Given this was my first race of the season, I had forgotten just how chaotic pool swims can be. This swim was no exception. In the first length I had difficulty getting into my rythm and went out way too fast. I tried doing once-per-four-strokes breathing but that didn't last long at all, I was feeling winded and needed to breathe every stroke. For the first two turns I did flip turns (including one under the lane marker) but after that point I felt I needed to take an extra breath with each turn.

It was on the second 100 that the inevitable bunching of swimmers started to happen. I tapped the toes of the person ahead of me and then just swam around him. In doing so I tried not to go too fast so I wouldn't get too winded. It worked passing the first swimmer. Passing the next swimmer was more difficult.

I have to say something about the swim seed times here. I had read on various forums that it's definitely to your advantage to fib a bit on your seed time. I put in 1:15 pace per 100 yds, which I can do, but I can't maintain that pace over 400 yds let alone 400 meters. My actual pace time from my own timings in the pool is more like 1:20-1:25/100yds. So, I was hoping that by doing this I would at least not have to worry about being behind a lot of slower swimmers - maybe just a few would be OK. HOWEVER, what I was not prepared for being behind PEOPLE IN WETSUITS DOING BREASTROKE!!!! What is up with THAT? Anyone who was ahead of me either submitted a time of 1:15/100 yds or better, and even if they had fibbed a bit on their (assumed) freestyle times - I'm willing to bet a large sum of money there was NO WAY anyone in that race was a 1:15/100yds breastroker! I guess they wanted to conserve their energy for the bike and run. But - doing breastroke in a two-way traffic swim lane in a triathlon and being placed in the first 50 starters is like someone wandering onto a thin, paved, BIKES ONLY trail with rollerblades on. They were taking up the whole lane! So, I passed my first breastroker and in the process got kicked and hit by his arms. The same thing happened with the next one as well. I wasn't all that nice about my passing here (both circumstances were in the middle of this 50 meter pool) but, honestly, I was a little ticked and put courtesy out of my mind.

I let one obviously-faster person (doing freestyle and, thus, deserving :-) pass me at the end of the pool about half way through. That person was out of my way in an instant. About one length later someone hit my toes near the end and I decided to wait and let him pass, but I waited 2 seconds and saw that he was suddenly a couple of body lengths behind me, so I continued (lost 2-3 seconds there.) He never caught back up to me.

On the last 2 lengths things finally calmed down and it was smooth sailing. I was a bit delerious though and due to all the distractions I had forgotten how far I had gone. When I got to the end of the pool where we started I looked and didn't see an orange cone (the signal for "go under the lane and continue"), indicating that I had finished, so I gladly got out and left that mess behind. It took probably 3-4 seconds to get out of the pool, cross the timing pad for the swim and enter the transition area.



I have learned from all my training that when I resort to a breath every stroke my form suffers, and I think that this contributed more than anything else to my slow time here. I'm sure that I wasn't extending my arms all the way and was probably thrashing about a bit. So, despite my pique, I'm not blaming those darned breastrokers for my disappointing showing. I have to work on finding my form and evening out my efforts in the swim.

Despite a bit of fumbling getting my bike shoes on, my T1 went pretty well. I arrived early enough to get a spot on the rack close to the end, and I hung my bike up by the seat and facing the mount/dismount line, so once I was ready it was a snap gettin there. Since the ground was wet I was careful not to try to walk too fast to the mount/dismount line, lest I slip and mess up my bike or myself.

The night before I abandoned any dreams of doing a flying mount. I tried it several times and it always seemed to cost more time then just carefully stepping into one pedal and then pushing off with the other foot. The careful approach worked well in the wet conditions, but I still had one miss trying to snap in because both my cleats and pedals were wet. Not too bad all things considered.

I started out on the small ring to ensure I could get up to speed quickly. I was at 20 mph by the time I passed the first traffic light about 200 yds from the start which wasn't bad. I settled into my tuck and also took a few sips of HEED from my Aerodrink. My heart rate was still elevated and I did a bit of mouth-and-nose breathing to try to calm down a bit. It wasn't until half way through the first loop that I settled into a good rythm. Also right after starting out I felt a bit nauseous and, looking back, I think it must have been due to sucking in a bunch of water during the swim. I didn't drink all that much in the bike leg as a result.

Having ridden the bike course several times I had developed a strategy for shifting to deal with the hills, and I was able to execute on that fairly well. The only hiccup came when, after passing the Baron Cameron to Reston Parkway hill the second time, in my post-hill delerium I forgot to go back up to the big ring. I caught myself fairly quickly though.

That big hill was tough, as expected, but I found that I was holding my own relative to other folks on the course. I did dip below 10 MPH briefly on the second lap, but was pleased to see I stayed at 10 or above on the third.

Regarding passing and being passed, I was passed by several folks riding way-too-expensive-for-my-budget bikes. I could always hear them coming because those carbon-fiber wheels make a distinctive 'whoosh-whoosh-whoosh' sound, kind of like the sound flying dragons make in fantasy movies. Luckily, I didn't see the same carbon fiber Cervelo-sporting speedsters twice - and by that I mean at least I wasn't lapped :-)

Throughout the three laps, I was engaged in a back-and-forth passing duel with #42 (I was bib #41). She was super fast but I somehow always managed to catch up with her and pass her again just before the big hill on Baron Cameron. She would then pass me a bit after the hill. It was such a regular pattern that I commented about it to her as we were both running out of the transition area during T2 - she appreciated the competition as well. She went on to take 3rd place for women overall - great job #42!

After completing the bike, I felt good that I didn't crash but my cyclocomputer registered 20.3 MPH average so I didn't think I had made my goal - but I was pleasantly surprised to find out this morning that I had. It's ironic that I managed to achieve the time goal (biking under 33:30) I had thought would be hardest to achieve despite the wet conditions and my cautious approach to the turns.


I took the big Baron Cameron hill seated as I had tried to stand during my trial runs and found that it just took too much of me to do so. That's something I can work on for next year.

Went very smoothly. Minimal fumbling while putting changing shoes, no issues re-racking my bike. No problems putting on my race belt while running. There were only a couple of things that bugged me: 1) I still felt a bit nauseous, and just after I gobbled down my caffeine-spiked Hammer Gel I regreted doing so, and 2) I ran slower as I was putting on my race belt. I don't think I would not put my belt on while running next time, only try to run faster while doing so. I'll have to practice that a bit.


run faster while putting my race belt on

In addition to feeling slightly nauseous, right after getting out onto the running path I started to feel a twinge of cramps in my calves. I had to slow down a bit to work that out. I had taken a small drink of water at the beginning of the course, and I figured I would just get water at the 1 mile marker as the race director said there would be a water stand there. About 1/2 mile down (it was all downhill for the first mile) the nausea and cramps had gone away, however I felt very drained. I'm not sure if this just because I was on the third leg or whether the virus I had started experiencing a couple of days prior (after it had hit the rest of my family first - perfect timing for me) was affecting my energy level.

By the time I had hit the bottom of the hill I was feeling better and I picked up my pace a bit. I expected to find a water table just before the uphill onto the trail beside Wiehle, but didn't. During that uphill I felt very fatigued. Luckily, I expected this because I had run the course so many times in training. I was able to work through it, but it was at this point that I had lost sight of #42. She was just tearing up the run course, and after she turned left off of Wiehle I didn't see her again.

Once I hit the cul-de-sac streets I picked things up a bit because that, combined with a short, wooded trail segment afterwards, was the last extended bit of downhill on the course. I felt OK though this part and as I started heading uphill again felt my strength coming back to some degree.

Just before the final mile started I saw that a dad and boy scout were handing out water just before the Wiehle hill. They were paying attention to the runners about to hit the hill, so I (desparately!) said 'water please!' and they saw me and handed me some water thankfully.

In the final mile I felt that I had just enough energy to keep a decent pace uphill until the end. I was able to bring it in at this steady pace but I didn't have a final (uphill...) kick left in me so I just let it be. I was disappointed that there was no race clock at the finish line. I had anticipated being able to have a rough idea of my time at the end knowing my swim start time, but no such luck. I had to wait until they posted the preliminary results at 9am to see my time.

Maybe do more bricks in training - I did a bunch, but apparently not enough. Try not to get sick two days before the race :-)

possibly sickness, possibly not doing massive numbers of bricks


One thing I can say overall about the race this year is that the competition was quite stiff and most definitely a step above last year. In 2008 there were only 4 racers who broke 1 hour, this year there were 9. Last year the time of the 20th place racer was 1:06:44, this year it was 1:03:25.

I wasn't happy that there was no water table at mile 1. As I mentioned, they fixed the problem but it was too late for me at least for the first half of my run. And as evidenced by some of the other write-ups on this site some of the faster racers had no water at all.

Something that made me go 'hmmm...':
In the South Riding triathlon last fall I was bib #13 and I placed 13th in the race. In this event I was bib #41 and placed 40th. What's up with that?