Another weekend, another race.

Last week was business as usual and then suddenly I was waking up on Sunday getting ready to go to another race. This time I was doing Small Texan Triathlon in Boerne, TX. It’s a smaller race but generally gets a handful of fast people to keep the competition interesting in the front. Super fan Dan was coming along to spectate and was going to get his run in while I raced.

I did this race last year and SWORE I would not do it again. Dan swore the same thing, but actually followed through on that promise. Our friend Ben who lives in Boerne talked me into it. After he kicked my butt at the Pflugerville Tri back in June, I was out for revenge (well, not really because Ben is super cool, but we made it a friendly competition. I did beat him but only because I had a decent run). Anyway, I despise the course of the Small Texan. It’s a very slow course – hilly, late race start, no shade on the run and the bike course roads are in horrible shape. They are cobblestone-esque and your bike pretty much vibrates the entire time you are riding. Anyway, I did the race yesterday and once again SWORE I will NOT do this race again – at least not the Olympic Distance. Maybe the Sprint as I could probably handle 14 miles on those roads but not 28.

I was going to wait to write this report until official results are posted, but they are still not (annoying), and I would probably rather not see my exact swim or bike split anyhow (I have a good idea from my trusty stop watch on how I did in each discipline).

My wave started as the second and final one with all of the women and relayers chasing the dudes in the first wave. That meant a decent size of women (and a few relay dudes) in the water. I had been having some good open water swims lately so my plan was to swim hard for the entire 1500 meters (please note: hard for me is still not fast). The race started and I swam what I perceived to be a pretty hard effort, but was disappointed with my 36 and change time exiting the water. I knew I had lost some time by stopping a few times to adjust my goggles (they kept fogging up, it was so frustrating), but still didn’t think I was going that slow. I probably let my swim time affect my attitude more than I should have, particularly knowing I had the crappy bike course ahead of me – but, you live, you learn.

Ah, the bike. Unfortunately, I was quick to find out the bike course had not improved any from last year. In fact, Ben and I think the road conditions had worsened. Large divots in the road and constant vibrating on the bike due to the road surface. I was pretty much riding alone for the entire time, probably due to my slow swim, and just mentally lost focus at this point. Dan would say later that I just look ‘deflated’ in this race, which is pretty spot on with how I felt. I should have sucked it up and pushed harder on the bike, but I just didn’t have it in me. My bike split was pretty close to 1:40 for the 28 miles, which is just under a 17 mph average. I’m capable of better. Even though the course is slow it’s not THAT slow!!

My hope for the run was to be able to find a pace in the realm of 7:25 that felt comfortable for the first 3 miles, then use what was left to get home. I knew it was a tough course, but at least I wouldn’t be on my bike and that thought was a great relief. This was a shortlived dream on Sunday though, as my legs right off the bat felt very heavy. I knew the temps were high and I could feel the sun beating down on my practically-naked backside, so I didn’t stress it. After all, at least I was still running and passing people. Then around the 5k mark things changed, and I felt the life come back into my legs. Maybe it was because I spotted my friend Ben not too far ahead of me )I knew he had started the race 3 minutes ahead of me, so if I could catch him I had at least a 3 minute cushion to work with). Maybe I had finally shook out the crappy 1:40 bike split, but I felt like a new person. The heat was still present, but I knew I was starting to bang out negative splits. At mile 5, I turned it up a little and really I only felt stronger. My run split ended up being around a 45:15 or 7:17 avg pace. While I was happy with my run, I was bummed about my overall race time which was about 4 minutes off from last year. I still think I finished pretty decent among women overall (we shall see) but only because I had a good run.

All in all, it was my 5^th race in 5 weeks, and I can’t expect to go out there and kill it every single time. I look forward to taking this week as a step back week to recuperate from all the racing (and catch up on some of my TV shows!).