The Nation's Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

I LOVE the excitement of the start. The area of the swim start was really beautiful - and the national anthem was well done. The actual swim went great - the river wasn't THAT bad, but I definitely remember not liking the taste I was getting in my mouth and getting a little quesy from swallowing a bit too much water. Right from the start, I was battling this one chick who was kicking like she was kung fu fighting. At the turn around, she crossed me again and fluttered water up my nose. Thanks sweetheart! It was a little crowded rounding the bouy, and right after the turn around the sun made everything turn into a glare. I actually almost swam right into the last buoy and past it on the left instead of the right. I kept swimming forward and realized I was about to pass the latters on my left. All in all - performance was good.

Tried to get ahead of this girl from the beginning! I mean geez...the audacity!

There was a good hike to the transition, and lots of fun rocks to dodge. I washed my feet off before putting on my bike shoes.

Ohhh the bike. My weakness. Well, I started out strong. There was a great tailwind and I was going about 21MPH for the first few miles. At the turn, that turned into a pretty strong headwind, but not too bad. I tried shifting down and my chain started playing hopsotch. It jumped down 2 or 3 gears, and started making a weird clicking noise. Kinda freaked me out - but I got it back to the gear I was in originally and stayed there. This made some of the short climbs and going into the wind pretty difficult, but I just wanted to get through it.

Bike course was beautiful. I love DC...and being able to bike on the main streets and even go through some of the tunnels was amazing. I was hurting...and I would of loved to be able to shift...but uh, hey, I'm biking...in DC! I think the course was a little short - my computer registered a little over 23 miles. Being in the condition that I was - I didn't really mind... and everyone ran the same race, so I'm not complaining!

Gotten a tune up prior to the race. Took it in to my LBS afterwards and my gears were all off.

Oh yeah - and nutrition.... what was I doing? I don't remember. I think I drank like 20 oz gatorade. I really just had no desire to eat.

Started out hard. Got a few crampies in my side from lack of drinking...but it subsided. It got pretty hot pretty quick... so I tried to grab water from each water stop. I'm glad I carried my gatorade though because the aid stations weren't as often as they had said. There were a lot of people out on the run course so seeing everyone made it a lot of fun. There was a chick was RIGHT on my back for the first 5 miles. I tried ditching her by speeding up and sprinting every now and then, but she stuck right with me. She had her ipod playing and I could hear her music, not to mention, her heavy breathing. I turned around at one point and even asked if she was ok - and she said yeah that she has always breathed that way... and then said, "this is a great pace though - Good job!" Awww. Noelle, stop being pissy. I said thanks... and then didn't mind her much anymore.

The last few miles really hurt. I really pushed it through this one. Although some poeple say the course was a bit short, I think it was right on because my pace was pretty accurate to the average. I haven't run that hard since my injury so I was really happy with my performance. Crossing the finish line was so much fun.

Nada.

Lots of good finish line activities. We took a bus back to the transition area and took our bikes back to the car - which was parked in Georgetown Mall parking garage. A hike, but so worth it. Hung out in DC the rest of the day, watched some college ball at the ESPN center, and did way too much walking. My ankle and knees were killing by the time we made it to dinner. Next time... i'll bring my bike to do the touring!


Great race. Gorgeous course, and a lot of great support. For being the first time it was a triathlon, this was a great race. They'll probably need to add port-a-potties and a few more drinking stations on the run next year, but for the most part, it was taken care of nicely. I'm sure the race directors had a hay day trying to get everything approved... and it was well worth it!