Race Report: The Nation's Triathlon

For the most part, I can say that this race is probably typical for any big city triathlon - it has it's downfalls (and there are many, I can assure you) and yet the lure of racing in a city like Washington D.C., on roads that you would NEVER be able to ride on at any other time and in a setting that is more than awesome will always draw people in. It also helps that this race benefits the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, which means Team in Training draws a HUGE amount of racers to the event from all over the United States.

Now let's get down to business. I have decided to steal borrow a little thing that my local paper does when the US Open comes to Flushing each year and break things up into Aces, Lets and Faults.I know that triathlons and tennis have nothing to do with one another, but this is my blog so I can do what I want.

Packet Pick-Up/Bike Drop-Off

Let: Because the race is so big (I think somewhere in the 4k range, which is just insane), there is mandatory bike drop-off on Saturday before the race starting at 11:00am and going until 7:00pm, which meant that SJ and I were leaving on Friday evening to get down there. I really don't mind dropping my bike off the day before - if nothing else, it makes for one less thing you have to worry about race day morning.

Fault: The transition area and the race host hotel/expo/packet pick-up were nowhere near each other.

Okay, okay, obviously Washington D.C. is not that big of place, so relatively speaking, yes, they are close to one another. However, here are a few reasons why this whole thing sucked:

1. You have three options of getting to the hotel if you are not actually staying there: A) driving to the host hotel and paying a fee to valet park, finding a spot on the road, or dragging your wife who, at this point is sick and tired of schleping around to all these races with you and why can't you just be done already? in with you so that she can drive circles around the hotel while you pick up your packet, B) taking the train into DC, with your bike in tow, or C) walking/riding to the hotel, which implies that you are staying somewhere relatively close. Coming from out of town and not really knowing exactly which parts of our nation's murder capital were safe to stay in, I chose a familiar location: Alexandria, VA - right across the border and a place I know. This means we chose option A, because we didn't want to drag my bike all over the DC Metro (and yes, SJ did do loops of the hotel while I ran inside and picked up my packet, totally ignoring the whole expo thing in the process).

FAIL

2. Shuttles to transition were for athletes only - and you couldn't bring your bike on the shuttle, nor were there bike racks on the outside of the buses to bring your bike down so you had to ride your bike down in a city that is not necessarily all that friendly to bikers. This means that, even if your awesome wife/husband/boyfriend/children traveled all the way from Nebraska to watch you race, they could not ride the shuttle bus down to the transition area with you while you dropped your bike off. They were stuck sitting at the race hotel, which they had to figure out how to get to as per the above, while you rode on down to the transition area, dropped your bike off and then got back on a shuttle bus to come back to the hotel.

FAIL

3. There is no metro that gets you to within at least a mile of the transition area. So even if you wanted to tackle the Metro system, bike and all, you were still riding your bike there at some point.

FAIL

There was a massive field right next to the transition area - and it would have accommodated every vendor at the expo, plus packet pick-up. Spend the extra cash and hire a large enough tent to cover the entire area in case of bad weather and do everything in one location. You'll still have the issue of getting to the transition area, but you have that problem anyway, so why not make it easy for everyone involved? It also would have allowed the vendors to stay around for Sunday after the race - people are always looking to buy stuff directly after a race. It would be like stealing candy from a baby! Instant money-maker! It would also definitely liven up the post-race party - but more on that one when I get there.

Needless to say, I picked up my packet, high tailed it out to a waiting SJ, and headed down to transition. We poked around for roughly five minutes at the transition area, checking out the swim exit and then left. The one great part about NOT having transition and packet pick-up in the same place was that the roads were relatively free from traffic which gave anyone who wanted to do a quick ride or run along some of the course had the option. However, the cons outweigh the pros on this whole process so I'm still calling it a fault.

Pre-Race

After a great dinner out with SJ, in which I avoided eating chili for fear that it would revisit me during the race, we went back to the hotel early so that I could get everything ready. I like to go through everything the night before and make sure that everything is set - this was the first time I ever did this though. However, I think I might make it a habit!

My triathlon person is missing a bike helmet and shoes, and running shoes. They were in the car.

I was up and at 'em early the next morning to drive myself into DC. It was weird that SJ wasn't coming with me, but since I had a long wait (another fail) until my wave would take off, she was able to catch a few more winks before taking the Metro and walking over. I was able to grab a spot along Constitution with roughly every other racer who hadn't brought a second bike with them to ride down to transition because, oh wait - the Metro doesn't even start running on Sunday morning until 7am - five minutes AFTER transition closes.

I took these snazzy pictures on my walk over to transition.

I set everything up in transition and put my bag off to the side. The water temperature in the Potomac was 79.6*, which meant the race was non-wetsuit legal if you were going for any awards, so I left my wetsuit in my bag and headed out of transition to wait.

Fault: I waited almost two hours and fifteen minutes from the start of the first wave until I hit the water. The top elite men had been done and were drinking beers (not really though, because they didn't have any - FAIL) before my wave had even started. It was horrendous. I literally could have run a half marathon, and then some, before my wave was called. I was smart enough to at least pack a bag with extra food and water in it so that I could stay hydrated and fueled - and I also packed an extra pair of shoes so that I could warm up and get ready, seeing as how I had an eternity to wait.

EPIC FAIL

They chose a time-trial start (8 racers leaving every 15ish seconds) because of the number of participants - it allows for a much more spread out swim so people aren't swimming over top of each other. However, with almost four thousand races, that's only 24 racers each minute and 1440 an hour - so really we need to rethink this. No racer should EVER have to wait that long to get started. The only time I have ever waited that long was at Age Group Nationals - and, not for nothing, you are just so pumped that you made it to Nationals that you could care less when you start.

This seems to be the way really big triathlons are doing it now, though. New York City did it the same way, and the racers in the second heat of waves were probably waiting somewhere in the three hour range. If it gets to the point where your racers are waiting longer than some of your racers are actually competing, I think it's time to rethink your model.

Swim

I finally started somewhere around 9:15am. The swim was shaped like the Washington Monument - really - so it was pretty much an out and back.

Ace: Every buoy was placed at the 100 meter mark so you knew your exact place on the course at all times and weren't trying to figure out where you were by the shoreline.

Swimming in the Potomac was nowhere near as bad as I had been told it would be, but then again, I have swam in the Hudson so nothing could really phase me at this point. I didn't notice any kind of significant current one way or the other so it seemed like it would be a pretty straight forward swim.

Even though it wasn't wetsuit legal, I do most of my training in a pool so I'm used to not wearing one. I felt strong right off the start and never really wavered in my pacing. Due to my lack of swim training, I knew full well that my swim would be my downfall but I just had to trust my bike and my run to gain some time back. I climbed out of the water about the 29:00 mark and up the ramp and made the short 150 meter sprint to transition.

Bike

Let: The bike course was both good and bad - at least when I was on it. I'm sure there were times when it was phenomenal and times when it was awful, depending on what time your wave took off. It was a double loop, 20k course that at times narrowed down into a "no passing zone". Yes, you read that right. In a race with 4,000 people, there is a "no passing zone". Now, keep in mind that this is a US Triathlon Association sanctioned race, which means it is not draft-legal and therefore you are require to keep at least three bike lengths between you and the person in front, and are given roughly 15 seconds to pass. There was absolutely no way that you could NOT draft during this race. There were way too many people on a course that was not designed to hold them all.

The first loop was super crowded, especially on the first out-and-back section, but by the second loop it had thinned out big time. The double loop had some technical spots - three or four 180* turns and then some other sharper turns at intersections - so if you weren't a half-way decent bike handler it was probably pretty tricky. At one point, there was literally a ramp that was placed up and over a median curb for a turn-around. For real.

Despite some of the slow downs on the first loop, I had a great bike ride. I went through the first 20k  loop somewhere around the 37:00 mark, which put me under my goal of 1:15, so I was super pumped. Seeing how much the second loop had thinned out, I was able to keep a much faster pace on the second loop and hit transition right at 1:11 - 4 minutes under my target time and a negative split from the first loop. Always a good sign!

That's not me on the bike course - that's the second place male. But it's the only bike picture I have. 

Run

Let: I knew the run was going to be flat, but I also knew that it would be hot. I made sure to keep myself hydrated and fueled on the bike so that I could come off as fresh as I could on the run. The run course itself was a single loop around the East Potomac Park Golf Course, plus a couple of out-and-back loops to make up the full 10k distance.

Since I had started so late in the morning, I knew that my run was going to be at a time when the sun was going to be directly overhead so I grabbed water and Gatorade at every aid station and tried to keep a steady pace. I didn't want to push it too hard out of transition and then hit the wall at mile four or five and struggle to finish. The only thing that would have made the run better (besides picking a course that actually has trees and shade) would have been to have ice-sponges at the halfway point to cool everyone off. I kept dumping water over my head, but lukewarm water doesn't do much other than just make you drenched.

I kept picking people off one-by-one,keeping an uncomfortably hard pace and when I hit the five mile marker, I amped it up a bit. As I went around the last turnaround and then turned the corner to the final stretch on Ohio, I kicked it into high gear and crossed the line with a 44:48 run - another negative split.

Post-Race

Fault: By the time I crossed the finishing line, they had run out of medals. Seriously? How does that happen? You know exactly how many people are signed up ahead of time, and there are always no-shows so if nothing else, you should have extras! To be completely honest, I'm not all that upset about not getting my medal straight away (they are going to be mailed to us), but I do know that there were a crapton of people that were competing in their first triathlon, or their first Olympic distance race, and they freakin' deserved to get those medals when they finished. I would have hated to work my ass of to train and compete in my first race and then cross the line and be rewarded with .... what? A bottle of Gatorade that I have to fumble around with to open myself? You can't even open my Gatorade for me? I have to sit there and struggle with the stupid plastic wrap surrounding the cap and then unscrew the cap to take the stupid foil off on the inside, too?! I paid $225 for this?!

EPIC FAIL

Fault: The post-race party was - nonexistent. There were some booths set up for triathlon clubs to hang out in, and there was some food for the racers (sandwiches, bananas, protein bars, etc.) and then a place to get post-race massages, but that was pretty much it. By the time I crossed the line, they were already starting the Elite Awards ceremony (guess they weren't worried about when I finished, huh) - I grabbed some food with SJ while mamadukes went off to get my results print out and then I went to get my bike.

And that was pretty much it. And this all goes back to what I said in the beginning - if there was a big old tent with lots of goodies to buy and things to look at, more people probably would have stayed and milled around. Maybe bought a Finisher shirt or a new helmet. I don't know - but having nothing there at all certainly didn't make me want to stick around. I didn't even stay for the Awards Ceremony, we peaced out as soon as we realized it wasn't going to happen for another hour or so.

Maybe my late start time caused us to miss anything fun that had happened, but it looked like most people that finished and knew they weren't up for any awards just kinda left as soon as they were done. There was no sense of that whole, We've just finished something awesome, now let's kick back and relax with friends and family surrounded by other finishers. Maybe the TOBAY Tri will forever make every post-race party pale in comparison.

Wrap-Up

Overall, I would give this race a 4/10. DC is definitely a cool venue, and to say you raced along Independence Avenue and next to the Washington Monument is a huge bonus, but there are so many cons that I can't give this any higher of a rating. Maybe it's because I don't live in the area, so I had to do so much traveling to get down to DC and then to all the different places and then had to drive home, but I've traveled to lots of races and haven't come away as disappointed. The bike course was too crowded, the number of people entered and the time-trial start made for a ridiculously long morning and there was really no post-race party. The run was one of the only plus sides, but even that could have been done a little better.

I think I am just disappointed overall by how much money I spent to race and how little I feel like I got from the experience. I've done smaller races, in much smaller venues, that offered ten times more than the Nation's for more than half the cost. I know that there is a lot that goes into planning a big city race (case in point: NYC Marathon fees being almost quadruple what many small-time marathons cost), but I also think that it's the little things that will bring people back over and over.

At the end of the day though, it's all about the race, and if you have a great race than you will be more than likely to walk away with a good feeling. I had a great race - hitting all of the goals I had set for myself and setting a PR - but, unfortunately, there are too many races out there for me to waste the time and money to go back to this one.

Here is the final breakdown:

Swim: 29:17
T1: 2:26
Bike: 1:11:19
T2: 1:00
Run: 44:48

Total Time: 2:28:47

I placed 22nd overall for females, 2nd overall in my Age Group, and 1st overall in the Female First Responders race. I hit every goal I set, including breaking 2:30 and thus setting a new PR for myself.

Apparently this was the cool thing to do.