Colonial Beach Race Report and Race Schedule Update

Sunday morning I left the house at 3 am to get to the race site at 5:30. 
We started to swim in the Potomac River.  The swim was a bit rough for me.. getting kicked, blinded by the sun making it difficult to site buoys, and worst yet swallowing too much water.  I finished the swim in 24 minutes.. about 2-3 minutes behind the top swimmers.  Zipped through transition and on to the bike. 

The bike course was rolling.  I don't know if it was lack of training (as I've been on a 2 week semi-break from training leading into the race) or just a bad day, I had a to fight hard to finish the course in 57 minutes.  My stomach began to turn for the worst during the last couple miles of the ride as I started throwing up water. 

I began the flat run course in 3rd place (water sloshing in my belly and all) and I knew I had a chance to catch 2nd, but my body was not up for it.  By mile 3 I had to stop or I was going to explode (literally).  Usually I won't let anything stop me from finishing, but when I have a GI problem on the run and no time to resolve it I had to call it a day.  Could I have finished the race, probably.. I could have found a bathroom then walked the last 3 miles but what was the point.  Had it been a more important race for me I would have found a way to finish.  As to what caused the GI issues, most likely swallowing Potomac River water, but can't say for sure.  Last time I swam in the Potomac was the DC race a few weeks ago and I managed to swim that course without swallowing any water.
Everyone has days like this and I am no exception and we move on.


I must say it feels like its been forever since I've put in some heavy training weeks.  I really haven't put in monster mileage since before I started my taper for Eagleman way back at the end of May.  I start a 3 week build phase today.  Which is going to be 100x more difficult due to the fact I have to fit in studying for the GREs every day for the next couple months.


I'm getting together a race schedule for the second half of the season.  Right now it looks like September will be loaded with the local Rock N Roll Half Marathon, local Sandman Sprint Tri, and Ironman 70.3 Augusta Georgia.


If you haven't seen it already Chrissie Wellington & Andreas Raelert each broke the Ironman World Record time at Challenge Roth. http://www.slowtwitch.com/News/Records_tumble_at_Challenge_Roth_2189.html