Matt and I both completed The Nation’s Triathlon yesterday! It was our second time doing the race, but the first time training without the help of Team in Training. I think we both easily admitted that we were far more prepared for last year’s race, but it was fun nonetheless jumping into the Potomac river again, seeing our training friends from last year, and of course crossing the finish line! Thanks to our families and Bowser for coming out to watch us!
…somebody missed the swimming memo
August 24th, 2009
Yesterday I completed the 2009 Iron Girl Sprint Triathlon in Columbia, MD along with my college friends, Sass and Slutsky. It was a momentous occasion for all who made it out of the swim part in Centennial Lake, but also especially for Sass, who didn’t end up with a bloody knee this year jumping into the water, and for Slutsky “Aww man I forgot my goggles” finishing her first ever Triathlon! woohoo!
It was definitely the hilliest bike I’ve ever done in a race, but those downhills through beautiful Howard County made for the best parts of the ride. And finishing with a familiar run around the lake, a trail I’ve done many times before in my life, was comforting and made it easier to pace myself. Overall a great race!
A quick video that I put together of Matt’s bike part of the Dextro Sprint Triathlon from yesterday. He mounted his Digital Hero Go-Pro camera to the front of his bike, and set the camera to take an automatic picture every 5 seconds. Here is the result… enjoy!
We did it! Woooooooo, we are triathletes! Here is a photo of the Potomac swim (it’s taken with Matt’s new birthday present ) Congrats to our entire Team in Training Team for finishing this race, and thank you to everyone who cheered us on–parentals, coworkers, Jill, Pat, Jami, Slutsky, JJ, Jessica, Zack, Brigid, Keith, Jayluf, and Kristen, and everyone else (Aine, Carolyn) in my swim corral who helped me stop freaking out. yay, you guys rock! (please feel free to comment on your favorite part of race day.) Here are some of the other photos from the day…
The course itself was great- the Potomac was less gross/intimidating than we had been thinking all summer, and the water was actually refreshing at 7:45 in the AM. No bodies or Loch Nessies were spotted, though I did graze a piece of driftwood. eeek! Sighting on the back end of the swim was nearly impossible – foggy goggles and the sun directly in my eyes. I had to stop a few times, remove the goggles, and tread water to look for the yellow buoys. But I made it out of the water, and up the ladders, and to me, that was as good as finishing the race because the part where you could drown was over.
The bike course was smooth “these roads are like butter” as Matt would say… and no real hills, up or down. There was, however, a more-than-24-hours-dead deer on the side of the road that stunk like nobody’s business, but other than that, no real issues. AND, most importantly, no flat tires!!
The run was tough for everyone it seemed. By that point in the day, it was getting really humid and into the mid-90s. Black pavement is hot. No shade was unfortunate. But I did happen to look up a few times and see things such as the Washington monument, the Jefferson Memorial, and the place on Hains Point where The Awakening used to be. Pretty!
Now we are looking forward to getting those finish line photos back. I did a standard arm-raised in victory motion, but Matt went for a leaping fist-pump. Sure to not let me down.
Also wanted to point out everything that I ate today, starting at 5am:
pre-race: 1/2 banana, 1/2 whole wheat bagel, 1 bottled water, 1 caffeinated cherry sports beans pack
during-race: 1 orange sport bean pack, 4 bottles water, 1 lime sport bean pack
immediately-post-race: 1 bottled water, 3 powerades, 1 pickle, 1/2 turkey sub, 2 mini packs of Skittles, 1 banana, 1 slice cheese pizza
lunch: a baked potato, steak, cantaloupe and grapes, 1 dos equis, veggies and dip, 12-ish caramel cream candies, cherry-whipped cream pie
10pm: pomegranate fro-yo with fresh pineapple, strawberries, and blackberries
A Wetsuit and a Selby Bay Mustache
August 10th, 2008
If this isn’t reason enough to Donate to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society for Team in Training, then I’m out of ideas! Our friend and coach, Ted, took this shot yesterday morning during our open water swim practice in wetsuits in Selby Bay, in Edgewater, MD. Lots of people came out of the water with murky brown mustaches and jellyfish stings. Luckily, I only had the first condition, which was easy to wash away. I guess it’s only fair to post my wetsuit shot too, so there you go, I’m on the left, mustache only somewhat visible. Following the swim, we completed a 5.5 mile run through the neighborhoods. What a gorgeous day!
Just returned from riding our bikes around Hains Point this morning (luckily with a few more parts than the bike in the picture…) and it was a successful ride. I did notice, however, that there were a LOT of critters all over the place rooting around in the trash cans and scurrying across the road. I wonder why the park service doesn’t empty the trash every evening? Lots of them were overflowing, and then I rode right underneath a gross bird struggling to lift a corncob (I think thats what it was?) out of the garbage can I wondered how long it would be until I got hit with a falling piece of trash. And would it knock me off my bike? I hope not. Maybe this isn’t a regular case, I guess I’ll have to drag myself out of bed again to see.
Nation’s Triathlon – please help support us!
May 7th, 2008
It’s official! We are both participating in the Nation’s Triathlon as part of Team in Training, which supports The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS) in finding cures for cancer. Our goal is to raise $2400 each by race time in September, so we will need all the help we can get! If you want to support us, you can donate online at our training pages:
