So here I am sitting in a coffee shop\bar (Halcyon) in Austin, haveing one of my favorite beverages. No not a Maker's Mark Manhatten, a large vanilla latte. Mildly recovering from the number of beers I had last while enjoying an awesome blues band at pretty cool bar (Friends). Oh yeah, and recovering from the 70.3 I did yesterday. I actually don't feel too bad today. Some pain the left lower back, a little neck and shoulder pain, some pain in the left knee (nothing to worry about) and my hamstrings feel weird, not cramped, just not right. I am very thirsty, probably the beers last night did not help. So to the race.
I was up at 3AM, actually about 2AM from the sounds of the bars getting out and traffic. I am on the 11th floor of the Hilton Garden Inn in Downtown Austin and I could still hear a ton of street noise, mainly honking horns. For breakfast I had the normal bowl of oatmeal , banana, and coffee, no donut, which I might have needed today. I picked up one of my fellow club members on the way to the race site and we got there by 5AM. Luckily, because as I understand it people who got there around 6AM had to wait almost an hour to park and get to the race site. That is why the race started about 20 minutes late. I get everything setup in transistion pretty fast, helps to put the bike there the night before. It was a pretty cool morning (65), the water was much warm than the air, barely wetsuit legal. Said the water was about 77.5. The swim went very well, I was surprised at my time, my goal was to go under 40min and I went well under that. Only issue during the swim was traffic and about 3/4 way through my left shoulder starting bothering me. Fairly long run from the water to the transistion, uphill run, of course. Bike course was fairly hilly and it was windy. The heat did not pick up until over halfway through. 4 aid stations, skipped the first, got water at the other 3. Dumped half the water on me and then took some in. Had a bottle of water on the bike and a bottle of gatorade, drank almost all the water and 3/4 the gatorade, plus two bloks. I felt pretty good coming off the bike. Like in my long training ride the only thing that bothered me was my lower back and neck a little. Once I got moving off the bike that pain went away. Of course coming into transition was the largest hill of the bike. It was a good bike course, I was surprised at how crowded it was. I definitely would have been faster if not for the crowding. I don't have the balls or the bike skills to manuever like some people in that kind of traffic. Now to the run. I felt pretty good for the first 4 miles or so, then things did not go well. It was hot and the course was extemely hilly. By far the hilliest course I have ever been on. It was two loops and there was 6 aid stations on each loop for a total of 12. They were life savers. I used everyone, they had sponges and towels, which was also a life saver. At about 5+ (near Quadzilla, truly a hell hill) I just stopped being able to turn over. It was not mental, nothing really hurt, not more than expected. I felt the tank of empty, no energy. For the rest of the run I alternated jogging and walking. I think I ran out of gas, I just did not take enough calories. I think I took on plenty of water and other fluids. The last couple miles I felt sick, like I was going to vomit. When I finished I went by the med tent near a garbage can, did not vomit. Nurse came out and asked if I was ok. Told her a felt like vomitting. Took me in the tent, sat me down, took my blood pressure (90 over 70) said I looked pale. Laid me down, gave me an IV and after that I felt wonderful. The tent was packed with people getting IVs The race was great, I great learning experience I can take into next year when I do more of them. Swim was great, bike was very good, the run was, well, the run. Last race of the season and I was very happy with it. After the race they had a party at Hill's Cafe that was buffet style with BBQ (Chicken and Pork) with live music. That was really good. So far Austin has been good to me. Off to Lance Armstrong's bike shop, Mellow Johnnies. Later I will post my stuff for the whole year. Well, another great season in the bag and looking forward to next season, and more half-IMs, olympics, sprints, and duathlons.....
Overall - 741/1929
Age Group - 97/219
Total Time - 5:46:43
Swim (1.2 miles) - 29:23 (1:31/100yds, second fastest split of the year next to Escape from Alcatraz current assisted swim)
T1 - 4:27
Bike (56 miles) - 2:50:48 (19.7MPH)
T2 - 2:26
Run (13.1 miles) - 2:19:37 (10:39 min/mi, ugh, what are you gonna do?)
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