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Waking up at 4:45 AM on a Sunday is hard enough– it’s even harder when you’re about to go outside to 42 degree, rainy weather just to run a half-marathon. But that’s how we found ourselves pulling up to a giant parking lot filled with busses- in order to run the second annual Woodrow Wilson Bridge Half Marathon from Mount Vernon to National Harbor, across the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. Once we got moving, however, we warmed up a bit, apparently,  because we all PR’d the race and set personal records for our half marathon times in general!

This race is a point to point race to take advantage of running over the Potomac River via the Woodrow Wilson bridge. We were all bussed out of overflow parking at National Harbor the full 14 miles to Mount Vernon where the race started in order to run back. This meant logistical complications, but somehow we met our number one goal- finding the shortest line at the port-a-potties. Because of the cold morning, race officials started handing out mylar blankets– which were nice, except that there were none left at the end of the race when I was well and truly cold!

Devi and I ran together for the most part- which leads to some interesting questions about our times. We both crossed the 5 and 10 mile splits at the same time, yet my time is 44 seconds slower than Devi’s? Devi did take off after the last 3/4 of a mile in order to beat 2 hours, so our finish times should be different, but not that different. In addition, as you can see, Devi’s chip time and gun time are corrected for the time it took us to cross the starting line, so are Lala and Kylee’s, but mine are not? For that reason, I’m going to place my time at 2:00:28, unfortunately still not under 2 hours, but a bit closer- and that is the time to beat next year!

Kylee and Lala also ran this race last year- and they both beat last year’s times. Because last year was the first annual Woodrow Wilson Bridge Half Marathon- I think they have to make this a thing and run it for the next 50 years!

July 30– Nan and Mom complete their first 5 kilometer distance race in personal record times!

Mom seemed really excited when attending our races at the beginning of this year, and confident that she could also compete in them. We convinced her to put her money where her mouth was, and got her registered for the EC5k. Good friend and training partner, Nan Jefferies then jumped in to support her in training and compete herself! They had been training together for a few months before this race.

There were 244 finishers at the EC5K. The winning time was 17:29.4 and the last finisher came in at 61:02.4. The course was an extremely tough one- mostly downhill to start the race, but then a 167 foot climb in 1.44 miles, the total uphill elevation change for the race was 289 feet! At many parts in the race, runners went head to head, as the trail was split into two- even with less than 250 runners, this posed a challenge to those squarely in the middle of the race!

So what’s next? A 10k! Mom and Nan have already started training for the Clyde’s 10k, but they might also participate in a moonlight 10k, and the Baltimore Running Festival 5k.

Well, this post is about a month late, but I wanted to ensure that we got the race results up from the Celebration Triathlon that happened on June 26, 2011. The Celebration Triathlon was very special because it was both Devi and Kylee’s first ever triathlon, and they performed extremely well, coming up with an admirable result to start their tri careers!

Devi finished well ahead of her goal time of 2:30, although she wasn’t too thrilled to not come in ahead of me! Her run was definitely her strongest sport and the swim time wasn’t bad either. She was slightly handicapped on the bike, having not been used to either climbing or clipping in. I suspect this time will decrease rapidly for her next triathlon, especially when she starts bike training.

Kylee also did an excellent job on her first triathlon. She was a little worried about the swim portion of the race, but handled it with easy by taking her time and remaining calm. Her best event was clearly the bike, which she owned at a 15 mph pace! She PR’d the course, but she’ll have to beat her Celebration time come Iron Girl, when she’ll be in the water yet again for the same exact course!

Check out an awesome video from the race! Celebration Triathlon Trailer

This past weekend, Lala and I completed what will probably be the toughest race we do all year (and I have two marathons scheduled!), we completed the Columbia Olympic Triathlon at Lake Centennial in Columbia, MD!

The Columbia is about double the distance as the Nanticoke race- 1.5 km swimming, 40 km biking, and 10 km running — 51.5 grueling kilometers (0.93 miles swimming, 24.85 miles biking, 6.21 miles running). This qualifies the Columbia as an “Olympic” distance event, as opposed to the sprint event I did at Bivalve. There are also Ironman and Half-Ironman distances, but those are a little crazy. A full Ironman is 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, and 26.2 mile run. Half Ironman is half of that. Maybe I’ll get to those distances one day, but not this year!

This was also our first official Team Fight race, so Lala and I had to raise money for it. Thanks again to everyone who donated this go around! For those of you that didn’t, don’t worry, there are still another couple of Team Fight races coming up that you can get involved with! The next Team Fight race is the Celebration Triathlon on June 24– Devi is also competing in this race, so that should be a lot of fun.

Spectators at this race included Devi, Mom, Dad, Kylee, Jen, and Winston- so it was a pretty good crowd. It was also a gorgeous day for it- one of the first races in a long time that hasn’t been plagued with rain. Of course, Lala, Kylee, and I got there at 530 in the morning, so we didn’t really notice the weather, as we were busy being nervous and getting ready for the race!

My race started off with a hitch- namely, I lost my timing chip. So I had to get a new one, and that made me worried my time wouldn’t be official. Luckily I did end up finding my original chip! The swim was great, it felt really good to be in the water, and I swam it really well I think. The bike was also a lot of fun, if hilly. I may have taken it a little too hard, and I forgot one of my three nutritions, because at around mile 4.5 on the run, I bonked hard. My pace on the run slowed from 9:15 min/mile to about 12 min/mile. That was really disappointing, because I might have beat three hours (and my goal was 3:30, which Lala made). But still, it was a good time for a first race.

Now I feel like a real triathlete!

Race Result

There may be some video coming later, but I haven’t quite gone through it yet to see.

Some pictures from the race:

This morning I completed my first triathlon- The Nanticoke Sprint Triathlon with a pretty speedy result! I had figured that before the Columbia Triathlon (beast of the east according to today’s participants) I’d better have at least one Tri under my belt, and boy was I right! Training doesn’t really prepare you for a full blown multisport race, even with swim-bikes and bike-runs. All I could think about during the run was “yikes, I have to do double this distance in three weeks…”

Needless to say, today’s race was a pretty good experience. Chris and Dad joined me and we spent the night in Salisbury, MD preparing for the race and eating Olive Garden. Bright and early we headed down to Bivalve to rack the bike and set up the transition area. Coffee and hydration later, we watched the kids head out on their triathlon, and it was pretty cool to see them going for it. I think that my kids are going to have to participate in a few tris!

After stuffing myself into my wetsuit, I all of a sudden found myself in the water with 30 other people and the race siren going. After getting kicked in the face quite a few times (and probably kicking a few faces myself) I finally managed to get my stroke and it was no time before I was out at the first buoy.

The real race started on the Bike- the Bivalve area is flat and that means super speed on the bike. There were a group of 7 of us that kept surging and trying to get past each other. I stayed in my biggest chain for the entire ride, and in the aero position and averaged around 26 mph for most of the race! It was super fun!

The problem was that getting off the bike and into the run was pretty tough after that. I barely got into my stride, and everyone I passed on the swim and bike probably passed me again on the run- so it’s clear what I have to work on. But my time was much better than expected, and I’m totally stoked to be a triathlete!

Race Result

Pictures are up on Picasa: https://picasaweb.google.com/bbengfort/NanticokeTriathlon

Videos are currently on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/bbengfort#grid/user/9DDAABDCC51D7D7F