travels, races, and other musings

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...

This was the third in a series of three 1 mile swims I decided to do this year (Rogue 1, Austin Triathletes, and Rogue 2). My goal before the first swim was to finish in the top five of all finishers doing all three swims. The turnout was actually fairly low I wasn't sure how many women would continue on to the second and third swims. I figured I had a good chance. Only four women did the whole series as it would turn out. I came in FIRST PLACE for the series!!! Okay, so 1 out of 4 isn't terribly hard, but it's still first place and I'll take it! Plus, it looks like I finished in the top 5 women at each race (second place, fifth place and we think fifth place). I don't have the official results for the race on Saturday, but I'm very pleased with how my race went. In my heart of hearts, I wanted to come in first or second again in this one (like the first one), but then when I arrived and saw the field, I figured that wasn't happening. I was racing agai...