This race was going to be the biggest indicator of how my training was coming along. My goal this season has been improving my time in the longer distance races, and I really wanted to improve my time from last year on this race. This race actually got selected to be part of the "Race to the Toyota Cup series" and it was going to attract a lot of pros, which made it all the more exciting.
I finished up with my school semester in the beginning of May so I had about 3 or 4 weeks to really put in some last minute training during the week that I'm not really able to do when I'm in school. I was feeling stronger and stronger on the run and swim, but was still having doubts about my bike. I had just been feeling "off" on the bike and I don't know if it's been a mental thing or what. The winds this season have been blowing pretty regularly so that may have had some impact on some of my training rides.
The day before the race you have a mandatory bike check-in and packet pick-up. It was fun to walk around the expo and do a little shopping for some last minute nutritional needs. The race is held in downtown Austin on Memorial Day so it's a really cool setting for a race. They close off all the roads downtown and you get to ride right up and around the Capital building. The race actually started about 15 minutes late due to some sort of mishap. It's a wetsuit legal race so I was hoping for better numbers on my swim. As the gun went off, I got into a rhythm pretty quickly and felt very comfortable as I came to the first turn buoy. But as I started heading in the other direction, I noticed the wind had picked up and the water was getting rougher. My speed slowed dramatically and I had a little issue with my active imagination when my strap on my wetsuit kept hitting my hand. But I got past all that and hit the last turn buoy to head to the dock. It felt great to get out of the water and I had the best volunteer just grab me out of the water and toss me up the ramp! I ran to the "strippers" and they yanked me out of my wetsuit and I was running towards my bike. Official time in the water = 36 minutes.
I hopped on my bike and started on the course and knew my numbers where not going to be anywhere where I wanted them to be. I was blasted head-on by a strong gust of wind and I sort of let my spirit get smashed because of it. The course is a 4-loop course with a couple of short little inclines that I knew were going to do me in. I decided to just plug along on the bike and make the most of it. Besides, this race was just a trial run for Boise 70.3 which was coming up in a couple of weeks. I managed through 3 loops of the bike course before my husband, who started a few waves behind me, passed me up. At least I had held him off until the third loop of the bike! But by loop 4 I was ready to be off my bike. The wind was blowing me around all over the place and the course was getting more crowded as the athletes doing the Sprint race where starting their bike portion of the race. I finished my bike with a blown attitude and a total time of = 1:35 (15.6 avg) - slower than I had done last year.
As I headed out on the run, I was suddenly glad for the wind. The breeze felt great and I was managing to pass a few people who had stopped to walk up one of the hills at the beginning of the route. I took water at every aid station and ate my nutrition at the halfway mark. It's a 2-loop run course but doesn't feel that bad. I had to walk on one section when I thought I had a rock in my shoe but when I pulled my shoe off I realized I was getting a nasty blister. I just slipped my shoe back on and started running again. Too late to do anything about it now :-) I saw one of my triathlon club teammates as I was getting to about 50 yards of the finish and I kicked it into high gear when he started cheering me on. Not the best run I had ever done but I was happy to be done. Total run time = 1:08 (11 min pace).
Total race time = 3:26. I had managed to knock 10 minutes off my time from last year, but it was nowhere near the 3-hour mark that I wanted to be at.
So even though it wasn't a perfect race by any means, it was still a fun experience and I had friends that did very well and had major improvements from last year.
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