Last year, my husband came along to watch me do this race which was my first tri ever, and this year he came to participate in his first tri ever.
I got him some off-brand tri shorts online at a big discount from REI and suggested that he could just pull on a running shirt for the bike and run. He got himself a bike helmet and I found one of my race belts.
I had breakfast of one packet of oatmeal and a smoothie and a few sips of coffee, loaded the bikes on the car, and rounded up my gear and we were off. There was an early morning fog that settled over everything and it was cooler than expected at about 60 degrees. It was only after the race was over that the sun came out and the day warmed up.
There were a lot more people doing this race than last year, including a lot of kids, many of whom were seeded first in the swim.
Swim
250 yards snake swim in a pool
I looked at my time for last year and seeded myself generously at 7 minutes. I haven't been swimming since February and only recently rejoined the swim team. The coach's workouts, designed to prepare team members for an upcoming ironman and the Bay swim, have been killing me and I've been barely able to keep up which is discouraging. Here in the pool, however, seeding myself generously had a tremendous psychological advantage: I began speeding up and passing people one after another. I came in at 5:02, a few seconds faster than last year. I was pleased, especially with my lack of swimming compared to last spring.
Bike
4 miles
I came in at 18:13...several minutes faster than last year and I was really happy to see this. I recently added clipless pedals to my bike and I've been building my confidence and rebuilding my mileage with the new pedals. I was gratified to pass a few folks.
Run
1.5 miles
Hubby didn't like the course, and I could see why. The entire race occurs on roads, paths, and sidewalks outside the George Mason University Freedom Aquatic Center. I felt like a rat in a maze on the running route, going around the building, turning this way and that, backtracking, and finally heading to the finish line. I followed the runner ahead of me, then passed her. But at the end of the race, she came up from behind and charged toward the finish line along with a few other folks. I held back when I saw a little girl join her mom for the finish. I came in at 14:03--about two minutes slower than last year.
My overall time was 37:17, a few minutes faster than last year, which made me pleased. I came in 4th in my age group out of 15.
Immediately afterwards, I asked him if he liked it. He said, "NO!"
In the car an hour later, he asked me about the various distances for triathlon.
The next day when the results were in he said, "Let's do this again next year." He says he's thinking about a sprint.
SUCCESS!!
