DC Tri

I signed up for the DC Tri several months ago, but for the last month or so I've been debating whether or not to actually do it. I was not pleased with the prospect of swimming in the Potomac River and my training had been lax, to say the least. It didn't help that the race was due to start at 5:30am, and I would have to be at the transition spot by 5am. So, I had convinced myself not to do it. That is, until this last week when I decided I would in fact try the tri. My goal: to finish.

The race was actually really well managed, in my opinion. It started a bit late, but they had plenty of volunteers on hand, I never had to touch the bottom of the Potomac due to the pontoon that jutted out into the river, and they had four water stops, which for a 6.7k run on a hot day turned out to be, at least for me, perfect. The water temp was great 81.8 degrees. I had a goal to not putting head in the water, but that went out the window about 30 feet into the swim, where I actually managed to swallow a huge gulp full of potomac water, and even have some go up my nose. I was in trouble for a minute, but I managed to recover and finish the swim (albeit with some concern over my overall medical health). The bike was a technical course with lost of 180 degree turns. It actually felt a bit short, maybe because in most of the other triathlons I've done the bike course has been incredibly hilly while this was fairly flat. Still the 20k seemed to fly by. Last was the run. Where several passed me on the bike and the swim, this was the one leg I could actually pass other people. It was hot, sunny and not a lot of shade, but plenty of water stops, including one that had ice water. If I had one complaint about the run it was there were a lot of points were you did a few out and backs -- all within sight of the finish line, which did not help. I think I finished around the two hour mark, but until the official results are posted, I won't know. To help in my goal of just to finish, I did not wear a watch. I was focused on the race and enjoying the sights and not the time.

The post race food (this blog is afterall about running and eating) was good: fruit, energy bars, chips and breakfast burritos. But in honor of the race, I ate a turkey burger for lunch, had two beers (hopefully the alcohol will kill anything that may have been in the potomac water) and a Ben's Chili Bowl half-smoke. Now on to some ice cream and then a morning run.