The Nation's Triathlon - Washington DC 9.13.09

I signed up for this race way back in December as a 'destination' race. I didn't realize that by the time the race sold out they had 6,000 people registered. They had about 4,000 finishers so I guess you lose some amount of people to injury, etc.

Pre-Race:

The race was Sunday, September 13th. We arrived in Washington, D.C. on Friday, late morning. The race expo started at 12:00 on Friday, so we decided to head over around 1:00. They have a mandatory pre-race meeting that every athlete must attend. I just missed the 1:00 meeting so I had to wait for the 1:30 meeting. Nothing too earth-shattering was discussed at the meeting but they made it mandatory and your hand stamp was necessary before moving on to the next stop where you picked up your packet with your numbers and your swim cap. From there you moved on to get your t-shirt and your goodie bag.

Saturday:

Mandatory bike racking at the transition area which was located separate from the expo (at a hotel). They also had the opportunity for a practice swim in the Potomac river from 1-4pm. I didn't take advantage of it because I had run 7 miles that morning and wanted to take it easy from that point on.

Sunday/Race Day - Transition opens at 5:00am and closes at 6:45 for the first wave to go off at 7:00am. I got there around 5:50 and went straight to my bike and set up the rest of the transition, got suited up halfway in the wetsuit (water temp was 72 degrees) and checked an extra bag with dry clothes in gear check for after the race (did this because it was recommended at the pre-race meeting as they SLOWLY opened transition starting at 10:30 am for people to start getting their stuff). I stood on line for the Port-o-Johns and still had about 45 minutes before my wave went off at 7:48. Weather for race day was mid to upper 60s at the start of the race and low 70s by the finish - it was sunny and just a beautiful day! Also, this race benefitted the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society so there was a ton of Team-In-Training people out there participating, volunteering and cheering everyone on - very nice!!

SWIM:

Single loop 1.5K course - pretty crowded waves just because of the large field. I thought there was a pretty long distance to the first buoy so it was tough to sight where we were headed. We swam out and underneath a bridge, past the bridge about 300 yards and then turned around to head back. I got kicked in the face going around that first buoy but not bad enough to lose the goggles or anything! I felt like I was swimming at a decent pace, but turns out it took me 35:41 which was about a minute slower than my time at NJ State Tri in July. The current was noticeable on the "out" part of the swim but not too overwhelming.

T1:

This took 3:04 which I am not completely surprised about because the transition area was 240,000 square feet and it was a long distance to the "bike out" area.

BIKE:

This was a nice course - went out on a 5 mile loop and then a 20 mile loop. Roads were in decent condition, on the 20 mile loop (10 out and 10 back) the 10 miles out were on an incline and I felt like I was just struggling to maintain a decent speed and just thought my legs were tired. I realized after the turnaround that I had been climbing most of that 10 miles - gradual incline. The 10 miles back was much faster because I had the decline working in my h There were a good amount of volunteers and spectators for most of the bike course. Overall the bike took me 1:21:51 for an average of 18.2 mph which was about 7 minutes slower than my race at NJ State.

T2: 2:25 - this was "slow" again because of the long run from the "bike in" to my area of transition. I was close to the "run out" though :)

RUN: Nice 10K course along the Potomac River, around the Jefferson Memorial, around the Lincoln Memorial, over the bridge towards Arlington where you turned around and headed back towards the Jefferson Memorial and on to the finish. Decent amount of shade on the course and mostly flat. They had an aid station about 1/10th of a mile after every mile marker which was great. Total run time was 59:40 (9:38 pace) with some periods of walking. My legs just felt tired about 3 miles into the run.

Total time: 3:02:40 - not my best time and not my worst. I was happy with finishing especially since I had the flu for a full week before this race and was just starting to feel back to normal.

Now, it's on to finish training for the Marine Corps Marathon on 10/25, then finally some relaxation!!! :)

- Kel