Race Day- Hills & Wind

Who would have ever thought that there were massive grades of up to 8.9 in Lubbock, Texas? Well, somehow, there is this lake that is in a canyon and there are hills to go up and hills to go down. The bike was the toughest part of the race. Fortunately, for us it was only 17.6 miles, but for some it was 56 miles...It was really cool to see Chris Lieto break the course record in 3:55 and to be in the world of triathletes. They are tough....really. But, we made it through the 500 m swim, 17.6 mile bike, and 3.1 mile run. And, we were still smiling! I even got 2nd place in my age group. Now ready for a rest day ;-)

Open Water Swim- To Suit or Not To Suit?

At the pre-race meeting on Saturday, the word of the day was "NOT wetsuit legal". Typically, this event is wetsuit legal which by USAT rules means the water is under 78 degrees. However, during the week prior to the race the water temps have hovered around 81 degrees. This was scary news for several people who were depending on wetsuits. Curtis was one of them. This would be his first race in open water and he was dead set that he would be wearing a wetsuit. So, morning of at the race site, we found out that wetsuits would be allowed. They must have dropped that thermometer to the bottom of the lake :-) But, we didn't care. RACE ON!

Pre-race jitters

Curtis was anxious to sign up for as many races as possible to be ready for the "big one" in October. So, one late night I signed us up for the sprint in Lubbock so we could see what a half Ironman event was like and one in Austin so we could test out the lake. So, the week of the Buffalo Springs Lake 70.3 and Tri-Raider Sprint Triathlon, I realized I forgot to get a hotel room! Oops! Big Mistake in a small town. Apparently, everything was booked, but I just happened to go online and find one for twice the regular price. That hurt....but didn't have a choice at that point. So, onwards we go.

We get to the hotel and find out that there was a glitch in the system and they overbooked by 50 rooms. I was still focused on just getting the special room rate and didn't realize that the girl was offering to send us to another hotel for FREE...., but alas they ended up finding a room for us there so it worked out.

We checked out the race site and headed back for some food and sleep. We made another mistake of eating Wataburger and oreos that night. Guess we were looking for some comfort. Woke up at 4am with a stomach ache and no coffee in sight....