The Pohanka Nissan/Hyundai – YMCA Colonial Beach Sprint Triathlon was held this past weekend, on Saturday July 13th in Colonial Beach, VA.

The start was at 6:50AM, so we had to leave home in Arlington at around 4:30am (way too early for this!).

Nathan and I entered to try and up our times from the last race, and it turned out to be a very successful day!

Overall, Nathan ended 70th.  I ended 225th.  There were 370 total competitors.  I actually ended up beating Nathan on the bike portion!! Definite pat on my back for that one.  I will never let him live it down 🙂

Our times
Nathan: 1:27:19 total
Swim 750 meters – 17:22 – 65th overall
Bike 15 miles – 46:01 – 186th overall
Run 3.1 miles – 21:10 (that’s a sub-7 minute mile!) – 21st overall

Brittanie: 1:48:42 total
Swim 750 meters – 25:21 (I definitely need to work on open water swimming) – 240th overall
Bike 15 miles – 44:55 – 166th overall
Run 3.1 miles – 32:44 – 254th overall

The triathlon itself was run really nicely.  The volunteers were really super nice and helpful, and everything was pretty compact so you didn’t have to run all over town trying to get from one place to another.
The swim portion was HARD.  There was a bit of a current, and I think the course was set a little longer than the 750 meters it should have been.  The water is generally the same color in this area, so of course you can’t really see two feet in front of you, but the water itself is pretty nice.  Unfortunately the area creates a bit of a wave, so it is hard to keep a consistent pace when you are trying to avoid breathing wave water.  I ended up doing a lot of side stroke, which definitely didn’t help my time.  Coming out of the water was also a bit painful because the beach is covered in little pebble shells, so they kind of stab you as you’re running to your transition area.

Transition is large and fairly straightforward.  There was a bit of a long way to go from the transition area to the bike mount area, which I liked for breathing space but not for trying to hurry out of transition.  Once mounted for the bike, I absolutely ROCKED it.  I felt strong the entire way.  My bike chain slipped off at one point, which I think was caused by the bouncing from the car trip on the way there, but I jumped off and fixed it, and was good to go for the rest of the race.  There was a group of men who passed me at first, but then I ended up keeping up with them for the entire bike portion, and it really helped pace me out.  Later during the run, one of the men said I had been biking a pretty consistent 23mph! I attribute that to my horseback riding legs!  So, the bike went wonderfully. The course was hilly, but nothing stressful.  It had some nice shady areas for staying out of the sun, and some good flat portions for drinking and stretching it out.  I didn’t like that some of the course put us on the road with general traffic, and some of the cars drove super close to me as they were passing.  I also didn’t like a portion of the course that was really badly paved, so you had to push harder through the vibrations of the road.  Otherwise there were police directing traffic and they did the best they could with controlling the road.

Transition out of the bike was easy enough, and on to the run down a path parallel to the “beach.”  The run was beautiful and there were lots of neighbors sitting on their lawns cheering for us as we ran by!  It was a very flat run which was nice, absolutely no noticeable hills and water stations placed about every mile.  The finish line is right around a turn, which I LOVE.  Making that final turn and knowing where to push out the last bit of energy is such a huge relief!

Overall everything turned out great.  I had lost my sunglasses at one point and a good citizen had turned them in, so I was able to get them back before we left.  The awards were really fun (especially because Nathan won second in his division!).  Unfortunately I was not thrilled at the very end.  After awards, we returned to the transition area to pick up our bikes and race gear, and there was no one guarding the transition area from someone coming and stealing our bikes.  Usually a volunteer from the race production team stands by until the very last bike has been removed and double checks competitor numbers with bike numbers.  This was the only real part of the production of the event I was unhappy with.  Luckily our bikes were not stolen, and we were able to pack them up and lay out on the beach for a bit before returning home for the day.