and the Winner is ...?

The Weather! The Cap Tex Tri was rained out and canceled. So let's rewind and give you all the full story. Arriving on Saturday afternoon in Austin we meet up with Team in Training at the Barton Springs Pool which is a spring fed pool that averages 68*. It was a great easy swim to get used to the colder water and not be in shock for the actual race swim which was avg. 70*. Once finished at Barton Springs we made our way to the Hyatt hotel which is directly across from the race site/transition area. If you ever plan to do this race I would recommend staying here as it makes things very convenient, even if it's a little pricey. Checked in and it was later off to a dinner with the Houston-Memorial region TNT group. Afterwards it was back to the hotel to relax and get some sleep as Sunday morning would have us up early. Sunday morning all TNT'ers met at the transition area to ride the bike course loop and get a little familiar with it as well as take pictures in front of the Texas Capital Bldg and group pictures.

Gulf Coast Chapter - Team In Training The course was a little technical but not too hilly. After the ride and pics it was then back to the hotel for a quick shower and then head to breakfast, then back to the hotel for the Expo, which, was a little small but had great friendly vendors with lots of samples. I did find my future new transition pack! Anyway after this it was to bike check in and find your bike rack. With 2500 athletes there was three sections, Sprint, Oly, First time tri areas..

As you can see there are plenty of areas to rack your bike but it's clear by the soft sand/dirt in the transition area that any rain will make this T1 a sloppy muddy place.

After bike check in it was back to the hotel to relax for a while and then off to the TNT pasty party. It was a great party with good food and lasted about 2 hours. Then afterwards there was last minute instructions and finally checking with the team for any last minute aches and pains that we we're able to help and fix. During the whole day of Sunday the weather was Great! No rain, no wind, no super humidity, just great. But everyone knew that that rain was expected for the early AM so instructions were to get ready as expected and come down to the hotel lobby by 5am.

Sleeping was little as nerves and anxiety were already working. Throughout the early morning I heard the rain against the hotel window on and off. As the alarm went off at 4:15 am we got up and started getting ready, clothes, pre-race breakfast and quadruple checking the transition bag. As we opened the curtain to view the outside we could see the rain just coming down, Damn it! It did not look good. About that time a text message came through (we had signed up for messages from the RD for any information which worked great because we got times and messages on bike check in, expo, and weather stuff.) The message said Race is on!

Yahooo!!! We finish getting ready and head down to the lobby to meet the fellow TNT'ers.

As JD opened the door he noticed:

It was two great cheering posters and thank you from the TNT coach's and mentors. Matter of fact Every TNT athlete had one on there hotel door! It was totally great to see all of them around the hotel.

We then headed downstairs to check the latest on the weather but no word was known. After waiting for 25 mins and about that many trips to the bathroom :) we got word that the Swim was Canceled. Booooo!!! Now it was going to be determined what time a duathlon would start and it would be a 5k/40k/10k for the Olympic folks. I must say I was not too happy with the swim cancellation but I could understand as the bacteria count was too high due to all the rain run off but I was really not looking forward to running a totally of 9.3 miles.

Being as we had some time before the next update we went back up to the room and struck this pose:

We unpacked the swim gear and next thing you know a text message states Race has been canceled! Damn! Oh well, I was actually more satisfied with the whole thing canceled rather than taking on a du-athlon. So now that everything was off we changed clothes and went to breakfast, yeah, great big ol` breakfast tacos w/avocado and wheat pancakes. Yummy.

Further text's messages came across stating that we could return to transition with your timing chip and race number to get your bike. We got back to the hotel and put on crappy clothes and sandals as we knew this was going to be a muddy and wet experience.

As we head to transition area they make us actually walk down the area where the swim would have exited and you run through to the transition which is the following:

Don't we look fast! This is the route to run through to get to your bike!

And here is what transition looked like even after several hundred of bikes were already gone.

And finally my bike So even though it was great trip to meet fellow athletes, get the goody bag and know that with all the training I did, as well as JD, that we were ready for this race. So the next plan will be to focus on the upcoming Tejas Sprint Tri on June 10th.

Overall it was great experience as I learned some things for nutrition the day before the race, got a great picture in the TNT group and in front of the Texas Capital and am pumped up to focus on being with Team In Training for the fall marathon season. And I met some really really great people on a mission to raise money for Blood Cancer,

GO TEAM!

rockon`