The Nation's Triathlon - Triathlon

The wave-time trial start is awesome--a great way to manage so many swimmers. However, if you're in a late wave, you're waiting a long time. Be prepared. Water temp was nice, but not wetsuit legal. I have one swim speed (slow) and today was no different--I swam my predictable pace. My sighting was not too good, don't know why. Ironically, I had more contact with swimmers than in a normal mass start but no big deal. Pretty cool swimming under Memorial bridge.

Be a little more disciplined about sighting. Otherwise exactly what I expected. Work on improving swim speed.

Jogged pretty quickly into the large transition area, sat down on grass to put my bike shoes on. Smooth transition. Jogged out to bike start and felt great getting on bike.

Next season I'm gonna bike without socks as this is the biggest time suck in my T1s.

PR for me. Absolutely inspiring course on the closed streets through the unsurpassed grandeur of the Nation's Capitol. I do not share the criticisms of so many others. Yes, the "no-passing" zones are inconvenient, but if everyone obeys the rules then it's really no big deal. Of course, plenty of riders don't and that's where the problem is. Officials need to camp out on that part of the course to solve that problem. Other than that, I found the road conditions not bad at all for an urban area. If you watch the road you can avoid the pitfalls. Living in this area, I find it a really cool opportunity to ride the Capitol roads like this.

Not a darned thing except next year ride a tri bike.

Nothing to it but to do it. Faster, of course...

Nice loop course with plenty of well-spaced aid stations. Stayed left for maximum shade as the sun was starting to heat things up.

Train to improve run speed.

Walk with my wife through the really pretty West Potomac Park and stretch.


Only my training, which was really good for my first year. This off-season I'll take the training up a notch, especially for swim and run.


This is one awesome tri! I met my goal of under 3:00 hrs. I can't wait to train harder and return next year. For it's size, it's really well organized, and the courses can't be beat. The logistics are a little challenging, but that's part of the overall experience. Fortunately it didn't rain hard in the days leading up to the race, which could have cancelled the swim. Just need to improve the quality of food for the post-race celebration.