Capital of Texas Triathlon

Not long after I completed my first triathlon last August, I realized that this year Memorial Day, and therefore the Capital of Texas Triathlon, would coincide with my birthday. Since CapTex was what inspired me to attempt a triathlon, and I was pretty much immediately hooked on racing, I decided all the way back in September to do the Olympic distance (1500m swim, 40k bike, 10k run) today, as a far off goal to aspire to. As you can tell from this blog, I've done quite a bit of training and racing in the interim, perhaps most analogously the Corpus Christi Olympic-distance duathlon I did two weeks ago (coupled with the Splash & Dash for swimming). Based on the du time of 2:01, and a one-mile swim in Barton Springs last Sunday in 52 minutes, I was hoping to break 3 hours in the tri today. I might have made it if I could have kept up the pace of the first half of the run for the whole 10k. I'm still pretty pleased with a time of 3:05:13.

Splash & Dash

This evening I participated in my first "Splash & Dash" and only my second open water swim. I hesitate to say I competed, since I finished 100-somethingth out of 200-some-odd. It was a 750 meter swim around a small lake (that is part of Pure Austin gym), then three 1 kilometer run laps around the lake. I didn't drown, I wasn't the last one out of the water, I got more open-water swimming experience, and my time of 34:45 gives me a target to try and surpass next time I do it (the event is held monthly during the summer), so it was a success.

Corpus Christi Duathlon

Today I did my first race "on the road" in Corpus Christi, an Olympic distance Duathlon (5k, 40k, 5k). The only reason I signed up for it, really, was because I got a free entry, thanks to the organizer's (Red Licorice Events) Twitter feed. It cost me more for a hotel for last night and the gas to get down and back than the entry fee would have been, but it was a good experience to be away from home and stay in a hotel before a race.

Before the race, I hoped to finish in the 2:00 to 2:15 range, and was quite pleased with a 2:01:46. I was even more pleased that for the first time ever, I finished "on the podium," with third place in my age group. It was an almost completely flat course, but the wind made it pretty tough, especially the cross-winds on the bike.

Shiner GASP/Skeese Greets Women's Triathlon

Yesterday I completed my first "century," or 100-mile bicycle ride, the Shiner GASP (or Great Austin to Shiner Pedal [which sounds redundant except for the fact that Shiner refers both to a town and a beer company]). The overall direction of the ride is southeast, and typically if there is any wind, it is either a headwind the whole way, or a tailwind the whole way. Unfortunately, this year it was a headwind (and occasionally a crosswind), but I decided beforehand to ride on my brand new race wheels to give myself the best chance of finishing. Considering that previously my longest ride was the Wildflower Ride about a month ago at 62 miles, I felt good finishing in 6 hours and 40 minutes (my watch showed 96.65 miles in 5:43 of moving time). Then this morning I got up early again to volunteer for a women-only sub-sprint distance triathlon.