Pre-Race
I felt unprepared for the race.
I had only had 1 open water swim and it did not go so well. I had injured my knee and I hadn’t run for 2
weeks. I have been working on my dissertation
and I’ve just plain been busy.
We decided to drive down to Galveston late Friday afternoon. We slept late and had a great breakfast at
the hotel. It rained most of the day
Saturday, but it finally stopped around 2:00 pm and I went to packet pick-up
and bike-check in. The lines were long
and we had to hurry to get ready for our NET dinner. The NET dinner was the best part of the
trip. We laughed at all the crazy things
that had happened to us during training!
It was well worth the trip just to get so see all my NET family!
Race Day
I got up at 5:00 a.m. to eat my breakfast, but I was just not
feeling it. I texted Julie to make sure
she was awake and she told me that the race was not wetsuit legal but it was
wetsuit optional. I decided not to wear
my wetsuit because IMTX will most likely not be wetsuit legal. Then we got dressed and headed down to the
transition area. It didn’t take me long
to get everything set up, it seemed so simple and I was sure I was forgetting
something. The race started at 7:00 am but
my wave didn’t swim until 8:08 am. We
hung around the NET tent and watched the Pro’s come in before heading to the
swim start. I found Kelly and we got in
line then marched out on the pier. While
we were walking out on the pier the girl behind us was crying. I don’t know if she was scared or just
emotional. But it kinda unnerved me because
I felt so calm. The swim conditions were
horrible last year and there were huge swells.
I still can’t believe that I finished the swim last year, but this year
the water was calm.
Swim
We had to jump off a pier and swim out to the start. The water seemed cold and I immediately put
my head in and started blowing bubbles.
I forgot how yucky salt water tasted.
We finally got to start and I immediately got into a good rhythm. I stayed with the pack for a while and I used
them to sight. Once we got more spread
out I starting sighting and I kept a good pace.
I was calm and successfully sighted every buoy. I only stopped to reorient at the first turn
buoy. The turn is not a 90 degree turn
and for some reason it always throws me off so I stopped to make sure I was
swimming in the right direction. I just
swam and before I knew it I could see the pyramids at Moody Gardens. I couldn’t believe that the swim was almost
over! I felt calm and fresh coming out
of the water. My swim time was 49:06 and
I was 59th out of 94 in my age group. This is a 3 minute PR from last year when the
race was wetsuit legal.
T1
I was calm and everything just fell into place. I kept it short and simple. My T1 time was 3:45.
Bike
This year I’ve really improved on the bike and I was ready to see
what I could do! I had a great ride out
with little or no wind. I averaged 19
mph. My nutrition and hydration was
going well. I had looked at the weather
the night before and the forecast gave us a tail wind on the way back in. On the way out I thought that I was going to have
the perfect cycling conditions; a slight head wind on the way out and a tail
wind on the way in. Well, it didn’t
quite work out that way. There was
little to no wind on the way out and then a head wind picked up for the ride
back. I was not a happy camper and I tried
to stay in aero as much as possible. I
got behind on my hydration. But I was
passing people like crazy which only encouraged me to ride faster! My new tri bike is small and fast. My time was 3:08:36 and I averaged 17.82
mph. I passed 25 people in T1 or on the
bike. I was 34th in my age
group.
T2
I was laser focused and everything went smoothly. My time was
2:03.
Run
Well, I knew the run would be interesting. I was hoping that I could run the entire
time, I just didn’t know if my heart could take a lot of walking. For IMTX I have been practicing running at a
slower pace. When I’m running fast and I
have to slow down I feel like I might as well just stop (I know it’s just a
mental thing). For me an 8:20 min/mile
pace is just not feasible for IMTX, so I’ve slowed my long runs down to a
9:30-10:00 min/mile pace and even this will be ambitious for IMTX. Now back to the race, my run started off
great. My knee was bothering me but it
didn’t really hurt, it just felt tight.
We had been talking about putting ice down our sports bra and pants and I
decided to give it a try the first time ice was available and it was a life
saver! My plan was to run to each aid
station, walk through the aid station, and then run to the next aid
station. I felt pretty good until mile
8, then my knee started hurting when I had to run up the small hills. So I decided to walk up the hills. Around mile 10 my other knee started hurting
and I started to catch cramps in my legs and feet. I was able to fight the cramps off and finish
the run in 2:11:14. Although I didn’t
have a good run I passed 8 people in my age group and finished 26th. My total time was 6:14:44.
Post Race
We met back up at the NET tent, visited, cheered on other
athletes, and celebrated. Later I went
back over to the hotel and changed clothes.
Then we headed to my aunt’s house in Crystal Beach. I was sore, tired, and hungry. I also found that the salt from the swim
chaffed me in unspeakable places, so next year I will use extra Body
Glide. I now remember this happening
last year but I forgot. I hope I read
this race report before the race next year!
My aunt laughed at me because it was difficult for me to walk up and
down all the stairs at the beach house and restaurant. Overall, I had a great race and weekend with
my family and friends!
Monday
OK, I will have to admit that I’m somewhat disappointed in my race
because I know that I’m in better shape than I was last year but my time was
not better. However, I feel better today
because I have to take into account the race conditions and my recent
injury. For me the race conditions were
worse, no tail wind on the bike and a hot, humid run. Last year I was 43rd out of 104 in
my age group and this year I was 26th out of 95. Now, maybe the big dogs (fast athletes) didn’t
race because of IMTX, but you can only race who is there. So I will chalk this up as a great race and
big improvement! Now I just have to
concentrate on IMTX!
