The Austin Triathlon Olympic : Billy Self

Billy Self

Rockwall, TX

Olympic Age Group M 25-29

Gun Time: 02:16:17
Chip Time: 02:16:17
Class Position: 12

Overall Place

Age

Zip

Country

Swim 1500m Rank

Swim 1500m Time

Swim 1500m Pace

T1 Time

Bike 40K Rank

Bike 40K Time

Bike 40K Pace

T2 Time

Run 10K Rank

Run 10K Time

Run 10K Pace

41

28

75087

26

23:08

1:33/M

02:19

88

1:05:10

22.8mph

01:23

102

44:15

7:08/M

Event: The AVIA Austin Triathlon Olympic

Location: Austin, Texas (downtown) Lade Bird Lake, aka Town Lake, aka Colorado River

Class (yours): Olympic Male 25-29

Results: 41st Overall, 12th in AG

Local Knowledge and Conditions: Talked a lot with Barry and Joe about the course layout and what to expect on the course. River had a light current, going against on the way out, with current coming back. I barely noticed it... the current must have been less than half a knot. Bike course was said to be fast all over with a few hills. (it was) Run course was a bunch of out/back fingers and 2 loops... Very flat. Plenty of times for my wife Katie and friends Matt & Jen to cheer as I went by. Conditions were no wind with plenty of sun. High in the low 90's, I believe.

Pre-Race Strategy & Warm Up: NO SWIM WARM-UP Allowed! UGHH! Really threw off my pre-race. I always warm up with a swim....Wish I coulda warmed up for a few minutes. I barely got a chance to warm up with some jogging, but I did get to stretch for a while during the meeting at the lake.

Psychology: For the swim, I wanted to get out in front to avoid traffic. One guy got in front of me and I was not able to tag on. Held my pace for the swim pretty well. Bike, I really wanted to spin hard to keep my legs fresher for the run. Run: I "wanted" to pin it and collapse on the finish line.

Lessons Learned (Or Re-Learned): I learned to not let a lack of swim warm-up bother me. Concentrate on what I can do and not worry about things I can't control.

Future Goals (include skills executed well and skills needing improvement): Transitions went very well, considering the bike rack area was 80 yards long with tons of dirt. As I ran out of T1, I used my water bottle to spray my feet real quick to get the dirt off. It worked really well and I never had to really stop. T2 into Run needs improvement. I cramped on the first 3 miles of the run with the outside of my right calf....it killed me. I was really hoping to do sub 7 minute pace. While I was running, I thought it would be closer to 7:30/mile.... Much to my surprise, my run split was a personal best of 7:08/mile for Olympic distance. Very frustrating in the sense that if I didn't cramp, it could have been so much faster.

Fitness (endurance, nutrition, hydration): Fitness felt right on. My swim was strong and I think I was 3rd out of the water in my wave. The bike was great as well... new personal record on bike mph avg for Olympic with 22.8 mph. the run would be better with no cramping, but still happy with a PR on pace (7:08/mi). Nutrition: I used 3 GU gels throughout the race and felt it worked okay. I want to try Infinite Nutrition soon... Hydration was great... I had plenty of water in me from week prior and never turned down water on the run.

Something funny that happened: While stretching after the race, a young guy (Freshmen walk-on at UT Cross Country) walked up to me and said, "Hey man, are you done racing?" I said, yeah man, what's up?.... "Well, I'm in a relay and wanted to see if I could borrow your racing flats" (I was completely caught off guard, and I don't have flats, just lightweight trainers) I thought to myself, How on earth can I be nice and tell this kid NO WAY! So I replied by asking, what size are you? .....9.5.... and I said, "Oh well, sorry man, mine are 12's" (they aren't...more like 10.5, but I wanted to make sure he didn't want them). He was disappointed, but he went off to start his portion of the relay in his perfectly good running shoes. (it's not like the kid was barefoot)