I felt the swim went very well. Unlike in Reston last week, I felt in control of my breathing and was able to breathe every four strokes quite a lot. I still had stretches where I would breathe every 2 strokes, but I felt much more in control this time around.

I passed about 6 or so other swimmers (I was never passed), but it wasn't as chaotic as the Reston swim because the swim is set up to be one-way. This made all the difference in the world. As you pass people you don't have to worry about getting back over into your side of the lane quickly lest you run into someone. For me, I'm sure this contributed to my out-of-control feeling in the two-way-lane Reston pool swim. When I hopped out of the pool I felt great.


nothing

N/A - T1 time was included in bike time

This was about the worst T1 I could probably imagine. I was able to get to my bike OK (the bright yellow balloon I brought helped a lot - and it also helped my rack-mates who were appreciative), I fumbled a bit getting my shoes on but nothing too bad. The trouble came when I went to get clipped in. I probably wasted 15-20 seconds just getting myself clipped into the pedals. Part of the problem was that my cleats were wet (there was a streak of water just before the mount-dismount line that I unfortunately stepped in). I've got to practice just getting over the bike, clipping one foot in and then going and not worry about trying to do anything fancy. This is something I need to work on. It's funny because the pedals and cleats I bought last year (Shimano SPD-SLs) are supposed to be much easier to get into than LOOKs or regular SPDs. But when it's wet (as is often the case just after T1 due either to weather or water coming off your wetsuit or body just after the swim) I think the other systems work better.


Slow down and just methodically get into my clips.

Once I finally got clipped in I really poured it on. For some reason my cyclocomputer wasn't registering my speed (I later found out I had tapped the wheel-mounted sensor and it wasn't close enough to the fork-mounted receiver to get the signal, easily fixed...) so I don't know what my average really was, and since the T1 time is included in this split I'll never know. However, I passed probably 15 or so other bikers along the short course and was never passed. Now, mostly this was because people were using whatever bikes they had available, as they are encouraged to do in this beginners race. I did pass some people with decent bikes, though, and I'm pretty sure I passed the majority of the swim team which felt pretty good.



Perhpas slow down a bit to leave more juice for the run.

N/A T2 included in run time

This wasn't all that bad, but I made the mistake (again - same thing as in Reston last week - what was I thinking?) of grabbing some water just as I started the run. Right afterwards I felt nauseous and had to slow down. I've got to remember to just get running and start to feel good before I take any water next time - this nausea at the start of the run seems to be a recurring pattern.



not drink water right afterwards

As I mentioned in my 'goals' post, I had been fretting about whether I could come anywhere near my run split from last year (9:19). Well, I didn't do that badly, but I was a full 41 seconds off my time from last year. Part of this was the nausea, but also I simply felt drained during the run and never got to a place where I felt I could pick up my pace and sustain it. I don't know whether this was because of the fact that I pushed the bike so hard (I definitely pushed myself much, much harder on the bike this year) or the sickness I'm still kind of getting over. Perhaps it was a little bit of both.

Toward the end of the run the course veered onto the road for the last 100 yds or so. People were yelling at me to go off the sidewalk and into the road, and I thought they were saying to go back to some cones which, in my delerious state, I thought I had to go around to avoid being penalized for cutting the course. Backtracking probably cost me 2 seconds, and they were a costly 2 seconds indeed...



Again, not kill myself on the bike and leave some juice for the run

While I'm very happy to have won my age group, I'm disappointed that I didn't make my time goal of 26:30 - which was very achievable for me, and of course to have missed placing overall by only 2 seconds. If I had avoided any one of several mistakes I would have placed overall. ugh...

The competitiveness of the race this year was definitely a step down from last year. There were at least 50-100 more competitors last year and the winning times for most categories and age groups were not as good. Not sure if it's the economy or what.

I think this will be the last time I'll do this race. I've progressed enough where I don't feel like a beginner triathlete anymore, and at some point, for the sake of sportsmanship, non-beginners should not be racing in races meant for beginners. After having placed in my age group last year and come back to try to do better this year, I'm just going to let it be.