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Comments: If anyone still doubts the benefits of a wetsuit for a poor swimmer, look no further than these results. My 1500m tt in a 50m pool w/o wetsuit is approx. 45 mins. Here, even after poor navigation in the 2nd half, getting kicked in the head and losing my googles (temporarily) and flipping on my back to get rid of a calf cramp, I swim 36 min! I was stunned at the time. What would you do differently?: More open water practice. I tend to drift left when I tire.  Transition 1
Comments: I knew this was slow, but this is ridiculous. Long run up to transition then dealing with the mud, but seriously, I wasn't thinking straight, standing there wondering whether to put on my bike shoes or my running shoes. What would you do differently?: Some mental clarity would be helpful.  Bike
Comments: I came into this race fairly under-trained on the bike so I was happy with this. I had heard the concerns about crowding on the course, but I found it to be a very enjoyable ride on a beautiful course. What would you do differently?: Simply ride more. Two rides of 10-25 miles each week just doesn't cut it. Transition 2
Comments: Better transition than T1. I think having just one pair of shoes to choose from helped.  Run
Comments: Normally in a tri my run gets progressively better. Here, I felt bad and the beginning at that feeling stayed with me the entire run. Dropped back to a survival stride and just tried to enjoy the moment. Nice flat course. What would you do differently?: Probably do more brick workouts. Post race
Warm down: Found dw and packed up. Ironically, driest thing in transition was the wetsuit. What limited your ability to perform faster: um, age, and not enough bike training. Event comments: Logistically I think this is a tough race to organize. Parking is very limited (partciularly when there's a tea party on the Mall), and due to the number of entrants the wait to swim can be long. That said, the race was very organized, the volunteers were great, the bike and run courses were beautiful, and the Potomac River cleaner than I ever imagined it would be. A wonderful experience. Last updated: 2010-09-16 12:00 AM
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United States
Precipitation
Overall Rank = 2980/4418
Age Group = M 50-54
Age Group Rank = 125/175
This was my first oly, after many years of doing just sprints. I'm a runner who got into tri's in middle age but am limited by the swim (I sink like a rock). Finally trained hard enough for an oly and got a sleeveless wetsuit. I only wanted to finish, figuring that if I did it would be around 3:30. Got up at 4:45 and had a bagel, banana, and coffee.
Walked over the Memorial Bridge in the pouring rain, got to transition about 6:30 and stood, in the pouring rain, staring at my stuff getting soaking wet. Squeezed into my wetsuit and stood in line for the port-a-john. Tried to stretch, then got in line again, thinking by that time that with the 10-15 min. wait and all the gatorade I'd already drunk, I should just stay in line, in perpetuity. Finally walked down to the river to see the earlier swim heats. I spotted one or two swimmers in each heat that were weaker swimmers than I. Began to feel better. Unfortunately, I was so intent on watching these heats that I almost missed my own, and had to spring to the dock at the last minute to join them. Rookie mistake.