Kemah Triathlon

Hi Guys,

I have just had my first American race of the season, the Kemah International / Olympic distance triathlon in Kemah, Texas. What a cool race to be a part of. I wasn’t too sure where my body would be at after New Zealand Ironman a month ago so this was going to be a good test going into the US season.

Race morning was a struggle to get out of bed but once I got up and going the body felt ready. The format for the race was going to be – get on a boat, get taken out to sea, jump off the boat, swim 1500m / 0.9 mile back to shore, bike 40km / 25miles and run 10km / 6.2miles… what an adventure!

The swim kicked off just after 7am and we were off into the choppy water. I was ready for a good swim but lost the feet I was looking for and slowly drifted off the pace of the top 3. Out of the water I was 30sec down on Andrew Yoder, 21 years old who went on the win the race. Chris Lieto who I thought was going to be one of the main contenders was about 30secs down on me. Yoder and Leito are two of the strongest cyclists in the sport, I was ready to push the bike and that is what I did, but still I lost another minute to Yoder but held even with Leito.

Off onto the run I was sure the kids legs would give way, but I didn’t account for my legs giving way as well. Did I push too hard on the bike… I think so! I tried to get into my rhythm and slowly bridge the gap but it wasn’t working. Yoder was showing the hard work he had put in during the off season and was holding even and Lieto wasn’t far behind. Slowly we worked through the run, the gaps stayed pretty even and I settled for 2^nd.

In the womans race: Angela Naeth 1^st, Becky Lavelle 2^nd and Samantha Warriner 3^rd

All in all Kemah was a cool little town and Kelly and I had a great time. We are now down in Galveston getting ready for the 70.3 (Half Ironman) National Champs this weekend where I am going in as defending champion.