Triathlon Season Update

The second race of the season is in the books. Two weekends ago Alexis and I ventured down to Houston for the Take a Hike Ike! Triathlon. As it turned out, we went to Houston for one of their coldest weekends of the winter. This tri was supposed to be a 500 meter swim in Lake Houston, an 11 mile bike and a 5k run. I was advised earlier in the week that the water would be cold so I rented a wet suit.

On Saturday, Sonny, my dad, and I piled in the car and set out to find the race course and pick up the race packet. When we finally got to the park where the race was too be held, we were greeted with temperatures in the 40s and 20 mph winds. The lake was very choppy. you could be safe to say that the lake had 2-3 foot swells. These conditions were a far cry from the 85 degree pool at Gold’s Gym where I had been training.

Alexis and I woke up early on Sunday to head out to the lake. The weather was cold and I was less than excited to be racing that morning. But we drove all the way from Dallas and a few people were taking time out of their day to come and watch. I had to go.

We arrived to more of the same, temps in the 30s, 20mph winds and a very choppy lake. As I was at one of the pavilions finishing up my registration, one of the race officials came by and said that the swim portion of the race was cancelled due to unsafe (and cold) conditions. This was great news. Instead of the swim they inserted another 5k run. This meant I had to run 6.2 miles that morning. I had never run that far before, I had only done about 5 miles, and that was not recently. But I was too excited about not having to swim to care about how far I had to run.

Shortly before the race began, my parents arrived and then right before the race began Alexis’ parents arrived. I spent very little time stretching and warming up. There was no point, it was too cold.

They decided to start everyone at one time instead of in waves like they had originally planned for in the swim. So everyone lined up and started in one giant pack. But that was not the case for very long. After a mile or two, it started to thin out as people slowed down and paced themselves. The first 5k I finished in about 26 minutes. After a quick transition I was off to the cycling portion. I had the wind at my back and it felt good to be off of my feet. The ride was very scenic and wooded. But it went by quick since it was only 11 miles. Then it was back to the run. By this time, my legs were pretty heavy. By the way, it was still very cold. My pace was a little slower, but not by much, the second 5k took about 27 minutes.

Overall I finished 43rd out of 156. For my age group I finished 6th out of 12. I feel like I did a pretty good job, and I am glad that they changed it to run, bike, run.

The next event is a ride with my company cycling club up in Sulphur Springs on the 21st. Then a fun run the next weekend, I am actually considering the 10K, not the 5k! And the weekend after that it is off to Galveston for another tri.