Login
Reston Area Triathletes RATS.net Logo

Race Result

Racer: Gwen Corley
Race: Reston Triathlon
Date: Sunday, September 11, 2005
Location: Reston, VA
Race Type: Triathlon - International Distance
Age Group: Female 40 - 44
Time: 2:29:05
Overall Place: 118 / 508
Age Group Place: 4 / 38
Comment: Happy, happy, happy!



Race Report:




It was a 4Am wake-up for me the day of the race. Got down some oatmeal and coffee. Forgot the vitamins and banana, but that didn't help one way or the other this day. Got the car loaded and was ready just before 5AM to make the hour trek up the road. Race day jitters and caffeine made it necessary to make 2 pit stops before reaching Reston.

Was very jazzed about having my bike located near the porta-loos in T1 although I didn't need them by this time. Some very fast looking guys were racked near me which added to my psyche. Saw my coach, Margie and gave a quick hug and “good luck” (not that she needed it) before I got in the water to warm up. Water temp was great!

Swim: 27:55
This was an improvement of 2min and 27sec compared to to last year. Again thanks go out to Tag Grove my masters swim team coach and Eileen Span, my lane buddy that keeps pushing me to go faster. There were no problems with the swim except on the way out I got pushed to the inside and snagged the rope. My intent was to be more in the middle but another aggressive swimmer seemed to be matching me stroke for stroke and we had a little rivalry going on. It was actually humorous to take a breath and see my competitor doing the same at the same time. This was a triathlon first for me.

T1: 1:22 (2004: 1:39)
I arrived at my rack about the same time as a couple of other guys. The guy at the end of my rack was struggling to get out of his wetsuit. I made some comment like: “Let me outa here. Time to Rock and Roll fellas” I hope they didn't mind getting “chicked”. The dude passed me about halfway round the first lap. (So much fun, so little time)

Bike: 1:06:25 (2004: 1:05:39)

Slight disappoint here. I was really expecting to be faster this year since all my previous races this season had been faster. However, this was the most fun I have had all year. At some point in lap 2 I thought about my God-mother who had passed away in January. She has never seen me race and I just got this image of her up in heaven cheering me on. Must have been all those great volunteers cheering that gave me that image. I caught Bethany and told her to get the lead out. She was grinning ear to ear. You go Girl!

T2: :55 (2004: :59)

Run: 52:30 (2004: 53:32)

I felt stronger than last year and it was fun cheering on the Rats who were running in the other direction as I was heading out. One age grouper passed me and said, “Gee you seem to know everybody.” I was thinking, “yeah I just wish I was as fast as those guys.”

Epilogue: If they had given Masters awards three deep I would have been first in my age group. But since my goal was to take a Masters award, I had to settle for a P.R. I'll settle for that any day! So now I am ready to suck up to Cascio and take notes about his training regime. Although I've decided to volunteer for this race next year I'm looking forward to kicking some butt in my new age group next year at DiTR and Lums Pond. Next year will be my fifth year in triathlon so should be a good year to peak, right???