The US Open Triathlon in dallas was the final triathlon in the Life Time Fitness series of olympic triathlons. Including LA, NYC, Chicago, and Minneapolis. Dallas was the fifth and final leg. Greg Bennet won every single other race so he was the expected pro winner. (and he did win, amazing...$420,000...sheesh) This was also the inaugural event for the US Open. First time in Dallas and first time for a US Open of triathlon!

So I arrived very late on Friday night (5 AM!) The tri was on Sunday. I woke up around 11 or noon on Saturday and made my way to the expo at the Hilton Anetole in Downtown Dallas.

The Expo was huge. I hadn't been to a well organized triathlon (this was only my second!) so it was crazy to see such a huge expo with bikes/suits/nutrition/pros. It was a very big deal compared to the other tri I competed in. So I sat through the thirty minute briefing and learned little more than I had already learned from the website.

The course was an out and back swim/point to point bike/and a big loop on the run.

I competed in the Sprint distance which was 800m swim/Same 40k bike as the olympic/and 5k run. The olympic added a 1500m swim and 10k run (two loops of the track we did one loop on.)

So I was pretty stoked to do a sprint with such a long bike ride as I plan on stepping up to the olympic level next season.

So I watched my briefing and went to pick up my race packet and goodies...and quite a few goodies there were too! There was a T-shirt/bandana/and a bag to carry my bike in (strange) Plus tons of other little crap.

After the check-in we had to have our bikes into the transition area before 8 PM on saturday night. I also thought this was a little strange but Oh well. Since the race was a point-to-point bike race we also needed to have T1 and T2 bags that were clearly labeled. We also needed to go to Reunion Arena downtown on Sunday morning to set up T2 before riding a bus to Joe Pool lake outside of Dallas to where T1 was and the swim.

So I spent the rest of the night driving the bike course and eating some pasta. It was good to have some time to relax, last time I raced on Saturday and got in late friday with no time to relax.

So Finally Sunday rolls around. It is about 4:30 when I wake up and wrangle up the family to head down to reunion arena.

Reunion Arena is in downtown dallas if you dont' know. We had to go there first so I could lay out the T2 stuff and then take a Bus to the race start and T1.

So i set up my T2 stuff and it was about 6:00AM at that time. I got on a bus and headed off for Joe Pool Lake. However, some pesky triathletes decided they knew a shortcut and tried to tell our bus driver different highways to take than the event coordinators had told her! And she followed their advice! Well streets were closed at 6AM to accomodate the race so the roads they wanted her to go on were close...genius. So eventually we get to the swim start/T1 and I am DYING to get off of that bus, it was horrible listening to everyone yell at the bus driver and her get confused. I thought I'd never make it to the race.

So I get out and fix up my T1 stuff just the way I want it....Now it is waiting time.

Since I was a sprint competitor we had to wait until almost every single olympic swimmer was done to start the sprint. Mainly because they had to move a buoy to show us where we were supposed to swim to. So this was a little unorganized...I would have liked to have been able to go right when the olympic people finished going.

It was nice to watch the pros finish their swim and transition. Man those guys are fast! The annoying part was the constant announcer giving us every boring detail of everything...geez just shut up! It made it tough to hear what AG was going next because he was busy giving us the history of all the pro competitors...anyways..

The swim start was very interesting. The entrance to the lake was only about 10 feet wide so they were sending 4 people at a time every 10 seconds. So finally my turn is coming up and the four of us are lined up there waiting to be set free to chase the last four chaps down the chute.

We are told to go and I am off! Good good my freestyle practice is paying off. I'm swimming just fine! yay! Then I hit the 200m mark (or so) and I can't breath. I have to switch to some backstroke becaue breathing is no longer working very well with my face in the water. So I backstroke a bit....breaststroke a bit....sidestroke a bit. I get back to freestyle toward the end but by then I am being passed by most of the women who took off after us. My goggles were all fogged up as well so i was doing all I could just to follow someone who was close by.

Swim: 23:49 Place 11/15 in 25-29 AG

Finally the swim was over...on to transition. I thought this transition went pretty fast. There was quite a long jog to the bikes from the water but as far as switching gear I was pretty fast.

T1: 2:27

Now on to the bike! My favorite/best event. This bike course was no joke! It was up or downhill almost the entire time. I had planned on averaging about 21-22 MPH but I ended up only averaging about 19. The bike started on a huge uphill into the headwinds. Everyone was sputtering at the start at around 10mph. I thought I would never get my speed up...but later I got my averages to be in the low 20s, I think that opening hill killed most of my total average speed. I was passing people almost the entire time on the bike (as usual) I love the bike. The only problem here was the lane we had to ride in was only about 10-11 ft wide. So passing got a little clogged up at time. I had to brake a few times to wait for people to pass others in front of me. The bike course was well laid out though. Police were on every corner and on every turn to stop cars, it had to be about 60-100 cops total! Plus volunteers were everywhere. There were also cones on the road every 10-15 feet on the trail (probably close to 500 cones!) All of the bike course was very well managed I had a great time and felt very safe.

Bike: 1:13:07 Place: 4/15 in 25-29 AG Averaged~19.8MPH

T2 went well. I got my feet out of my shoes about a quarter mile before the dismount so I could just jump off and go! I did much better on this T2 than I did in my last tri. I was also feeling great and ready to run!

T2: 1:23

Finally the run! We ran around downtown dallas which was pretty fun! There were aid stations every mile on the run. I only ran one lap as I was doing the 5k and olympians did the 10k. I was surprised with how well I was keeping up with people. Last time I did a tri I had to walk some during the 1mile run I did...not this time! I was actually passing most people I came up on! The run was pretty crowded too. Then out of nowhere...a 52 year old guy just blew by me! I thought...man I can keep up with him I'm 25 and he's 52! So i tried to speed up a little....to no use. I never saw him again after he dissappeared around a turn. What a fast guy! I hope I'm still running like that at 52! So I ran my hardest and even sprinted at the end to end with a time of...

Run: 25:33 6/15 in 25-29 AG

I had planned on running closer to 20 minutes...but whatever I was happy because....

Total time: 2:06:17 3/15 in AG!!

Yay I even got a trophy! This was my second tri and so far both times I was 3rd in my age Group! I've only been training for like 2 months so I'm ecstatic! Hopefully by next season I will be ready to throw down some 1st place finishes!

The finally party was also pretty sweet. Lots of places to get massaged and protein drinks and stuff. Plus we got pretty sweet trophies for the AGers that placed!

Overall I loved the US Open and will be back next year to win the Elite AG in the Olympic distance! I love tris!