The Capital of Texas Triathlon was this past weekend down in Austin, of course. This was an Olympic Distance triathlon consisting of a 1500 meter open water swim (0.94 miles), 40K bike (24.9 miles) and a 10K run (6.4 miles). I had three goals going into this race 1) finish the swim in under 30 minutes 2) finish the race in under 2:40:00 and 3) do the run with an average min/mile of below 8:00 per mile. Here's the breakdown of how the race went:The Swim
1500 meters - 26:55 - goal met!
The swim took place in Lady Bird Lake and with the water temperature at 68 degrees it was wet suit legal and the wet suit was very nice to have. This was by far the best swim that I have ever raced. This was partially due to the fact that a majority of the swim was with the slow current but there were also spots that were against the current at the beginning and the very end so I like to think that it all evened out in the end. The other nice part was that I didn't get kicked in the head once, seriously, not once. It was a clean swim with very little contact from beginning to end.
T1
4:29
The first transition went rather smoothly considering that this was the first time that I have swam in a wetsuit that there wasn't a stripper in transition to help you get the wetsuit off. Luckily this didn't really end up taking too much time. The worst part about the first transition was that you had to run about 200 yards before you could get on your bike. They won't let you mount your bike and ride out of transition, you have to leave the transition area before you mount but with this race you also had to run up a sidewalk and around a corner. Ridiculous.
The Bike
40K - 1:10:27 - 21.1mph average
This was a super fast bike course, it consisted of 4 loops of a 6-mile route that went up by the Capital Building. There were only two hills and though they were a little steep (both varying between 7-12% inclines) they were also very short. Leading up to the bike course I was not very excited about sharing a 6-mile loop with 1300 other racers and was a little worried that it would get too crowded and would slow me down but that was not really the case. You definitely had to be more attentive at the turns to who was around you so that you wouldn't take a turn to wide and run into someone but other than that most people followed the cycling rules and etiquette. The one problem with this course was that it was so fast. I am weak for a fast course, once I start going fast I want to keep going fast in order to turn out with a solid bike time. This was my downfall at the LoneStar and ended up being my downfall here as well. Although I held back a little it wasn't enough for the run that was quickly approaching.
T2
2:28
Nothing special about T2 to speak of. The actual changing of shoes was quick and most of the time was spent getting out of transition. It was another long run out before you actually were "on course".
The Run
10K - 52:56 - 8:31min/miles
This is where the wheels came off. I was having a spectacular day and knew that I would probably be coming in with a personal best time on a race of this distance. My initial intention was to run the first 5K lap at about an 8:05min/mi and the second lap at somewhere between a 7:30-7:45 min/mi. I had successfully done this on training days after a ride of the race distance but did not count on the heat being a problem. On the bike the heat is not very noticeable until you stop but on the run it is constantly beating down on you from above and reflecting off the concrete below. It also didn't help that most of this run was rather exposed with not much shade to be found. There were plenty of rest station where you could grab a cup of ice water to dunk on your head but even that only last so long. I gave up on the goal of sub 8:00 min/miles pretty quick and just wanted to get off the run and out of the heat.
The Final Tally
Swim-26:55
T1-4:29
Bike-1:10:27
T2-2:28
Run-52:56
Total-2:37:17
In the end I met 2 of my 3 goals. I got out of the water fast and finished in a sub 2:40:00 time. 2 out of 3 ain't bad.
Here are my ranking overall (the goal here is to beat half the entrants):
Overall Place 299/1327
Gender Place 259/859
Division Place (Male 30-34) 48/157
Pictures have already been posted here. You can also read Jonathan's race recap here.
