Oilman Texas 70.3

Seeking redemption from Austin, I most certainly was. I got there Saturday about 11:00 a.m. and did my bike and run prep a little cool but not too bad. I was by myself this trip so thinking of getting into the lake without a wetsuit because I need someone to zip me up, was a little daunting. I also didn't want to bother anyone, so jumped in, I swam. Good thing it was a short swim, it wasn't too bad but I was getting cold within 10 minutes. I swam several meters passed that big orange bouy in the photo and swam back. The water was refreshing but on the chilly side. The rest of the afternoon I took a nap and rested in in the hotel. 

Race morning brought temperatures into the low 40's as everyone was making their way and getting set up into transition. I didn't know what other people were going to do but I laid out gloves and arm warmers just in case it was chilly getting out of the water. The air temperature was so cold even with wetsuits it was actually warmer to wait for the start in the water.   

Once the swim started, it was a fast dash out front then I get reeled back in, a hard right and it was game on. I didn't except the chop to be that bad, but it was. It was fun battling the waves coming at you in all sorts of angles. The Life Guards had their work cut out, as I heard several whistles being blown to rescue swimmers who didn't quite make it through.  I'm glad this was not an Ironman branded race, the swim would have been called off for being too cold and having too much chop. I had a decent swim time in 34+, considering the amount of chop their was. I had worked with Jeremy Brown from MindRight Multisport the week to get some crossover I had going on straightened out, so it was a straight swim for me this week and it's amazing how sighting was much easier. 

                                         

I had the fastest transition with an in and out from swim to bike in 49 seconds. I skipped right over my gloves and arm warmers, the sun was out by now and I didn't feel like I needed them. The whole bike regarding the temperature I was comfortable. I was really moving the first half off the bike hitting just over 24 mph average for the first hour, then we had some strong winds on the back half and my average pulling my overall average down to 22.8 mph overall but I was still passing people (left) and right, except for Philip Shama hammering it out doing the relay. He became my cycling buddy for a little while out there on the second half as we were taking legal pulls but eventually I fell off from him.

I got off to a great start on my run and controlling myself from going too fast or so I thought at the time. I had no idea Lars Finagar was in the race until I saw him way out in front of me, but unfortunately for him he was DQ'd for not wearing his helmet before the race when he was on his bike. This meant I had the "official" lead and had no idea. 

The run course was 3 loops with a couple of out and backs so it kind of easy to keep track of where you were with a few guys. There were two guys I mainly had my eyes on - Pablo Gomez in the 20 year old age group and Pat Doughtery who was in mine. Pablo was running well but I had estimated at some of the out and backs I had a 4 minute lead on him that would shrink to about a minute by the time it was over. Pat, was running well but I was holding a good lead over him for most of the race. Starting out on the run it was great to see all the people from Tyler who came down to cheer for everyone, especially Jeffrey Mayhall who took all these pictures. 

My back was really tight by mile 3-4 and I had to stop once  each lap and let my back loosen up and that seemed to help a lot, however, with about 4 miles to go my legs ran out of steam and that was that. Pat caught me with just under a mile to go and I couldn't respond to his speed. 

Due to Lars being disqualified I moved up to "officially" 2nd overall but "technically" 3rd overall. He's a great athlete and you can't just count him out when he just whooped on all of us. Pat moved up to 2nd overall and so that moved me up to 1st in the 30-34 age group. My time came out to be 4:33. 

That's a wrap on the 2014 season that had a lot of ups and downs, fun and hard training days, exciting trips and adventures. Thank you to God, for all the talent and drive that it takes and thank you for all the support to my Beautiful Wife Calley, Team Extremus, Cobb Mobb & Cobb Cycling, The Tyler Bike Club and Fresh Race Team!

Austin 70.3

My Wife, Calley and I made the trip down to Austin 70.3 and had a great time together.. We had a fanstastic little house stay with a nice guy, named Joseph. His house was absolutely spotless and comfortable. That night we relaxed by watching a Criminal Minds marathon. 

I almost had to skip this race. A couple of weeks before I was biking out to the weekly Tuesday night pain train when I got in traffic at a stop and go stand still and unclipped a little late and when I stepped on the pavement my cleat slip and my right knee went at an awkward angle. I hobbled off the road, shook it off a few minutes, and kept riding.  I was ok, somewhat, until a few days later I was teaching Rylan how to do run drills and the explosiveness of these run drills didn't go so well for my knee.  I tried to get through the next couple of days but it wasn't working out. I took 3 days off and did absolutly nothing but ice and epsom salt my knee which seemed to help a lot, by Monday it was go time again. I started my taper earlier than I had planned on but it seemed to be helping me out leading up to Austin.  

It was a long wait while each wave went off. I was super relaxed and having fun! As seen here with some of our Cobb Mobbers, Joe, Crystal, and Rachel. 

My new age division, this year, was quite big we were separated in two large waves. My swim was 33:04, not exactly fish-like. I got off too good start but must have been been crossing over way too much right arm and I kept veering left, especially at the start.   

I went off carrying my bike out of transition, it was a long run too, carrying this heavy thing due to all the stickers that were near the course. Tons of people were out on the course fixing flats, myself included. I was letting it rip out on the bike course. It featured mostly rolling hills where I could get fast doing downhill and use the momentum to carry me up and down the next one, the roads were very rough though. I was set to hit between 2:15-2:20 at half way if I kept the pace up. At mile 29 though, it became harder to pedal and eventually, flat. Well, this time instead of dropping out I changed my own tubular for the first time (Thanks Seth!). It took me longer than I thought it did with my 2:38 bike split. I found getting back on the bike and getting going again was the hardest part, the last 5-10 miles was very windy and I was struggling, honestly.  

The Run....well right from the start I started experiencing some really bad stomach issues. My legs felt fine but everytime I tried to push the effort my stomach distress increased sharply. It was a bad deal. There was lot of slow jogging and walking for me out there, not to mention it was getting hot. My Sub 11 min run splits were not going to get me the age group win today. 

The drive home was fantastic! I through up a couple of times a long the way but we got through it and made the best of it! Luckily, my Wife was with me to get us home. Thanks again to my Wife, who cheered on everyone out there all day, and also to the Tyler group that came to support everyone, the Cobb Mobb team, and Extremus. I'm thankful to God for keeping me safe out there and that I was able to recover fast from it.