Finisher's Medal & 2nd Place AG

That's the way... uh uh.. I like it!   Pull on your polyester and gold chains, because IronTexasMommy raced the Disco Triathlon this weekend.

They spoiled us with schwag for this race!  A tech tee, running socks, a running hat, logo'd swim cap & a backpack! All with the very fun Disco logo. 

The alarm went off at 4:30am and I'll have to admit, I just wanted to stay in bed. I did a quick check of the weather.... Awesome!  88 degrees.  No amount of rain dancing was going to change our 20- day 100+ degree weather streak.   We were in for a very hot, very humid race.  Welcome to racing in Texas!

I've been looking forward to this race for awhile, because a) the atmosphere is fun and b) several of my friends were racing, which makes any event that I do.  I picked up my mom and we made it to the Lake Ray Roberts up in Denton by about 5:45am. 

"I'm not sure who was sweatier- us or him. I was not putting my arm around him"

I got bodymarked and racked my bike-- open racking! Yay!  I found my friend Marcy and she moved her bike next to mine.  Some of the volunteers were dressed in 70's garb... from big afro's to disco ball earrings.  Always a fun atmosphere. 

I found Jason and we all hung out together until the race started.  There were three distances for this race.  A sprint, Olympic and an X-50, which is a hybrid race that falls between an Olympic and a 1/2 Ironman (and coincidently is a total of 50 miles.)

Jason & Me - Getting ready to head to the swim start

While the X-50 race is more my preferred distance of racing, I knew that the heat was going to be a big factor, so I chose to race the Olympic.  Probably the best idea, since I've done a minimal amount of training since IMTX.  I knew that this race would be a good indicator of what I needed to focus on for Nationals.  Ok, who am I kidding... I need to work on everything! Ha!

The start of the race was pretty much a cluster.  First, we can't see the three distance buoys.  Apparently, the race directors decided to just have the X-50 & Olympic distance racers swim the same distance- so, ours ended up a couple hundred meters long.   And, the water was at least 87/88 degrees. It felt like bath water.

My awesome mom!

Second, we're swimming directly into the sun.  We watched the X-50 wave leave, and after a couple hundred meters, they had to get up and walk across a sand bar and then once they got back in the water, the majority of the pack started swimming off course.  They scrambled with a motored boat to direct them back towards the buoy.  Awesome.  I'll be spotting every stroke, it seems.   They started all the male and females under 40 in the same wave.  So, Jason and I started together.  We hit the sandbar at the same time and then I lost sight of him. I did however, have a jackwagon "trying to draft" off me.  I say trying to, because the dude kept hitting my feet.  When he grabbed onto my timing chip. I hit the brakes, turned around and popped my head up.  He stopped and looked at me.  I stared him down through my goggles and then went on my way.  There were words I wanted to say, but I didn't.  I found Jason a little later, when he stopped to fix his timing chip, and then he finished about a minute out of the water ahead of me.

Me, Michelle & Marcy

T1 was a long haul.  Once I got out of transition and down the road a little bit,  my friend, Paul who was doing the sprint-distance flew by me on the bike.  I saw Jason at one of the turnarounds and also had the opportunity to see my friends Marcy and Michelle at different parts.  There were a lot of the sprinters riding on mountain bikes and there were a lot of hills out there, so I made sure that I encouraged all of them and let them know that they were working harder than all of us!  

The Brian Loncar Team posing with Aquaphor samples!

Apparently I stopped for a massage or something in T2, because I was in there for over a minute and a half!  Really?  It was really, really hot at this point.  I just kept telling myself to hold it together.  Unfortunately, my calf started to cramp and I had to stop to stretch it out some.  Best decision I could have made.  I didn't want to risk another leg injury.  Looking at the runners, they were either doing really well or really bad.  There was no in between. You could see it on their faces.  I dumped as much water on me as I could and kept re-filling my running water bottle with ice at the aid stations.

After about mile 2, I started to feel much better and was able to get into a rhythm.  It was a two-loop run and thankfully much of it was shaded. 

Pre-Race Sunrise

I finished :09 seconds short of my goal time.  It was a PR by 9 minutes, so I should be pretty happy with that, especially with the minimal training, but still being so close to my goal, killed the joy of the PR.  I placed 2nd in my age group and was 13th female overall out of 47. 

What I learned from this race/ racing in the heat:

- Tinted goggles made a huge difference for me, because we were swimming into the sun.  I raced with clear ones last year at this same race and had a hard time spotting.  Know your swim course!

-  Carry more water on the bike than you think you'll need.  I went through one water bottle before I was even 5 miles in.

- Eat more pre-race, because I do not tolerate racing/ eating in the heat.  I just can't stomach eating anything.  This happened at IMTX and this race. Lesson learned.



I have a lot of hard work to do in the next few weeks.  Hope you have a good one! :)