WILLIAM T. RITTER: Cap Tex Tri

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Cap Tex Tri

It was another OUL weekend and Moxie weekend, last weekend it was down in Austin. I love the city of Austin, for the obvious reason, so much good food. In all seriousness, I was down there for business. I stayed with my favorite comedian and also a fast Jack & Adams Ironman athlete Kevin Russell, just right down the road from the race. The Cap Tex triathlon has been going on in Austin for nearly two decades I believe and the last three years I know there always seems to be some glitches, and it's unfortunate what happened to pro race this year, when a mis informed volunteer told the pros they were all swimming the wrong way. Andy Potts was confident that he was going the right and swam under the kayak while the rest of the pros turned around and then had to turn around again when they found out they were mis informed. Potts came out of the water 3 minutes ahead of everyone else and held on to a 13 second win.

I race in the open/invitational division with some of the best amateur elite athletes in the region including Ben Hall an 18-19 year old national champion who would later to go on to win the race and Brad Pigage who dominates the Houston/Bay Area racing season. There was also Andrew Montes a former division 1 runner from A&M and Mark Saroni out of UT Tyler, plus many others. I started off the swim with my signature move of swimming way to the left, luckily I wasn't too far back when I got back in the pack and found some feet to draft off and stayed on his feet until the end. I came out of the water at 22:59, just a few seconds behind Keith Kotar and ran him down out of transition. It took me awhile to get going on the technical bike course but once I did I was feeling good, but by the last lap it was heating up real good. Off the bike, I started the run clipping sub 6 pace feeling relatively strong. Jenn and Bella were super supportive giving me updates on how far back I was on certain people. At mile 4 I caught a real bad stomach cramp which almost put to a walk, but I somehow with enough determination stuck it out and it went away and caught Austin's Frank Sarasody about 4.5 miles and all I could see up the road was Montes. At mile 5 I knew I was closing in on him but I wasn't quite confident I was going to be able to catch him by the finish. With a quarter mile to go I was coming up on him and I distinctly heard Jenn telling me to get on him, I surged past Montes with a finishing kick I didn't expect to have, which left me almost puking and bent over at the finish chute. I finished at 4th overall just shy of 3rd overall Mark Saroni. I think it came down due to taking too long to get my wetsuit off.

I'd like to thank my Lord for helping me get through the race with a super strong effort, Jenn for being there and being extra supportive. I couldn't have done as well without her there. Not to mention my amazing sponsors Nathan Villa, Richard Miller, and Bicycles Plus for helping me get to the starting line with a bike. Also, Matt Embry, ONURLEFT Sports, and blueseventy!

Enjoy my small pics!