Katy Triathlon

This past Sunday (10/25/2009) was my third sprint triathlon and final race of the season. To finish it off with a bang David, my brother-in-law, joined me for what would be his first race.

The morning for us started at 4:45am and it was chilly, around 58F, but by the time the race start was nearing it must have warmed up to around 65-70F. Still the water was a good 71-72F, and for a south Texas boy that means keep you eyes pealed for icebergs. At these water temps a wet suit is just about necessary but it's also one piece of equipment neither of us own. At most races they allow competitors to get in a swim warm up, but for some reason this time they were not permitted. At the time I thought this was odd but didn't realize until after the gun went off just how much this would affect my overall swim.

Swim start:

We had approx. 3 mins between each wave of swimmers to get our body acclimated to the water temp. I found out really quick that 3 minutes was not enough time and after the first 100M or so the cold hit me like a brick wall. It felt as if my lung capacity dropped to about 30%, I couldn't even catch my breath with my head above water doing the breast stroke. Not a good way to start a race, but I made it to the swim exit in 00:11:32 (about 2:18 100M times). Not good, I was expecting a 10 minute swim, but I was just happy to be out of the water and onto the bike.

Transition 1:

I was back out on the bike in 00:02:03 which isn't as good as the last race but after the swim it didn't matter. I wasn't as cold as I thought I would be getting out of the water. David was getting on his socks as I grabbed my bike to exit transition, I was glad to see he made it through the swim in one piece.

Bike start:

Once I got out of the neighbor hood the wind hit me, and I imediately knew this would be a much slower race then that last one. But I pushed through the wind and finished the 15 mile bike in 00:47:58 (ave 18.8MPH). I didn't see David on the bike but he finished not too far behind me with an average of 18.1MPH, way to go David that's awesome!

Transition 2:

I know it sounds odd but this was the highlight of my race, 00:00:45! My fastest transition time ever, and I was off on the run.

Run Start:

This is where the mental part of the race really starts to take affect, your tired, everything seems to hurt and all you can think about is the finish line and that you just got passed by another guy in your age group :(. Not that I am a terrible runner, I just seem to lose the most places on the run. This time around I started to cramp up on the last half mile and it took everything I had left to keep stride and finish the race. I finished the 5K in 00:26:08 (approx. 8:43 per mile), hopefully with more training next year I can get these times down.

In all I finished with a time of 01:28:27 placing 264 out of 590 and David finished up at 349 with a total time of 01:32:48, which is fantastic! I am sure he is now addicted like me ;).

~ Warren