login
 Swim
Comments: No swim - Potomac running too fast and with too much debris following storms earlier in the week  Transition 1
Comments: From corrals outside of transition - started with aerohelmet and sunglasses on (but went with racing flats on the feet rather than my bike cleats) We could start with bike helmets on, so I imagine that an alien arriving from Mars this morning and landing in West Potomac park would have been highly confused by a large group of men and women with helmets on crammed into cattle-like pens. Anyhow the time passed as I watched other waves shuffle forward. I looked at my HR in the corral just as we started. 62BPM – hmm maybe I wasn’t treating this race with much respect. What would you do differently?: Be more assertive and get to the front of my wave to get a clear start (even with 15 others in the group I was held up running to my bike)  Bike
Comments: As soon as I started the bike I kicked into a good rhythm. It’s a fast course and impossible not to draft at times especially down Clara Barton. But I didn’t get too held up and this was fast for me. I enjoyed it hugely and I felt the hooligan factor crank up as we headed back into town. It was all over very quickly – only took a couple of sips of Gatorade and water. What would you do differently?: Nothing Transition 2
Comments: All good What would you do differently?: Nothing  Run
Comments: This run was short by about 0.2 mile. Really annoying – I imagine that the RD just hadn’t re-measured the course following the move of the transition area. So while I had a good run it wasn’t really that good. Took a few sips of water at aid stations but that was it. What would you do differently?: Push the pace harder for last 3 miles rather than last mile only Post race
Warm down: Nothing What limited your ability to perform faster: Lack of taper. Run pacing Event comments: OK - putting aside all the 9/11 anniversary emotions. I can't complain abou the lack of a swim - Mother Nature has been cruel in this area for a couple of weeks (actually it was quite a feat to get the race on this week). But I was slightly annoyed that all the medium T shirts had run out by 5pm on Saturday (even with a whole lot of no shows), and far more annoyed that the run course was too short - I mean how difficult is it to measure 10k ? I think though that the organisers need to look carefully at the overall numbers on the bike course given the route : there just isn't enough time to get things spread out. It is amazing there aren't more accidents as there is a massive range of abilities and route is narrow, especially on Clara Barton. Post race is fine - good food and good live band. However even if I wasn't going back to the UK next summer ahead of next year's Nations Tri - I wouldn't do it again. Last updated: 2010-10-10 12:00 AM
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
View profile
Add to friends
Go to training log
Go to race log
Send a message
View album
CONNECT WITH FACEBOOK
United States
65F / 18C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 80/2417
Age Group = M40-44
Age Group Rank = 9/412
I very nearly didn’t do this race. When the swim was cancelled I thought there wasn’t much point even though I had had a great time racing it last year. I hadn't tapered as my mind is focused on IMFL. But then, on further reflection, almost at the last minute I decided to do it. It’s my family’s last year in the US before we head back to the UK next summer so I won’t get another easy chance to ride like a hooligan around closed streets of DC. And it is the 10th anniversary of 9/11 of course : so in some ways I came round to feeling that being in DC, doing the race, experiencing the event with an additional dimension, was somehow showing my own respect as America remembered.
And so I lined up near the swim corrals this morning with 4000 others and heard the best rendition of the US national anthem, as the Stars and Stripes was hung from a large gantry by a firefighter and the sun rose over the Washington Monument. It was an electrifying, goosebump, moment and one that I won’t forget.
None