Nation's Tri

Friday after work I met Tom and we metro'd to Dupont and then walked to the Washington Hilton to pick up our race packets.  It's always fun to get the swag and t-shirt.  We walked around to look at the exhibits and found some of the others from our group.  We attended the route clinic where they sort of haphazardly walked us through the day's events.  It was after 7 when we left so we decided to stop somewhere for an inexpensive dinner.  Found a restaurant that had an adjoining cafe where we could get a sandwich for $7 so we opted for that.  I SO wish we had taken a photo of our mini sandwiches that came out!  Seriously, a corner of a baguette that was about 4 bites total.  About 5 chips and 3 bites of a mini potato salad.  Ha ha ha!  The look we exchanged when they set it down in front of us was priceless!

Saturday mid-morning we met the group to take our bikes down to the transition area.  We had to drop them off the day before the race.  It was nice because it gave us a chance to see the area, the swim buoys were up and get a feel for the transition space.

Our car was parked at Fort McNair which we figured was a 30 minute walk from where we were.  However, it ended up being an hour walk in 94 degrees and VERY humid.  The last thing you want to do a day before a race is get wiped out by sun and this made us re-think how we were going to get to the race venue the next day.  It also wasn't smart to do an hour walk from the car to the venue the next morning.  A cab was going to cost us $75 so we decided to try out the City Share bikes.

RACE DAY!

Up at 4:30 AM.  Had all our stuff laid out so I made our protein smoothie and half a dry bagel, got our gear on and headed out.  We drove to Fort McNair, walked the couple of blocks to Waterfront where we picked up two of the Capitol Bike Share bikes.  Loaded our stuff in the little carrier in front and biked to the venue hoping that the bike share stand had some openings for us to deposit the bikes.  Lucked out and there we plenty of spaces right in the entryway.  Awesome!

Transition Area

 As we were going into the transition area to set out our bike helmets and things we heard the announcement that the swim portion had been canceled.  WHAT?  Apparently a pipe had overflowed at 10:40 the night before and 15 minutes worth of raw sewage came flowing into the Potomac.  Great!  So we were starting with the run from the dock and picking up with the bike and run.

 The Olympic race (longer than the Sprint) started about 2 hours before ours so we all had to wait around till those participants were all out on the course.

 Once we finally got out and going it was really fun.  There were some hills on the bike ride that went up through Rock Creek Park (where we had done our hill training) and then some more through the city as we rode 16.6 miles.  Those were tough but the other cyclists were calling out encouragement as we went along which was really helpful and motivating!

 I am always nervous about the run because I just struggle through it.  After I dropped my bike off and headed out I doubted I would really be able to do it.  I felt so tired!  Then I remembered in my reading that sometimes after a bike it can take nearly a mile to feel normal so I just kept going.  I walked when I took a drink of water then started running again.  When I went by the Holocaust Museum during both the bike and run Kristen, and both Daves were there shouting encouragement which was awesome.  I was the last one from our group so after they saw me they jumped on their bikes and rode along with me all the way to the finish line.  Plus, the rest of the group was waiting near there as well to cheer me through the chute!

 Everyone had a great race but we were disappointed about missing the swim portion.  SO, the other half of the group is doing the Giant Acorn Sprint Triathlon at Lake Anna in 3 weeks so Tom and I have signed up to do that one as well.  We hated the idea of a whole summer of training to just do one race....so TWO it is!

We all had a great time and wolfed down the sandwiches and goodies they had waiting for us when we got back to the finish line.  Tom loaded his bike back in the car back at the base and I took mine on the Metro and headed home.  A shower, a nap and basically just crashed so our old bodies could recover!