Reston Sprint Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

What a crappy swim - even though I seeded myself with a 1:01 there were still a bunch of people in front of me that clearly had no business being there. People doing breastroke, holding onto lane lines after a 50, etc. I passed 5 people in the first 100 included a cluster of 4 people at the 100 mark that looked like were just hanging around on the wall.

2 open turns during the race did not help my time and I knew I was losing time to the top guys as they signed up as elites and therefore went first and had open water to swim in.

Next 300 meters was uneventful and I had a fair amount of open water.

Seed myself faster.

Good solid T1 - everything went smooth - wetsuit, goggles off, shoes, helmet on. Setup, who ran the race messed up and gave the first 50 people 1:00 T1 times so this is an estimate.

Nothing

This is where I had decided I was going to push the race - I knew the course and had been feeling good on the bike recently. Bike was stripped down - no nutrition, no repair kit, no cages.

Started off on the bike and saw my HR was 179 (Z5 for me). Was up out of the saddle immediately up the first little hill and around the corner, hammered the downhill and passed a few people. Up the bigger hill on Baron Cameron I turned around a noticed a guy gaining on me - crap. Spun up the hill and my HR was still really high (over 180 at this point). Kept pushing and checked over my shoulder - the guy who was gaining on me was no where in sight. Nice. Lap 2 saw Slake who looked like he was passing a bunch of people and having a good ride, then Z.

Lap 3 was uneventful and I just kept pushing - HR stayed in the 170s and 180s the entire ride and I was really damaging my legs but knew I just had a 5K to run.

Exited into transition and only 2 bikes were there. Was never passed the entire ride. Hell yeah.

Nothing.

Quickly into tranisition and was told the Dave C and Dave O (two guys I swim with) were 4 minutes ahead which was perfect bc they started the swim 4 minutes ahead of me.

Lace locks were much faster than tying my shoes. :)

Nothing.

Starting running downhill which always loosens up my legs and is the way I like to start a race. I was alone for the first 2 miles and did not see a single person until the way back on the course. It was a weird feeling and did not even feel like I was in a race. Drank a little water at mile 1 & 2.

Around mile 1.5-1.75 I started to get that sick to my stomach feeling. I knew I had been redlining the race for a good 45-50 minutes by this point and I was starting to hit some uphills. Tried to work on form and push as hard as I could without making myself sick.

The last 1/2 mile is brutal - all uphill. About 150 ft out I dry heaved and then 50 ft out I dry heaved again - a volunteer and one of my friends asked why I was slowing down so much, saw me almost get sick and then said "oh!" and backed away. Last 1/4 mile pace was probably around 10/minute mile - I was shot.

Not sure I would do much different - I went hard and was happy with my overall race time.

Spoke with Dave C and Dave O - Dave C had broken last years course record by 1.5 minutes so I know he had won the race unless someone from the later swim times had a killer race. Watched Ally come in - she did awesome - her first tri ever and she was 10/197 for the woman and 2nd in her AG!

Saw the rest of the Bters coming in looking strong and Dom finish - he had a really strong race and will be ready to PR at the Olympic distance this September.


Seeding on the swim was a little off but that only cost me 10-15 seconds at most. Really I just need more training & experience. The guy who won this is a 9 time KQ and has been doing triathlons for 20 years. I have been doing this for 14 months now and dont do nearly the volume of training he does every week.


Nice course, great volunteers but it really lacked in the aid station dept (ran out of water on the run late in the race) and the post race food was poor (bagels, oranges, heed and water only).