Columbia Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

I was really worried about this part. I am a land mammal. I started swimming in Nov., and my one OWS practice a couple of weeks ago had been a humbling experience. I knew that if I could relax and avoid too many other bodies I would be less likely to panic. I deliberately waited at the back of the big M40-44 pack, and tried to stay wide for much of the swim. I still found the first few minutes quite disconcerting: my vision isn't so good at the best of times, and kept thinking that I was in clear-ish water, only to discover another body unexpectedly appearing out of the murk. But from the first turn onwards, I managed to stay relatively clear of traffic, and that helped me to get into a rhythm. I was swimming a bit wide, but the lines were so long that I don't imagine that it cost much distance. I started to feel comfortable, and to believe that I would make it ok. I may even have passed one or two people from my wave. I had no idea how fast I was swimming, but really didn't much care. Coming down the final stretch I made a special effort to avoid taking on water, remembering that this was where the high e.coli levels had been found that almost canceled the swim (yum!). Almost cramped coming out of the swim - why does that happen? Especially since I had been barely kicking at all. Really delighted to see that I had gone under 30 minutes on the swim.

Nothing really. This was faster than my ambitious target, so I was quite happy. I just need to work on becoming a faster swimmer. This is clearly my main limiter right now - nobody who finished ahead of me in the AG had a slower swim. Need more lessons.

I thought that the swim would be my weakest event, but it turns out that getting my kit off is an even greater weakness (990th overall). I thought it went pretty smoothly, but I guess that shows how little I know.

Perhaps attempt getting out of the wetsuit before the race. And I'm sure there's much else that could shave off seconds here and there. Practice!

A tale of two rides. The uphill parts, and the downhill parts (if there were any flat parts, I didn't notice them). I rather enjoyed the uphills, and I reeled in a lot of people on those sections. Fortunately there are a whole lot of them in the Columbia course. On the downhills some of the same people who I had passed going up would zoom past me; my 'relaxed geometry' road bike was no match for the mean machines that were flying past. Despite this, the ride went pretty well. I passed a lot of people, and I think only 2 in my AG passed me. One of the benefits of being a slow swimmer.) I had moved up to 75th in the AG by the end of the bike leg. ( I did my best to keep a lower position on the downhills, in order to minimize the losses, and this did help somewhat. My back quickly felt sore, and this became my main limiter. Probably partly due to the unaccustomed position (I should practice it more), and partly due to riding outside (almost all biking has been on the trainer since my collarbone break last July). I didn't eat or drink as much as I had planned to, but it was probably fine under the conditions. Overall quite pleased with my time for the hilly 41k, which was faster than my optimistic target.
Highlight of the ride: a turtle walking across the path of bike traffic around mile 24. Hope he made it to the other side.

I was happy with how I handled the race. But more outside riding to strengthen the back would be helpful. As would a tri bike and some semblance of a decent aero position.

Woohoo - I almost cracked the top 500 in T2 times.

The Columbia run course is brutal. At least 7 substantial hills that sap your strength. But at least the run is supposed to be my strength. I wasn't sure what to expect, as I had not been able to run for 4 1/2 of the past 6 months, thanks to knee injuries, and I hadn't run this far since November. Still treating the knees with a lot of respect, especially on the downhills, but feeling good about the run-easy-every-day plan that I've been following for the past month. I felt quite good at the start of the run, but the steep hill that comes after just a few hundred yards soon took care of that. But at least I was passing people all the way, and that provided a big boost. At around the half-way point, going up the 4th of the 7 hills, I passed former DC Mayor Adrian Fenty, who is in the same AG. We exchanged a few words -- too bad that we don't still have a triathlete as mayor. Each hill got progressively harder. I hadn't expected that stopping to walk would be an issue, but by the last couple of hills I was sorely tempted. I tried to pick up the pace a little in the last mile, but with about a half mile to go I felt the legs starting to cramp, and had to ease up a little. I felt great coming around the finishing chute, but I guess I must not have looked so great, as a number of people approached me with concerned looks on their face, expecting that I was about to keel over.

I had hoped to run faster, but I hadn't reckoned with the difficulty of this course. And I was happy that the pace was still below 7 min/mile. More hills in practice might have helped, and it might be useful to have run as far as 10k in training, but I was delighted to be even doing this after all the knee problems of the past 6 months.

Wandered around in a daze for a while. Hoped to see some of the BTers who were surely there, but that didn't go very far, since I wasn't sure of what to look for (we need BT t-shirts!), and even if I was I didn't have my glasses. After retrieving my bike and loading the car I checked my messages and found out that Andrea and Zoe had made a surprise trip to come to see me finish. So sweet of them! Too bad that they got delayed on the race shuttle, and so they missed me finishing by around 20 minutes, and then we didn't meet up for another half hour after that. All the same, it was fantastic to see them there.


So many things! But that's why this is just the first tri of many that I hope to do


This is a fantastic event. Not a race to set a PR on, since the bike and run are so tough, but it's a real test, and there's never a chance of getting bored. The race organization is outstanding. I can see why people keep coming back year after year. The volunteers were excellent, and the spectators surprisingly plentiful. The course is not easy, but it's also rather scenic.
The one thing that I missed was more information on the run. It shouldn't be too difficult to provide clear mile markers, and I wouldn't mind if there were race clocks at intermediate points (I know that we all have fancy wrist gadgetry ... but some of us can't read those without our glasses, and the mental arithmetic would help the miles to go by).