4th off, swim was fine, estimated time was 3:45, came in at 3:35 so I was pretty happy with that. Never really got a chance to catch anyone and didn't have anyone catching my feet either.

Nothing.

I need to try to dry myself off a little better because the tri-top was a nightmare to get on. I hadn't practiced this wet and figured "how hard can it be?"

Practice getting my tri-top on wet.

W&OD is always rough to ride on because of the bumps, riding over intersections but it's about as smooth as you're going to get in NoVA. I went out on the bike in 4th place, passed one girl immediately and spent the rest of the race chasing the two guys in front of me, though they had tri bikes so I couldn't exactly get in the tightest aero position. I knew there was two guys ahead of me, but when we hit Ashburn road I only saw the dude in the Javelin jersey coming back passing me. I thought "oh crap, he missed the turn." Just as I round the marker, I heard "SHH******TTTTTTTT" from way down the W&OD. As I was passing people, I was reminding them to turn at Ashburn road because there weren't any volunteers yet. Told the first cop that we passed that nobody was up there.

With about 3 miles to go I got passed by the guy that missed the turn and man was he cursing up a storm. Felt bad for the guy, he still averaged 22.8/mph even with the missed turn. I also passed the guy in the Javelin gear.

With about 1 mile to go, I got passed again by the Javelin guy, and just told him to take it in, I wasn't going to pass again.

Maybe take a little off in the beginning so I can hammer home.

T2 was good except I ripped the corner of my bib number from my race belt on accident. Took off the bib number and just carried it in my hand.

Try not to rip my race number

Coming out of transition, I ran into the Javelin guy, and he goes "I can't get my legs moving, I'm paying for passing you at the end." Can't say my legs felt any better.

I hammered it out, had a good steady fast turn-over and kept my breathing in check. I rounded the cone at the 1 mile mark and my breathing started to get real heavy, my heart rate was easily at LT, but since I only had a mile to go I hung on and pushed hard.

Nothing, fastest pace I've had in a running race. Dropped 6+ minutes off my time from last year including 2+ minutes on the run.

Stretched, caught my breath, hung out with my parents. Found out that the guy that missed the turn forgot to come to T2 before the race and had his wife come and drop off his running shoes, but forgot to tell him where they were. Everyone had the same transition bags, so it was literally impossible to find his shoes. He never did find them.

Got to see my wife and my brother complete their first triathlon!


Make sure the race volunteers are at the turn-around :) I knew where it was from last year but the guy in front didn't.

Only thing I would change is that somehow having T1 and T2 in the same spot, but I think logistically that would be next to impossible.