There have been two big or huge events for me over the last few weeks.  The first was US ParaTriathlon National Championships in Austin, TX.  What a great venue. I arrived in Texas a week early to work remote and spend some time with my fiancee's sister and brother-in-law. We had a great time in Huston. I'm not sure that I'd live there but it was fun to visit with them.

On Saturday we drove to Austin with 4 people, 2 dogs and all our luggage.  It was a tad cramped but the girls sacrificed and sat in the back with the dogs for most of the trip.

In Austin we went straight to a CAF swim camp at Barton Springs, an amazing natural spring lake. I worked out my wetsuit a bit and will be swimming with my arm inside from now on to reduce drag.  After that it was time to relax, do some bike assembly and eat some food. The next day was race briefings, interviews and check in. Then early to bed.

Race day was pretty hot and the lake wasn't flushed overnight so the water temp was in the 80's.  ParaTriathletes don't have wetsuit rules and are allowed to use wetsuits regardless of water temp. I thought that the reduction of drag from having my arm flopping around would be worth it. In hindsight that was a pretty big mistake. One I won't make again.  During the swim with about 500 meters to go I was overheating and cooked myself.

The bike was better. No flats like Worlds last year. I powered along and caught some racers but the race leader was still up on me after the swim. I came off the bike in second place and my transition was solid. I went to try and run down the race leader. I made up a bunch of time but, in the end, the time I lost in the swim and the few seconds on the bike was just too much to overcome.  I finished in second place.