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Race Result

Racer: Charles Barnes
Race: Washington DC Triathlon
Date: Sunday, June 20, 2010
Location: Washington, DC
Race Type: Triathlon - Sprint
Age Group: Male 40 - 44
Time: 2:26:53
Overall Place: 87 / 828
Age Group Place: 11 / 103
Comment: Never realized just how steep capitol hill is



Race Report:



Races downtown are a definite pain in the ass. I have a lot of complaints about the logistics, packet pickup, bike racking the day before, the crazy early start, the 3mi walk from finish back to transition, etc., but DC is really a great venue for a race. The course itself was excellent, although the transition area could have been better designed. Would I do it again? Yeah.


Strangely, only a few of the normal suspects were present: 3 RATS and a lonely fexy.


SWIM 32:20 (mid-pack)
The swim course was the same as for Nations and the ITU race. Swim upstream under Key bridge and back down. The swim course was excellently marked with HUGE bouys each labeled 100m, 200m, etc. Not sure the numbers helped, but I knew where I was. It hasn't rained recently, so there was no debris in the Potomac. My swim was pretty decent (for me). I think I'd do better were I less polite passing people.

T1
Shoes, helmet, GU, go! Long long bike push across the Tx area

BIKE 1:06:14 (22.5mph, top 10%)
Zoom! I went hard on the bike. I haven't ridden as much as I like recently, so this was a pretty solid performance given my level of training. The course was fast and flat, excepting the U-turns (5 per loop) and potholes (1,000,000 per loop). Lots of water bottles to dodge. I was in one of the last waves of the Olympic race which followed the Sprint. I was happy not to have too much traffic in the way, so passing was easy.

T2
Far too far to run pushing a bike.

RUN 44:03 (7:07min/mi, top 10%)
Very solid until mi4 when I melted in the heat as we were running downwind. Wet towels on the run course were a great help, but my pace slowed. Running up Capitol Hill just before the mi5 marker cracked me. I jogged it as best I could. I got back to cruising speed for the last mile as we turned back to face the breeze.