...I survived.
Race morning -
My alarm went off at 3:45 a.m. I got dressed, packed the car, thought about eating but just wasn't hungry so I brought a Clif bar for the road. Picked up my two neighbors, Mark and John, that I have sucked into doing triathlons. The drive into DC was uneventful, we were going to park near a shuttle that would take us right to the transition area. However, at the last minute I decided to look around Hains Point for parking and found an illegal lot where everyone else was parking. I figured they wouldn't ticket or tow all of us, right? Unfortunately, we still had a 3/4 mile walk ahead of us while lugging all of our stuff, water bottles, wetsuits, bike shoes, run shoes, helmet, etc. Upon arriving in the transition area we had about 45 minutes to set-up our little areas which basically meant spreading out all of our stuff. We took about 40 of those 45 minutes going back and forth remembering this or that after walking away, getting our timing chips, going to body marking, etc. The transition area closed at 5:55 a.m. because the Olympic distance triathletes were starting at 6:00 a.m. The Sprint distance triathletes started at 7:00 a.m., that's me. So, we had an hour wait.
Swim (800 meters)-
My wave was 3rd to last. The only people behind me were Men 20-24, Men 30-34, Men 35-39. Since I'm a notoriously weak swimmer and not wanting to be the last out of the water I started in the front of my age group wave. The swim start was called a "time trial" start. There were 8 of us lined up and just like we were jumping out of a plane they were like "GO! GO! GO!" I jumped in and started. I got about 100m before stopping to pant and look around. That's an improvement over last year where I felt like I only made it 25m. There was a lot more contact this year. People kicking me, me kicking people but overall nobody got hurt or started bleeding so no harm done. My goggles fogged up for the last 300m but I just followed the orange buoys and made my way to the swim exit ramp out of the water. Final swim time - 18:48. Last year I got 25:35 so a very big improvement. I ran to the transition area, pulling my wetsuit down to my waist before getting to my spot. Thankfully, the wetsuit slid off my legs easily and I was on my way to the bike without much delay.
Bike (12.4 miles)-
In an attempt to speed up my transition times this year I went without socks for the bike and run legs, thus my shoes were already on my (bike) pedals. So, I darted out (not really) of the transition area pushing my bike to the mount line on Independence Ave. I hopped on it and started pedaling until I got up to speed. On the right-hand side of the two lane road were the runners leaving transition, all Olympic distance triathletes who started an hour earlier. Just another thing to watch out for on the course. Having gotten up to speed it was now time to put my feet actually into my shoes. I worked on the right one first... it didn't feel right. The Velcro, the latch, it was all wrong. My shoes were on the wrong sides, the left was on the right and the right was on the left. I was screwed. No way to fix this while pedaling down the road. I had to pull over and up onto the sidewalk. I remedied the situation as quickly as possible but with the pulling over, putting them on, and getting back up to speed without getting run over by speeding cyclists it cost me about 2 minutes. Since I was trying to cut 10 minutes off last year's time 2 minutes was a lot. Once underway I was passing lots of people which is fun for me. There were 3-4 180 degree turns on the course and a few other normal turns. I think I excel on turns because I am (crazy) confident and have gained a lot of bike handling skills from mountain biking where it's imperative that you can turn well and keep your tires from washing out from under you. Anyway, my plan was to keep my heart rate at or below 160 bpm since I know that's right where I'm working hard but not too hard. I didn't want to expend all of my energy on the bike when I still had a 4.6 mile run ahead of me. Once I got my shoes squared away and got going again I felt strong. Everything was going well and I was sipping a sports drink every few miles and an energy GU. My bike speed averaged 20.3 mph, my goal was 20 mph so mission accomplished! Even with my shoe screw up I still beat last year's time by 7 seconds, add the 2 minutes I was wasting on the side of the road and I really picked it up on the bike this year.
Having done the race last year I knew when the end was near. Since I tried a barefoot bike mount technique I was sure going to try a barefoot dismount as well. I picked up speed coming back over the Memorial Street bridge and started to unclasp my shoes and slipped my feet out of the shoes. So my feet were out and on top of my shoes when I came flying up to the dismount line. I hopped off and pushed my bike into transition with no issues.
Run (4.6 miles)-
I racked my bike, took off my helmet, slid on my run shoes and I was off! It took me a good mile to get my legs back under me. I'm a runner but you sure don't feel like one after a hard cycling effort. First mile was an 8:52. I took in water and ate a gel at the first water station. Once I hit mile 2 I started to feel like myself again and tried to keep my heart rate below 170 bpm until later in the race. My second mile split was 8:22. I spotted some friendly faces just past mile 2 which provided me with an extra boost and I felt like I took off from then til the finish. As with most triathlons they write your age on your calf. I don't know exactly why but it's helpful during times like this. A guy passed me but not too bad and he had a 41 on his calf which meant he was in my Age Group. Knowing that I didn't want to lose another place to anyone in my age group... I latched onto him. He carried me the last 1.5 miles. I was waiting and waiting to make my move. Go too early and they'll kick with you and who knows if they have more in the tank than you. So, I prefer to wait until the last 100-200m and then annihilate them :-) But nooo, my neighbor who had just finished was yelling at me "RUNNNNNNNNN!!!!!! GOOOOOOOO!!!!" So, I blasted the last few hundred meters. I found the guy after we finished and said "hey, thanks for carrying me to the line". He said "I couldn't kick with you, I hurt my leg last week". My side hurt so bad at the finish. I had been and am usually fighting a cramp, in each of my previous triathlons I have had a cramp during the run portion. Miles 3 and 4 were 7:47 and 7:36 avg. pace. I don't have the last .7 miles since I didn't stop my watch for a few minutes after I crossed the line. I'm sure it was a really low 7 since I sprinted home to the finish.
Last year I did the run course in 37:44, this year I did it in 37:22 and it was a half mile longer this year. I averaged an 8:02 pace per mile. My goal was 8:00, close enough I think.
Summary -
Even as my swim time drops it's still a LOT of work for me and I feel the same year after year. I saw numerous people backstroking, just floating and resting, and even a kayaker yelling at a woman "you're swimming in circles! you're swimming in circles!" I guess that tends to happen when you're just backstroking with one arm... I laughed. The bike leg is always fun for me although I wish I hadn't blown the shoe part. I wasn't too excited about the run which makes no sense since I am a runner. I'm very happy overall with my performance. I dropped over 11 minutes from last year even with an added half mile run and the two minute pit stop. My goal will remain dropping 10 minutes next year. That would put me top 5 in my age group based on this year's times. I kinda like triathlons and think I'll keep doing them. Thanks for reading.
