that would be my finish time from yesterday. it is 21 minutes faster than my previous half-im time. my swim split was 32 minutes and change (we think the swim was short, either that or there was a ridiculous current when coming down the back stretch). my bike split was 2:43, which is an average of 20.3 mph, and my run split was 1:53, which is 8:41/mi pace. this race was the perfect reminder of how endurance races are really just tests of how well you can control/deal with your emotions and how well you feed yourself.
the swim: this swim confirmed something i had long suspected but haven't really tested much. i am terrified of fresh water--lakes, rivers, etc. i think they're gross, and the general murkiness just freaks me out, much the same way i think some people feel about the ocean. i've done a fair amount of open water swimming, but it has always been in the ocean. anyways, the race was held in a reservoir in austin. after having decided that i was winging this race anyways, i didn't bother to do any practice open water swims. i think i had a panic attack in the first 200m because the water was so dark and there were plants wrapping around my arms. i took a couple strokes breast stroke style, calmed myself down and moved to the outside of the pack. i had to swim farther, but that was okay. a few hundred meters of this, and i got used to the darkness and was able to move back into the pack.
the race did end up being wetsuit legal. i think this is because the race officials deliberately went to find the coldest part of the lake and then took the water temperature there. i was expecting the water to be frigid, so i went to put my feet in the water to prepare myself. the water felt great though, and actually, by the last couple hundred meters i was sweating during the swim. i remember swimming along wondering how the people in full wetsuits were surviving because the water was so warm (i was wearing tri shorts and a sleeveless tri top).
the bike: i was a little worried about the bike at first for a couple reasons. first, the last time i raced on this bike was kona...where i had the misfortune to get 3 flats. well, when i got to transition yesterday morning, my rear tire was completely flat, and as luck would have it, i only had one spare tube on me that had a long stem valve. the mavic people gave me an extra tube though, and i changed my tube out before the race started. the other reason i was worried, which was related, was that i only had one spare tube and one CO2 cartridge in my saddle bag. again, i thought i had more at home, but i couldn't find anything as i was packing saturday night. knowing what happened the last time i had raced on the bike, i knew that one set of flat fixing essentials might not be good. since i didn't have the option to buy more at that point, i figured i would just hope for the best. i am happy to report, i had no flats.
my other issue with the bike was related to timing. i don't have a computer on my tri bike because i like to race by feel. however, i also haven't been wearing a watch since i lost it somewhere in alaska. as a result, i had no way of knowing what time it was to keep myself on track with calories and fluids on the bike. i had maybe 500 calories total and about 72 oz of fluids (some of which were also the calories). in short, i was definitely below where i should have been, but i didn't really know. i sort of gauged it on distance, but again, i had no idea how fast i was going. maybe it is time to get a watch.
after the panic attack on the swim, i got on the bike thinking, you know, i have no expectations for this race, and i just rode my bike to alaska. why not time trial the bike? i have always raced conservatively, and it just seemed like it might be fun to, well, not. so that's what i did. women didn't pass me, though there were a couple around me that were going about the same pace as me, and i spent most of the ride with the guys, which was a lot of fun. i think it was at the point when i was looking at the people riding around me that i realized maybe i had gotten a bit stronger at cycling.
the run: despite saying i wasn't going to ride conservatively, i think i did to some extent, because otherwise i have no way of explaining my run. i started running and felt alright, but i started to feel great about 5 miles in after having gone up a hill they named 'quadzilla.' i started picking up the pace again, but by about mile 10, i was starting to get tired. my nutrition was still pretty bad because i just didn't want to eat or drink anything. i tried forcing down gels and gatorade and definitely got calories and fluids in, but not as much as i needed. the last two miles or so, i think i was nearing the bonk zone. the cloud cover had cleared so it was just sunny and hot and the course was exposed. i passed leya at the turn around in the expo center on my second lap, and then leya passed me going up quadzilla (my second time, her first time) a few miles later (i was coaching leya and her husband gerald when they met several years ago in honolulu. they moved to austin about a year before i did).
i picked up the pace for the last couple hundred meters or so, as much as one could pick up the pace when one is that tired. there is a clock above the finish line that is set to the time when the first wave starts the race, so it was about 14 minutes faster then my chip time. i remember as i was starting my second lap (and near the finish line) hearing the announcer say something about it being a little before 4:30 race time and thinking, maybe i should stop and tell him his clock must be wrong. there is no way i could be going that fast. well, when i was crossing the finish line, the time said 5:30, which even without adjusting for my start time was faster than my previous half-im pr. i was pretty stoked when i crossed the finish line.
after the race, i got food and a massage and hung out with some friends...and apparently the guy who won the race. the field of pros was stacked, which was kind of exciting, although i never really saw them because of the course layout. i was kind of surprised that there were that many people there given that kona is next weekend.
one thing that this weekend brought back to me was my sense of competition. i don't think of myself as a particularly competitive person. i went to go pick up my packet on friday night though and thoughts of splits and paces danced through my head. i didn't have an expectation for the race, as i mentioned, but that doesn't necessarily, in my mind at least, equate to going out with the intention to sandbag it. for me, as i mentioned in at least one earlier post, the race was an attempt to get some of myself back, and i wanted to be completely exhausted at the end of it, regardless of how fast or slow i had to go to achieve that. i suppose when i race, i always go out in search of a pr, though i don't really know enough of the field in this area yet to be able to say i want to be faster than a particular person. what can i say--type a triathlete, at your service.
i just got asked to start coaching again too, something i haven't done since moving to texas, though its something i have definitely been missing. i think in someways not doing it has made all the sports med related stuff more appealing--a subconscious effort to get involved with the things that got me interested in what i do in the first place.
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