Buffalo Springs Lake 70.3

was... wet and cold. The high in Lubbock was 76 yesterday, meaning it probably did not even reach 70 during the race. And it rained for about 75% of the time I was on the bike, resulting in wet roads and a wet bike for 90% of the course. It was only windy, but that was normal. I was 96th female overall (out of about 231) and my results were:

1.2 mi swim time: 34:59.90
Pace: 1:49/100m
T1: 3:10:50
56 mi bike time: 3:20:53.10
Pace: 16.7 mph
T2: 03:18.75
13.1 mi run time: 1:52:32.35
Pace: 8:35 min/mi
Overall time: 5:54:54.60

The swim went very well, much better than I expected. Granted, I ran probably 200m out before actually swimming, but everyone else was doing it! That includes the pros too, which is probably where all the age groupers got the idea from. The cannon went off and you saw all the pros running into the lake and around the corner and it was kind of funny. Still even if I had swam from the beginning I think I still would have been under 40 minutes, which was my goal. This time though is over 8 minutes faster than my half-iron last year. My favorite part of the swim was that there were wetsuit strippers at the end so I didn't even have to waste time in transition doing it myself.

The bike... was wet. And windy. And I got really discouraged and grumpy and ended up spending more time dodging puddles so I was 5 minutes slower than I wanted to be. Luckily I did not flat during the race (front tire is flat now) nor did I crash on any downhills. I think I went down the downhills slower than I went up them because everything was so slick. The uphills were good though and passed lots of people... only to be repassed on the flats or downhills. It's funny, the course was a mixture of Austin and Illinois. There were hills and windy flats. So far I've figured out the hills... now it's time to figure out the flats. Did my wheels help? Haha... probably not. They made me look cool though. I think if the weather had been better (like not raining) they would have helped a lot on the flats because then I'd have been able to hammer them, but since it was slippery I was more concerned with self-preservation.

The run went very well. Fastest half marathon to date. There were 3 uphills and 3 downhills (3 hills total) and I was able to run all of them and pass lots of people. That is also how I was able to have the 4th fastest run in my age group. Around mile 8 I thought my brain was about to quit, and then my stomach started complaining, but somehow I kept going.

Overall, I'm happy with my race. I probably could have gone faster, especially since I was walking up the stairs in my hotel on Sunday night and I'm not very sore right now, but I'm going to blame the weather. And I PR-ed by 20 minutes from last year on a much harder course, so I shouldn't complain. AND I met Joey and Bill and a woman from my master's swim and her friend. And two U of I alumni. All in all, it was a good experience.

And of course the next question is, what's next?!?!

Official results