This race is in its third year, but my first time racing it, despite its highly convenient locale. After all, I live about 10 minutes from race start. The price tag is steep ($170) it's one of the bigger races in the U.S. (attracts a great atmosphere). Plus, with no need to travel or seek lodging, it makes the hefty price a little easier to swallow.
The race had about 6,000 entrants, and about 4,500 toed the line. Whew! For comparison, I would say that anything above 1,500 or so is a big triathlon. The numbers made for a somewhat chaotic race venue, but all things considered, I thought it was rather well run.
The transition area was an estimated 240,000 SF in size. Enormous! I had to triple check the location of my bike and gear (luckily the row numbers were well marked) otherwise could easily get lost.
Large number of participants equates to multiple swim waves. The swim waves were scheduled for every 3 minutes. I was skeptical that they could pull it off, but it was successful. Although the ladies and I had to wait for about an hour to start, it went by fairly quickly. Here's Tracey, me, EB, & Sally awaiting the start of our swim (the Washington Monument in background)....
I knew my race would be rather lackluster. I had been suffering from a cold the week prior, my training had been so-so, and this was the longest race I had on my slate for the year. So, I elected to have a little fun and take pictures along the way. We had to clear out of transition well before race start, so in order for me to take pictures as we waited around, I had to bring my camera with me... including in the water during the swim. (My camera is waterproof, allowing this to happen.)
SWIM: 1.5 kilometers 36:27
Swimming parallel to shore and towards the Memorial Bridge, makes sighting fairly easy. I got plowed over a few times by the 20-24 year old men in the wave behind us, but managed to swim at a comfortable rate. It was a little slower for me than usual for this distance, but forgiveable. (Maybe because I was towing a camera in my back pocket under my wetsuit? Ha ha ha...)BIKE: 40 kilometers 1:29:40
Outside of having a flat tire (thankfully... and I have yet to have flatted during a race- whew!) a lot of things seemed to go wrong on my bike ride. Ok. I didn't crash either, which would have been awful as well. We're talking small things which lead to frustration.
My water bottle cage on the bike frame had partly broken prior to race day. Specifically, it was unable to be secured by the top screw and only the bottom screw was holding it. It was unusable. I meant to secure it before the race using ubiquitous duct tape, but failed in doing so. Ugh. I left it as is. It never occurred to me that it would flop over mid-race and begin to whack against my pedal cranks. Duh! So, early on, within the first 5 kilometers, I had to pull over and mess with the thing. I tried to break it off completely but it was seemingly indestructable! I somehow managed to immobilize it and continue on.
Coming back on Rock Creek Parkway, still within the first 5K, my chain dropped. Usually, it can be easy to recover from this by continuing pedaling. Not so in this case. In triathlon, as in normal traffic flow, one keeps to the left, and passes to the right. Due to course layout, we biked in the normally-oncoming traffic lanes. In other words, by keeping to the left, we were actually in the center of the roadway. I was biking - well coasting since I could no longer pedal- and attempting to get over toward the left and off the roadway. Multiple people passed by me and pointed out that my chain had dropped. Gee, thanks for pointing out the obvious! If I could only get over (with 4500 athletes on the road- lots of bike traffic), I could fix the problem!
Eventually, I was able to get over and deal with it. It was not an easy fix, however. For the first time, I discovered that there is a post of sorts between the crank arm on the gears. I have no idea what function it serves. Nevertheless, the function it served during the race was to give me frustration as my chain somehow got caught on this thing. I was seemingly unable to get my chain around it and back on the gears where it belongs. Meanwhile, my hands and arms are covered in chain grease.
The entire escapade probably took about 2 or 3 minutes to resolve, but seemed like an eternity as the race passed me by.
My bike was never quite the same afterwards. My gears jumped wildly. It was as though the Red Baron was affectionately telling me to take it in for a check-up. That it is long overdue for one. Will do. Before Bassman in 3 weeks.
To add salt to my wounds, my troubled knee began to sting in the latter half of the bike leg. I tried to let it not bother me. Just get off the bike and smile and have fun. After all, it was a huge race, a beautiful day, and no use making matters worse.
RUN: 10 kilometers 1:05:27
I started out rather strong on the run, running with EB for a while. Continued on until Joanna passed me. It's a scenic run, around Hain's Point. I felt pretty good, walking only through the water stops for the first half of the run. I walked a bit more the latter half, but overall cannot complain.
FINISH: 3:18:17 133/253 AG
Me, Joanna, & Es showing off our proud finish:
