Austin, TX United States 75F / 24C Overcast

Total Time = 2h 25m 9s Overall Rank = 146/1013 Age Group = M25-29 Age Group Rank = 24/96

I arrived down in Austin the afternoon before, and went to the multisport expo, which was pretty cool. There, I checked in and got my race packet...there was no alternate way of picking up your packet. After I got my race bracelet, which afforded me entrance into the transition area, I checked my bike in there. It was a secure transition area, and we had to leave our bikes there overnight...there was no race morning bike check in. I've never been to a race that required you to leave your bike there, but ok, whatever. They had mechanics on site, if you needed a tuneup on your bike...very cool. That evening, I ate at Freebirds, and tried not to eat anything too spicy or too much. This is obviously a departure from the norm, if you know me. I stayed with a friend of Alice's on the north side of town, who was also competing in the race, actually in my age group. Tht night, as we were all sitting around watching TV, banners scrolled across the bottom of the screen with reports of severe thunderstorms coming through. This is great, since the transition area is open-air, on a grass/sand field! I'm picturing what the flooded field is going to be like in the morning.

I went to bed around 945pm, and slept on a love seat, since those were his only accomodations for guests. I actually slept better than I expected, in fact, too well. I woke up around 4am...the plan was to get up at 5am, and leave by around 530am, since he lived about 20minutes from the staging area. Well, we must have lost power or something; he wakes me up at 605am, saying he didn't hear his alarm, or something like that. I was certain I wasn't going to get to race, since the transition area closed at 630am, and we still had a little bit of a drive to get there. No time to get nervous, take a D...barely enough time to brush my teeth and get out the door. Fortunately, it wasn't raining, so if I did get to race, it was sure to be nice weather. We rolled into downtown around 635am, and we had to park so far away since there were so many streets blocked off. We ran about 1/2mi in our flip flops with our transition bags on our backs, and our wetsuits over our arms. I'm sure people were thinking silly thoughts, since we were obviously running very late. When I got to the site, I ran directly to the body marking tent, and it was nice b/c there was no line! Being tardy has it's benefits! Now it was just a matter of whether or not they would let me into the T-area. I get to the entrance, and they tell me that the transition area is closed. I explain the problem and ask for mercy. They let me in, but only for about 5minutes. Fortunately, I had organized my things into baggies, so all I had to do was drop the bags, set my helmet on my bike, and get my bottles put on my bike. It only took a couple of minutes to arrange. The only benefit about getting ready for the race this was that I had no chance to get nervous....but I also had not yet been to the bathroom, and it didn't look like I was going to get to! The T-area was muddy, of course, and there was standing water under some of the racks, fortunately mine was not one of them.