Sept. 1 The Austin Tri

I was wide awake when the alarm went off at 4:30, I slept pretty well, but I was excited about the triathlon! Matt stayed at our house the night before and since he is notorious for being late, I set his alarm for 4:15 instead of 4:30, it worked! When I got up he was already sitting on the couch eating breakfast! (Sorry Matt!)
Jeff had planned to have the day off and come to the triathlon, but Jim obviously couldn't work after his bike accident, so Jeff worked for him.
I ate my oatmeal, grabbed my race bag and Matt and I headed down to Auditorium Shores. A couple minutes after we got there, Kim and Ingrid showed up, and then David. David before the race.

As I was setting up my transition area, I also saw Kelli, she was just a couple spots down from me, so we talked for a minute. David signed up in the open wave (elite) so he was the first of all of us to start. Kim, Ingrid and I had another 30 minutes to wait after David started. I went back and forth at least a hundred times about whether or not I wanted to wear my wetsuit. The water was 78 wetsuit legal but barely. I know I would have been fine either way. I decided no wetsuit and Chris held it for me during the race, Thanks Chris! All that waiting around was also making me more nervous about the bike course.

the Austin Tri is a 1500 meter swim, 25 mile bike, and 6.2 mile run.

Finally it was time to get in the water, it felt cold getting in but once I started swimming it felt good. I felt much better swimming than I did last weekend at the Clear LakeTriathlon (I had some breathing issues in the water that day). I ended up out of the water in 35 minutes, my goal was 37, so I was happy with that.

David biking
It was a long way from where I had my bike in transition to the bike start, but once I got on my bike I started to feel better about the course, it didn't seem all that crowded and it was really well marked. I headed up Congress, it was uphill, but not that bad, then the first of many U turns, then back down Congress to the capital. Then over toward the steep hill everyone had been warning us about, I finally got to it and it was steep, but it wasn't that bad, cool! Back to the start and 2 more laps. I felt great on the bike, no problems at all really. I didn't like all the U turns, but I'm sure no one else did either. I finished the bike in 1:40, which is exactly where I wanted to be. Matt running Kim running

Ingrid running

Me running
I hadn't studied the run course too much and they didn't have mile markers so I wasn't sure about my pace most of the run. It was 2 3.1 mile laps. The first lap went well, I saw Kim and Ingrid toward the end. The second lap was tougher, it was getting hot! Around the middle of the second lap I started getting chills, not good when it's 90 out, so I slowed down. Just before I got to the finish I saw David, Gillian, Kim, Matt, John, and Del all cheering for me! Thanks guys! Ingrid and Chris were at the finish. Everyone had a great race! We all hung out for a little while after the race, then got our stuff from transition and left. Matt and I decided to go to Marble Slab for milkshakes, YUM! I did nothing the rest of the day, I was so tired! Sometimes after races I'm really tired, and sometimes I'm fine, today I was super tired!
Getting our bikes from transition after the race
I really had fun at this race, partly because it was really well organized and I had a good race, and partly because so many of my friends were there too. I hope Longhorn is this much fun and goes this well!