Almost 6,000 people signed up for this year's Nation's Triathlon, which is both encouraging and daunting. Encouraging that interest in triathlon is rising; at the mandatory pre-racing briefing more than half the room raised their hand when asked who was competing in their first triathlon. That said, the idea of swimming in the Potomac and then biking through D.C. with 6,000 other type-A's made me...skeptical.
So I took the easy way out: two weeks before the event I asked to be moved to the Elite wave. My time at Lake Logan qualified me, and going off first would allow me to miss out on the madhouse to follow.
Because of the number of people, we had to rack our bikes on Saturday, rather than Sunday morning. Due to an equipment issue of my own making, racking the bike was not as smooth as I had hoped, but only because my race tubulars didn't have a cassette on them. But thanks to a patient wife and the kind folks at Conte's everything got squared away. Rack the bike by 8pm, check.
Woke up at 4:30, had pre-race breakfast of coffee, cereal, banana and coffee. Got a ride from my wife to the Lincoln memorial (did I mention amazing?) and set up the transition area. Another benefit to "Elite" status was a position next to the bike start. I was a little bit nervous, as evidenced by the Body Glide on my forearms visible in my sleveless wetsuit. By 6:30 (wave went off at 7) I was in line for the toilet for the final pre-race ritual. A Gu, some water, and we were set.
Without tribute to the moving sunrise over the monuments, it was time to make the donuts. The swim was a loop out past the Memorial Bridge. Current was mild, water didn't taste like a toilet, and I wasn't getting constantly wallopped. I started fairly strong, but my open water swimming still needs work. Specifically, I need to swim straight without a black line to look at. I kept finding myself drafting a good set of feet, only to be 10 yards away the next. Still, out of the water mid-pack, a little slower than goal but close enough.
My transitions suck. I don't have my shoes clipped in, I put on socks, and nearly fell over twice taking the wetsuit off. But I made it out and on the bike course. I've heard complaints about the pavement, but I didn't notice much. The route heads north up Rock Creek to Connecticut, turnaround, back almost to the start, turnaround, then back out the Whitehurst to the Clara Barton freeway. One of the unexpected treats of the triathlon was comfort of riding on roads I knew and had trained on. My HR was higher than expected but my legs felt fresh and strong, so I stayed with it, monitoring to make sure I wasn't overdoing things. I was consistently passing people, including several groups that didn't look like they were keeping a 3 bike-length distance, but I couldn't be bothered. I did get passed by full-on rotating paceline of 8 as we approached transition again, just the thing to get the blood boiling before the run.
The bike ended with "good sensations" still in the legs. After a quick T2, I headed out on the run in a small group. The goal with the run was to keep a high turnover at the beginning but not worry about effort for the first mile. 6:15 at mile 1, feeling good. That kept up until mile 3, when my feet started burning. I had put speed laces in my shoes the night before (which I had used on previous shoes) and they were getting uncomfortably tight. The pace started to drop off, 6:2x, 6:3x. I saw the 2:10 goal slipping away, but pushed on. I finished just outside the goal, but still a significant improvement from a month before. I dropped almost 2 minutes on my run, and there's still time to be cut on the swim and bike.
Thanks to the event organizers and amazing volunteers. Considering the potential logistical nightmare that could have been, things ran well, on time, and with great energy. Can't wait for next year!
