I ran The Nation’s Triathlon this weekend. A fun event for those watching and a painful, but rewarding event for those like me who are dumb
We started on the waterfront in Georgetown at 7am on Saturday. The fire boats in the Potomac were spraying water all over at the beginning. I’ve never seem them before – i must say i think they look pretty cool. The water was really warm (75 degrees) and not that disgusting. It felt just like a regular lake.
Just so you know how far it is. I entered right by that “Swim Exit” sign and swam to the bridge (in the distance) and back. Yeah, that’s right. To the bridge and back. Also notice how everyone else had a wet suit which makes it easier to swim. That would have been nice, but i like to think of it as cheating (only b/c i don’t have one).
It was a very very painful swim and this is what it looks like when you’ve used ALL your energy on leg one. You’ll notice the guy behind me is running to get his bike. That is what most people do. I walked b/c i had no energy. It would come back. But at this point, i was spent.
Commodore Williams (my bike) was ready for the battle. The beginning of the bike was heavenly. I was barely pedaling and i was cruising along at 22 mph. I felt like a biking machine. It was only until 20 minutes later when the course curves and i turned around to bike back and realized that there was a HUGE wind that it dawned on me that my biking is a joke and i had lots of help coming down. That said, my biking time was the best ever (by me, not in the history of the world) and i knocked almost 35 minutes off my time at the last triathlon.
On every person’s body, they write the age on the back of their calf. I was loving the bike ride and feeling good until towards the finish, some guy cruised bast me. I looked at his leg and saw a big “47”. Ouch
The run was amazingly painful. My hipflexor was spent from the swim and then officially killed on the bike. My back was really hurt but i couldn’t stretch my hamstrings b/c my hipflexors would cramp. So i just sucked it up and ran.
On the run, I got passed by almost everyone who was wearing Navy tights – oh, i mean “the required uniform” – even the Navy chicks. I did follow one for almost 3 miles at a pretty fast clip which i think is the main reason i was able to clock 7:05 minute miles for the entire race. When the finish did arrive, i felt pretty miserable. The 1/2 ironman i’m scheduled for this spring scares me
