Over 1600 triatheletes competed in Labor Day’s TriRock Austin, centered at the recently-renovated Auditorium Shores. The morning’s weather was sunny, warm, and humid—not the best conditions for a triathlon.

The TriRock started bright and early at 7 AM with swimming in Lady Bird Lake. The elite athletes doing the Olympic distance went first: 1.5K (.93-mile) swim, 40K (25-mile) bike, and 10K (6.2-mile) run. Many of the participants did the shorter Sprint, which is half as long as the Olympic distance.

While waiting for the leaders to finish, I passed the time by watching cyclists navigate a tight U-turn on the First Street Bridge. Race volunteers encouraged riders to slow down and directed them around the curve. No one fell over or crashed, although I did see one cyclist miss the turn completely. He headed the wrong way down the running course until spectators yelled at him to turn around.

The local Fox news team was hanging around the finish line, too.

Pretty soon the men’s winner, Adam O’Connor, came running towards the finish line. He finished in 1:57:52.53, about four minutes ahead of the second place winner. Right after winning, Adam collapsed and was helped into the nearby medical tent. I assume he recovered since I saw him walking around soon afterwards.

Local triathlete Andrea Fisher won the female division with a time of 2:09:51.47. She was about four minutes ahead of the second place finisher. This is the third year that she has won the TriRock.

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