Ironman Texas Race Report: Part One

Oh yeah, I am doing it again. I am going to break this race report into parts like I did with the IM Cozumel race report and leave you hanging on the edge of your seat for the next part. By the way, is anyone even reading my blog any more? I know that I have been really bad about reading other people's blogs because of all of the training I have been doing and I have not seen too many people responding to my posts, so for all I know, Christy and Greyhound are about the only two out there who keep up with all of my wacky adventures. I am not smart enough to figure out Google Analytics to see how many hits my blog gets so right now I guess I am just blogging for myself and two other people. I tend to get wordy and type way more than I need to. Let's see if I can keep this race report tight and clean and get right to the point.

I woke up on Saturday after getting a surprisingly good night of sleep. I soon heard Ryan "White Hot" Barnett, and Rachelle downstairs. I saw Ryan just before he headed off to the race venue. Rachelle, Mikey, and I got our stuff and headed out not long after that. Once parked, we walked across The Woodlands waterway and into Transition to get stuff on the bike. Rachelle found out that she had left all of her race nutrition at my house in the fridge. Major SUCK! It was too late to drive back and get it or to have someone bring it. We met Greyhound and started our walk to the swim start and found an empty bank of port-o-cans. Major SCORE!

Crossing over the bridge to the swim start, I got my first look at the layout of the buoys. The course snaked to the right and then back left. This was going to be a strange swim with no straight line to hold. I got body marked and Greyhound and I found a spot to be able to sit down and start getting sun block on and to get into our swim skins. It wasn't long before we heard the National Anthem and heard the gun for the Pro start. We had less than ten minutes to drop off our morning gear bags and get into the water. The water temp was 78 and not wetsuit legal but they were allowing wetsuits if you went through the "Wetsuit Chip In" corral. This meant that you would not be eligible for any prizes or roll-down slots. I knew the water would be cold, I would not qualify to win anything at all, and that I was a pretty decent swimmer so I followed WTC's rules of no wetsuits in water temps over 76.1 and just sucked it up. Yup, the water was chilly when I climbed in.

I wish the photo was bigger, but to enlarge it destroys the image quality.

I quickly tried to make my way over to the huge red buoy that marked the start line and got up near the front line of racers. Yeah, I'm an idiot like that. We were all packed in tight and there was not enough room to tread water without being kicked or hit. I had to bob up and down in place and try not to suck in any of the murky lake water. Mike Reilly was yelling at the mass of people still on the boat ramp and on the shore to get in because there was less than a minute to go. And then, the mood became electric. Iron Man by Black Sabbath started to pump out of the speakers and the crowd went wild. Mike Reilly asked us if we were ready to start our journey to the Finish Line. After the affirmative roar from the athletes, the gun went off and the mayhem began.

I would throw a photo in here, but the one I want to use is not available to copy and paste. I will stick more photos in the other posts.

Stay tuned for Part 2!

Later Gators,

Liz