Culpeper Sprint - TriathlonSprint

The water was gross, but really only near the start/finish where all of the mud got kicked up from people walking around. Once you were out in the lake, it wasn't too bad (relatively speaking. I'm comparing to Lake Anna and a few other I've swum in, and basing this on how much of my arm I can see during the pull). I swam very comforably. My sighting was good, I had a pretty good draft going at one point, but then I ran into someone doing the breaststroke, but the guy that I was drafting must have just slipped past him. Then, in the last 150 meters, I caught some guys feet. As soon as I touched his feet, he pulled up and started breaststroking. So then I ran into him, as I tried to go around, I'd get kicked. Then he'd start up again, get off course, and I touched his feet again. This happened 3 times before I was finally able to get around him. Seriously dude, just keep swimming.

Nothing. The fact that I was catching and passing people, and that my swim time was in the Top third of my AG and Overall, I have to be pleased. Of course I'd like to be faster, I'm just not (yet).

I made a comment in my log yesterday about my T times. If I can pat myself on the back for anything that I do, it would be my transitions. Normally I sprint, which really gets my HR up and I sometimes have trouble getting settled in on the bike. For this one I just went easy, and it seemed to work. Maybe I could have gone low 50s had I sprinted though. No big deal today.

There is some question as to the length of this course, not to mention that the hill you had to run up (and then down coming into T2) was actually part of the bike course, not part of the TA. I'm gonna round it out at 15.75. I had a little bit of trouble getting into my shoes. I am really happy with how I rode this course. Being a huge nerd, I had looked good and hard at an elevation profile for this course. I knew which hills were long, which were just little bumps in an overall descent, and so forth, which helped me know when to hammer and when to sit up and spin. I passed A LOT of people, and I know that is one of the reasons why.

Because we had to ride up a steep hill to get to the dismount, there was no flying dismount for this course. I carried my bike down the hill, then ran it to the rack from there.

Dude, I was #1 overall. Big pimpin.

I really was trying to keep myself in check on this run. It was a tough course, starting out mostly going uphill. Yes, I could have pushed myself harder, but I didn't feel the need. I was working, just not too hard. I will say that I did blow out the last half mile and picked off a few more heads.

Nothing. I ran it the way I wanted to.

Bagels, gatorade, water, stretching, and sitting around looking for some shade.


Ha. It's funny how training for an IM makes this race seem like cake. I did the whole course in about the same amount of time it is going to take me to get through Chessyman's swim. (okay, maybe it was a liiiiitle bit longer)


It's all good in the hood. I just decided to do this to break up the monotony of IM training. I'm glad I did it. Got to meet some new BTers. Sure I would have liked to take a place in my AG, and in retrospect I know when and where I could have made up the 2 minutes that I needed, but being that I wasn't racing for that purpose, it doesn't really matter to me. Plus, I got to race my PI Tri shorts to make sure that I like 'em in all events, and I do. Sweetness. And all was right with the world.