Rach Paxton: Texas and Buffalo Springs

Well i made it to Austin- after a cancelled flight with a relatively unscathed bike! It was so wonderful to see my amazing friends Bliss and Minsok Pak and their daughter Hanna. They have become like my home away from home and I should name them as my title sponsors as they not only open their home to a moody, crazy triathlete (even though they both are too!) but show me the sights and lights of Austin and Texas and feed me like a cow in a feedlot!

I love coming back to Austin. The riding is great, challenging and hilly, I have two 25 yard pools close by to swim at which always have lap lanes- i rarely have to share and the Pak's home is only about a 2km run from the Lady Bird Lake running path (which has options of 3, 5 & 7mile loops. This time here it's HOT HOT HOT! Today is forecast to met a max of 105F which is almost 40degrees- not only that but it's humid.

So once arrived and settled I treated myself to a new SRAM wheelset- I am in love with these wheels and you don't realise how bad the ones were that you were riding until you get something new and amazing! They glide like butter! Minsok assured me that i was removing my 'bad ju-ju' and history of flats getting rid of the Zipps which have ended two of my past 4 70.3s! No more flats...... or so i thought.

Off the track of tri for a bit.... I have definatley been getting my fair share of texan culture! Minsok and Bliss took me out to their REAL Texan ranch- about 45min drive out of Austin. This cute little cabin on 600acres of land with their 30-40head of Angus cows. It was great- we 'grilled' steaks, drank some great wine and took a sunset stroll down the paddock to annoy the cows. In Austin, once again, i have been shown the best places to eat in town- frequenting my favourite 'wholefoods' having orginated from Austin. Last night after dinner we went down to the South Congress bridge to watch the bats come out at dusk- not as spectacular as i expected as have been told that there are 1.5 MILLION bats that sleep under that bridge during the day- after about an hour of watching a few flying rats we lost interested so traded it for Margaritas at the Hula Hut! Wow- never been one for Tequila but after realising real Tequila isn't all that bad I was taken home to be given a real lesson about Tequila:
1) there are many different kinds- primiarly 3- white, yellow and dark yellow (i think they have names for each...)
2) they are made from the blue agave plant and ONLY from the western Mexican state of Jalisco
3) that you are supposed to drink it on the rocks and sip it
4) my favourite is Don Julio blanc....... &
5) Tequila in Texas doesn't taste like Tequila in Australia!!!!!

Ok now to the race..... ugh.....

Buffalo Springs 70.3 is in a town called Lubbock- it's about a 6 hour drive north west of Austin- was a big couple of days in the car. Although it was actually a little cooler in Lubbock the air was super dry. We arrived Friday afternoon and had dinner at JJJ's with another ex-pat Texan from Korea, Brian. Saturday morning we headed out to Buffalo Springs lake for a pre-race dip, ride and whilst the others ran i watch the sprint tri! The rest of the day was relaxing, going to race briefing- which wasn't really a briefing at all- i don't think anything about the actual race was touched on!!! And then some amazing gluten free pizza finished off with ice-cream before bed! The next morning i was pretty pumped to go- however this sinking feeling of fear about the potential of another mechanical and DNF.... my track record has been horrendeous the past 8months with things affecting my race which are completely out of my control. Nice early start, setting up transition around 5:30am- getting my warm up done and all my pre-race rituatls! It was a wetsuit swim and although the air was cooler the water had to have been boarderline temp for a wetty swim. The start of the race was very casual- Mike Greer (race director) with a megaphone saying 'Ready, set, go!!' By the first bouy i was boiling! But swimming shoulder to shoulder with Amanda Lovato- I was hoping to stick with Jess Meyers but she got away with the front girls but i was pretty happy to stay with Amanda as i know she is one of the consistent 70.3 competitors in the USA. Around the second bouy and Amanda started to swim a little off course but by the next bouy a race guide had steered her back to me. We came out together at the end of the swim a fair way off super fish Amanda Stevens and about a minute back from Jess Meyers. Onto the bike and Amanda and i spent about 90% of the ride together- even though i was in front a lot of the time, she was spot on at keeping her legal distance. We passed one girl early in the ride- which put us in 4th & 5th & Jess Jacobs flew past us just after the first U-turn but aside from that we were riding at about the same speed as a couple of the girls up the road. The last 10kms saw the wind pick up and me lose Amanda. I was stressing that the other girls would be passing me soon as I felt as though i was going backwards. Around the 2nd last corner and my front wheel did the big slide wobble- (insert bad bad words here)- ANOTHER FLAT TYRE!!! New wheels, new tubes, new tyres- what the???? Slow leak again- pit stop in- no wonder i was losing time the past 5km into the wind- a flat tyre doesn't help. Still this time it probably only cost me a minute and with my run performance, it wouldn't have altered the final result. Even though the question is always raised about the mental effect it has on the rest of the race. Made it back to T2 and set off on the run- another girl passed me about 1km into the run and by this early stage- i was in no form to go with her. Ticking off the miles, up and down some pretty hefty hills, and out onto a very lonely flat, straight, exposed 6mile stretch with very poor aid station supplies. Passed by another and another- I had gone from 4th at one stage on the bike, back to 8th now on the run and even worse overall as some age-group women were now passing me :( Fighting urges to walk, I kept putting one foot in front of the other. The last 2miles were the longest 3km of my life. Every corner i thought was the last one to the finish line- and every one that wasn't i wanted to break down in tears.

But i finished- in a very ordinary fashion. My legs were toasted- i was helped to the medical tent cause i couldn't even stand up any longer, even though my head felt fine. A bag of IV fluid did the trick and my legs came back to me. I collected my bike as Minsok and I waited for Bliss to finish up- a quick turn around betweeen showering, packing the car, a massive burger and we were once again on the road.

I have to take a couple of things away from the race- I was happy with my swim coming out equal 4th, my bike was almost back to where it used to be up until the flat and my never say die mantra was strengthened by battling through one of my most dismal run efforts ever. And i finished which is more than i can say about Kansas 70.3 two weeks ago.

Right, think i'm now due for a good race don't you think? Anyways we'll see whether or not that's the case in two weeks. For now my focus is recovery recovery recovery and then putting together a week of good training before i head to Providence for Rhode Island 70.3. In the meantime enjoy the pics!

Rachie xox