my expectations, but went surprising smooth. Strange.

I'm going to try to keep it brief, so we're going to jump around a bunch. Stay with me.

We'll start in the 4 weeks leading up to the race. I really haven't been training at all. I have been in the water once (3/1) and logged a total of 1800 yds in the pool, 129 miles on the bike, and 36.5 on the run. About 4 hours of training a week. Not enough.

I decided to drive down to Houston on Sat morning. I was going down by myself and wanted to minimize the time away from my family. I'd jump in the car, make the 310 mile trip to packet pickup, and then head to my brothers where there was a couch waiting for me to sleep on.

As I packed up the car, I realized that I didn't have my shoes or HR monitor. It was in the back of our other car, which my wife had. No problem, figure out where they are, and head over to pick them up. 30 minute set back, but no big deal.

Off I go, but 90 minutes into my trip, I get a frantic call from Ingrid saying I'd left my wet suit, suit case, and tri shorts in the laundry room. I turned around, she jumped in the car, and 45 minutes later, we met in a liquor store parking lot in South Dallas, a rough part of town.

I figured that was 2 mishaps, and one more would be a sign, and I'd turn around and head back home.

I was afraid packet pickup closed at 5p, and according to my GPS, I would arrive at 5:20. I had to make up some time, which meant no time for lunch. Not smart the day before a big race.

So I made it to packet pickup, headed back up to Houston to grab food, and settle in at my brothers. I knew sleeping on a couch the night before a race wasn't conducive to strong performances, but then again, neither is not training.

We played some Wii that night, and I found myself breaking a sweat while playing Tennis on the Wii. This was going to go in the "what not to do the night before a race" section of my blog post.

Off to bed, so-so sleep, and up the next morning to head down to the race venue.

This race is a quarter iron distance race. So .6 mi swim, 28 mi bike, 6.55 mile swim. Similar to an Olympic distance, but a bit longer.

Turns out there were a few well known pros at the race. Simon Lessing, Andrea Fisher, Michael and Amanda Lovato to name a few. I'm a fan of all sports. I follow the teams, the players, etc. Triathlon is no different. I follow these guys like I do my players on the Dodgers. So I still get a kick seeing these guys.

Just prior to the gun going off, my wave (M30-34 + pros and elites) made its way to the end of the peir, but the race director said it might be a while, so we could get in if we wanted. Two people jumped in, me and Simon Lessing. Turned out we waited about 10 minutes before the rest of our wave jumped in the water. So Simon and I talked. It was great, we talked about his race schedule, his health, my goggles. He talked about him doing the new Muskoka 70.3 race, which will be the first time he's raced up there since the ITU World Championships in 1992 (a race Simon won!). This is what is great about Endurance Sports, you are on the same course, sometimes in the same swim wave as the best in the world.

So everyone entered the water, and Andrea Fisher quickly came over to get next to Simon so he could pull her around the course. I think she decided I had a better spot to draft off of Simon than she did, because she was all up in my personal space. I backed off, but it was humorous. She was all business. So it was Simon, Andrea, and some other guy and me in a group waiting for the gun to go off. Simon is telling jokes and stories about racing in France, etc., and I'm just soaking it all in.

The gun goes off, and away we go. I hung with this group to the first turn, but they were moving real fast, and I had 1 workout under my belt in the past month. I was expecting to blow up, but wanted to wait another 5 minutes before doing so if possible.

Another group of 3 moved up and through me, and I let them go. For the rest of the swim there were no feet to be found. I could see people behind me out of the corner of my eye, but didn't feel as if I was pulling more than 1-2 others around the course, and was okay with that.

At the last turn, I see one of my drafters try to come around me. I cut her off as I round the buoy and she drops back for a bit before coming around just yards from the swim finish. We stand up to exit, and I realize the swimmer who benefited from my draft was none other than Amanda Lovato. She ended up being the 2nd woman overall.

Swim 15:15 (1:25/100 pace)

This is the third time I've done this race, and one thing I was banking on was a terrible headwind for the first 14 miles of the out and back bike course along the Galveston Seawall. Last year, the delta between my pace into the wind versus with it was 12 mph. It can be just brutal.

It turns out the wind was shifted a bit, coming in from the SE, which made for a nearly perfect crosswind for both directions of the bike. Still frustrating, but not demoralizing.

The ride was rather uneventful save for me realizing I put my aero bottle on backwards and had to really stretch to reach the straw, and for the plethora of road kill out there, both in terms of quantity and variety. Dog, Cat, Possum, Rabbit, Bird, Raccoon, Miscellaneous. Easily 3 kills per mile. Easily!

Something strange was happening however. I wasn't really too uncomfortable. I was laying down good power, which was equating to decent speed, and I never really faded.

Bike 1:24.11 (avg 20.0 mph)

I haven't run more than 4.5 miles at once since Feb 23rd, so I figured this is where I would unravel. As I hit the transition, my buddy Tim gave me a high five and I was on my way. Didn't feel great, but wasn't hurting too bad. I could go, but just didn't have much speed. I had my Garmin 205 on and was running between 9:05s and 9:30 for most of the way. In the mile 5 range, I started to hurt as the heat was catching up to me, and my legs were starting to feel loaded. I began to slow to around 10:10s and wondered if I was coming apart with 1.5 to go.

One reality about my abilities is that my best discipline is the swim, and my worst is the run. With that combo, I pretty much start off the race near the top of the field, and get passed all day long until I cross the line. It doesn't matter if I finish in the top third or the bottom half of the field, I get passed. So I rarely catch runners on the run, only people who have bonked and are walking.

During my race today, I passed 2 people on the run. The first was someone who had bonked and was walking, the second provided for a decent story.

As I was going through that slow spot around mile 5, I looked ahead and realized someone in a PlayTri jersey (Playtri is a North Dallas Tri Team) was coming back to me, and he was running. I kicked my pace up about 30-40 secs per mile back into 9:20 range and began to bring him in. He was about 100 yards ahead when I first spotted him, so it took a while to close the gap, but I made up about half of it at the last aid station as he took a few steps to drink while I ran through. I ran up to him with about .75 mi to go, and went around him. About .2 miles later, my pace slowed a bit, and he came back around me. I hitched on to the guy and matched him stride for stride for about another .2 mi. We've got about a third of a mile to go, and we passed a spectator who said, "Dallas Athletes vs PlayTri, battle for Dallas, who's it going to be" and I new it was going to be on with this guy. With about a minute to go, I put on a surge and came around him again for good.

My HR was 185 in the finish shute, which is about as high as it gets.

Run 1:00.37 (9:19 pace)

Transitions were pretty fast and uneventful.

Total time was 2:43.47. A 5 minute improvement over my PR on the course. Not sure how I managed to keep it together, but I did, and am glad I made the trip.

I finished:
192 out of 616 overall
150 out of 363 for men
26 out of 69 in my age group

My hopes were that this would motivate me to train a bit more, and I think it will.