Report Continued

Got onto the bike course and got passed the two speed bumps and the no passing zone with no problems. The course was along the Galveston seawall for a couple of miles and then turns and is shielded from the coast by homes, condos and the like. The wind actually was pretty much straight out of the south, so 90% of the wind was a cross-wind. The bike leg was about what I expected. There were a lot of people flatting though. Don't really know why either. Road wasn't rough, wasn't wet and there wasn't any debris or anything in the road. Saw no less than half a dozen flats including my buddy Kevin at about mile 16. He ended up sitting there for 32 minutes since he had no tube or pump. He had to wait for the support crew. Nothing special to report. Just put my head down and hammered (for me anyway). Got back to T2 in 1:25 for a 19.8 mph average for the 28 miles. Fastest average in a race by me so far by a full 1 mph. Jumped off the bike and made my way to my spot. Got my run gear stuff on and out of transition in just over a minute. Then came the run...

Felt good coming out of T2 and looked down at my watch to see around 1:51. My goal coming in was 2:55ish, but after seeing the 1:51, I thought somewhere around 2:45 was attainable. Wrong!!! I have been doing a ton of run training since we did the 10k last week and to get my run faster in Tri's. Thought to myself that I could run 8:30's. The 10k last week was at 7:52's so I didn't think 8:30 would be too hard. Never could get going. Started out at 9's to get my HR down a little since I believe I had gone too hard on the bike. Couldn't get it below 92%. Kept trying, but I just couldn't recover. Started to see the 2:45 slipping away, quick. After about 3 miles of running 9 minute pace, I was quickly realizing that was all I had in the tank for the day. So, instead of getting down and ticked off, I started high-fiving everyone.

First saw my kids around the 3.5 mile mark and gave each of them a big wave and two huge high-fives. That is my son in front and my daughters hand in the back.

High fived countless people after that. High-fived one race volunteer and she said "Finally, my first high five of the day!". There was a row of about 6 ladies sitting on the curb at one point and I high-fived all of them in a row. Gave shout outs to kids along the course and to the pirates at the turnarounds. My only complaint about the race was the run course. It is too cut up, has too many turns and turnarounds. You never had just long straightaways where you could get in a good rhythm. Aid stations were well stocked with Gatorade, water, defizzed cola, gels, cliff shots, cliff bars and other stuff that I always passed up. Had one shot of Gatorade and a cup of water on the head at every aid station. Between aid station after about mike 4, they had sponge handouts. They were glorious. It was getting warm around that time and the sponges felt great. Never got below 9 minute miles and ended up running 9:09 pace for the 6.5 mile run. Wasn't happy with it, but at least I didn't walk at all and I finished at 2:50:50, which was 4 minutes ahead of my goal. Ended up 307 out of 730, which met my goal that I made at the start of the year to be in the top 50% at every race. I believe in making attainable goals.

Definitely a race I would recommend and will do again. Maybe next time it will be the half. Most likely will have to skip it next year since I plan on doing the New Orleans half IM which will be right around the same time as Lonestar next year.

Did speedwork this morning, 1 mile @ 9:00, 2.65 @ 7:24, 0.35 @ 7:41, and 0.5 mile at 10:00. Lifted weights after that since Big Poppa was in spin class, the Hornet was a sellout after a late night on the town, and my new training partner Dr. Roy couldn't make it. Taking tomorrow off before the Fatboy 5k on Saturday and then off to Alexandria for camping/mountain biking for Saturday and Sunday.