Sometime Friday or Saturday, everybody had to go to a hotel to check-in, pick up a race packet and bracelet, and hear the briefing about the weekend's events.
Saturday, everybody had to check in at the race site, place their bikes on the rack, and there was an option to go swimming in the Potomac, which we all did.
Sunday morning, everybody had to arrive at least an hour prior to the 7am race start time, which meant waking up very early to eat breakfast etc. Saturday night we had the mandatory 'carbo load' dinner of various types of pasta dishes.
Anyway, both of us, and all of our training partners, finished the race better than expected. The bike and run portions were thoroughly enjoyable for me - the run especially since I was passing slower runners most of the time. The swim, however, was a different story. There was so much grabbing, pulling, and kicking that it felt more like wrestling than swimming. It came as a shock that people so well-mannered out of the water were so unsportsmanlike in it. Combine that with the fact that our group chose not to rent wetsuits - the water was 74F, so not very cold - and it was a struggle to stay afloat against other wetsuit-clad evildoers. I emerged from the swim very tired and very upset, but that is motivation to get my own suit for next time. The most frustrating part was the fact that we trained the hardest for the swim, and expected to be faster, but had to swim a lot of breastroke and avoid the crowds in order to not be pushed an pulled.
Anyway, on with some photos:
Friend Jesse and Rebecca among the 4000-odd bikes in the event
L-R: Jesse, Reb, Ben, me, Tom, and John: our training team
L-R Ben, Jesse, John, me and Reb after the race.
Rebecca giving the thumbs up after finishing.
More photos here: http://nationstri.com/photo-gallery-2009-NT.html
