Jen lost a watch in the swim.
Oscar got laid on the ground during the run.
Jay provided more evidence supporting the "All triathletes look gay" theory.
Julia couldn't come up with a one-liner, so you'll have to read the whole story...
Pre Race Day
I missed CapTex last year due to being out of town. After hearing so many great things
about the race now that it was downtown, I knew I'd have to race it this year. It would be
my second triathlon, nearly a year after Danskin, my first. Chosing the Olympic distance,
I'd be swimming 1.5K (nearly 1 mile), cycling 40K (25 miles), and running 10K (6.2 miles).
The run was no problem. I've raced everything from 5K's to marathons. I can run. The bike shouldn't be a
problem, as I've biked as far as 78 hilly miles in a day, and this would be shorter and pretty darn flat. I was
nervous about all the turns and hairpin turns as I have frighteningly poor bike handling skills.
The swim, though... that's the only thing that concerned me. I'd often swi
m a mile during training, but that mile included a friendly wall stop every 25 meters. Once I did the 800m
Austin Aquatics open water swim, I decided it was pointless to worry. I could swim 800 in my wetsuit okay and
doubling the distance didn't seem so ominous. Any swim training I did between then and the race wouldn't really
change much, so I just accepted that although I'd be slow, I'd survive. My main two goals were to finish and
have fun. I had yet to experience a fun multisport race, whether as a DNFer, a finisher or as a
spectator.
Jay (effendi) and I spent the two days before the race
immersed in triathlon. He worked his *** off under the hot sun with Brenda and Drew setting up the transition
area as I was across the street (at ATC or across the Town Lake at Starbucks) socializing with my triathlete
buddies, like Oscar (triathletebigo) and Wendy
Ingraham (wingnut). Early Sunday morning,
Jay and I volunteered five hours at IronKids. Then we worked on creating signs for the CapTex bike racks at
Jay's place, Kinko's, the transition area, Office Depot, the snowcone stand
and even Starbucks. Those were even more enjoyable hours.
That evening, I felt like I wasn't really prepared for the race at all. I hadn't thought about everything I
needed for the race or gone through any checklists. It was too late to buy something if I needed it. Jay and I
had a nice relaxing dinner at Texas Land and Cattle (so much for carbo-loading). I threw everything together and
figured I was ready enough. Got plenty of sleep, and the best part was that it was all happy sleep. I woke up
once or twice in the middle of the night, but always feeling good.
T0
Around 5:10 AM in the morning, thunder shook the windows and the rain poured down. Jay and I went to the race
together. He let me use a spare race belt (not sure how I'd missed that) and anklestrap (I have yet to find a
good one for sale). We saw some triathletes biking to the race site, but I told him I wasn't going to feel like
biking back in scary traffic after the race. We arrived about 15 minutes before transition was supposed to
close, but had already heard they were considering delaying the start an hour due to weather. As we checked into
transition, I saw an athlete in a full wetsuit (nearly two hours before the swim start) wheeling her bike
in. Crazy! We stood in Kelly's bodymarking line, and then Jay pulled out his spare marker. We sped through the
line. That was the first time I saw bodymarking being done as people were trying to balance bike, bag and
wetsuits. It was a little awkward.
We walked through the safety check and into transition. I cried big ol' tears of horror as I saw the results of
the thunderstorm upon our perfect little signs. Jay found his rack and I went to mine. There was a rack with
only 5 bikes (the limit, as stated on my soggy signs, is 7), so I picked the biggest space and scooted two bikes
apart in preparation to rack my bike. Just then, Jay showed up to introduce me to his friend April. As we
talked, another woman put her bike in my spot. *#@$^%*!!! (Just like the darn airplane luggage bins!) Jay
counted 6 bikes and put my bike up on another place on the rack, impressively hanging it by the handlebars. Then
he left me to set up my transition area. While setting up, I heard some of the women around me mention how it
was their first Olympic distance triathlon. Glad I wasn't the only one. I looked around at the other setups to
see if I had missed anything and was amazed to see one setup that had simply a bike, a towel and a pair of
shoes.
Since we had an extra hour, I had plenty of time to double-check that I didn't need to pick up a chip (as I had
my own) and socialize for the next 55 minutes. I wasn't nervous at all, but I did run into some athletes who
seemed to be. I also saw athletes who really didn't care much about the extra social time (Jay sat by his bike
reading a book. hehe) I ran into Oscar who informed me (while calling him dirty names) that Wally was indeed
still in the game despite being injured and was even signed up for CapTex. I watched Gulf Coast Jen wheel her
bike in after every other athlete had grabbed a prime spot. She had slept in and almost missed the race!
Peed, drank water and took a JustPlain GU which was really a JustPlainNasty GU after it had apparently suffered
in taste from sitting in my hot car too long. I think I've finally switched to ClifShot being my default gel, as
I noticed I was bummed that I only had spare GU after my planned out ClifShots. Having applied SPF 50 sunscreen,
some BodyGlide (for the wetsuit, didn't even think of other areas), I got halfway into my wetsuit, grabbed my
purple swimcap and perfectly matching goggles and walked down to the swim start. We had to cross a crushed
gravel path, which was fairly flat and not too painful, but I still preferred the grass.
The elites were off and then there were two waves before mine. As we lined up, I talked with Kristin for a
little bit. On a training run the week before, we had made a bet on who would make it to the finish line
last. Then I looked around to see anyone else I recognized. I smiled at someone I know through Jay and
she smiled back. I was about to say something to her when the woman in front of her who was smiling at me
started talking to me and said something about seeing Jay that morning. Ack! At least he has the same complaint
that I have about how it's sometimes hard to recognize or remember each other's athlete friends.
Swim
We watched the wave in front of us take off and then we were released down the steep ramp into the water. I knew
it was cold (officially 68 degrees) and expected the cold to creep in through the back of my wetsuit. I think
I'd jumped in so quickly, I didn't notice any especially chilly moments. I swam out and made sure I was towards
the rear of the group. A friendly competitor reminded us, "Ladies, remember to start your watches." A couple
women thanked her. I had instinctively been kicking to keep myself up when I recalled how it wasn't necessary in
a wetsuit, so I just chilled. I saw all the people on shore staring at us, so I put my arm up and waved. A guy
in a neon green swimcap waved back and I thought it was Jay, but he said he didn't see me swim at all. Whoever
it was who waved -- thanks! I looked around me and noticed a lot of stuff floating in the water. A cigarette and
straw mixed in with twigs, leaves and other floating dirty stuff. There were a couple athletes with all that
stuff covering their necks. Ew!! We advised each other to be cautious swimming in the dirty nasty stuff.
The gun went off and we started our swim. I swam for awhile and then looked up to see where I was in respect to
everyone else. There were women behind me. Astounding! I looked at how far away the swim start was, and that was
also encouraging that it was farther away than I expected. In front of me were a few women from an earlier wave
hanging onto a canoe. I swam by them as the canoe took them to the shore. I knew that at worse, I'd be
ultra-slow on the way back, but I was confident I'd eventually make it to the swim finish.
I continued swimming, mindful that I can go off to the right, which was the middle of the course where the
police boat and canoes were. As I swam along, one woman seemed to be matching my pace, just behind me. A second
woman was right in front of me. I nearly ran into her at one point and watched her swim way off to the left. No
big deal, at least she was finally out of my way. I continued along and then ran into another swimmer. Arg!! I
looked up and saw it was that same woman, but this time cruising way off to the right. Gah! I don't know if I
passed her up or what, but I didn't run into her again for the rest of the swim. I think the woman who was
behind me originally pretty much stayed behind me the whole time. Seeing her when I looked behind me reminded me
that if I took a break to keep it short and keep moving. The odd thing about being on my back was that turning
over and looking up into the cloudy sky made me extremely disoriented. I hated it, so I tried not to be on my
back much at all.
The nice thing about swimming in Town Lake was that several things cross the swim course above us. There were
powerlines, the railroad bridge, and many spectators watching us from the Lamar pedestrian bridge (as well as
the First Street bridge). It was so encouraging noticing each of those pass me by every time I looked up to
breathe. As I looked up at the people and heard nothing, I briefly considered stopping to ask for some
cheering. But I kept going... I was almost to the turnaround point! At each of the big bouys, I'd hit my lap
button. Jay disapproved of this as "that'll slow you down a lot", however I think he forgets what it's
like to be a penguin (hmm... that analogy does not work in the water!) lousy swimmer.
Every time I saw my lap time, it was encouraging that it wasn't taking me ages to get from bouy to bouy. At the
turn around, I was so suprised and happy to see my total time at 21:40. For comparison, I had done the 800m open
water swim in 25 minutes.
A little ways after the bridge I looked to my right and saw a swarm of green swimcaps going in the other
direction. Someone had let the toughest guys loose behind us. I looked behind me but didn't see one green cap,
so I hurried along, sure that like a pack of wolves, they'd hunt down the weakest and slowest of our
herd.
Earlier I mentioned some of the disgust joys of swimming in Town Lake. Wally did the race last
year and said the water tasted like gasoline, so I knew it might be bad... and you know what? It was. I'm
sure the morning rainfall didn't help, but there were portions of the race where I'd put my head into the water
to taste oil/gas and then put my head up for air and breathe in some lovely exhaust. It wasn't just the exhaust
from the police boat, either. Sometimes it'd smell horrid and there were only canoes nearby.
I kept finding myself too far to the right several times. It's pretty funny when the canoe is straight in front
of you and the people on it are pointing to the next bouy way off to your left. There was one small bouy that I
really wanted to swim to the left of, but I didn't know if that was a skipable bouy or not. I didn't want to get
disqualified for a stupid reason like missing one little bouy, so I swam over and around it as I got pounded by
various greencaps. They hit me on my legs and arms, but it didn't throw me off at all. I'd look up to see that
it wasn't someone I knew and then curse the greencaps. Somewhere in the crowd, Jay passed me up while I was in
the water. He didn't say hi or anything. Those competitive male triathletes aren't very social in the water.
Looking at my HR data, I was swimming at a pretty steady pace until about the point where the greencaps
surrounded me and took me down. That's when my heart rate dropped from mid 150's to mid 140's.
Eventually, I headed in to the finish where there were still plenty of greencaps. I knew there were at least a
couple swimmers from my wave that I hadn't seen since the turnaround. I wasn't last out of the water! My placing
wasn't all that close to anyone else. I fit in a big 2 minute gap between finisher 49 and 51 out of 56. Sweet!!
T1
My last few experiences getting out of the water with my wetsuit have been extremely awkward and disorienting.
Sometimes I get a headache from the cool water of Barton Springs. I figured I wouldn't be running and I just
might be walking all over the place. As soon as two volunteers grabbed an arm each and pulled me up, I started
climbing the ramp. At the top (safe from the view of the photographer's camera), I tripped and stopped my fall
with my hands. I got up and kept going, while pulling off my goggles and swimcap. Next was the wetsuit top. Jay
had zipped up my back and hung the end of the pullcord up with the velcro, so I ripped open the neck strap while
trying to find the cord. I found it and then quickly lost it again. I reached down to see if it was hanging, but
I still couldn't find it!! Finally I found it and unzipped. I wasn't even out of my arms as I hit the first
short wall I had to climb to get up to my the transition area. It was easy enough getting up and over them as
the volunteers told us all to take it slowly.
I often joke that I don't need to mark my bike position because it's the only bike left on the rack. This time
there were two other bikes on the row, but they had athletes with them, and by the time I was done, I was the
only bike left. My wetsuit came off extra easily from having BodyGlide on, and I wiped my feet off on my towel.
Took water and a ClifShot. I put on gloves, sunglasses, my helmet, socks and shoes. Had I been racing this, I
wouldn't have bothered with half of that. Even though my brain felt waterlogged, I somehow (barely) balanced
myself on one foot wearing a shoe as I tried getting in the other one.
The only bad part about transition was feeling like I had to pee already. It was too late to pee in my wetsuit
like a pro, and no way am I peeing on my bike, pro-style. I can hold it while I'm on the bike. Yep. The
transition rack mappers were kind and I didn't have to run with my bike too long before crossing the mount line.
T1 time: 4:18 (Oh yes.. I took 11 minutes off my Danskin T1 time, baby! Yeah!!!)
Bike (course
map)
Getting on the bike, my brain was so waterlogged. I went up the access road, and stayed to the right so the
speed demons could get past me. There was a sharp uphill hairpin turn to the right I was not expecting and I
clipped out to prevent myself from falling. I took a couple awkward steps forward and tried to get out of the
way of other cyclists as quickly as possible. Clipped back in and got going.
As I biked up to sixth street, a stop light turned yellow and then to red. I ran right through it! Going through
stoplights was cool. The roads were barracaded a block away from the actual course, so there were no cars to
worry about at all. Instead, I had to worry about slow cyclists staying in the middle of the road, which greatly
impeded traffic. Faster people had to squeeze by on the right, and very often there were two people trying to
get by at the same time. It was discouraging not having an easy way to pass him, because he was on a mountain
bike and still biking about the same speed as me. Sheesh.
I was pretty cautious around all the turns. I saw Timothy on the Congress bridge and yelled hello to him. He
caught a picture of me after the turnaround. Woo! I discovered that the hairpin turns were almost better than
the right turns because it gave the slower cyclists more room to navigate. Turning onto Riverside, I nearly cut
off someone behind me on my right side who yelled "woah!" I apologized profusely and felt pretty bad.
Fortunately I didn't seem to slow down much more than the people around me. Each loop had 3 hairpin turns, 1
friendly dogpound U-turn, and six 90 degree turns. Two more turns than promised on the course map!! (The course
map didn't show that we turned right onto riverside after the first street bridge.) This first loop was just
trying to get used to the course and all the turns. I did it in 22:21, probably about 21 minutes if you didn't
count getting onto First street.
A great part of this race is how many people come to watch. For some triathlons, you may get a lot of people
looking at you in the water, and hanging out by transition, but it's pretty quiet on the bike route. This race
was far different. There were people along every bit of the course. Along the way cheering for me, I saw and
heard from Coach Barry, Robert, Diana, Timothy, Amy (traininglog) and dmit. Every now and then I'd be
suprised with a "Go Comet!!" behind me from someone who saw me before I ever saw them.
I started feeling minor stomach cramps... right behind my belly button. I tried to think if I'd done anything
wrong or if there was anything I should do to relieve my cramps. In a marathon, I knew a gel sometimes soothes
an upset stomach, but this seemed more of a painful feeling than just an unhappy yucky feeling. It definitely
seems like triathletes complain about cramps and stomach problems fifty times as much as runners do, so I wasn't
too suprised I was feeling bad. I took a few more sips of my lemon lime Gatorade wished them away.
I kept looking for Jay among all the other cyclists. While I was cycling, I think I saw JT and Oscar, but I
couldn't find Jay anywhere. It was so hard to concentrate on cycling well when my eyes were scanning the
cyclists speeding by on the other side of the road. Every time I thought I saw him, I'd remember "Oh yeah, he's
not wearing a top." or "That can't be him, he's got a BLUE bike." Finally I realized he'd be easiest to spot by
his socks. He was out there somewhere riding around in knee-high length black cotton socks.
I was starting to see some people out on the run course. I believe it was this lap that I saw ultra-Mark.
He was wearing his AT Fool hat and I yelled "Mark, you rock!!!" and he yelled back "You rock!!" I was looking
out for AT jerseys and as I turned my head to see if it really was Jen I'd recognized from behind, I cheered for
her. Good thing she showed up today, she was going fast! (and finished first in her age group. Yeah!!)
I was ecstatic when I finished the second loop in less time than the first, 20:32.
Jay finally found me as I biked down Congress Avenue and talked to me a little bit before he zoomed off around
the corner. From head to toe, he was wearing a bike helmet (duh), black & white scarves, a heart rate monitor, a
speedo, knee-length black cotton socks and his bright white pimp cycling shoes. Ahhh... such a hottie. As he
rode away and with about 3 or 4 cyclists in between us, I yelled "Nice butt!!!"
Looking to the right across Town Lake from the First Street bridge, I had a perfect view of TONS of swimmers in
the First Tri. So inspiring.
Perhaps in my effort to keep up with Jay, I somehow managed to cut more time off and do loop 3 in 19:49.
At the start of the last loop, I took a ClifShot. It slowed me down for the moment, and it didn't really help with
the minor stomach cramps, either.
I spent a lot of time behind a guy on a blue Cervelo. One speedy triathlete who passed him up commented "What a
sweet bike." He seemed to have some major seat problems, as it looked like it came loose as he slowed down more
and I passed him up.
You know me... I yell a lot, and even though there were no hills, I took the opportunity to cheer on the larger
group of runners. "Go runners!!!" I passed ultra Mark again, "You still rock Mark!!" Then I saw Jay on the run.
This time I was going so much faster than him as I passed him by (oh this just might be the only time I can say
that in a race we're both in), I quickly came up with something short and sweet.
"Nice butt!!!"
I don't remember him waving or saying anything in return, but apparently he said something to the guy next to
him as he passed him by. "Hey man, she's talking about you."
This was my last loop on the bike, so I had to pour all my energy into pushing the last miles
Cheer and yell like a madwoman all along the crowds of spectators on Riverside.
As I was about to turn off from the cycling route, I saw Jay running across the First Street bridge. Amazingly
enough, I still picked up speed that last loop with a 19:40.
T2
The problem with being the last one off the bike is that it's hard to find room for your bike on the rack.
Someone had put their bike straight over my bag and towel so I had to find another spot, move some bikes over
and hang it up. I switched my cycling shoes with my trusty (and matching my swimsuit) pair of Mizunos and
exchanged my helmet with my red Mizuno cap from Boston. I grabbed my racebelt with a Vanilla ClifShot and I was
off again. It may have looked like I'd done something wrong, although I don't think anyone noticed. My race
number was 986, which looks the same upside-down. So of course, I wore it that way. It wasn't nearly as
frighteningly cool as Jay's race number... 911.
Run (course
map)
It felt so good to run!! I ran out the gate and continued on with the cheering. Someone made the comment "she
must be suffering from a runner's high." My shoelaces were pretty loose, so I stopped to tie them tighter and
into double-knot. Next race, I'm using rubber, baby!! er... I mean, elastic laces.
It was a smart move to bring my own gel, because even though the race provides ClifShots, the person most
available to you handing out gels might not have any of your preferred flavors.
Is it safe to admit this was probably my first brick workout of the year? It was hard to tell how much I could
push the run and still finish strong, so I just decided I'd run easy the whole way. Oh yeah, and I'm not going
to stop running. Well... walking through water stops doesn't count.
The first mile was the best in 8:20.
I don't remember exactly what I was saying screaming, but a fellow runner commented "I don't
know where you get that energy. I'm staying right around you for the rest of the run!" One of the runners I
cheered for because of his AT jersey I got to meet after the race.
I saw someone with a UT jersey on a bike with race wheels and thought that just might be Wally. I didn't think
fast enough to actually yell it regardless if it was him or not. I figured I'd just keep my eye out to see if he
passed by again. Shortly after, another cyclist with a UT jersey passed by, and I realized there were probably
tons of triathletes out there wearing the UT uniform.
The reality of the run started settling in and I did the second mile in 10:21.
Running along Cesar Chavez, I was covering the same route I'd just biked along four times, so I knew exactly
where to expect the spectators I knew. Robert, Diana, Amy and Coach Barry all cheered for me. Soon after, a
woman stopped as she passed me by, saying "I'm going to keep running by you because everyone is cheering for
you!"
Finishing the loop over the First Street bridge, I noticed all the swimmers were gone. "Go Comet!! I cheered for
your boyfriend!" It was Leah! I had talked to her over the RunTex forum and described to her what Jay would be
wearing. As he ran by, she yelled "Way to go, Comet's boyfriend!"
I gave a lot of high fives as I passed the spectators... as I passed the finish line, the majority of people
running with me took a right. I still had another lap to do! With so far left to go, I had slowed down a little
bit more, 11:27.
Along the Lamar bridge, a burnt orange jersey appeared in front of me. I wasn't sure who he was, but maybe it
was him. I ran next to him and turned my head around, "Wally?" He smiled back. "Julia!" My rule of only walking
water stops immediately jumped to its death over the bridge. He was walking due to some silly injury, like
fractures of his foot.
We walked and talked a little ways and then he encouraged me to go on running. Like Hell! (Somewhat what it felt
like to run in that heat, too.) No way would I return to running in mild misery, when I could walk the rest of
the course with my biking hero.
I also realized that as soon as I stopped running, the level of fun increased to great new levels. (and one of
my goals was to have as much fun as possible!) The efforts that were focused on moving myself forward
were now free to use towards cheering on the other overheated runners. I cheered for a Team in Training man who
passed me and had his name written on the back of his shirt. The next woman who passed me up said "The
name's..." So I cheered for her, and banana and another woman running with her. After that, when someone made a
comment to me as they passed, I'd ask their name and if they responded, I'd cheer for them. Wally was highly amused at it all.
Returning down the last stretch of Ceasar Chavez, I noticed two men across the street running together, both
shirtless. I pointed them out to Wally, "Hey look at those two men without any shirts on. Awwww yeah... that's
really why I'm out here!" I guess he decided I needed a little cooling off, because he found an abandoned water
bottle and squirted me with every last drop in it. I was completely drenched on one side. His excuse was that I
needed to get my heart rate down. Each time we'd compared heart rates, mine was about 10 beats above
his.
The race course follows along the Town Lake hike and bike trail, and one trail runner asked us what race we were
doing and so we told him. Another trail runner was cheering for us so I yelled back for him, too.
"Don't look at it!!" Now that's one of the oddest comments I've ever heard in a race. (Besides Jay's smartass
response to comments while on the bike "This is the fastest paced gay pride parade I have ever been to!") I had
just picked up my last cup of Gatorade and noticed some weird animal hair hanging inside the cup. Yeah, I'm
gonna look at it. But ugh, I'd definitely had enough of that yellow Lemon Lime Gatorade. It was the only flavor
offered during the run, and unfortunately the only flavor I brought for the bike.
I started getting some major stomach cramps. I couldn't understand why I was cramping now. I'd figured if
I slowed to a walk, it'd be less likely to hurt.
Thursday Night Mike came running by and slowed down to talk to me. I introduced him to Wally. As Adam (pelli) passed me up, he asked if I was alright. We both knew
Jimmy who took a break with us and was off again. Walking across the First Street bridge, nearly everyone who
was going to pass us up already had... but one more special person passed us by. She said hi to me and I gave
her a funny look because I didn't recognize her at all. "It's Jamie from Barton Springs." I had met her just
three days earlier!
Just then, I saw Jay who was prepared with a camera to photograph my final painful struggle to the finish line.
I was so slow, there was a huge line of people with their bikes waiting to cross the course to leave. Brenda saw
me as she victoriously held them back!!
Wally and I ran after the last turn into the finish line. I don't even remember if they called our names out. I
didn't care. I was handed a big empty CapTex mug and began looking for Jay while Wally went in search of the
beer tent.
My stomach hurt so much. When I finally I saw Jay I complained to him. I still didn't know what was wrong. First
he asked what I had eaten/drank during the race. (Plenty of Lemon Lime gatorade and 4 Clifshots) Then he asked
me the last time I peed. "Before the race." "Do you feel like you need to pee?" "Well, no. I did between the
swim and the bike, but it went away once I got on the bike." Apparently that answer gets you sent to the
awaiting line of portapotties. My goodness, what a relief! Those evil cramps disappeared instantly.
Lesson learned: If you don't extreme pee like a pro or use a portapotty, prepare for the consequences.
The coolest most wonderful thing about that race was seeing (repeatedly) so many of my triathlete and running
friends. I saw... Beatriz, Jay, Brenda, Drew, Oscar, Penny, Tracy, Kelly, Kristin, Barry, Jade, Kelly, Richelle,
JT, Frances, Wally, Jimmy, Joe, Danny, Mike, Adam, Dawn, Mike, Layne, Jen, Kathryn, Jamie, Chris, dmit, Amy,
Robert, Diana, Jeff, Leah, Linda, Frank, Triat, BobJ, Ron, Mark, Kelly, Stathis, Timothy, Jeff, banana... and
tons of other people I'm lame for not mentioning. The crazy thing is, a year ago, I only knew four of
them.
This was by far, the coolest triathlon ever.
Results
I thought I'd be last in something, but I wasn't. Not even in the run! However, I fairly won the bet against
Kristin. She beat me in every event!!
Julia Weatherby, 26
1500m Swim
Place 728/831, 50/56 AG
Time 44:09.80
Pace 2:57
T1 04:18.65
40K Bike
Place 650/831, 39/56 AG
Time 1:23:34.70
Pace 17.8mph
T2 02:32.30
10K Run
Place 732/831, 55/56 AG
Time 1:24:04.00
Pace 13:34
Overall
Place: 806/831, 50/56 AG
Time: 3:38:39.45
Photos
Comet's Training Journal