My bib number was pretty low this time - #13. So, there wasn't much waiting in line to start, I pretty much started 2 minutes after the race began.

In the emailed race instructions and in the announcements immediately before the race, the race coordinators stressed that if you are tapped on the foot during the swim then you must let people pass you at the wall. As it turn out, I caught up to the woman ahead just after the first turn and tapped her foot. At the wall, she just kept on going and didn't let me pass. Irked, I poked my head out of the water to see if anyone else was coming (there was two-way traffic in the lanes, so I had to make sure no one was behind me trying to pass AND no one was coming in the opposite direction), and seeing that there wasn't I sprinted ahead to pass her, which I did a few yards before the wall. After that point, I had the next lane all to myself. As I swam along, I noticed that there was a HUGE pile-up behind her - at least 4 or 5 swimmers were waiting to pass, some of whom were occasionally standing up in the pool! (I don't know if that's illegal or not - none of the emails said anything about that). The people behind her must have had pretty lousy swim times, and that probably ended up benefitted me.

As I continued through the swim I felt very winded. Looking back, this was probably because I had to expend so much energy passing early in the swim (third length). Because I was winded, the turns in general and especially the turns where I had to pass under the lane markers were very slow. A couple of times I sucked in water before coming up. Some people were doing flip turns and swimming under the lane marks after they pushed off. No way I could have done that - I don't have that kind of breath control under normal circumstances let alone after having had to sprint a length to pass someone.

When I first saw my time, I thought it must have been wrong. How could I have ended up slower in the race than I was during my training? In the Mannassas Mini-Tri, I bettered my previous best time at 250 yds by 30 seconds despite having to do under-the-lane-marker turns and having to pass multiple people along the way. Thinking back, I think it was my turns that really killed me. Plus, I did all my time trials in 25 yd pools and I learned later that this was a 25 meter pool (35 yards more).

Try to stay more even keel on my pace even when passing.

My recent equipment purchases definitely paid off - I'm pretty pleased with this time. On race day, I decided to put my race belt on underneath my tri tank top during the swim. I then took out the race belt and put it over my shirt as I was walking to my bike. Getting my bike shoes on went pretty well. I had planned to dry my feet off a bit, but in my post-swim delerium I forgot and put them on as soon as I was standing in front of my bike. After that I just put on my sunglasses and helmet, got my bike out and took off.

One thing they did at this triathlon that they did not do at the Manassas Mini-Tri is put the lower-seeds closer to the bike exit. This is definitely an advantage. Also, the bike exit was very close to the pool exit, so I only had to travel about 10 yards between the swim timing mat and my transition area.

Another thing I did was I brought a yellow helium balloon with me and tied it just above my bike, trying to avoid another situation like in Manassas where I lost 10-15 seconds looking for my bike. Although this was helpful, since I was so close to the swim exit and in the second row back it was easy to find my bike. I'm sure this wasn't the case for folks seeded back further who had to pass a number of rows of bikes before getting to theirs.

Despite the advantages they afforded to the lower-seeded swimmers, my time was pretty respectable even among other the higher-seeded racers.


Nothing

Once again I had some trouble getting clipped in and going. However, this affected my bike time and not T1 because the timing mat for the start of the bike was actually before the mount line. I had tried the day before to have my shoes clipped in beforehand and slip my feet in after mounting the bike, but this didn't go very well. My shoes, despite being otherwise very good for triathlons (tabs for gripping the heel and tongue, 2 velcro straps, soft lining for riding without socks, etc), aren't designed for this kind of mount. The velcro straps fly outwards and get caught in the front cranks and chain. For next time, I think I'll try to do a flying mount with my shoes on so that I have forward momentum as I fumble around trying to get clipped in.

After I got going things went pretty smoothly for a while. The day before the race was the day Tropical Storm Hanna went through the area, and there was a lot of rain. I was worried more than anything that the pavement would be wet during the race. This turned out not to be the case - the weather was perfect (65 degrees, sunny) with no water on the roads, not even puddles.

I had driven the course the day before and knew that it would be a fast one. Wide streets, not that hilly and several unbroken sections which were slightly downhill - ideal for getting into an aero position (with my new aerobars!) and cranking out some clicks at a high speed. I used my cyclocomputer to keep track of my average and instant MPH. I could tell I was doing pretty well because I was hovering at right about 20 mph, which was faster than I was able to achieve in my trial-runs the weekend before. I was in aero position through most of the race. I came up only during hilly segments where I've found that I am able to hold a faster seed up off the aerobars.

The course was pretty well marked and they had volunteers at just about every turn. Despite this, I managed to take one wrong turn off the course because, basically, I wasn't paying close enough attention to the volunteer's hand-signals. It only lost me about 10 seconds, but given my overall results above its clear that they were costly.

Right after I got back on-course, two bikes passed me, and shortly afterwards a third one did. I used that third bike that passed me as a guide for the rest of the race - if I could keep him in my sights I knew that I wouldn't be that far behind the 'contenders'. I wound up finishing about 45 seconds or so behind him.

In the last half of the bike leg I was starting to feel fatigued and I wondered whether I should hold back a bit to ensure I had something left for the run. I eventually did hold back a bit, especially on the hills. I think I'm happy with this decision because the run was hard enough as it was.


Take more advantage of higher gears. Pay more attention to the course attendants.

As I dismounted I fumbled trying to get my left shoe out of the pedal and nearly wrecked. When I had been trying out a shoeless mount the day before I tightened my left pedal and forgot to untighten it after giving up on the idea - that was a mistake. I'll have to add a pedal tightness check for next time.

As I walked my bike back to the transition area I accidentally knocked over someone else's bike on the rack (bashing my hand in the process - I didn't notice the bruise until hours later). I hesitated for a split second and decided that I should put that bike back to be a good 'rack neighbor'. That probably cost me 5 seconds. After that, I put my bike back and went through my transition. I again felt disoriented and really fumbled getting my bike shoes off and running shoes on. However, thanks to the velco straps on the bike shoes and my newly-purchased elastic shoelaces on the running shoes, it went pretty fast. I grabbed a caffeine-spiked gel of GU as I started off for the run. Now that I look back, I wonder how I was able to do this all in 41 seconds given the timing mat for T2 was on the other side of the transition area near the start of the run.

Try to get out of my bike shoes and pedal on top of them then hop off.

As usual, at first I was pretty wobbly and had trouble finding a rythm. As I turned the first corner I felt a twinge of a cramp in my calves, but luckily this went away fairly quickly, thanks I think to deeper breathing and HEED.

One thing I had obsessed about the day before the race was to once again find some HEED (High Enery Electrolyte Drink) from Hammer Nutrition to use as my primary drink before and during the race. In the Manassas mini-tri, I drank this before the race and thought that it gave me a lot of energy while also avoiding calf cramps which I experienced when training for that race. It took driving all the way to Falls Church during the tropical storm (to Bonzai Sports), but I managed to get my hands on a tub of the stuff.

Back to the run. The trail they chose was really quite nice. It was wide, shaded and a generally pleasant run. Still searching for that rythym, I held back for nearly the first half of the run, going at a comfortable enough pace that I felt in control of my body. I didn't want to get so winded that I had to stop, plus I wanted to have something left in the tank to sprint toward the finish when I got within a 1/4 mile or so. I thought to myself that I would try to pick things up a bit after the half-way point.

As I went along, I saw a water table at what I thought must be the turnaround point. It turned out that it wasn't - the half-way point was just a bit further down the trail. Shortly after that water table I saw a sign marking the half-way point. At that point I hesitated for a second because I thought I remembered reading or hearing that a foot bridge was actually the half-way point. I saw a foot-bridge down the trail about 100 or so yards, but no one was there. This didn't make any sense! If the race was out and back on the same trail, the half-way point MUST be where you turn around right? So I turned around at that point and started going back. When I got back to the last water stand about a minute later, I told the volunteers (they were just there to help and not race marshalls) that someone needed to be at the half-way point to tell runners where to turn around. They said that they had already called in to let the race marshalls know - not sure if they ever fixed that situation for runners who came in later. For the rest of the run I had this nagging feeling that I might have cut the course.

I kept on going and once I hit the 2 mile mark, I picked up my pace a bit. It felt fairly comfortable, but I avoided really picking things up to ensure a strong finish. Once I came off the trail and back onto the street leading up to the trail I tried to pick it up a bit more because I knew I was close, but it was a bit uphill at that point so I don't think my speed actually picked up at all. As I came close to the final turn I began to sprint, encouraged by the triathlon coach to pick up my knees and sprint to the end, which was just 200 yds away. As I crossed the finish line I saw that the race clock read 1hr 9 min, and given that I started about 2 minutes after the race clock I knew I had made my time goal and probably had a decent chance of placing - it was a great feeling.

Try to pick up my pace sooner.

The only real beef I had was the whole turnaround issue on the run. If it's out and back, the half-way point IS the turnaround point, and the race officials didn't make that clear.