Race Report

Everything went off without a hitch. Got to BP's at 4:10, loaded up the bikes and headed out. Got to the race site at around 7 ish, got signed in, set-up and ready to go. Did a short 200 yd swim warm-up and then it was time to start. Now that I am in the 30-34 age group (turning 30 at the end of the year), I am always in the first wave. That's because all the fast guys are in the 30-40 year old range so they stick them (I am not fast by any means) first.

The start was on a boat ramp, so it should be pretty uneventful, right? Of course not. I am about midpack at the start and some fruitcake decides he is going to dive instead of just starting to swim like the rest of us. Well, he dives right on top of my head and knocks the suction off my right goggle lens. It fills halfway up with water. Being the stubborn person that I am, ain't no way I am stopping, so I swam the loop with water in my right eye the entire time. It sucked. After that, got to the first turn and some guy had gotten of course. He was swimming at a 90 degree angle to the rest of us, and t-boned me in the side. Do you people know what you are freakin' doing??? Sheesh! Finished the swim in 9:48, under 2 min/100 m. That is the first time I have swam open water in under 2 min/100 so I felt pretty good about that. T1 was slow for some reason. Felt like I was in there forever. Don't know my exact time since transitions were just included with your bike time, but I think it was around 2:45, ridiculous.

Got on the bike and started rolling. About 0.5 mile in was a bridge over the Red River which wasn't very nice. Then on the downhill you start to pick up some good speed and then immediately have to make a turn killing all the speed you gained. Then you get to an overpass at mile 1.5 and the same thing. Turn right at the bottom of the hill, how terrible is that. The bike course was well marked, they had shut down one lane of traffic down on each side of the four lane highway and had cops about every 0.5 mile. Couldn't have been better manned. The road was concrete and on the way back in, it was kind of uneven, but besides that it was pretty smooth for the majority of the ride. Bike computer said 54:30 for a 19.8 average over the 18 miles. Not what I was expecting. Wanted to be in the 20.5-21 range, but I was trying to keep the heart rate around 85%. In Galveston, I think I went out too hard on the bike which hurt me on the run. With transitions, the bike time was 58:30 for a 18.6 average. So I had 4 minutes in transitions. Normally, I am around 2:45 or 3, so I don't know what I was doing in transition, but I obviously wasn't hurrying.

It was getting warm by the time we got on the run. Got passed by about 3 people, but had a good run. Ran a 25:12 5k (8:11 pace), which is the fastest 5k I have run in a triathlon to date. Felt good on the run and I think it was because I kept the HR lower on the bike.

Ended up at 1:33 just short of my goal of 1:30. What was I rewarded with for a 1:33? Nothing. Missed my goal of being top 50% in all my races this year. Was 48th out of 89. My 8:11 run was 55 of 89. Normally that kind of race would have easily got me top 50%. There were a ton of fast guys out today for some reason. Wish they would have all stayed home. Where were the fat slow guys to even out the field? Oh wait, that was me. Should have entered Clydesdale, there was only one entry. I could have at least taken home some hardware.


These are all of the Baton Rouge people who made the trek. As you can see, they are all thin and fast. They are the reason I missed the top 50%. Fast suckers. Maybe I'll be there one day...