Quantico Triathlon - Triathlon

Actual swim time - results (7:21) include a short run from the pool. Very happy with this swim. Got slowed down a couple times waiting until I had an opportunity to pass slower people in front of me, but for the most part I was able to swim as hard as I wanted/was able.

Nothing.

The official results included both transition times in the bike time, oddly, so these times are from my watch. Lost a few seconds having to pull my bike shoes out of the garbage bag, but I'm still glad I had them in there, if only so I wasn't putting wet socks on my wet feet.

Could've saved myself a decent amount of time if I was willing to bike and run without socks, but I'm not, so...

The race said this was 9 miles, but my bike computer had it short. Travis was fairly certain it was going to be closer to 8 miles, based on the times he's run there in the past. Anyhow! So, it was raining fairly hard for most of this. The first half of the course was a fairly rough road surface with lots of potholes to watch out for (though most were marked with neon orange spray paint). Also had a long gradual uphill for the first few miles, then a more gradual uphill with a couple short but steep climbs through the housing area. Nothing more challenging than I've been riding, though. Had to be a lot more conservative on the downhill sections than I would've been on dry road, but I tried to push as hard as I could manage when the road surface was smoother and I knew there wouldn't be any tight turns coming up. Passed several people during the bike and was only passed by a couple people. One girl I passed around mile 5 passed me a short while later, and I thought "Oh hell no!" and caught up with her and passed her for good about a mile later. She actually cheered me on as I passed her, which was cool! Drank about 10-12 oz of water throughout the ride...didn't really feel thirsty but knew I should take in some fluid before the run.

Had it not been raining and the road was dry, I definitely would've pushed harder. Just not worth risking a crash. Enjoyed this course but wish it had been longer (well...if it hadn't been pouring, anyway).

This was pretty quick. Changed shoes quickly, grabbed my visor and race belt, and ran. Put my visor and number belt on as I ran.

Nothing

The mile splits tell the story: 8:05, 7:45, 7:31, 1:12

In short, I felt awesome on this run. Quickly shook the bike out of my legs within the first half mile or so, and was very pleased to see the first mile split. The girl (also 32 yrs old) who eventually was the overall female winner passed me just before the 1 mile marker but I knew there was no way I'd be able to catch her, so I let her go. Passed several other women, though, including a few from my age group. There was a short, small downhill after the turnaround point, just before the 2 mile marker, on which my legs just opened up. From that point on they just wanted to FLY and I was feeling good, so I went with it. What a difference temps in the mid 60s make for a tri! Also helped that the course was mostly flat. When I saw my 2nd mile split, I knew I'd be close to PRing the 5K, which was additional motivation to keep pushing hard and see what happened. With about .25 mile to go I passed a 16 year old girl and realized I am TWICE her age. Yikes! Kept pushing hard and came around the last bend and crossed the finish line with a big smile on my face.

I broke my post-HS XC standalone 5K PR, which had stood for almost 5 years. No need to do anything different.

Walked through the finish area and collected my finisher's coin and food, including a huge slice of watermelon that really hit the spot despite the cool rain. Collected my wet stuff in transition and headed back to the hotel for a hot shower and breakfast #2. Would've liked to have hung around a bit longer and watched/cheered on other finishers, but since they're doing a separate awards ceremony a week from Tuesday, there was no sense waiting around for the official results and awards anyway. They're only giving awards to the top 3 overall and top person in each age group, as it turns out, and I missed out on that by 16 seconds. To a 35-year-old woman, which makes their use of 10-year age groups all the more annoying. But oh well! Still very pleased with my performance regardless.


The rain limited my bike time, but whatever I lost there I likely more than made up for on the run thanks to the cool temperatures, so oh well!


MCM always puts on great events, and this was no exception despite the rain and it being the inaugural year for the race. Wish the swim and bike had been longer and they didn't use 10 year age groups for awards, but otherwise this was a very well executed inaugural race.