Race Day Synopsis

I am now back in DC and have been reflecting on the past days' events. Race day was just amazing but not in a good way. :-) I'm amazed at what Mother Nature can do when she decides to turn on you. The entire weekend was perfect Central Texas race weather (overcast, relatively low humidity, nice and cool) and then for the 8 hours before the race, it just rained non stop. I mean really rained.

We were really lucky to be staying at a hotel that was so close to transition and managed to stay dry most of the time. But after the word was out that the race was canceled, we had to go to transition to get our bikes (which had been sitting out all night in that rain!). Some of the braver folks who went out first came back looking like drowned rats. Transition was under two feet of water with water falls cascading down the grade wall. The river was raging, there was no way we could swim in that, damn or no damn. I waited for a little while before going out to rescue my bike and luckily, it stopped raining. But transition was still so flooded, that I had to carry my bike out of there.

I searched for some news about the race, but I guess Austin-ites are still not that big into triathlon (Lance or not) since the only things I managed to find is this (very) short press release from the race director, and a small slide show that doesn't even do the weather justice. I guess the photographer didn't want to get wet. :-)

All is not lost however, since the National Cap Area chapter managed to raise over $89,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. And overall, all the TNT chapters who participated in this race raised over $900,000 for LLS. So race or no race, that money will still go to helping find a cure and towards patient advocacy. That's the one silver lining for the weekend. Special thanks to all who donated to the cause!

Coming back to DC, it is sunny and 90 degrees out. Oh, the irony ...

I will post pictures from the trip shortly.