Lonestar Triathlon Festival report
When last year I organized a team of six runners from the Mid-Texas Symphony to run in the annual Beach-to-Bay marathon relay in Corpus Christi I found myself short one female runner. I wanted a balanced team of 3 guys and 3 gals, so my friend Liz Levin Pittel, an avid runner, suggested her stand partner and fellow cellist Dorian Ramirez.
I wasn’t sure what kind of runner Dorian was, but signed her on to the team. After all, this was just for fun. On race day we relayed reports back and forth amongst the team each time the baton was passed and it became apparent after Liz ran and especially after Dorian finished her leg of the race that we had a quicker team than any of us had anticipated. It turns out that Dorian was just beginning to stretch herself out as a runner and triathlete. She and her husband Fred raced in last year’s Capital of Texas Tri and this year they are biting into at least a portion of the inaugural Texas Tri Series. Here’s a report Dorian sent me on their participation in the Lonestar Triathlon Festival on April 1, in Galveston.
“Hi. I wanted to give you an update on the quarter Lonestar Tri we did last weekend! We were really worried about the weather. When we left Austin on Sat the storms had passed but of course as we were driving, we drove right into them in Houston. The folks who did the sprint on Sat had horrible conditions. All of their stuff in transition was floating in water when they got out of the swim, but everyone sounded like they made the best of it. Fortunately, the weather cooperated and we had no rain, but some nice wind :)
“We swam in the bay (not on the seawall side but the other side). Thank goodness! It was nice and salty and waves went over your head as you swam. It was a new experience for me. While swimming I thought...how do people do Hawaii and Florida where there are real waves??
“We were nice and salty when we jumped on the bike to ride down the coast and we had a strong headwind against us. It was really nice to make the turn and have the wind behind us on the way back!
“The run was curvy and there were plenty of aid stations. The race was really well organized and enjoyable. I finished in 3:09 and Fred finished in 3:20. We felt fine when we finished, other than being a bit sore and tired and headed back to Austin after the race.”
5 comments:
Congratulations to Dorian and Fred! It sounds like your experience was great... way to conquer mother nature.
BTW, the mention of salt brings many memories!
Oh, the waves of the ocean. The keys are 1- chosing a good starting spot to the outside of the group so there is less flailing of hands and legs. and 2- being patient with the waves. I always had a better swim when I thought of myself in a gentle roller coaster rather than a violent wave pool. A roller coaster allowed me to have more fun as I got pitched around.
Perhaps that is something to think about, what do you think about when out for a long run, bike or swim?
Shelly is right. There are so many different ways we occupy ourselves with long runs, etc. I think there probably is no absolutely right thing to think about. Just don't get into the mindset of "when is this going to be over?" I find the activity clears my head so I often get a lot of very interesting brainstorming going. It's almost like a dream state in that if you don't jot it down when you get home you'll have nothing but a good Zen state of uncluttered mind left. Nothing wrong with that....
Now that I am beginning to put together some longer swimming sets I would love to let my mind settle on something besides counting laps (and then fumbling the count). Suggestions anyone?
Congrats to Dorian and Fred! And James who is logging more time in the pool. Mind over matter, I envision my self body surfing. I have always loved the waves and also the rides at the rodeo. Bring it on, the rougher the better.. and those that can keep their mind over matter good or bad swimmer will exit the water with a more positive attitude to finish the race stronger. That is what makes this sport so fun, its never the same even if you do the same race twice. Keep up the good work. And p.s. Hawaii is in the bay so it is pretty calm : ) BUT very crowded!
Your blog keeps getting better and better! Your older articles are not as good as newer ones you have a lot more creativity and originality now keep it up!
Post a Comment