Reston 2007
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Reston Triathlon - 2007 I did the Reston Triathlon on Sunday, September 9. My official time was 2:53:50, which was 5 minutes and 2 seconds faster than last year. It is interesting getting set up for this race because of the two transition areas. You first drop your run gear at T2 by South Lakes High School then hop on your bike with your swim gear to ride over to the lake where T1 is located. There they do body marking and make last minute announcements. The National Anthem was played by a gentleman, a member of the National Symphony Orchestra as well as fellow triathlete, on an electric violin! This was very cool. The water temperature was under 78 degrees, so participants were allowed to wear wetsuits. I took advantage of that, which is where I made most of my time improvement with a swim time a little over 4 minutes faster than last year. I'm sure the wetsuit helped! The swim wasn't too bad, although I did get kicked in the face early on, but did not lose my goggles. This is a race that seeds you according to your expected swim finish time and I went in the third of seven waves. I even passed about three folks from the second wave. The bike course is nice with rolling hills and nothing too horrible. The road was about the same as last year - a bit rough in places but I did not have any problems. My chain stayed put for the entire ride as well. Lots of folks in the community come out to cheer the participants on, which is nice. On the bike I dropped a minute or so from last years time. Finally the run. Ugh. This was no easier than last year but at least I knew what to expect. It kills me though when I see people just flying along. In my dreams... However I did drop another 12 seconds here. The course is mostly shaded and on park paths, so that is nice. Lots of friendly folks and kids at the water stops - even the Girl Scouts were out helping us. As the run finishes you go up a short but steep hill, kind of like the dam hill at the lake. At least that is how it seemed. From there it is straight and flat for about 100 yards then you make a right turn and another right turn to enter the South Lakes High School stadium for about a 3/4 lap around the track to the finish. The best part is that people are in the bleachers cheering everyone on with an announcer reading off the names of the finishers. Kind of exciting! They also had a live band playing during this as well. I thought they were pretty good. There was tons of food afterwards - Papa John's pizza, fruit, pastries, cold water, and soda. My results also showed that I took longer on T1 but shorter on T2 compared with my 2006 results. However, given my sporadic training these days I'm pretty happy with my results. This really is a nice event and even though I could not put in the effort for training I'm glad I did it. All the volunteers are really so nice and friendly. The event opens for registration in February, I believe. I have not yet decided if I am going to try to get in next year, but I definitely recommend doing it. |
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