Austin Triathlon

The best picture of the week.

Liam farted and Toby fussed at him, so he is apologizing here.

9/3/2007: Austin Triathlon - my first Olympic distance. Admittedly, a little nervous about the swim and run, but I'm a firm believer that anxiety just unneccessarily saps energy, so not too anxious about these things. The weather was great - no rain, not too hot, downtown was blocked off.

Liam was able to come, and this was really fun. He gave me good triathlon advice and I completely cured him of all his neuroses and fetishes. It was a fair trade.

Swim: I did get a wetsuit, a DeSoto 2-piece, so I was able to get a sleeveless top and can change to one with sleeves later. I did have to cut the legs some. Thank god I had a wetsuit. The water was cold! I'm figuring out alot of patterns about myself. One of which is that I always panic the first 200 meters of the swim. I managed to swim faster than I ever had - I usually do about 42 minutes and I did 36:48! Was it the wetsuit? the excitement of the day? Liam said there was a current against us at one point.

T1: 4:11 because I could not get my wetsuit off! It was stuck around my left ankle, then I sat down and started giggling because the whole situation seemed ridiculous.

Bike: Oh yeah, I forgot that Austin had hills. Nothing horrible, but it's disheartening to see your speedometer clock you at 6 mph. I did pass some people. Average speed: 18.4 mph and total time of 1:20.

Is it just me, or do many people NOT follow cycling etiquette on the race? I thought that for an Olympic distance, participants would be more savvy, but not so. People were blocking, drafting, NO ONE says "on your left" and I even saw a guy pass IN BETWEEN two women (one was passing the other, albeit, too slowly, but still, that would have been a bad accident.)

T2: okay at 2:32

Run:  I was worried about this - to run 6 miles after a 24 mile bike. I just took my time. It was kind of fun - I really start getting into the run only after about 2 miles and felt really good after 4 miles. I stopped and petted some dogs that were on the route. The crowds were awesome - very supportive. I like to smile at volunteers and spectators. I felt strong the whole run. I was SHOCKED to see that my time was 1:06, which averaged to be 10:47 min/mile! That is fastest I have ever run! I broke the 11 minute mark!  I really didn't have a goal, but this was my secret goal, to one day break an 11 minute mile. Hooray for me!

I finished with a total time of 3:11:17. Rank of 46 out of 56 in my age group. Again, my bike was the strongest, as I was 19 of 56, but swim was 40/56 and run was 47/56.

Liam finished about an hour before me, so he went back to get Toby. So he was walking around with a pug wearing a pink harness and leash. [Clarification - Toby was wearing the pink harness and leash, not Liam. Although that would have looked interesting...] He made sure to tell everyone that "this is not MY dog." I guess you're not ready for that custom-made pink aero-helmet, Liam.

Liam, Toby and I

Liam with his trophy. He won his age group and was 15th overall.

Post-race meal: champagne and creme brulee. Uhm, actually I couldn't figure out how to open the champagne, so didn't have it. (I told you I didn't have any common sense.)

Overall, a great day. I was very happy with my time and felt good afterwards. I like this distance a lot. I think I like longer distances better than the sprint. I hate to be so focused on my times and ranking already, but I want to work on my swim and run times. And just wait until I get that Guru...

The end.

Comments

[blink140.6]

Congrats on the race.

You must be one hell of shrink to get Liam to walk your dog around wearing a pink harness and collar, even if it was the dog.

Fetishes, we need more info!

Champagne, tear foil, untwist wire cage, pop cork, enjoy.

I'm thinking you already knew that and this is just a test. I am wondering about the pink leash/harness looking thing coming from said bottle. Are you a control feak? :)

[Jane]

Blink: if I had that much power over young men, d'you think I'd still be single? Liam was being very nice. Uh, fetishes - I really don't know if he has any and if he does, I don't want to know... I still haven't opened that champagne. I removed the foil; there wasn't any wire and the cork was strange, so it is still sitting on my table. I'm not a control freak, but good catch on that pink harness thingie. Yeah, the bottle had this thing on it so you could - what? wear it around your wrist?

[Anthony Carpenter]

Hey Jane this is Anthony, we met at austin tri, with Liam. I just wanted to tell you great job.

[Paul]

Hi Jane - linked to your blog from PinkGuruGal's. You're very funny.

Anyway, just wanted to say congrats on the Austin Tri! That's a great finish time, especially for your first Oly. I'm from Chicago, but my brother lives in Austin (I love Austin!), so I was supposed to have done this race too - I really regretted missing it due to not being able to make it down there. It sounded like a great race put together, on a non-hot Austin day to boot! Oh well, another race fee donation from me. I seem to have a lot of those.

That's cool you brought your dog with you! I travel with mine too (a Lab). Wow, champagne and creme brulee as your recovery meal?! Nice... :)

[Phoenix]

Girl, you are a force to be reckoned with. And with the Guru . . . oh, man, watch out.

I think you may have given Liam another fetish - what with the pink leash and collar thing. Job Security.

And the champagne - anything with a bottle that pretty just can't be that good. I mean, if it tasted good, it wouldn't have to try so hard, ya know?

[Mishele Kieffer]

Wow! Congratulations! Way to get faster on the longer race... I guess if you did a HIM or an ironman you'd be skating along running 8 minute miles. Something to think about? :)

[red all e-z]

j,

congrats on austin. great job. and yes, it looks like you have liam wrapped around your little finger ;)

all e-z

[chau]

Jane!
you rocked! okay now let's go do austria!
as for my roomie liam...well you are right on! :)

[Duane]

Congrats!!!!!!!

[Jessica, a Houston Runner]

woohoo you are badass! and best wishes for IM Austria!!!!!!!!!