Kerrville Triathlon Festival (TX) September 24-25

This was a really great race weekend. On Saturday, the Rookie Sprint, a slightly shortened course with only 300m open water swim and a 2 mile run, while the bike leg was 14 miles. On Sunday, Quarter and Half Distance of the ironman lengths. I was intending to do the sprint as I have been polishing my speed for the Sprint World Championships in Bermuda in October, but as the championships got cancelled due to corona, I decided to do the quarter distance at Kerrville instead. After all, I am no rookie anymore, and I am in my home town, right?

The weekend came in with a cool front, which in September in the Texas hill country, is good news. I looked at the rookie race, and it was a glorious day, perfect temperatures, beautiful location and a flat course. Swim was in the Guadalupe river. The competition was big and well organized, I think about 1800 participants.

Swim Exit

Being a home competition, I definitely felt pressure to do well. I started to worry weeks in advance. Aches and pains seemed to crop up here and there, knees, hip, neck, foot... Normally, I really do not care about other competitors, I can't control them, I do my own race at my own pace. 

Woke up race morning and urinated almost nothing. What? Am I dehydrated? Why? I started to down liquids. On top of that, the dog refused breakfast and the freezer broke, creating a big puddle on the kitchen floor. I left my husband to deal with the sick dog and spoiling food.

Waiting for start I was peeing all the time, but the swim went well and I seemed to be flying on the 29 mile bike course. It felt like I made an appropriate effort on the bike, not going too hard, not slacking. Of course, being in my home town, I knew the route inside out. Average speed on the bike was 19.1 m/h which is good for me. I also plucked competitors that are better swimmers. 

I was thinking I would do well on the run, especially as I had felt comfortable on the bike. I fumbled on transition 2, and took time to down a gel and take extra drink. Run course was 6.5 miles, so a good hour still to go. I ran out, passed a guy who shouted "running is your thing" and settled into a sustainable speed on the Guadalupe river trail that I know very well. 

After half a mile, I recognized the tap, tap, tap, of one of my training buddies. I let her pass, she will crumble later, I thought. After all, the run had been my best leg on Ironman earlier in the year and last week I won a 5k race! As soon as she went by, I felt so tired. There was no idea to try to hang on her back. I saw her getting further and further away, and I struggled more and more. Then came another one. "Gunilla, come on," she shouted as she passed. I was walking, sometimes wobbling. The rest of the race became a struggle to just reach the finish line, walking and running very slowly. People were passing.

I still got third place in my age group on 3.10, which is a decent result. But I am disturbed about the total lack of energy at the end. I did not see it coming, and I was hydrating well. At Ironman, I managed my energy all the way to the end and that race lasted almost 7 hours, how can a 3 hour race be so draining?

I am not sure. I have cut down on long training sessions recently, training for the sprint World Championships. I still think the reaction was exaggerated, I had never trained 7 hours for Ironman and I still did it in style. Maybe I am just too old, maybe it was something with the hydration, maybe I am out of shape, or maybe I went too hard on the bike. Going hard on the bike always result in a slow run for me. Slow bike = fast run, fast bike = slow run. 

Still, It was a great competition. I recommend it, if you are in the area.