2007 Lake Pflugerville Triathlon

I had a great race this morning at the Lake Pflugerville Triathlon.

Pre-Race

Once again, my morning began far too early - 5 AM. I ate breakfast, showered, got ready and we were out the door at 6. We arrived at the race site around 6:20 or so and I set up my transition area and used the port-a-potty. As I was leaving to pick up my chip, I saw some friends. We chatted for a few moments and then parted ways temporarily.

I picked up my chip and then headed down to the swim start where I stared at the water for about 10 minutes before I decided to get in a warm up swim.  Some friends got into the water first and I sort of doddled behind them. Getting in, it was really slippery and mucky and I slipped, catching myself with my right hand on a rock and taking off a patch of skin. Ow. My warm up swim was fine. The water was warm - around 78 degrees (definitely not wetsuit legal).

We got out of the water and waited for the start. An elementary school girl didn't quite get up the nerve to sing the national anthem (she won a contest and then couldn't seem to sing it). All the participants sang and every now and then, you could hear her singmumbling along quietly. It was weird.

Swim

I was in the forth wave starting at 7:39. They were very punctual. It was a treading water start which seemed to make some of the girls around me nervous. I was at the front and treaded water in a horizontal fashion until we started. We started off and there was one girl in our wave who took off ahead of me. I tried to jump on her feet, but I had veered left and she had veered right and I couldn't make it work. Then, about halfway to the first buoy, another girl from my wave caught up to me and we were swimming side by side. We swam like this for 50 meters or so, then I decided we were about the same pace so I dropped back on got into her draft.

Ah, drafting on the swim. She was going a perfect pace. It was my pace, but I was working much less hard. And she was kicking hard so the bubbles were really easy to follow. I didn't have to sight (which was really hard on this course because it was overcast and the buoys were really small). Suddenly, we were at the turnaround buoy in the triangular course and heading to shore. Probably about 100 meters from the shore, we began to slow down and I started hitting her feet. We were passing a massive clump of people from the first waves. I broke away and found a hole and passed her, navigating the other swimmers.

I came out of the water ahead of her, in second place in my age group. Then she passed me coming up the ramp out of the water and ran over the timing mat first. Drat, the official result was third place in my age group for the swim.

T1

We had to run a bit on a gravel trail and my feet were super muddy with lots of gravel. I hadn't planned on wiping my feet, but I really needed to. So I wiped them off with my hand towel, put on my sunglasses and helmet and ran my bike out of transition back in second place again.

Bike

I got up to speed and started to put my feet into my bike shoes, but the road was rough and there was a slight crosswind blowing me which was magnified by the race wheels. It took me longer than I wanted to get my feet in, but I got them in and began to concentrate on my bike. I wanted to do really well on the bike today.

The bike course was relatively flat with a few rollers here and there. The carbon aero wheels make an interesting sound when you are riding. Almost a whooshing sound. Anyone who has done a triathlon and been passed by someone riding these wheels knows the sound I mean. I put my bike computer on average speed so I could see how I was doing.

My heart rate was pretty high and I could feel my legs were getting tired, but I kept pushing. It seems that no matter how hard I push on the bike, my legs feel like crap on the run anyway. Plus, I've trained hard on the bike with run segments right after and I knew I could run pretty well for 3 miles on tired legs. I told myself to trust my training and keep riding hard. If anything, it's money in the bank for future races.

I passed a lot of people on the bike and not many passed me, which was a nice change. I was looking at each calf (I never paid much attention to the ages marked on people's calves before) as someone would pass me, but nobody from my age group went past. Then, about 2 miles from the finish, someone in my age group passed me. She flew past me. There was no way I could reel her back in. I thought was sitting in third place in my age group when I rolled back into transition. My bike computer said 19 mph average. Woo! My fastest bike ever. I looked at the results later and added up some times and it looked like I actually passed the girl who came out of the water in first place while on the bike (she re-passed me on the run). So I was actually in second in my age group at the beginning of the run. (And in all likelihood at some point in the bike, I was in first place for my age group. How exciting is that?!?!)

T2

I came off the bike feeling better than I had after Lone Star Triathlon so that was a good thing. I put on my socks and shoes, took off my helmet, grabbed my race number belt and GPS. Something was in my sock. I couldn't tell if it was a pebble or if my sock was folded funny. I gave up messing with it because it was costing me time and headed for the run.

Run

I was pretty sure I was still third in my age group on the run and I really really wanted to stay there, but I knew it was inevitable, that people would start passing me. So I took off and just worked on keeping my turnover up. Around mile 1, the first person from my age group passed me. It was annoying and I tried but I couldn't keep up with her. Over the remaining two miles, I was passed by several more people in my age group, and I knew I was down to sixth or seventh by that point.

Now, don't get me wrong, I did great, but I have to say that it is a little difficult to be in the top three in your age group for the first two events and get passed on the run. My legs were really hurting on the run and I had a twinge of regret for how hard I pushed on the bike. My heart rate was actually not as high as it often is when I'm running fast and I was limited, this time, by my muscles. They just wouldn't give me any more so I focused on my form and cadence and just tried to keep that up. I crossed the finish line sore but happy. Roger hugged me and said, "You were fast today!" I was!

My final results come with a few caveats regarding the course measurement. First, the bike course was noted as 13.2 miles a couple of places in the info and then 14 miles in other information. My bike computer said 14.4 and when we drove it in the car yesterday before the race, the trip odometer said 13.9. So my bike computer said 19 mph average speed, calculating it based on 13.9 miles for my time I get 18.7 mph and they calculate 17.6 mph based on 13.2. Annoying. Also, the swim course was a little long. It shouldn't have taken me that long to swim 500 meters. Also, the run course was short and I didn't actually run under 9 minute miles. According to my GPS, I ran around 9:22/mi. That being said, here are the official results:

500 M swim - 9:36 1:55/M 3 out of 29 in age group, 21 out of 311 overall
T1 1:30
13.2 mile bike - 44:55 17.6 mph 5 out of 29 in age group, 109 out of 311 overall
T2 2:06
3 mile run - 26:24 8:48/mi 14 out of 29 in age group 170 out of 311 overall

Total time: 1:24:34
7 out of 29 in age group
24 out of 139 women
97 out of 311 overall