At the start made my way to the "front row." I left the pack with three other guys in the first 25-50 yards. The two to my left swam away after about 150 yards and the guy on my right faded back after about 300 yards. In all, smooth water off the start all the way to the second buoy until I started passing the previous waves. Navigation and passing were fine until the turnaround...at which point, I couldn't see anything. It was the worst glare I've ever been in. Dark blue goggles didn't help...I needed mirrors. I swam up on at least three people who I never even saw. About half way back on the second leg of the swim, I passed one of the two guys who had got away at the start. He was having a harding time than me with navigation...he said he had to tread water twice because he couldn't see. Second in wave and second in age group (M30-34 had two waves.)

Darker goggles. Swim more. I only swam twice in the past month...and one of them was the Annapolis triathlon. I got off to a great start...and had good passing technique but awful navigation for half the race. No drafting...but I wasn't prepared to chase my wave leaders and there was no one else available.

A couple hundred yard run from the river to my bike. Felt like it was taking forever in transition. Did not fog my glasses (finally!).

Load Gu onto bike instead of stuffing it into pockets.

I left with 20oz of Gatorade and 20 oz of water. Came back with all of the water and about 5-10% of the Gatorade. Ate two Gu's on bike course. Should have had more to drink. Stayed in aero position for long stretches including around turns...but was passed as if I was not moving by far too many people.

Perhaps invest in a bike computer. Real time data on watts/cadence/mph is the type of thing I think I could react to. Did not climb the hills very well. They were often long slow grades that I should have downshifted once and then spun right over...instead, I found myself slowing to a crawl.

Had fun talking with film guy and number 66. 66 and I traded positions on the bike a couple times. We were one rack apart. He was fun...I was telling film guy to get a good look at 66 because he was going to run down the leader.

Could have been more serious and focused...but mostly, nothing. It was a light and fun few minutes before the uglyness of running.

Really pushed it hard. Instead of trying to find a pace that I could handle for an hour...several times I tried to find the fastest pace that I could maintain for 5 minutes. I did not pass a single person on the run. I was passed by at least 25 or 35 people. In the last mile, coming down Constitution near 12th Street, one of the women Midshipmen passed me. She was like a rocket.

Ended up with best run time I've ever posted...it is even better than the five and six mile training "races" that I've done. Must have been the adrenaline...or the course was shorter than 6.2 miles.

Better training, run more bricks, run more workouts at "race pace" or near race pace.

Water and a little food. Free rubdown that was awesome and worth the 15 minute wait. Sandwich and cytomax. Then walked back to G'town to leave.


Preparation and lack of sleep in the past two weeks.


Course is built for speed. It is no nonsense swim: out and back. It had long flats or swooping curves for bike and no major hills for run. It was not a difficult course, in fact, it was easy, but it should show correspondingly fast times. (except for the big winds on the bike.) The lack of a shuttle at the end of the race back to the T1 was a big pain...but, that is DC Police for you.