Brett Bartlett: CapTex Recap

Brett Bartlett - 

Event: CapTex

Location: Austin, TX

Class (yours): Clydesdale

Results: Overall Clydesdale 20th, Division 7th

Local Knowledge and Conditions:  Great day for a race.

Pre-Race Strategy & Warm Up: Keep the butterfly's at bay and keep telling myself that I am ready for this.

Psychology: Being my first Olympic distance, my goal was to hang on with dear life and try to stay alive.

Lessons Learned (Or Re-Learned):  Drink plenty of fluid after taking a goo packet.  The goo I slammed on mile 17 of the bike resulted in the worst run of my life.  I had intense diaphragm cramping and could not really get running until about 4.5 in to the run.

Future Goals (include skills executed well and skills needing improvement): Dial in the nutritional aspect of racing and tackle another Olympic head on!

Fitness (endurance, nutrition, hydration): The bike course was very technical with numerous turns.  All the stop signs and red lights slowed me down a bit, but not as much as having to swing by my car every lap and feed the parking meter.  I unfortunately ran out of quarters so I couldn't hail a cab on the run.  But seriously, it was a great experience and I am looking forward to my next race.  It was awesome seeing the other Prosoap folks out on the course!

Something funny that happened: A friend of a friend who is a newbie to the sport had something happen that put me in tears.  He was competing in the sprint which included 2 laps of the bike course.  Rounding the last turn of his 2nd lap he was coming up on the right hand turn to take him back to transition when he realized that there were to many people between him and the turn.  He didn't know what to do.  "If I turn I will either crash in to someone or cause a crash", "can I just go a little farther and do a U-turn", "Can I get off my bike on the sidewalk and walk back to the turn off", "Will any of this cause me to be disqualified".  All this was racing through his head in a matter of seconds.  So what did he do?.....he kept on riding and did an entire lap!