My first race of the season was on Sunday in Denton, Texas. It was a long five hour drive from San Antonio but I was not overly exhausted from the drive. There was some confusion at packet pick up on the swim distance as well as our position starts. The first issue was that we found out we were only swimming 400 yards, instead of 800 yards. This meant that most of us competing at the collegiate level entered inaccurate swim times when registering. What happened? Well, it meant that I ended up being the second in the water....number 233.
There was only one other person before me at the start of the race which made me incredibly nervous. Since our swim times were all messed up, I was convinced people would be crawling over me on the swim. Oddly enough only 5 people passed me on the swim. The worst part of the swim was that my swim cap came off and as soon as that happened all my hair was in my face so that I could not breathe like I needed to. I remember during the last 50 yards seeing my black swim cap sinking to the pool floor. After I finished the race I was a little disoriented and it took a few seconds to realize if I swam the entire thing or not. That's the crappy part about pool swims....you have to make sure you are swimming correctly and going the right way in the pool. Open water, you don't have to worry about lanes. I got out of the pool and headed toward T1 but have to admit, I was kinda confused as to where I was going.
T1 was decent due to the fact I don't have complete velcro bike shoes so I couldn't just hop on my bike and leave. I had to sit down and put my feet in the shoes and click them until they were on. Then I had to run through the mount area and stop to hop on my bike since my water bottle cage is in the way of me hoping on quicker. At least I know where I need to improve for the future.
The bike portion actually was not too bad. I was worried that I would not be able to stay strong through the entire course but ended up doing fine. Hills were a challenge for me because I am not used to doing them in races, so I need to get better at switching gears easier. I was smart though because I would gain speed going downhill which would carry over for part of the climb. I ended up only passing four people on the bike. Two from UT-Austin, and 1 Aggie and Baylor due to them having flat tires. The best part of the bike was that I dismounted perfectly. I was able to unclip from my bike with both shoes, hop off, and run into T2.
T2 was completely horrible! For some reason I ran to the wrong rack and put my bike down, which didn't make sense because I was at the first one. Then I had to figure out where all my stuff was. Once I realized where it was I had to untie my shoes and tie them back because I couldn't get them on over my wet feet. I grabbed a gel and just remembered that the run was two laps so don't kill myself in the beginning.
The run was terrible because I was so slow. My right ankle was stiff and every time I landed on it pain shot up my leg. I knew that I could not stop running though. So I suffered through the pain and slowly but surely made it through the first lap. Only two other people were on the run so far, but then on my second lap everyone was on it so I knew I needed to step it up a bit and of course, not give up. The last part of the run, I sprinted up the hill toward the finish line and finally crossed it. Such a relief to be done!
My total time was: 1:28:14.7
400yrd swim: 7:49.7
T1: 1:57.4
12 mile Bike: 45:23.4
T2: 2:04.6
3 mile Run: 30:59.4
Obviously, I have a lot of areas to improve! My transitions, run, and bike being the most important. The swim I can get down just by training, the rest I need to incorporate drills, new shoes, and extra training. But overall, I am happy with my first race. At least I know where I stand.
