May Race reports

My first race of 2009 was the Columbia Triathlon. This is a race I wanted to do last year and did not get in as it was sold out. This is a pretty popular race in my area and thought it would be a good race to start off 2009. It is an olympic distance race and it is earlier in the season. So for many people it is their first race of the year, as it was for me. This is a pretty challenging course with a tough bike and a very hilly run course.

For this race we picked up our race packets and racked our bikes on Saturday. Race morning on Sunday was rainy and cool and the traffic getting to the race site was terrible. I actually had to park my car and walk about a mile to get into the park where the race was held. Transition closed at 6am but my swim wave was the last of the day so I had to wait around for an hour and forty five minutes. Waiting was tough. You see the other waves going and you just want to get started.

The swim takes place in Centennial lake in Columbia Maryland. As my swim wave was starting it began to rain. It was a cool day so the water was actually warmer than the air temperature. As my wave was finally called to start I was ready to get going. My first mistake was to position myself in the middle on the swim. I usually start on either side but I figured I would give the middle a try. Big mistake! I was kicked and hit several times in the first 100 yards. It was then that I sort of panicked and had one of those "what am I doing here" moments. I had to take couple of minutes to collect myself and get my breathing under control. After a few minutes I was able to get into a smooth rhythm and steady pace. My swim time was not very good but considering the horrible start I was happy it was over.

Coming into transition was a bit odd. Since I was in the last swim wave, when I came into transition there were only a couple of dozen bikes left. It was an odd sight to see transition completely empty. It made it easy to find my bike but it just looked strange. I also had the person in front of me coming out of the water fall right in front of me so I had to hop over him.

Now the rain had stopped but the roads were still wet. I have never ridden my bike in the rain so I was really nervous. I was not going to crash in the first race of the year, so I decided to go as fast as I could SAFELY go. This is a really technical hilly course and I had never ridden it before. So I went as hard as I could for the conditions but it was definitely a tough ride and not my best effort. Plus I was COLD. The combination of the cool rain and the wind on the ride had me very cold. This was the toughest ride I have had in any race.

Coming back into transition all the bikes that were missing after the swim were now back. As I said it was cool and I was wet and cold. My feet were completely wet and numb. I didn't have another pair of socks or I would have changed socks. I also decided to put on another shirt as I was shivering at this point.

As I started the run my feet were really hurting. I actually sat on a bench about 1/2 mile into the run to tie my shoes again. It felt like I was running on nails for the first mile or so. As you run around the park there are a couple of small hills and then as you are leaving the park to go into the neighborhood you have to go up a MONSTER of a hill. It feels like it is straight up. Once up the big hill out of the park, you go into a neighborhood with some bill hills again. There are parts of the run where you just seem like you are walking uphill. Now as you reenter the park you do get to go down the big hill we went up earlier but by that time my legs were spent. As you reenter the park you can start to hear the announcer at the finish line. With about a 1/2 mile to go you can actually see the finish line and I just tried to finish as strong as possible. It was at his point a women was screaming at me "keep going you can make it. I must have looked really bad. This was the first race my wife and kids came to and it was nice to see them as I finished the race. My finishing time was 3:27, my worst time for any race to date.

This was a difficult race for me . I was not prepared for the conditions and I had not trained enough. I knew that I definitely needed to train harder if I was going to compete in an Ironman in 6 months.