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!

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…
   

Time results:
   
Lori/Matt    
overall place: 1563/314    
TIME: 3:18:04/2:37:31    
swim: 39:25/33:53    
transition1: 3:03/2:28    
bike:1:27:01/1:10:02    
transition2: 2:25/1:24    
run: 1:06:12/49:45    

   
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
   

Now time to sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep……

Matt finished 8th in his age group and 34th overall males in his first sprint triathlon this weekend in North East, Maryland. Check out these stats:
   

0:20:31 swim time  
0:02:25 transition #1  
0:52:46 bike  
0:01:30 transition #2  
0:21:44 run (7 minute miles!!)    

wooooo!