Oktoberfest Tri

Another sprint tri (400m swim; 14 mile bike; 3 mile run) but this time we had to swim in a lake!  We arrived before it was even light and the event seemed more disorganised than normal but eventually I managed to set up my bike on the racks and get my time chip sorted.  Stuart and Gretchen watched us swimming in from the opposite bank so they never saw the sign we saw just as we were getting into the water!

“No Swimming.  Warning Alligators and Poisonous Snakes!”

Fortunately it was the men in first and I hoped they would scare any of the above off!  When we stepped into the water we all sunk up to our knees in mud and I thought I was going to be stuck there!  I managed to free myself and kneel instead otherwise when the whistle blew I might not have got away.  The water was pretty cold and very brown so I could not see anything.  I soon settled into a rhythm and cleared myself of the rest of the pack to avoid being kicked.  Every so often I had to look up to check for the course marker buoys.  When I climbed out of water I was pretty cold and felt extremely dizzy when trying to get me bike shoes on.

However, as I was leaving the transition area on my bike I Stuart and Gretchen.  I said I was really cold, and Stuart was sympathetic as ever and just said “well, bike harder!”.  The crowd near him roared with laughter for I pedalled off in disgust!!  Except for some extremely fast men over taking me on my bike I seemed to be passing a number of the girls.  The annoying thing was this tri they put our age on the front of our legs rather than the back, so I couldn’t tell if they were girls from my age group. 

The 14 miles went pretty quick and soon it was the run.  Oh how I hate the first mile trying to get my legs back to running mode from biking mode.  Again I managed to pass a few folk and set my sights on a guy with very long legs who was keeping up a good pace.  There was Gretchen and Stuart cheering as I came through the finish line! 

The Oktoberfest Tri was sponsored by a local brewery from Katy called ‘No Label Brewing Company’ so I had a small cup of beer as a reward at about eight in the morning!!

Results: http://www.eztoregister.com/assets/OctoberFestTri11.HTM#19