Kerrville Triathlon September 25

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I always feel a lot of pressure at the Kerrville triathlon which is in my hometown. This year, I placed 2nd in the W60-64 division, quarter ironman distance (1100 yards swim, 29 miles bike and 10.4 miles run). The competitions are very well organized and set in a beautiful environment, but I have difficulty enjoying it.  

On Friday afternoon, I volunteered at the sprint bike check-in for 5 hours, and it was hot, over 90f (32C). I already knew from my experience last year, that to avoid overheating on the run was the main challenge. I have spent most of the summer in much cooler temperatures in Sweden, and only about 3 weeks in Texas heat, so I worried that I was not fully acclimatized. 

I prepared as much as I could, I did several bike and run workouts in the midday heat the weeks before the competition. On the morning of the event, I brought a small cooler full of ice and a water bottle to transition 2. 

The Guadalupe River where swimming was taking place, was too hot for wetsuit and the water was a little choppy, but none of that bothered me. I just did a business-like swim, some of it with breaststroke that is very comfortable for me. I was slower than last year when we had wetsuits, but overall, I did ok. Transition 1 is reached after quite a long uphill, but I had a good transition time. My only problem was that I wasted time on fiddling with my watch as it did not start properly at the beginning of the swim. This has happened several times and is really stupid. Forget the watch, just race.

I did manage to restart the watch on the bike course that was 29 miles long. Last year I was very fast, but I had pushed too hard and had a bad run. Wiser this year (or not?), I held back a little on the bike, especially the last 5 miles, hoping to do a better run. I also took an energy gel.


Kerrville Tri is a little complicated with T1 and T2 at different places, but I arrived at my spot at T2 without incident and found my cool box. I very quickly showed ice cubes inside my suit, front and back, and I grabbed the ice-cold water bottle and started the run. While running, I chugged down some water and poured the rest over my head. It definitely felt good and helped me to get a good start to the run. Last year, I remember feeling awful at the start of the run, this year I was much chirpier.

I diligently took sports drink at every hydration station, and I poured mugs of water over my head. The
ice inside my suit melted away and my body heat was increasing. At halfway, I took another gel, but it did not give me any additional energy. My speed dropped quite a bit for the second half of the run, but I made it to the finish line 5 and 1/2 minutes faster than last year, but still a lot slower than my normal pace on olympic/quarter distance triathlons. But the heat was affecting everyone and overall, it was a good race. I just wonder if I took it too easy on the bike?





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