a rare victory

I made a trip deep into East Texas last weekend to race a triathlon. I was supposed to do the Tyler half ironman but I had missed a lot of training (especially running) in the spring due to knee pain so I downgraded and did the olympic distance race instead. For a long time I thought I would not go at all but finally realized that racing would boost my fitness and also rise my sport spirit after difficult times.

 I definitely had no pressure since I knew the best athletes would race the half because that's where the price money was. But I was surprised that I would even be the fastest swimmer by about 3 minutes, if I read the results right.
 After the turnaround  a kayak came and started talking to me because he thought I was taking a shortcut and I had to tell them I was swimming the shorter course. I think I managed to swim quite straight by my standards, especially the second half of the swim. I could look up and then swim maybe 10-20 seconds with my eyes closed and then just check again I was going straight. The water temperature was 80 so no wetsuits. So the swim was a very relaxed effort. The same cruising continued throughtout the bike and run as well. Soon after where the half and olympic bike courses separated a woman driving tried to convince me to go back because she had seen some half distance racers going the other way.
 I had only ran after biking once this year and felt terrible then but now the run started well and went well enough for now and the rain was refreshing! The whole race took 2.08 and I won by 8-9 minutes. Good preparation for next races. This was only my second overall 1st place.
It is a pretty long drive but I always like to go to Tyler for the races because I like the venue, I know the area and there are always people that I know plus the races are well organized. While on the bike I realized that all of my last 3 races have been in Tyler. 
results: https://www.nolimitstiming.com/results/default.aspx?event=21385&r=5433