Austin Ironman 70.3

I have this love-hate relationship with Austin. Ever since I arrived here - 10 days ago - I've been staying in South Austin, training by myself, riding thru traffic on the roughest roads on the planet and having to ride an hour just to get a 30' swim in because all the pools are so freaking far. I'm hating every moment of training here. But I keep saying to myself.. deal with it, deal with it, deal with it. Same happened in Austin's race, formerly known as Longhorn 70.3.

The swim seemed to have the perfect setup. No sun on your face, nice temperature in the water, good buoys. The pro field that actual showed up kinda surprised me (and most) considering this was such a low-points, super-low prize money 70.3. Still, it's Austin and it's easy to get here. The gun went off at 7:30 AM for pro men and soon I got dropped from the front pack. With the quality of swimmers present, I wasn't surprised at all I couldn't hang with them. I've been lacking motivation to swim as it's hard to push yourself alone. I'm used to swim with some fellas and I've been totally missing that for the last 7 weeks. I lost 2'30secs to the leader. Actually, I thought it would be worse. I was just kinda dissapointed I was out of the water behind Ronnie.

Once on the bike and considering at how fast Cigana rode by me at mile 5, I come to realise being ahead of Ronnie wouldn't have done much difference anyways. I settled in on the second pack of athletes. Other than feeling like I was riding on the worst roads in the state of Texas (not to say the WORLD), I also felt like that it's pointless to announce at the pro meeting to watch out for drafting boxes, distances, cause there were simply no marshals out there on the course. I saw some real and cruel disrespect to all the rules of fair play I usually play and cheerish in this sport. It happened with no concern whatsoever, totally aware that it was not legal. The only concern was constantly looking behind to see if some would show up and call drafting penalties. I won't go any futher here. I haven't race many oficial 70.3 events so I guess this' "normal". Deal with it, deal with it, deal with it. I couldn't believe what it was going on but I just settled back, waiting for someone to show up and see. Not a single marshal motobiker passed on the bike during 56 miles. I got to T2 in 9th.

I took off T2 as fast as I could. Deal with it, deal with it, deal with it. Every second lost on the bike, I had to make up for it anywhere I could. They changed the run course from last year since the drought that Texas went thru made a real mess on the old one. So it was three-loop course which I thought it was pretty challenging. I got no one in sight but felt good and just focused on a high cadence, good hydration as it was getting HOT out there and not going over the roof on the first miles. I remember going thru mile 1 in 5:15 which was about right for the effort I was putting to get away from the "pack" of athletes that rode with me into T2. As the run was an almost out and back on the same road, we could see who was running a few miles ahead of us at a certain point. I saw everyone was pretty far ahead. I did my best to run at a pace that was fast enough were I was going almost out of breath but could hold it for an half-marathon. On a three lap course, I like to give it all on the second one and just hold to my life on loop three. I eventually made a ton of time to the guys just ahead of me and caught back up with Cartmell. I was consistently hitting 5'40 miles but was short on Richie who would finish 5th. With two miles to go I said to myself it was game over, which now I feel like it was just a bad thought. Not that I could have make all the way to 5th but I struggled on the last miles to keep the pace high. My body was reacting to that thought and it started to settle back on the comfort zone when it should have gone to the limit. Ended up 6th overall, with a 1h15 split on a run I paced perfectly. I wish it was 26.2 miles, I'd like to see how would I deal with another half-marathon at that pace. It makes me happy and confident that I'm pretty sure I would have master it.

The guys that finished ahead of me were all just impressive. The swim felt like it's my true weakness, mostly after the colarbone crack in June. The bike was rough and the run was tough and the guys on the Top 5 just made it look like a fast day. It was not. Again, they were impressive.

I feel like 6th is short for what I'm currently capable of and I have all this bad memory from the race. The darkness early in the morning while setting up my bike, the mud on T1, what happened during the bike but not all was bad. I must give a big thumbs up to the quality of the aid-stations and volunteers, the great finish chute inside the arena, the good recovery services and food and the weather (I praise every race it doesn't rain). Still, my "love" for Austin comes from the people I end up hooking up after the races. As in Cap Tex Tri early this year, I got to Maudies on South Lamar for an awesome evening with great people over great mexican food. Thank you Zoot crew for the awesome dinner, Derrick and Kelly Williamson, Caroline Gregory who joined us for dinner and my awesome "hosts" for the weekend in N Austin, Lesley Smith and Gary Metcalf.

ALSO big congrats to Lesley Smith who totally kicked some serious pro ass with her 4th place and Molly Kline who SMASHED the golden boy Jake Jensen on their own Zoot-staff challenge!

Miami Ironman 70.3 to follow. 7 days to get ready & recovered.