2nd time for this event, 4th OWS swim event ever (Austin 70.3 cancelled swim), 1st Olympic distance Tri.
I'd avoided this distance for awhile, as a mile swim felt daunting. I'd even registered a couple of times for this distance, but, either dropped down to a shorter distance, or, in one case, was injured. With TRI FW and Buffalo Springs coming up, it was time.
I'd been swimming more this year, and had mixed in a few OWS at Marine Creek before this event. Time to suck it up and get it done.
TexasMan is a great event coordinated by Dallas Athletes Racing. It takes place at Lake Ray Roberts, and offers a Sprint, Olympic, and X50 distance. While the X50 would have been a good test 3 weeks before TRI FW, I knew I could be ok on the bike and run. I just needed to conquer the swim, which was the same 1 mile distance for the Olympic and X50.
When I picked up my packet on Thursday, we were told that the swim had been changed to 3 smaller loops, rather than 1 large loop. It seems that last year's choppy water had the race organizers wanting to keep swimmers a little closer to the shore. I actually liked the change, as I figured, "swim 10 minutes, rest, swim 10 minutes, rest, swim 10 minutes, transition."
The weather had turned incredibly cold overnight, so we arrived to temps in the upper 40's. It was downright chilly and incredibly windy.
I prepped transition, and headed to the beach for the long, cold wait.
When we hit the water, it was actually a relief, as it was warmer than the air temps. I waded into the water slowly and began to swim. It took me a few hundred yard to get comfortable, but, I finally settled in a bit. That said, I still struggled to go more than 8 - 12 strokes before lifting my head and getting my bearings. We hit the 1st buoy, and were headed parallel to the shore. That would be the choppiest part of the swim. Soon, another buoy and we headed back to shore for loop 2. As soon as I could touch, I did, and walked in. Not the fastest option, but, the most comfortable. I took my goggles off to clear fog, jogged down the beach, and reentered the water. Loop 2 felt for more comfortable, other than me swimming crooked to the point that the kayaker had to tell me to take a hard left to get back on track. Loop 3 was much of the same. While I'm not a fast swimmer, I did hope to be faster than I was. The results had me at 43:20, or, 2:53 per 100 yards, but, Strava has me at 2:19 per 100, as I extended by over 100 yards. If only I were a straighter swimmer.
I exited the water and made the long trip to T1. It was still incredibly cold and windy, so I took the time to put on a jacket and gloves in T1 for the bike. While I knew I'd spent a lot of time there, it wasn't until the results that I saw I spent 7:57 in T1. Unreal!
I mounted the bike and headed out for the 40k ride. Other than my feet (I rode sockless), I felt ok temperature-wise. We made the turn out of the park and the crosswinds were brutal. My race wheels had me shimmying down the road. We made a right turn down another road, and the ride got incredibly fast. At the hairpin turn to head back to the main road, I actually unclipped and took in some nutrition before heading back. The ride back up that road was incredibly slow due to a killer headwind. Another right, more crosswind. Another hairpin, again, unclip for rest and nutrition. back to the park up its and fighting crosswind. BRUTAL. The results show me at 15.7 mph. Strava at 16.2. It was a really hard day on the bike.
Back to T2 where I shed the gloves, but, kept the jacket. 3:38. Still slow.
I headed out on the run and saw a few friends cheering. It was awesome that they were out there in the cold, windy weather. While I wasn't quite sure what pace to target on the run, I knew I wanted to just keep moving. By mile 1 I'd shed the jacket, and would toss it to a buddy bile mile 2.
I made a brief pee stop in a campsite a little before mile 3 and kept moving. I would walk water stops for liquids and gels and run the rest of the way...slowly. Fortunately, due to the looped course, there was a lot of interaction with other athletes, which was nice.
I continued my slow steady pace and picked it up a bit at the end. 10:13 pace per results, 10:24 per Strava.
Total time: 3:30:53. Slower than planned, but, box checked. It was a tough day. But, some confidence built for TRI FW.
I got some clothes back on and cheered for friends coning in and several that podiumed.
Not a bad day...
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