Yes! - A triathlon...........finally

So I finally got around to doing a triathlon - the Tri-Raider Sprint in Lubbock, Texas. It was great weather and a solid training race for me. Overall I was pleased.

I woke up around 4am but made myself lay there until about 5am. I didn't get much sleep because I just couldn't, but I had been getting good rest all week it wasn't a big deal.

I went downstairs and got some coffee. I didn't drink coffee the entire week leading up to the race so that it would really have an effect on me! Too bad for me that when I went down for a second cup I found out that I got decaf the first time. Idiot! Oh well, I got caffeinated every time after that so I was good to go. Caffeine really does work by the way. I found this out a couple of weeks ago when I did a swim workout after a venti drip from starbucks...Let me just put it this way - I looked down at my watch after a 600-yard set and thought that I'd skipped a lap! I did the set again just to make sure I wasn't crazy. Well, it was legit! Caffeine improves my performance big time.....anyways, moving on!

So I show up to the race site with plenty of time to warm-up. I get on my bike first and go for a quick 15-min spin. Then I went for a 10-min jog and everything was still feeling good. It was overcast and felt pretty cool, maybe in the high 70s. I made my way down to the swim start and got about 10-min of swimming in after a dryland warm-up. I was ready.

The swim was a beach start - everybody lined up shoulder-to-shoulder on the shoreline and then went for it at the horn. I ran out and purposefully sprinted the first 100m or so. After that I was looking for somebody to draft behind but never really found a good opportunity. I basically went it alone, which was fine but I was still a little disappointed. My swim felt "average" and I know I can do better than that.

The bike was sweet. It had a few serious hills but other than that it was flat and fast. I found a good group to stick with and rode nice and easy the entire way, staying in my race pace HR zone. This was so simple to do because normally I just red-line it and go all out. My T2 transition sucked though. I came in to transition and went down the wrong bikerack isle. Idiot! #$%@!!! That's such a stupid mistake to make, but I did it.

On the run I stayed in my race pace HR zone as well. It felt really good. For the first time in my life I finished a triathlon feeling STRONG! Seriously, it was nothing compared to how I usually push myself. And I still finished in the Top 10 overall. It's hard to to not think about all the "what if's", for example "What if I did go all out, I could have placed so much higher and maybe I could have......" but that just isn't my mindset right now. There'll be time for that later. I did what I was supposed to do and had a solid performance.

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Race results click here