year 4 for this event at the Y. 425 registered..biggest group yet.
Construction on Lamar and on 10th streets led to a bike course reroute. The course would also be a bit longer, at 15 miles.
Great turnout for the beginners clinic yesterday, with around 75 in attendance. This is a great race for 1st timers. I had several buddies and acquaintances that were racing for the 1st time today.
The Y continues to work hard to refine our processes to help proved a great experiences for racers. I believe that we are continuing to improve each year.
I arrived a little before 5 this morning, and was actually the 1st one body marked and racked. Because of my buddies at Trident, we were all racked together, and, would swim just after the Mayor finished her swim. A nice perk for sure.
The race started a little later than the scheduled 7 am time, but, IMO, not a bug deal.
Swim: I was one of the 1st 10 in the water (after the Mayor). No issues on the swim, and no congestion at all. However, I was slower than I'd hoped at 6:39. While this felt slow, it is my best Mayor's Tri Swim yet (2013: 7:12, 2014: 7:39, 2015: 7:09).
T1: I ran hard into T1 and felt good. I was a little slow getting my shoes helmet and race belt on, and, dropped my gel, but, all in all, uneventful.
Bike: The bike course took us Burnett to 5th to Cherry to 7th. Once on 7th, the course was fast. Once on 7th, we took a right on Summit, a left on 5th, and a left on Forest Park. I was well onto Forest Park when I realized 2 things: 1) my Garmin was paused. I'd hit the wrong button coming out of the pool. I quickly toggled through restart, T1, to bike and got back on track, but, I'd lost about 5 minutes of my data...2) My right foot hurt. It felt like I'd picked up a piece of glass in T1. I cranked hard up Forest Park until we turned on Park Hill. Another hill there, and, then it got fast. We turned onto University and picked up lot's of speed. I flew through the light (luckily green) at 30 and then realized that I saw no cones or police presence. I'd missed a turn. I looked to my right and saw cones on the roads in trinity park. I made a right into the park and got back on course. My missing the turn could have led to a disaster, as I was on University for about a 1/4 mile at 25 mph with no protection, or police presence. Had the light been red at 30, it could have been ugly. I made the turn onto Foch and another onto 7th. We turned right again on Fournier, down to 10th, and, back onto Forest Park for loop 2. I made all of the correct turns this time, and, made it back to the Y not knowing exactly how my bike split went. Per the results, I was a little over 18 mph. Improving. While I did not capture all of my bike data due to my Garmin screw up, Strava had me at 17.6 mph for 13.6 miles.
I headed into T2 a little stiff from the bike. I racked the bike and put on my hat and sunglasses. As I pulled my shoes on, my "hickies" laces popped on both shoes, requiring me to sit and fix them before heading out for the run.
Run: steady: I felt slow and steady until the turn around. I passed a few people and got passed by some speedsters. I walked jailhouse hill in an attempt to keep my HR down, and ran hard to finish.
The results show me 29:18, or, 9:27 per mile. Strava shows me a little slower due a GPS mapped shorter distance.
total time: 1:30:49 I was targeting 1:30, so, didn't feel too bad about the time, but, it certainly could have been better.
2013: 1:31:26
2014: 1:28:502015: 1:23:05
2016: 1:30:49
post race, I saw lots of tri buddies, cheered for all the tri newbies, and helped clean up the parking lot. Another great day.
I'm thrilled that the Y is a part of this event.
As for me, I'll take a day to recover and try to ramp up training on Tuesday, as it is week 1 of the 16 week training block for Austin 70.3. I am traveling this week, but, will take the run and swim gear in an effort to keep up my training.
good day!
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