This was my second straight year doing the CB&I Tri in The Woodlands, TX. Last year the swim and bike were cancelled due to T-storms, but I was so impressed with the organizers, course, food, awards, etc, that I decided to do it again this year. For ‘07 it was designated as the state sprint championship by USAT, the registration cap was raised to 850 from 650, and they had an elite category.

Prerace:
I’d hoped to do a thorough warm up this time, but unfortunately we were kicked out of the transition area 15 minutes before the first wave (34 minutes before my wave). Still, I was able to get in a decent running and swimming warmup, just not a bike warmup like I’d hoped. The elite wave started at 7:00, and since mine didn’t start until 7:19 I was able to watch the elites start and finish the swim.

Swim (500 meters):
This swim had the worst “traffic” I’d ever encountered. Unfortunately, they made the mistake of starting the 50-69 year old women at 7:13, followed by the Clydesdales at 7:16, followed by my wave, the 20-24 and 30-34 men, at 7:19. You can guess what happened. I’m not even one of the faster swimmers, and I still caught up to a few Clydesdales and women. After clocking one Clydesdale in the head with my elbow and running into a couple more, I began swimming off to the right side a little. It was a slightly farther route, but at least I was able to get into a rhythm. Near the end of the swim leg, I began passing a few women from the 7:13 wave also, but fortunately avoided hitting any of them. I felt strong and fairly fast in the swim, but was disappointed in my split: 9:21 (1:52/100m – 84/633 overall)

T1:
Unfortunately, my fine motor skills are horrible during transitions, and it probably took me a good 15 seconds to get both feet clipped in. Also, as I ran out of the water, I was so eager to pull my swim cap off, I accidentally threw it behind me and had to run back and pick it up. That mishap only cost me maybe 4-5 seconds, but that can be significant in a sprint: 1:29 for T1 – mediocre, I’d say. Some people went under a minute.

Bike (15 miles):
For the most part the cops did a great job keeping the course clear for us, but I had to come to a complete stop and unclip my left foot at one intersection, as they’d waved a waiting semi through, and it was taking forever to get its trailer completely through the intersection. Five or six riders blew by me while I was getting back up to speed. I was pretty mad, but shrugged it off best I could and was back in front of them in a few seconds. I pushed it really hard on this bike leg – at least 95% RPE the whole way. Passing people on the bike is a new sensation for me, and it felt good! Only one guy passed me. Other than the semi incident, I feel great about my bike leg: 37:50 (23.8 mph, 29/633 overall)

T2:
Again, lack of practice and bad fine motor skills hurt me in T2. The dismount line really snuck up on me this time, and I was only out of one shoe when I got to it, so I hit the brakes, came to a complete stop and barely got my right foot out of the shoe in time to stop me from falling over. Some chick I’d passed only seconds before the dismount line almost rear ended me and blurted “Don’t stop dude!” as she ran around me. I was so irked (like it was my intention to stop:mad: ) that I took off sprinting as soon as I had both feet on the ground and passed her again. Unfortunately in my haste, I’d forgotten to carry my bike, and one of my shoes popped off when I hit a bump. I had to run back and a thoughtful spectator tossed me my shoe. Now, carrying shoe and bike, I made it back to the rack without further incident. After putting on the running shoes and grabbing my race belt, I was off: 0:51 for T2. The fastest people were down in the 30 sec range.

Run: (5K)
Just as I was exiting T2, a lanky 24-year-old guy blew by me – he was probably doing close to 5:00 pace (I hoped he was in a relay). I tried my best to stay close to him, but my legs felt like lead and couldn’t come close to matching that speed. Still, I kept him in sight for about the first mile. After that, I lost him. The middle part of this course had a lot of tight twists and turns, which made things interesting, but made it impossible to see more than about 100 feet ahead. At about mile 2 my brain was on cruise control and I made a wrong turn, which probably cost me 5-8 seconds. At about mile 2.5 the course straightened out enough that the lanky guy came back into view. He was fading, and although I was maxed out, I determined to catch him if possible. I got a little closer, but never seriously threatened him. He looked back at me with about 400 meters to go, which was encouraging, but he kicked if up a notch and held me off. I was unable to respond – usually I have a kick, but I only managed to hang on this time. I finished nine seconds behind him, with a run split of 18:09 (5:49/mi, 3/633 overall)

Overall: 1:07:42, 11/633, 1st in AG

Naturally, the lanky guy and I shook hands after we crossed the line, and I found out that he’d also done the CA HIM in March. Wanna guess how we stacked up in that one? He beat me by 36 minutes! I knew I was a little better at short races, but that disparity was still shocking to me – the fact that we’re about equal in a sprint, but so unequal in a HIM…

Although there were some mishaps in transition, etc, I feel great about how the actual swimming, biking, and running went. And even though I was disappointed with my swim split, I think it was due to plain old slowness rather than tactical errors. I also believe it was a little farther than 500 meters. My bike split was real fast (for me) and my run split was only 11 seconds slower than last year’s and, as mentioned, last year’s race was just an open 5K due to bad weather.