Race Report – Skesee Greets Women’s Tri

My first event on the Texas Tri Series was today at the Texas Ski Ranch in New Braunfels. Here’s the report:

Pre-Race Weekend

Usually for pre-race I only count the time it takes me to go from waking up the morning of the race to the start line. For this tri, however, I’m going to expand that to the whole weekend.

I left Austin with M and his brother Gerard on Friday night. We got a weekend place in New Braunfels because I know that, as much as M loves me, he was not waking up at 4am in the morning just to take pictures of me. It turned out to work great because Gerard hadn’t been in that part of Texas yet, so we took him with us for some touristic action. Once we got there and checked out the place it was bed time.

Saturday morning we woke up late, after all there are no dirty dishes and no laundry waiting for you when you are “on vacation”. At around 10:30 we decided to go to Naegelin’s Bakery for breakfast and that’s when the series of unrecommended pre-race events started. You see, we were expecting a bakery, yes, but also a place where we could have a nice hearty breakfast. Well, we did get plenty of pastries (which, by the way, were very good) but no real breakfast. So after stuffing our faces with sweets, we still needed something heavy on our stomachs, so we went on a quest for a good sandwich place. And, we found it at Olives Italian Market; half an hour later we had stuffed our faces once again, this time with Italian ham and cheese sandwich and pasta salad. Not bad, pero como decía mi abuela “no es lo mucho es lo seguido…” (like my grandma used to say “it’s not how much, but how often”).

Anyway, we continued on with our day and decided we would take Gerard to the Gruene District for some old fashion fun. We got to Gruene and our first stop was, of course, the winery.  After a few cups of wine and some cheese and crackers we walked around the historic district, but before we left we made sure we had some ice cream at the general store. What next? M and Gerard are beer fans, so the next logical place was the brewery. We headed back to downtown New Braunfels to the Faust Hotel for a round of good Texan beer, oh, and popcorn, and did I mention it was not three o’clock yet? So again, not how much, but how often…

Finally, for dinner (because we have not been eating and drinking enough) we went to Huisache Grill and may I say de-li-cious. Bratwurst and jalapeño sausages, fried brie with raspberry chipotle sauce, sausage gumbo, penne pasta grill with shrimps (oh yeah, this is supposed to be my carb dinner, because I haven’t had enough during the day), and to top it off crème brulee.  

We went back to our place after dinner and I was tired from all the going around and stuffed with all we ate and drank during the day. All in all, a great day for going around the New Braunfels area, but not the way I would spend my pre-race day. I went to sleep early but maybe too early, because I woke up around eleven at night and couldn’t go back to sleep until past one in the morning.

Finally got back to sleep, but not for long because the alarm was set for five. I was surprised that I was very energized from the moment I got up. I took a quick shower and made sure everyone was awake and getting ready. I thought about eating something for breakfast, but I was still full from the day before, so I just got one of those Nature Valley bars for later on. We got everything and everyone in the car and headed for the Ski Ranch, we also picked some coffee and breakfast tacos for the guys on the way. When we got to the Ski Ranch the main parking was full, so we went to the backup lot.

I quickly made my way to the transition area and found the Trizones rack. It took me a while to get the area ready; by the end of last season I already had a system for my setup, but I’m out of practice. Once done I headed to the porter-potties and the line was huge. I think I was there a good 15-20 minutes. At some point while in the line I remembered that Nature Valley bar and thought I shouldn’t go into the race with an “empty” stomach so I decided to eat it. I made it out of the line with just enough time to make it to the start line.

The Race

I had the first wave for the swim. I don’t think I’ve ever had the first wave for the swim, so this was a different experience from my other races. The swim was short and I really, really tried to remember all of Coach Jen and Coach Tracy’s mantras… “remember a high elbow”, “I want to see your armpit”, “you can be a pontoon boat or you can be a yacht…you want to be the yacht”. I don’t think I did such a good job, because M commented after I finished the race that I looked like I was doing a lot of work and going nowhere. Now, where have I heard that before? Oh, yeah, I recall Coach Tracy saying the exact same thing at the swim practices. Anyway, I made it out of the water in 9:37. Not stellar, but oh well, feeling good. T1 was ok, spent two and a half minutes getting my bike. I was surprised to see so many bikes still racked, which made me feel kind of good.

The ride was really nice. I loved going out on the country, the hills were not at all bad, and, for the most part, the roads were nice and smooth. I thought I was doing great progress and I was actually passing people, another unusual occurrence. The ride was almost over when I was surprised to see M out there in the course taking pictures. I finished feeling strong and was amazed, no, astonished that I was the first bike in the rack. That has never happened before; usually I need to look for any space I can find because everyone has already racked and I no longer have a spot. Really?! Was I doing that good on the bike? Well, the whole minute and a half that I spent on T2 was enough time to realize that no, you silly, you are not the first to rack back because you are so fast, it’s because you were on the first wave and there are no other Trizoners in your wave. (Official time was 39:58 and 16.5mph, in case you are interested, not as good as I was feeling, but I’ll take it.) Anyway, I was still feeling good when I went out to the run course.

Running was uneventful. This is actually my favorite discipline, so I always feel good on the run. When I left T2 my watch was reading fifty-three minutes and some change, by the time I got to the first mile marker it was at an hour and almost two minutes. I was hoping for ten minute miles, but this was even better. On the way back I saw a few Trizoners and cheered them (secretly hoping that none of them would catch me before the finish line). Finished the second mile strong, it was very muddy right there at the end, but I was really happy to stop my watch at 1:11:24. M and Gerard were waiting for me at the finish line for some more picture taking.

After finishing I headed to the fruits, massage, and other amenities for the participants. Went back to the Trizones tent and spent some time there cheering for some of the other team members. On the way out I stopped to see the official time: 1:11:22. Not bad, not bad… but the best part, running pace 8:51!!! I cannot remember a time after college when I was able to race anything under a nine minute mile (nine thirty, to be honest). Wow! this feels great for me, remember that running is my favorite sport… now if I could only use some of that motivation in the swim, that’s the next challenge.

I'm back

I know, I know… I’ve been MIA from the blog for almost two months now. But make no mistake, that does not mean that I haven’t been busy and training –well, sort of—for the past eight weeks. Since I have not written anything in a while, this one is going to be a long one, but bear with me while I try to summarize the past weeks in a few paragraphs.

So let’s see, my last post was shortly after I tripped over the printer cable and broke my big toe which got me limping for about two weeks. I did some spinning to try to maintain cardio level, but before I knew it I was traveling to Puerto Rico to finalize the details of the wedding. Naïve me thought that just because I was going to the “Island of Enchantment” I would have a pleasant and relaxing time. Nothing was further from the truth.

The few weeks that I spent in Puerto Rico leading to the wedding were intense. I usually woke up early enough so that I could run some errands in the Puerto Rican morning but would still be on time to start my day on Texas time and work for the rest of the day. The evenings and night were filled with more errands and more planning. Eating habits became nonexistent as I delighted myself with some deep fried tostones or alcapurrias whenever I could.

It didn’t take long to realize that I had to start running and exercising again. This realization came to me not because of my hopes to be ready for triathlon season, but because of my fear of not being able to fit into the wedding dress that I had bought almost a year in advance. So I did start the exercise routine again. I joined a local spinning club and took classes 2-3 times a week and also build up to running 5 miles without any toe pains a few times a week.

Before I knew it the big day had come. After all the planning and all the stress, the day of the wedding was actually perfect. It might have been because we were determined to enjoy it at all cost, or maybe we were just biased because it was our wedding, but M and I had a blast and hopefully so did all of our guests. We had the opportunity to share such a special occasion with our families and closest friends. We ate a lot, drank a lot, and danced a lot. All in all, an awesome afternoon, next to the most incredible person I could imagine spending the rest of my life with. And yes, I did fit into my dress, yey!!

After the wedding weekend M and I flew to beautiful Jamaica to enjoy our honeymoon. We stayed at the Sandals Montego Bay. Beach, food and drinks were all inclusive and we took advantage of all three. After the hectic time getting ready for the wedding it was so nice and relaxing to be able to do absolutely nothing for a week. I guess I could have taken the week completely off, but I decided to at least try to run in the mornings, so I could have an excuse to eat more ;-).

Sadly, we couldn’t stay in Jamaica forever; we had to come back to our reality and at least on my part that reality involves training –really training. So I emailed Coach Tracy from the Trizones Training group and asked her if I could join their ongoing spring training. “Sure,” she said, “and by the way, we are doing core training and swim drills tonight.” Great! Just my luck, the two things I had completely ignored since past October. (Please note the sarcasm.) Well, it didn’t go terribly bad; I survived the core session and on the swimming, well, I’m still slow as molasses, but that is nothing new, at least I still remember how to swim. The good thing about going to the training session was that I had a chance to speak with Coach Jen about my plans for the Ironman. I told her that I was shooting for Ironman Brazil (did I said that on the blog already? I don’t remember). She assured me that I had plenty of time and that I should focus on getting ready for the Longhorn triathlon next October. From there on –according to her –it should be really easy to build up to the full distance.

So there it is, the last two months condensed in seven hundred words. From here on the fun starts, the first triathlon I’m doing for the Texas Tri Series is the Skeese Greets Women’s Triathlon which takes place two weeks from now. After that, it just keeps building up to the grad finale with the Longhorn 70.3. And with that, the only thing I can say is: let the fun begin!