Jack's Generic Tri

I raced (if you can call it that) the Jack's Generic Triathlon today. Jack's is the product of Jack and Adam's shop in Austin - a great tri and bike shop. Their place is actually where I bought my QR. This was also the first triathlon I ever saw last year, other than watching Ironman on TV. It was about a week before my first sprint and I wanted to see what the heck people did and how this whole thing worked in reality, not just reading about it on the web. They put on a heck of a party and I said last year that I would be back to race this year. So here's the report...

Alarm at 4am...ouch. Left the house a little before 5 for a 45 minute drive to the race site at the Texas Ski Ranch. I got my packet, race number and chip, got marked and moved into transition about 6. I was set up by about 6:30 with the race start at 8. My wave started at 8:20.

The water smelled horrible and tasted worse...we both know you can't help a little taste here and there. The swim went well for me, it was 500 meters (give or take) and I came out of the water in 10:40 - a pretty good time for me. I got kicked in the head at the beginning and then got kind of caught up in a pack that I couldn't seem to get out of...finally, mud under my feet and out of the water into T1. T1 was 2:35. I really simplified my trasition area today. I went minimalist and I really liked it. Very clean and simple. I should have been fast in transition....that's free speed.

Hit the bike with a bit of a higher heart rate than I wanted but my plan was to push the bike pretty hard and just see what happened on the run. There were quite a few rolling hills on the course and it was pretty windy and exposed in a couple of areas. The final mile or mile and a half are downhill so that was fun...I was up in the 30s realizing that at some point I would need to stop and get off that machine. A good dismount and cruise into T2. Speed on the bike averaged 18.6mph. T2 time was 1:28.

My legs felt really good leaving transition. I hit the road and really wanted to get done. I ran a 29:05 run which for me was a great time for a triathlon run. I am not fast...will never be accused of being fast....but maybe someday someone will say I am half-fast....

A great triathlon, a great party and a great group of people. This one will definitely be on the 2009 calendar.