Triathlon at Retirement

Capital of Texas Triathlon took place in Austin (of course) May 27. I did the sprint distance, thinking it would be a nice warmup to the Multisport nationals the following week. It was my first triathlon since October last year (except winter triathlon in February) and I was looking forward to it. This is a big race with lots of participants. Texas has been very hot recently and Austin was no exception, maybe even worse because of the city effect. At the morning of the race, I was overheating just setting up transition. How would this play out? My tactic was to respect the heat, not to push hard and to stop at all drink stations.  The swim was of course not wet suit legal, and I think that works for me. I felt the swim went well, I kept up, or overtook, most swimmers in my wave (women over 50). The river was a little low and I got entangled in seaweed several times.  At T1, I gave myself time to take a mug of sports drink. Bike leg also felt good, I pushed hard without exhausting mysel