Gateway to the Bay Triathlon

This weekend Landon and I completed our second sprint triathlon, out in Kemah, in preparation for the longer ones we have coming up in a few weeks (and months!) It was so nice not to be a total newbie at this one--while we didn't have everything down perfectly by any means, we at least learned some things to do and not do at the last one, and had an idea of how things go at a triathlon--which is SO completely different from a marathon!

We decided just to get up early on Saturday morning and drive in for the race instead of staying in Kemah. We had the car all packed up on Friday night, so when our alarm went off at 4am we just had to throw on our clothes, grab our breakfast and jump in the car.

It was a much earlier start this time than our last one, so it was still dark as we pulled into Kemah at 5am, got our registration packets and then began setting up our areas in the transition area. This was a MUCH bigger race than our last one!

Around 630am, we donned our wetsuits (I was SO glad to have one this time, haha!) and headed over to the swim start, where we waited with the other 1,000 people for the race to begin. After a moment of silence, a prayer, the singing of the national anthem and about 30 minutes of looking out into the ocean, with rolling waves crashing on the bank, the first group was off and the race had begun.

Around 730am Landon began and my group started 5 minutes later. The swim, which is BY FAR the hardest part for me, was both better and worse in this race for me than in the other. Ok, well that's probably a little bit of an exaggeration--I could breathe this time, which made it a lot better than last time. But, starting with 110 people as opposed to 40 people and swimming into waves and choppy water made it a little rough for both of us. Everyone was running into each other and it was just hard to swim in general. Landon even swam over someone at one point--I think I would have freaked out if someone had swam over me! But, we made it through--it's amazing to me the relief I feel when I get out of the water and head to the bike!


We both made it back to the transition area around the middle of our age groups, where we threw on our bike shoes, helmet and sunglasses, threw down a gel, and ran out towards the bike course. I was tired this time after the swim, but not nearly as exhausted as I was last time, which was nice--and I managed to finish it about 4 minutes faster.

The bike course this time was nice--there was a bridge that you had to cross twice in the beginning that was definitely a hill to climb, but it wasn't too bad and the rest of the course was flat, flat, flat. And, it was an out and back course so Landon and I got to see each other as I was heading out and he was heading in, which was fun! And, both of our bike times were faster this time than last, which was encouraging also! (It also helped that I didn't add 3 extra miles to the course this time...)


After the bike we ran our bikes back into the transition area, quickly changed shoes and took off our helmets and headed out for the run. The weather was perfect, and three miles always seems to fly by, which is awesome! A storm was definitely rolling in as we were racing, which made for really nice, cool, overcast weather, especially for the run. We ran through the boardwalk and then wound around some streets in the area before heading back towards the finish line. And, there were people cheering in some places along the race course, which we weren't expecting. All of this together ended in us both feeling good for the run--we both took off at a faster pace than normal--9 minute miles for me and 730 minute miles for Landon--and decided just to keep running and see what happened and much to our surprise we were both able to hold that pace the whole time, and even have a little kick at the end to bring it in. And, I even got to see Landon on the sidelines as I was coming across the finish line, which is always such a treat!

All in all, it was a fun race. It was nice weather, the people were friendly and enthusiastic, the race was very well run and we both had a good time. And, before we knew it, it was over and we were sitting in the finishers area, eating pizza and talking and gathering up our gear to head back to the car, where we just barely beat the storm that was rolling in--it literally started pouring right after we got our bikes in the car.

It was a nice ending to a nice morning--and, to top it off, we were home before noon, and ready for a nice, long nap!