Race Results

I would love to report that I finished on the podium at the Waco Race.  I did not.  This was not really my plan.  When you start doing this stuff in your 30's & 40's, the odds of being competitive are not that strong.  My goal was to finish and finish I did. 

The swim was pretty uneventful except that I had to grab a kayak about 250 yards into it.  I have heard this is common for first timers.  It is hard to get in a rhythm with all the excitement, people and getting grabbed on your face, neck, arms, legs and privates.  Not sure if a triathlete has ever been brought up on statutory molestation charges, but it happens in every race I assure you.

Once I caught my breath everything went fine except for the fact that I do not swim that fast.  Once on the bike, things were going great.  I was passing people and gaining some ground.  About thirty minutes into it, I was moving along at a good pace when all of a sudden I hear a pop, look down, and I had a flat tire.  This by itself is not so bad except that I hit the brakes, stopped pretty suddenly, and forgot about the fact that I had just started using bike shoes with clips.  This caused me to smack the pavement because my feet were locked in the pedals.  This is a novice mistake, so I am a novice.  I wish I had a recorder with me to recall the four letter words that are still part of my "panic vocabulary".  I can recall a few.  Email me if you are interested.

Took almost 30 minutes for me to get moving again.  I had no equipment to change it, and had to wait on AAA roadside assistance (actually the race officials radio the mobile bike assistance car, and they are fast once they arrive.  The course is 26 miles, so it took a few minutes for me to get moving again, 27 to be exact.  This put me in almost last place, except for one person, according to the bike doctors.  By the end of the bike ride, I managed to catch up to a few stragglers, but for the most part I was way behind.

By the time the run started it was pretty hot and I had about an hour left to go.  Keep in mind most people are done or near finishing by this time.  It is quite demoralizing, but like I said, I was only there to finish.  The run started nice, but the middle part was in some hills that were a beating.  I was not prepared for this, but got through it. 

So I did finish, I did hit my target weigh in of 188 (BTW, I still have a long way to go here, more on this later), I did NOT finish last, I got a cool scrape on my knee, and got to eat a free slice of crappy pizza at the end!