Austin 70.3 was a great race to be part of again. To be on "home turf" getting the cheers, seeing familiar faces, riding familiar roads is a huge advantage. Like every other race this year it was COLD on race morning. Not just a little cold but full on wear my down jacket over my 5 other layers and my NIneteen wetsuit. The best place to be was in the water which was balmy in comparison but that was only 5 minutes before race start.
Starting out was the normal get going, find your rhythm and settle in and try desperately to go in straight lines despite looking directly into the sun. I noticed right from the get-go this girl just whizzing through the water. She was having trouble sighting though and missed staying right of a buoy. It was then I lost her. I actually didn't know after that if she was ahead or behind. She was just gone.
When I ran through transition, threw on my jersey (it was THAT cold!) and made it to the dismount line, Mark yelled at me - 1 minute down. I thought WHAT? This is new! I quickly got into the chase of this girl.
Bike: 2:28:14 (Second off Bike)
My bike was a dream again and Bicycle Sport Shop lent me a disc wheel so I got to appreciate the thwump, thwump, thwump sound of the wheel. I love that! As soon as I could I grabbed my gloves and put them on. My hands have a tendency to loose circulation in the cold which makes it REALLY hard to change gears or do anything. I tried to keep the power steady at 220 watts. When I passed Lauren Brandon I thought - great, stay steady, your in the lead. I was in for a surprise.
Run: 1:27:23 Splits: 6:47, 6:41, 6:33 (Third Place)
Coming into transition Mark yelled at me "4:30 down on the lead". If I was surprised by Lauren out of the water first I was shocked to learn Rachel McBride had gained a tremendous lead. Sadly I had no idea she passed me and put serious time in! But success comes when you stay in your own race and that is all I could do at that point. Again I had to bite hard when Jennifer Tetrick flew by me in the first few miles. I thought - not yet, hold steady. Long way to go and just kept her in sight. By the second lap I had caught her again but was then passed by Yvonne. I started to feel good so I thought give a little more juice. By the third lap I thought - I still have more in me, run Yvonne down! I went for it closing the gap a bit but not enough. She finished 1 minute ahead and I had a serious negative split.
Overall the race was solid. Because I raced Austin 70.3 I did a direct comparison of my SRM bike power. It was almost EXACTLY the same. Check out the analysis below.