Columbia Triathlon - Triathlon

Maryland weather has been unseasonably cool this spring so the water temperature was only 69 degrees on race day. I have never raced in water that was wetsuit legal before so I was excited to be able to wear my wetsuit. I got into the water a minute or two before the wave went off which was a big help because the water was cooler then I thought it would be. Put my face in the water a few times to get used to it and then the wave went off and I started my swim.

I felt like I had a decent swim. Although the course seemed long, it was spot on. I really liked the wave start as I did not get punched, kicked, run over or really have any contact like I did at The Nations Triathlon in September. As a result, my swim was almost five minutes faster! Nothing too exciting on the swim, no current whatsoever. I got out of the water and looked at my watch and was very pleased with my time.

I made the stupid mistake of trying something new on race day. I knew I shouldn't have but for some reason I did. I really like biking with compression sleeves on so I figured I would save some time in transistion by putting my sleeves on under my wetsuit. BIG MISTAKE. about 400 meters into the swim my right foot felt numb and I knew that my leg was cramping due to the compression sleeves. I toes were falling asleep and it felt hard to kick and I knew I needed to get out of the water ASAP. Boy I will never do that again and its probably the biggest reason my T1 time sucked so much.

My T1 time was horrible due to a mistake I made in the swim by trying to swim with calf sleeves on. My feet went totally numb and my calf was cramping as I got out of the water. I spent some time taking the sleeves off and massaging my calf and foot to get it better. After a minute or two I was good to go and got my shoes on and was off. Also it was raining so that slowed things down a bit.

Hope for no rain on race day but mostly do not swim with calf sleeves on :)

This bike course has been one of the reasons I had never competed in this race until this year. For some reason, I had always been very intimidated by the climbing on this course since biking is my weakest discipline. With that being said, I knew that I should pre-ride the course one day before the race and I did that about three weeks prior to race day. WOW, pre-riding helped so much! I was very comfortable on the course during the race because I was so familiar with it and knew where every hill was, what to expect and what gearing I needed. Now it was raining still when i got onto the bike course and they were announcing to be careful on the bike because people from earlier waves had already been crashing so I took the bike pretty slow. I was able to maintain the same speed on a very hilly course (over 15mph) as I did on the flat course of the Nations Triathlon and I was very pleased with myself. To some, 15mph is pretty slow and I know I have much to improve upon with my biking but to me, setting a PR on the bike leg of this course in horrible conditions was truly amazing and gave me the confidence to know that I can go harder next time and my speed and endurance is improving. I felt really good during the ride and drank 1 bottle of EFS, 1 bottle of water and a gel on the bike leg. I handled the hills by spinning up the large ones and attacking the slower ones. Overall I am very happy with my bike portion of the race, its definately a tough course.

Go a little faster and work on hill climbing.

Took my time to get my feet dry before putting on shoes and socks for the run. Finished drinking some water and took a gel before heading out onto the course.

Go a litte faster.

My run has been the one aspect of my training that has improved the most. In my training, I am running 8:30min/miles without really realizing I am going that fast. I tried to run the course before the race but I got lost while looking at the map when I went for the pre run and did not get a chance to see any of the hills and boy were there plenty of them. A few people said that this run is probably one of the most difficult in all of triathlon and after experiencing it, I will probably agree with them.

I started out running 8:40 min/miles for the first 3/4 mile or so and realized I needed to slow down and tried to slow to a 10min/mile pace. Kept that pace for about half a mile and then when I looked down at my watch I was back around 8:30's again. Around mile two I noticed some pain around the top of my foot and saw that my shoes were loose so I stopped and tied them tighter-problem solved. After exiting the park we climbed into the neighborhoods which were just awful! whoever put this run course together is a twisted person since these hills were long, steep and just out right torture. I knew I couldn't keep up my pace for the whole run portion so I was reduced to walking the hills. Volunteers along the run course were amazing and they had plenty which was nice. Great signs and chalk markings at the uphills which was also a great motivator. During the neighborhood section, I noticed someone ahead of me that was in my AG. I knew that I needed to finish ahead of this person and made that my goal. Around the 4 mile mark there were some kind folks from the neighborhood that created their own refreshment stand and were passing out Yuenglings to racers! This reminded me of the Waverly neighborhood at the Baltimore Marathon where they hand out Natty Boh's to racers. I decided not to partake despite being pretty thirsty and wanting some ice cold beer. I saw that the guy I was chasing decided to grab a beer cup and at that moment I knew I would pass him and that is exactly what I did. I passed him and never looked back. Sweet! I knew I was not last in my AG lol. After going through the neighborhood there is one last large climb that they call "Gatorade Hill" and its a 12% grade. I saw a bunch of TNT signs lining the hill so I decided that I would run from one to the next and then walk to the next, then run, etc until I got to the top. Doing this made the hill more pleasant and kept my mind off how long the hill was. Once I got to the top of the hill I realized where I was on the run course and that it was all flat & downhill to the race finish. I glanced at my watch and knew that I was going to set a PR today. Ran full force to the finish line with some friends cheering me on and crossed the finish line with a huge smile on my face.

Do more hill work and figure out my zones and how to pace properly.

Got my medal and met up with some friends from my club. Walked up another freaking hill to get to the food tent (Seriously they needed to put the food at the top of a freaking hill after all the hills we did on the bike and run?? lol). Had some food, got changed, got my bike and loaded my stuff into the car. Went over to the awards and saw my friend Rob take 2nd in his AG. Drove home and relaxed the rest of the day.


This was not an A race for me and I signed up on a whim because I just wanted to do it. I felt good about my race but I made a few mistakes that cost me some time. I know that I will not make the same mistakes at my next race which will help my time. Oh and I will train more on hills :)


There are not enough words to say how great this race is. Tri columbia is known for putting on the best races in the Mid-Atlantic and I am grateful to have raced in the 30th anniversary of the Columbia Triathlon. There were so many volunteers which made for an amazing day. I really loved the atmosphere because it was a large race with a competitive field that had a good mix of non competitive racers like me. I finally conquered my fear of this course and came away with a Olympic Distance PR!! whats not to love about that!! I will definately be back next year and would encourage anyone looking for a great race to give this one a try.