COLONIAL BEACH OLY TRI REPORT

I got up around 3am and started my 2.5 hr drive up to Colonial Beach. No traffic at 3am was a big plus and was worth it. I got to the race site around 5:30 which gave me plenty of time before the 6:50 start.

I felt good and ready. I had a 3 week endurance training block before this race so I wasn’t 100% sure of what my run pace should be for a 10K, but had a pace in mind.

The swim was is the Potomac River. Algae everywhere! Non-wetsuit, 2 lap swim where you run out of the water onto the beach after 1st lap and back in. There was a bit of a current. Also the race director said the swim coarse was about 200 meters longer. In my case 3 minutes longer. It’s too bad they always measure the swim coarse too long and not too short. So if you look at last years results compared to this years results everyone had slower times this year. I finished the swim in about 28 minutes.

The bike coarse was rolling hills. The first 20k of the coarse was more rolling than the last 20k. I caught everyone who swam faster than me except for 2 guys. I enjoyed the bike coarse.. Very little cars, a variety of grades, oh and no one in front crashing into me ending my race. I finished the 40k in about 58 minutes and had the fastest bike split of the day. People who had done this race last year said the bike coarse was at least a mile longer this year. So once again as with the swim you can’t compare last years times with this years. Just saying.

I felt really good and fresh starting the run. I started at the pace I had in mind 6:20-6:30 for the first 5k. Did the second 5k at around a 6:10 pace. The coarse was pretty much flat like we have here at the beach. I finished the 6.2 miles run in about 39 minutes. After I saw the guy in front of me around the 5 mile mark I started to push myself faster knowing I was catching him, wasn’t enough though.

I miscalculated my pace and started too slow. I felt bad I didn’t push myself on the run. I kinda just glided through. I was still fresh and ready to race the coarse over again. Lesson learned.. Throw pacing concerns out the window, Start faster and hold on.

I finished 3rd overall and took home a nice check. Which will pay for my next race in two weeks in Richmond.

Colonial Beach reminded me of Cambridge, MD. A lot of these old beach communities look alike. Anyways there was good race support and a decent amount of fans. I'll probably be back next year.

Thats it for now. I'm off to the beach for some surfing.