Race Result

Racer:	Dan Grove
Race:	Reston Triathlon
Date:	Sunday, September 7, 2008
Location:	Reston, VA
Race Type:	Triathlon - International Distance
Age Group:	Male 55 - 59
Time:	2:51:59
Comment:	Phoned it in

Race Report:

This was my 19th Reston Tri, and 16th in a row. Had a Friday night pasta party with some of the gang, and a post-race bash with others, to happily bookend a race where I just phoned it in.

Hurricane Hanna pooched the swim, and running is by far my weakest event. Hanna also flooded the basement of a rental house we have at Lake Anne, and I spent over 3 hours Saturday afternoon cleaning gutters and then pulling up carpet and wet-vacuuming the water. It was very physical work, particularly dumping the water out of the vac about 15 times, and my back and legs weren’t happy Sunday morning. I decided to cruise this race, and hopefully pick it up at the Nation’s Tri next Sunday.

One race tradition that kept going was that Ann was there to give me a kiss when she could – leaving the track at the start, and again leaving T1 – it definitely keeps a smile on my face!

First run felt fine, fun to be out there!

The bike was fun, too. Phoning it in lets you not care about things too much. No problems, except I had a scare on Colts Neck. Passing on the narrow section, where the sun was suddenly blinding, and then having a squirrel do a suicide dance right in front of my wheel. Got out of aero and braced, but the critter scooted at the last second.

Further up Colts Neck I saw Kristin DiDomenico stopped at the school with a flat. I called out “Do you have what you need?” and she said “No!” Since I wasn’t racing, I circled back thru the school parking lot to offer her a tube and pump – not sure if that would have been against the rules for outside assistance if I just donated them and left – but she had disappeared, leaving her bike and helmet. She had gone up to the police at the previous intersection to call her husband to come get her, and she was riding tubulars so my gear wouldn’t have helped anyway.

The second run wasn’t much fun, my quads wanted to cramp on the uphill sections. I’ve never had that happen before – calf cramps sometimes, but never quads. I think it was the Hanna work combined with the unaccustomed first run. I kept passing the same guy on the flats and downhills, who then passed me on the uphills as I was walking. Back and forth ten times or so, the guy had a good sense of humor!

The race directors, volunteers, and spectators were amazing as always, my sincere thanks to all. Seeing Norm and Barbara Happ – original race organizers 25 years ago – out marshalling on the run course was a treat, and the RATS water stop at mile one/six was charming!