Let me start by saying the goal for this race was to provide motivation to keep working out throughout the winter. Running wasn't an option, as I became injured while training for the Longhorn 70.3 last year. I don't consider my preparation to have been great for this race. I only swam once/week. Occasionally, I swam twice. I did a lot of biking in preparation, however, most of it was on the trainer. I only did a few long bike rides on the rode.
Friday: We packed up the car and hit the road! The Galveston Beach Patrol was going to be out from 3-5 on Friday allowing people to swim the bayou. I have not swam in ocean water, so I wanted to give it a try before race day. And the only open water swim in preparation for this race was in Barton Springs the weekend before.
We arrived at our hotel around 2ish, checked in, and headed over to the beach at Moody Gardens. I got into my wetsuit and swam. I swam approximately 1000 meters and called it a day. For the most part, the swim was uneventful. The water in the bayou was pretty calm and there wasn't a noticeable current. It was pretty easy to swim a straight line.
Friday night, we got a good nights sleep. The hotel was quiet and I was tired from the drive in. Traveling tires me more than working out.
Saturday: We headed over to Moody Gardens and saw some of the attractions. We went to the aquarium (the penguins and large turtles are cool!), saw a 3D Imax movie about dophins and whales, and rode on a faux paddle boat. The faux paddle boat ride was a joke. It crossed the bayou so we could get a better view of the Home Depot and Target on the other side. But, it kept us off our feet, so it was probably a good thing. Before the paddle boat ride, we went to the athlete race briefing and picked up our packets afterwards. When you do a relay you get 3 gimmees, even if you only have 2 people on your team. We got three shirts and caps! I got the extra shirt and Jim got the extra hat. Woohoo!
We went to the athlete's carbo load dinner. We ate, talked a bit with another couple and went back to the hotel. We finished getting our stuff together and watched TV for a couple of hours. Unfortunately, sleep wasn't as easy as the night before. I'm a terrible sleeper. The room was hot and the people upstairs were noisy. I kept turning down the temp, but it didn't seem to cool off.
Sunday: Woke up on Sunday feeling very tired. We finished getting ready and then I rode my bike over to the transition area. On the way over, I remembered all the things I meant to do, but forgot. The biggie was I forgot to get the pump out of the car and top off the tires. That wasn't a big deal. The Mavic guys had a tent set up on my way to transition and were pumping up tires. Thanks Mavic guys!
I set up transition and met up w/ Jim. We headed over towards the swim start and watched the race get started. The Olympic distance started first. The Half-Iron was scheduled to start at 8, but didn't start until 8:45. I'm not sure the reasoning behind starting the shorter distance race first, other than keeping them out of the way of the Half-Iron elites.
The Swim: I was in the last swim wave. It was pretty uneventful. The water was a bit choppier at times than when I swam on Friday. The wave runner for swim support was the cause of most of the waves. The swim course was extremely well marked. It seemed like there was buoys every 100-150 meters. When I exited the water, I felt great.
T1: I ran up towards transition (no pain when I ran!!!!) into the area for wetsuit stripping. I layed on the ground and they whipped it right off me! It was amazingly fast. It would have taken me a couple of minutes struggling on my butt trying to get the damn thing off.
The Bike: The bike was good. It was mostly scenic when I remembered to look. It was nice to see the ocean and the houses on stilts. It was very different scenery than the Austin area. No corn fields, cows, goats, or corn fields. I concentrated on my keeping my cadence at 90-100 and this kept me in the 17 mph range, which was my loosely defined goal. Even though we rode along the Seawall, the traffic wasn't bad. Even in the areas where we were sharing the road with cars, the cars were respectful. I never felt endangered by cars, like I have in other races or when out on a long ride. The rode was smooth for 99% of the ride and the rough sections were short. The wind wasn't an issue until the last 20-30 minutes of my ride. The wind really picked up towards the end. It was hitting me perpendicularly, so it didn't really impact my speed too much. I just had to struggle not to get pushed around. The last mile or so, however, I had to ride directly into the wind. My speed went down to 10-11 mph for this section.
Nutritionally speaking, I did well. I took gels and Thermolytes on schedule. I did eat one Crustables (peanut butter/jelly sandwich). It turned out to be too much. My stomach was feeling a little too full for about 20-30 minutes after that. I will probably start experimenting w/ other solid food while on the bike. I did skip the last gel/Thermolyte. I was about 10-15 minutes from the end and I wasn't steady enough in the strong wind to deal with it. Since I was so close to finishing, I knew it really wasn't an issue.
T2: I haven't done a brick practice since last October. Let's just say my legs were spaghetti when I got off the bike and tried to run into transition. I had trouble finding my area. When I did find it (thanks to the volunteer that noticed I looked lost!), I put up the bike, took off my helmet and bike shoes, and ran over to the relay exchange in my socks and handed the timing chip off to Jim.
The Run: These are just my observations, but after getting some food, I made my way out near the end of the run course to try to catch Jim. I succeeded! I first saw him the end of the first loop. His shirt was soaked and he seemed extremely focused. It turns out his 'focus' was keeping his head down to keep the sand from blowing in his eyes in this section of the course. After the initial sighting, I walked over to a section of the course where the out and backs started/ended. With each loop, he looked strong. He ran each loop faster than the previous. When it was all said and done, he PR'd! He beat his 3M half-marathon time from a couple of years ago when the race start was around 32 degrees and the finish was not much warmer. Jim's Rogue coach thought he was capable of a faster half marathon time, but wasn't confident about doing it on Sunday, as the heat would play a big factor. He was smart about it. He went through misters to wet his shirt, kept his wet shirt on so the wind would cool him off, put ice on his head, and accelerated his salt intake. He also drafted when running into the wind, and took advantage of the tail wind.
All in all, a good race!
What to work on: 1) Speed! I still have endurance, but now I need to trust that and push myself a bit to go faster. This is both on the bike and swim. I hold back to conserve energy, but I'm conserving a bit too much.
2) Transition speed. I just need to speed it up as well. No reason to have a 5 minute T1.
3) Sunscreen application. I have a nice sunburn on my hands, forearms, and ears. I did put sunscreen on, but the first few outings of each spring season, I forget spots. A 5 minute T1 is enough time to cover my entire body three times with sunscreen.
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