Texas State Sprint Triathlon Report

It's been a while. Lots of swim, rides and runs. Been trying to practice in open water more, after my disastrous Lonestar Swim.

Today I raced in the Texas State Triathlon Club's sprint race. My cousin Krista is a member of the club and this is their main fund raiser. Good race for a good club!

The race was a 500 meter swim in the Aquarena Springs, a fourteen mile bike through the San Marcos back roads, and a 5k through Texas State Campus.

The swim was a time trial start. This was my fist swim start of this kind and I really, really liked it. It was a great swim for me and the Springs are beautiful. Came out of the water just over eight minutes, which is great time for me. A short jog into T1 which went well.

The bike course was pretty rough. The back roads of San Marcos are pretty bumpy. Early on there were some slight inclines followed by slight declines; nothing too bad, the roads just made it tough to ride smooth and require extra effort to keep the cadence and speed up. The ride was much faster coming back in and went very well. I was able to make up some time and pass a few more people. I didn't realize at the time (although my legs were telling me very clearly in hind sight), but the ride out must have been slightly up hill the whole time. T2 went great, haven't seen transition times yet but it went quick.

The 5k was a nice little run. The course was confusing at times; nothing drastic though. I am really bad at taking splits but I'm pretty sure I was able to go negative. My first mile was just under seven minutes and I finished the 5k in 19:15. That puts my average pace at about 6:12 (assuming it was a full 5k). That looks like a negative split to me!!

Finished in 1:11:35 (by my watch), fourth in the 30 - 34 age group and 12th overall. I am happy with the race. Now that I have a couple races under my belt for the season I am able to say that I will be working very hard on the bike this year. If I can really improve there, I can give all you folks a good run for your money.

My next race is The Rookie in two weeks. That should be a quick and fun little race. Got quite a gang going to compete out there: Robbie, Reese, Krista, Elizabeth, Kristy, Beth, and myself. See you there!