Lone Star Triathlon Festival

Just got back from Galveston late last night. We spent all day Monday visiting the "three pyramids" (Aquarium, Rain Forest, and Discovery Museum) of the Moody Gardens Resort, watching IMAX and "4D" movies, and just walking around the park grounds. Then came back to a mountain of work and emails (after just 1.5 days of vacation!) - grrr. So I am just now getting some time to do my race report.

First of all, the Lone Star Triathlon Festival was a very well run event. Just about everything ran smoothly. The course was very nice and well-supported (well-stocked aid stations). Good post-race refreshments and entertainment. And a very scenic locale in the Moody Gardens.

Sunday morning I got up at 4:00 AM. Felt foolish to be up so early when I could almost see the transition area from my hotel room window. However, since I always need about an hour to wake up/prepare/pack and our TNT team was meeting at 5:30 in the lobby, it was still necessary. I forced myself to eat some energy bars even though I was still quite full from the TNT pasta party (carbo-load!) from the night before.

So right at 5:30, a large group of TNTers (including me and Derek) left the Moody Gardens Hotel and headed over to the transition area, which was only about a quarter mile away. The transition area was very neat and orderly - wide aisles; water station inside the transition area; tons of porta-potties. I've been to races with open racking (first-come, first-served) and races with numbered racks (but still first-come, first-served within those racks). Lone Star took it a bit further: all the slots in each rack were numbered and the numbers were on alternating sides so that people knew which side of the rack to use. Very nice.

At around 6:45 I began the walk to the swim start (about a half mile away). I wanted to get to the dock early to do a warm-up swim in Offatt's Bayou. We had a practice swim on the course on Saturday with TNT and so I knew what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the water seemed even calmer than it was the previous. Probably because it was early morning. I climbed out of the water and was walking back towards the shore, when I ran into Derek, who also wanted to do a warm-up swim. So I decided to jump back into the water for a second time. Unfortunately, I had forgotten that my goggles were still sitting up on my swim cap and they flew off as soon as I hit the water. Oh no! Luckily a fellow racer up on the dock spotted them and directed me to them floating in the water. Disaster averted!

The race/swim started off pretty much on time (my watch said about 7:35 - just a few minutes late from the advertised 7:30 start). Derek's wave (men 30-34 + elites) went first. After seeing him off, I was settling into a pre-race daze when a guy behind me said, "Hey, don't you go to spin class at LA Fitness in Irving?" Too funny. Anyway, Charlie and I had a good conversation both on the dock and while treading water at the swim start buoys before the gun went off for our wave (men 35-39).

My swim went well. The water temperature was perfect - not too cold, but not so warm that the wetsuit would get uncomfortable. The water was fairly calm; having a wave splash water into my mouth during breathing was never an issue. However, there was definitely some current in the water as I did have to course-correct my swimming from time to time. I really need to practice my sighting.

I got a little dizzy (I get motion-sickness fairly easily :-P) during Saturday's practice swim with TNT - partly because of the ever-so-sight waves and partly because I was rotating my head so much to breathe/sight - so I knew to take a Meclizine before getting in the water. And so I felt no dizziness at all after the swim. Yay! I did accidentally take in a big gulp of salt water (yuck!) sometime in the first 10 minutes of the swim. I had visuals of vomiting and/or other stomach ills, but luckily I survived the experience unscathed.

I finished the 1.2 mile swim in about 42 or 43 minutes. After coming up the ramp and out of the water, I jogged up the path, yanking the strap to unzip the back of my wetsuit, and peeling the top part off my chest and shoulders. Near the transition area, there were "wetsuit strippers" at the ready. Lay on your back, feet/legs/butt up in the air and they pull the suit right off you (our TNT coaches had warned us earlier "make sure your tri-shorts are tied tightly or you're going to give every one sometime to talk about ... nudity may only be a 2-minute USAT penalty, but we know in that in life the penalty lasts A LOT longer").

With the 250 yard jog, wetsuit removal, and gargling about 3 cups of water at the swim exit aid station (to get the salt-water taste out of my mouth!) my official swim time was 44:32, which was about what I expected.

The T1 transition was not hurried. I took some time to make sure I didn't miss anything (for example, taking three SaltStick pills) and also to apply a generous amount of BodyGlide on my feet/toes to prevent chaffing on the run (yes, I know that the bike leg is next, but once my socks went on before my bike shoes, I didn't want to have to remove them in T2)

The bike also went well. It was hard to pay a lot of attention to the scenery when I was so focused on keeping a good pace, but I did see a great ocean view with waves and birds while we biked the seawall portion of Route 3005. I kept a 20+ MPH pace for the first loop. I slowed slightly for the second loop probably close to 18 MPH, but I was still able to finish the 56 miles in 2:53:19 (19.4 MPH average). Actually, I might have been even a little faster had I not dropped my water bottle at Mile 15. Not only did I have to stop to retrieve it, I also had to stop at the Mile 24 aid station to get more fluids (my AeroDrink contents were emptied when I laid my bike down to go after the fallen water bottle).

T2 went smoothly and I reracked my bike, switched shoes, eat three more SaltSticks and another AccelGel (I had one in T1 and 4 during the bike) and grabbed my running hat and race belt. (In the possibly TMI department, my T2 time included 30-45 seconds to hit the porta-potty to pee. My time wasn’t going to be fast enough to necessitate “on-bike urination”!)

The run was a great course and VERY well marked-and supported. Definitely a cut above all the local races (Ironhead, Dallas Athletes, PlayTri). I believe there were 6 aid stations (each with water, Gatorade Endurance, Clif Shots, pretzels, defizzed cola, bananas, etc.) and 3 cold-water sponge stations on the course, and you hit each station TWICE (2 loops). The run was about as least painful as 13.1 miles can be at the end of the 70.3!

Notice that I said "least painful" but not painless! It was definitely tough to run a half-marathon after nearly four hours of swimming and cycling. The first half mile was slow as my legs adjusted from the bike to running - I think all that brick work helped. The next mile was a little better and I was even able to settle into a 8:30-9:00/mi pace. However, by the 1,5-mile rest stop, my pace had already started to slow drastically.

I ended up doing run-walk: run between rest stops and walk when I reached the aid stations. Even with the walk breaks, I still averaged a 10:15/mi pace, so I was pleased with that. At each aid station, I would drink a cup of Gatorade Endurance and then some water and dump the rest of the water and/or a fresh cup of water on my head to stay cool. (It was cloudy and overcast for the swim and most of the bike, but during the run the sun came out often and the temperature was rising). Even though I had two AccelGels in my race belt pouch, I never took them - partially because I sort of forgot that I had them, partially because I was just too tired/lazy to reach back and take them out. In hindsight, I wonder if the protein in them would have helped my aching leg muscles and the caffeine might have given me a little more pep in the last half of the run.

Like I said, the run course was essentially 2 out-and-backs for 2 loops, so I actually saw/passed Derek (and our TNT teammate Cy) four times on the course. That was very nice. We exchanged high-fives and words of encouragement with each pass. I also saw a lot of other TNTers - including some during the Olympic/quarter-iron distance. Seeing our teammates and seeing/hearing TNT cheering was definitely inspiring and helped us along on our journey.

As I came back towards the transition area for the final time, I knew the finish line was near and started to pick up my pace (as much as I could - the gas tank was running low). I crosses the gate threshold, smiled for the photographers and received my finisher's medal, water bottle, and cool wet towel for a job well-done.

My final time was 05:59:01 (the photo shows 6:04:01 because my swim wave started 5 minutes after the first gun). My goal was to break 6 hours - so I am very happy about my performance. Other stats: 64th out of 88 finishers in my age group, 219th out of 383 men, and 294th out of 560 overall.

Such a great day and great race. Even the weather cooperated - the forecast was sketchy the week before with possible thunderstorms, but the rain stayed away until about 4:00 PM - an hour or so after everyone had finished the race.

Actually, I slept through the rain. I was SO tired afterwards. After eating some snacks and cheering on other TNT participants, I took a two hour nap and nearly overslept for the TNT “victory party”. Filled up on some fajitas, got my kids ready for bed and then slept again from 9:30-6:30. Felt pretty good the next day – no major pains or anything. A little bit of sunburn on my shoulders, but it’s not too bad – I had put on sunscreen, but I think it may have gotten scraped off when I taking off my wetsuit after the swim.

So, first half-Ironman complete! I'm not sure exactly when I'll do another one, or when I will ever do a full Ironman, but I'm not looking to stop now that I have the first one under my belt.

Full Results: http://www.mychiptime.com/searchevent.php?id=3021

Bike Course Map: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=http://pages.andrien.com/LoneStarHalf-IronBike.kml

Run Course Map: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=http://pages.andrien.com/LoneStarHalf-IronRun.kml