Spectating at Champions Triathlon

Ingrid invited me to do the Champion's Tri a few weeks ago, I decided to pass, I have to draw the line somewhere (if triathlons were free, I'd probably race every weekend). She came into town on Saturday afternoon and we had dinner at the Salt Lick.

Sunday morning I went out to Pace Bend Park to watch the race. It was a really small race, probably less than 150 people total. Ingrid was in one of the last waves to start and she was excited to not have to worry about starting with tons of people or having people catch up to her and swim over her.
She saw some guy doing some kind of ballet moves as a warm up, I missed it so she reenacted it for me!
Ingrid looking excited to start swimming!
While Ingrid was swimming, I overheard one of the race directors saying that they didn't have enough volunteers, so I ended up volunteering at the start/finish of the bike course. It was fun to see everyone getting on and off their bikes, flying mounts and dismounts, some really good, some really not good. I only saw one person fall and it was nothing major. It was also the perfect place to see Ingrid coming out of transition. She looks so happy to get to start biking!
Coming in to the bike finish, again looking really happy! She passed a ton of people and had a great ride.
I was still volunteering on the bike course when Ingrid started running, but I was finished before Ingrid would be finished running, so I ran over to the finish. While I was waiting for Ingrid I heard them announce Lisa Dennison finishing. She was my swim coach for the Tri Zones swim clinic a few weeks ago.
Just a couple minutes after Coach Lisa finished, Ingrid came around the corner, looking happy and not tired at all!

As Ingrid crossed the finish line the race director announced he was going to give away prizes for people who got signatures from race vendors. Ingrid crossed the finish line and immediately said to me "what did he say we have to do to win prizes?" I told her, and she took off running (seriously, she was running and she just finished!) to get signatures. We got the signatures and Ingrid won a t-shirt and I won a backpack. Later Ingrid told me "nothing about that race was easy". She never said why, but from what I could tell, the water was cold and a little choppy, the bike was hilly with lots of curves and turns, and the run was hilly too, but she really made it look easy.

Then it was Cupcake time! Ingrid was super excited about her cupcake, I couldn't believe how much energy she had right after finishing!

Maybe she had so much energy because she won her age group! That's right a first place finish!

Less than an hour after she finished, Ingrid asked if I has swum yet (I had planned to get in an open water swim since I was out there). I hadn't swum yet and Ingrid offered to swim with me! I couldn't believe she was ready to get in the water again, but it was great to have some company out there, especially since the water was pretty choppy with a few boats and jet skis around. I had a good swim and it felt great to get in the open water.

I'm really glad Ingrid decided to do the race. I had an awesome time spectating, volunteering, and hanging out with Ingrid after the race. Doesn't hurt that Ingrid had a great race and won her age group either!

MS 150

I didn't actually do the MS 150 and this year it wasn't actually the MS 150, it was 1 day and 80 miles. Day one got rained/thunderstormed out. But on day two, Ingrid, Kim, Matt, Steph, Larry, Loanna, Chris, Maggie and a few other people I know (about 15,000 people total) rode from La Grange to Austin. I saw Larry after he finished and talked with him for a little while. I talked with Matt and Steph when they finished, and I heard that everyone else had a great ride too. Ingrid and Kim at the finish with the Capital in the background
Larry after finishing
Ingrid and Kim and I had planned to go to the Cookie Lounge when they finished. Ingrid had been looking forward to her trip to the Cookie Lounge for a long time. She really enjoyed it and sent Jeff and I an email about it the next day with her Cookie BreakdownKim enjoying a cookie
Ingrid with her Mookie
Ingrid's Cookie Breakdown
"Here’s what I ordered:
1) Peanut butter dough with milk chocolate chunks (good)
2) Brown sugar dough with English toffee bits (really good)
3) Chocolate dough with a hint of macaroon dough, dark chocolate bits and almonds (the best of the three fresh baked cookies)
4) Mookie with Vanilla Sweet Cream dough and caramel bits (almost as good as #3)
5) Whoopie Pie (yummy but very messy!)"

Pedernales Falls State Park

We had planned to camp at Pedernales Falls State Park this weekend, but they are predicting thunderstorms and hail tonight and tomorrow, so we decided to make it a day trip instead.

I have been to Pedernales 3 times and this was the driest I've seen it. The second time I went you could barely walk on any of the rocks, most of them were underwater.

The Pederanales is known for serious flash flooding, to the point that it's rushing super fast and you can't see any of the rocks that we were walking on today.

Jeff climbed up onto this tall rock

There's a small waterfall right below me on this rock

Another waterfall

Big rocks near the waterfalls. The rocks are really cool looking, but pretty tough to climb on Jeff by one of the rocky water pools

I saw this cave and really wanted to go in it. It took a lot of climbing on rocks to get there

almost there

me in the cave

Jeff and I in the cave

view out of the cave

The water isn't that cold. and look how clear it is!

Jeff really liked this bald cypress tree

Lonestar Quarter Iron Triathlon

Lonestar is one of my favorite triathlons. This was my third year in a row to do Lonestar, in 2007, I did the sprint, in 2008 I did the quarter iron and this year I did the quarter iron again.

I got to Galveston around noon on Saturday and checked into my hotel, Inn at the Waterpark, it was really nice. I assume they completely renovated after Hurricane Ike, because it looked brand new. The staff was really nice and they even started their continental breakfast at 4:30 am this weekend for the triathletes. Since I decided to come in on Saturday instead of Friday, I knew I would miss Cassie and Steph doing the sprint, but I talked to Cassie and she had a good race. Steph never said much about the sprint, she was too busy getting ready for the quarter.

I went to Moody Gardens for the pre-race meeting and Ingrid and Kim met me there and brought me lunch. Thanks! We did packet pick-up then Del and I decided to do a practice swim. Cassie had told me the water was 65 degrees, so I was prepared to freeze. I hadn’t swum in the ocean or in my wetsuit since the Battle of San Jacinto Triathlon last April. But I decided I wasn’t going to wear my wetsuit to practice because it might not be dry by morning and I really didn’t want to stand around on race morning in a cold damp wetsuit.

Del getting into his wetsuit

Del and I started to get in and both screamed! The water was freezing! But once we got in and started swimming it wasn’t so bad, we both had a good swim and I knew if I could handle it without the wetsuit, I’d be fine in the morning. After the swim, I did a short run and then got ready for dinner. Del and I after swimming
Pre-race dinner was at Mario’s with Kathleen and lots of other HRTCers. As always, it was a lot of fun. I went to bed pretty early and slept really well; maybe it was the glass of wine that Kim and Gillian talked me into at dinner. Kim and Del at dinner

Steph, Loanna, and Augie at dinner

Race morning I went to the lobby for breakfast and started chatting with a couple in race crew shirts, they turned out to be Keith Jordan’s (the race director) in-laws! So I told them how much I love Endorfun races and that Keith is my favorite race director. After breakfast I got everything ready and went over to the transition area. I got everything set up and then had 2 hours to wait until my start. Luckily I ran into Jane, Marla, Kim and a few other people I knew, so the time passed quickly. Jane with her bike in transition

me with my bike in transition

I got in the water and started shivering, I was having a little trouble breathing as I swam out to the start buoy. When we started, I still had a little trouble breathing for the first 100 or so meters, but once I got going and got a little warmed up I felt much better. I tried to focus on my technique and all the things Coach Lisa taught me at the Trizones swim clinic a few weeks ago. I had a hard time keeping my head tucked down in a good position since I was breathing higher than normal to avoid inhaling salt water- YUCK! My goal for the swim was to swim equal to or faster than last year’s time. Last year’s time was 25:23, this year’s time was 24:54. Pretty cool since I really didn’t start swimming this year until after the Trizones clinic 3 weeks ago!

Getting out of the water

Transition 1 felt really slow to me, I walked out of the water while I got the top of my wetsuit off, got stripped, then ran over to my bike and started getting ready. Right across the rack from me was a girl in a Trizones jersey! I thought I was the only Trizoner doing Lonestar! I asked if she trained with Trizones, yes, she asked me North or South team? North, me too. How do we not know eachother? I was almost ready to go at that point and I think I said something dumb like “I’ll have to meet you better sometime” she said she’d look for me after the race as I was leaving transition. As I was leaving Moody Gardens on my bike, I realized I had no clue what she looked like, I was too busy getting ready to even look at her, I just noticed the Trizones jersey. I can’t believe my transition was actually 12 seconds faster than last year at 4:35!

My biggest goal at the race this year was to improve my bike time over last year. I was a little slow on all the turns getting out to the seawall, but I knew I would be. I was pretty sure I’d have a headwind going out on the seawall and I did, but it wasn’t super strong. I was trying to keep my speed at 15 mph or higher and it was pretty tough. I was working pretty hard and getting concerned that maybe I was using too much energy for the first half of the bike. I was really hoping for a tailwind on the way back, but you never know in Galveston, sometimes you get a headwind out and nothing but cross wind on the way back. I turned the U turn and it was easy to go 16, 17 even 18 mph! Woohoo a tailwind! I tried to stay at 17 mph and even got over 20+ when I was passing people, I was having fun and felt really good! I told everyone I passed and who passed me to have a great race. I did a good job of drinking my Infinit from my aerobottle on the ride, with about 5 miles to go, I went to get a drink and heard “slurp slurp” from the straw, cool finished my Infinit with 5 miles to go. Unfortunately after the race I realized that I had pulled the straw up some and I still had about ¼ of my Infinit left, oops. Last year’s bike time was 1:49:47 for 15.3 mph, this year was 1:47:33 for 15.6 mph. T2 was 3:27 (last year’s was 3:12, not sure what I did slower this year).

I got out on the run and felt good, the sun was out and it was starting to get pretty warm. I decided to go without the fuel belt since it was only a 6.5 mile run. If I drank properly on the bike, I shouldn’t need anything except maybe a little water on the run. After mile 1 I started to feel a little hungry, that’s usually a bad sign for me and I started to think it was a mistake to not carry the fuel belt. Endorfun always has tons of food and drinks at the run aid stations and I never use any of it. They always have defizzed Coke, and I have always thought that was pretty disgusting. I don’t drink Coke anyway and couldn’t imagine drinking it while running, but for some reason while I was running and getting hungrier, I thought Coke sounded good. At the next aid station I took a little cup of Coke, it tasted good, I wondered if it would upset my stomach, most things do, but I felt fine. I ended up drinking 3 little cups of Coke on the course. On the run I saw Kim, Steph, and Marla racing and Penny volunteering. The last 2 or so miles I was getting pretty hot and my legs were feeling tired, but I knew I could beat last year’s time and I didn’t have much further to go. I ended up running in 1:16:08 at 11:43 per mile, last year was 1:18:48 at 12:07 per mile. I was really happy as I came in to the finish. I knew I had beaten last year’s time and not just by a minute or two but by over five minutes! (3:36:39 compared to 3:41:59). I got my post-race swag and a couple Icee pops (I think that’s the best immediate post-race food I’ve ever eaten!), then found Kim, Steph, Del, and Jane they all had awesome races too.

Kim and Steph post-race

Kim’s mom brought us cupcakes! Thanks! I went back to the hotel for a quick shower before coming back to the race site just in time to see David finish in under 4:30 and take 14th place overall in his very first half ironman! Wow! He’s amazing! This was Ingrid's reaction when she found out how well David did!

Then we figured out where Ingrid was on the course and found a spot to watch for her, Merry, Ross, and Maggie on the run. Steph, Kim, David, and Gillian spectating

Everyone did awesome! Ingird took over 30 minutes off her Ironstar time, Maggie PRed the course, and Ross was under 6:00 for his very first half ironman!Ingrid high-fiving spectators on her last run lap

post-race cupcake! YUM!