travels, races, and other musings

We started our morning at 4 AM. I ate my usual breakfast and we got on the road around 5 AM in the rain. It wasn't pouring rain, just steady so we headed to the race in the hopes that it would subside. Heading out of the parking lot, one of my Texas Iron friends, Emily, caught up to us and we spent the rest of the morning with her. Emily and I swim at about the same pace so we share a lane sometimes at swim. (She's slightly faster on the bike and run, however.) We arrived at the site and got body marked at around 5:30 (when transition was supposed to open). At that point we were told that the race was delayed 30 minutes (and thus transition was going to open late at 6 AM) so we slogged through the rain to find a dry place under the 1st Street bridge. We hung out under the bridge and 6 AM came and went and the rain got worse. It was literally pouring rain and water was collecting everywhere. Some people had signed up for text alerts on their cell phones and so we were waitin

In case you haven't already figured it out, May is event month for me. I'm currently working on 6 weeks with an event every weekend. It's completely insane, I know. I started with a 10k several weeks back, followed by the Rogue Open Water Swim 1 in the 1 mile distance, last weekend was The Rookie Triathlon, this morning I race the Austin Triathletes Open Water Swim in the 1 mile distance, next Monday (Memorial Day) is CapTexTri and the following weekend I swim the Rogue Open Water Swim 2, again in the mile distance.  The two Rogue swims and the Austin Triathletes swim constitute a series if you swim the mile in each event, with awards at the end of the series. This morning's race was also an event in and of itself, with awards for the top male and female finishers and also 3 deep in each age group so I really wanted to do well.  They started the 5k people first (doing 3 loops of the mile course). Then the 800 meter folks were sent off in a big wave, doing a no

I kept trying to tell myself I was participating for fun and not really racing, but it's hard not to race at a race. I was feeling sick to my stomach off and on yesterday and it carried over today, except it was more about the on than off today. (In fact, I'm pretty sure everyone around me at the race this morning got tired of hearing about me being sick to my stomach.) Overall, I'm happy with my times. I wouldn't have minded going slightly faster in each event, especially given that the distances were so short, but I'm going to use the stomach excuse. I don't feel like typing up a blow by blow race report so I'll just provide some random thoughts as they occur to me. 300 meter swim - 5:21 1:47/M 4/78 in age group T1 - 2:08 11.1 mile bike - 39:10 17 mph 13/78 in age group T2 - 1:41 run - 18:52 9:26/mi 42/78 in age group total - 1:07:15 15 out of 78 in my age group, 264 out of 701 overall, 51 out of 310 for women I really wanted to finish the swim

I'm still in a slight state of shock at my performance this morning. I came in second place in the women's division and third overall (men's and women's)!!! I'm completely astounded and excited! Let's back up, though, and start at the beginning. I woke up this morning and my shoulder was feeling much better. I ate a couple apple wedges, some organic rice krispies with soy milk and a half a glass of juice, took a shower, put on my skeleton swimsuit and we headed out to the lake. At the race site, I picked up my packet and swim cap and we meandered around a bit. After a bit, I put on my wetsuit and we headed out to find a place where I could get in and warm up. The water wasn't too cold (a few degrees warmer than Barton Springs, I would say) and I felt good on my warm-up swim. The race started a little late as they got everyone together and explained the course. Some buoys seemed to keep blowing away. It was overcast and cloudy and I was a bit worried ab