Lake Montclair Olympic Triathlon - June 24th, 2007

Beth, Marisol, and I got in my car at 4:45 a.m. on Sunday June 24th and drove 30 miles south down I-95 to Lake Montclair, Virginia. Beth and I were competing in the Lake Montclair Triathlon, an olympic distance race with a 1500 meter lake swim, 40 kilometer 3 loop bike course, and 10 kilometer run.

1500 meter swim in 38:01

T1 of 2:49

40 kilometer bike in 1:11:25 (20.2 mph)

T2 of 2:10

10 kilometer run in 47:31 (7:40 mile pace)

finished in 2:41:56 overall

125 overall out of 393 finishers

12th out of 30 males in the 25-29 age group

The 22nd annual Bay to Bay Ride - June 17th, 2007

On Sunday June 17th, I left my house at 5 a.m. and drove north up to Annapolis and then east over the Chesapeake Bay on the massive Bay Bridge to Betteron Beach on the eastern shore of Maryland. The 22nd annual Bay to Bay Ride was a 104.2 mile ride starting at Betterton Beach, traversing east across Maryland and Delaware to Woodland Beach on the Delaware coast, then back west to the Chesapeake Bay, and then back north to Betterton Beach.

Ironman 70.3 Florida in Orlando - May 20th, 2007

On Friday May 18th, John and I took off from Washington, DC in my rusty trusty Toyota Camry on an 850 mile drive down to Orlando to participate in the 2007 Ironman 70.3 Florida consisting of a 1.2 mile swim in Walt Disney World's Fort Wilderness Lake, a 56 mile bike through western Orange County, and a 13.1 mile run along the paths of Fort Wilderness. We made it to Savannah, Georgia on Friday night where we crashed for the night before driving the rest of the way down to Orlando on Saturday morning. We went straight to Fort Wilderness in Disney World to check in my bike and pick up my packet for the race the next morning. It was crazy how many people there were competing in the race and how many expensive bikes there were parked in the transition area. After check-in, we went over and checked into the Coronado Springs Resort where we were staying for the weekend. Then we rushed over to Epcot in time to make it on all the best rides before closing and walk around the World Showcase getting drinks from all the countries before watching the fireworks over Lake Buena Vista when it got dark.

The alarm went off at 4:15 a.m. on Sunday morning. John drove me from Coronado Springs over to the parking lot near Fort Wilderness where I took a bus to the race start. It was still pitch black out - see the picture. I got my transition area set up, got body marked, and started the mental preparation required for racing 70.3 miles. There was a large group of professional triathletes competing that went off in the earliest swim wave at 6:20 a.m., and I got to see them transition from swim to bike before I had to make my way down to the lake for the pink swim wave. I was pretty nervous before the start but I had certainly put in my time training so I knew that I was going to make it. The water temperature on race morning was 78 degrees making wetsuits not allowed for the swim in the beautiful tea colored lake.

There were at least a hundred of us in the pink swim wave that ran off the beach and splashed our way out into the lake when our start time arrived. I had done a training swim in a lake out in Maryland a couple weekends prior to the race to get comfortable with open water swimming this season. The major challenge with open water swimming compared to swimming in a lap pool where I do all of my training is the lack of a black guide line along the bottom of the pool that you can follow when you swim to keep yourself aimed in the correct direction. Essentially, beyond the fact that I am not a strong swimmer, I am a terrible open water swimmer because I just can't keep myself aimed in the right direction and waste a significant amount of time and energy propelling myself in the wrong direction. It seeemed that every time I looked up after 10 or 20 strokes, I was heading off course and had to re-direct myself essentially zig-zagging my way across the swim course in the lake. I eventually completed the 1.2 mile swim loop and made it back to the beach in 44 minutes 17 seconds (2:13 per 100m pace).

It then took me a little over 6 minutes to run a couple hundred meters to the transition area, get my shoes, helmet, and shirt on, and get on my bike. The weather was so nice when we set out on our ride. The course was very flat but there was a strong headwind during several sections of the ride that never seemed to be at our backs. Per USAT rules, drafting is illegal during triathlons so wind plays a major factor during the bike. Nevertheless, the ride flew by as I covered the 56 miles in 3 hr 2 min 29 sec (averaging 18.4 mph) and got back into the transition area where I slipped on my running shoes and my silk Mickey Mouse boxers and set out on a half marathon run after a T2 of 5 min 34 sec.

The 13.1 mile run a was a 3 loop course over mostly trampled grass and some paved paths and roads. It was quite a hot Florida day by the time I was out running the course that featured little shade or protection from the sun. I felt good out of the bike to run transition and ran a good first lap but it hurt seeing people turn left towards the finish line when I had to turn right for two more loops. The second lap was significantly slower and more brutal, and it hurt much worse seeing people head towards the finish when I had turn right for yet another loop. Thank god for the volunteers handing out Gatorade and ice cold soaking sponges during the run. Somehow I dragged myself around that 4+ mile loop one last time and got to turn left and head towards the finish line. I was so happy to make it to the finish line no matter how long it took me. I wound up covering the 13.1 miles in 2 hr 16 min 54 sec (10:28 per mile pace) and completed the 70.3 mile triathlon in 6:15:29 good for 1207 out of 1997 finishers overall and 90 out of 134 males in the 25-29 age group.

I drank so much fluid after I finished before going back to Coronado Springs to get cleaned up and take a post-race nap. When I woke up, there was hunger and some soreness, and John and I ate an exorbitant amount of food before heading to Disney World to ride some rides and hang out with Mickey Mouse. The night ended with drinks and dancing at the disco club on Pleasure Island (Disney World's center for night time adult entertainment). It was such a great time, and I can't wait to come back to Florida in October for the real deal!

The Relay, 199 miles from Calistoga to Santa Cruz - May 5-6th, 2007

On Wednesday May 2nd, I flew out to San Francisco to meet up with my favorite 11 Georgetown law students to run The Relay, a 199 mile road race from Calistoga to Santa Cruz, California (www.therelay.com). The Relay is broken up into 36 legs of varying lengths and difficulties meaning everyone on a team of 12 gets to run three legs. The first person on the team runs from the start line to the checkpoint at the end of leg 1 where the second team member is waiting to take off. The second team member starts running for checkpoint 2 where hopefully the third team member is waiting and ready to run. All the teams ride in vans from checkpoint to checkpoint and stop along the way to cheer on their running teammate.

Thursday turned out to be an awesome day - I rented a bike and rode across the Golden Gate Bridge and did 60 miles up in the hills of Sausalito and Tiburon. Wednesday and Thursday nights were rather tame but we did get to see the End Up until 4 in the morning on Thursday. Did some shopping and swam some laps in the USF pool on Friday before meeting up with the team Friday night at Chad, Mark, and Lauren's apartment in the Mission very near Delores Park for the pre-race BBQ throwdown. My favorite 11 Georgetown law students are all actually graduated now and are big time lawyers in various cities throughout the country. We were reuniting in San Fran for the race and everyone was very happy to see each other again. So happy the beer and Sparks drinking turned into hardcore boozing and we hit the Castro for a night of shenanigans that should have ended before 8:30 a.m. when it was time to start driving up to Calistoga for the start of the race.

Our starting time on Saturday was scheduled for 1 p.m. It took us a while to get packed up into the two big vans and get on the road for the couple hour ride north to Calistoga that morning. We got there in time to see the teams going off at the 12:00 and 12:30 start times and to make a quick stop at the grocery store for water, food, and supplies for the next 26 hours. The sexy Chad was led us off as the Rocky theme song "Eye of the Tiger" energized the 1:00 start for about a dozen teams. It turned out to be a typical beautiful California day and it was awesome following our runners through wine country as we trekked through Napa and Sonoma.

I was set to run legs 12, 24, and 36 for our team - meaning I didn't get to run until several hours after Chad started us off but also that I would be running the final leg of the race and get to cross the finish line for our team. My first leg was 4.8 miles, rated hard, with 400 feet of climbing in the first 3 miles and then gentle downgrade over the last couple miles going back down 100 feet. It was pitch black outside at 10 p.m. when Paul Lee came running into checkpoint 11 in his reflective vest and headlamp to pass off "the green bracelet" to me (see the picture). I took off on my first run of the day in my reflective vest and headlamp, but no sooner than about 30 paces did my headlamp fall on the ground and bust into a bunch of pieces. I was stuck going the distance in absolute darkness, and it was only by starlight that I was able to follow the white line on the side of the road that kept me aiming in the correct direction as I marched along. As my vision adjusted to the darkness and I could begin to see where I was putting my feet (which is always nice when running), the confidence started building and so did my pace. The hill was challenging but I managed to pass a couple runners on the ascent and then a few more when I took off on the downhill. It was nice to see Chad waiting for me at the checkpoint at the end of 4.8 miles. We had a good time driving and running all night.

My second leg was 5.9 miles, rated moderate, flat for the first 3 miles, then 200 feet of climbing over miles 3 to 5, and then gentle downgrade to the checkpoint. It was about 6 a.m. when I was getting out of the van in the morning to start stretching and getting ready to run. It was quite chilly and the sun was just peaking over the horizon when Paul Lee came running up to hand off the green bracelet. It was a beautiful fast-paced run along amazing scenery featuring a huge lake and mountains in the distance during an awesome sunrise. I was sad to have to stop running and hand off to Chad when I reached the checkpoint. However, with 2 legs down and only 1 more to run it was time to start the Sparks drinking, hula dancing, and tomfoolery. We got asked by numerous folks if we were really running or just drinking and partying the whole way. My final leg was scheduled for 4.7 miles, rated easy, downhill the first mile into Santa Cruz at sea level, across a pedestrian bridge, around downtown Santa Cruz for a couple miles and then onto the beach and along the boardwalk to the finish line. I was feeling good going into my last leg and took off at a lightning pace passing the few people in sight in the first half mile. After crossing the pedestrian bridge, the course took several turns through downtown on the way to the beach, and I must have missed one of the turns because I came to beach with no other runners or race signs in sight and everyone I asked responded "What race?". After running in circles for a couple miles I eventually found the boardwalk and ran onto the beach where the team was waiting for me. We all raced the last 500 feet along the beach together and across the finish line at around 4 p.m. after 27 hours of non-stop running. Chad, Paul Lee, and I all jumped in the freezing Pacific together to cool off, and we took a team photo on the beach before heading back to San Fran for margaritas and food.

WVU's ACCC Conference Championships at Wisp Ski Resort in MD - Bike race weekend #5, April 22rd

The cycling season came and went very fast this spring, and the last race of the season had arrived April 22rd - ACCC Conference Championships at Wisp Ski Resort in Garrett County, Maryland. I drove up on the night of Saturday the 21st to meet the team at Wisp as they had been riding the Conference Championship Criterium during the day. Everyone was tired and we all made it bed early as the race started early the next morning. It was a chilly morning at 8 a.m. when I got outisde to start getting ready for the ride. Men's C was set to ride a 24.5 mile course in the shape of a lollipop (the loop was 19.7 miles) described as "a road race unlike any other in the conference with over 1800 feet of vertical during each lap and over 600 feet of climbing in the epilogue to the finish". There turned out to be 39 riders that lined up at the start at 9:30 when they finally got organized to begin the race. There was a neutral roll out of the ski resort for about 2 or 3 miles the included a steep downhill traverse that would have been scary to race down. As we turned onto the loop, the race was underway and the whole group took off. The course was a nightmare of ups and downs and it seemed to always be going up and never down like some screwy M.C. Escher drawing or something. I just couldn't keep up with the Men's C field this year and this race turned out to be no exception as I got dropped within 5 or 6 miles of hitting the hills. I just don't ever find the kind of hills in D.C. that this course had in store for me (see the elevation map), and I really enjoyed the experience of getting massacred by the terrain. I eventually made it to the finish line crossing in 32nd out of the 36 finishers. I know now where I need and hope to be next year in order to be competitive at this level. It's going to be fun training all fall and winter to get ready for next season. Following the conclusion of this last race of the season, the Georgetown University Cycling Team finished in 3rd place in the Division 2 team standings of the ACCC behind only Appalachian State and Johns Hopkins. Congrats to the team on an awesome inaugural season!

The 2007 IronMed Charity Triathlon - April 14th

On Saturday April 14th my brother and I arose before the crack of down to participate in the 7th annual IronMed Charity Triathlon put on by Georgetown University School of Medicine. I arrived to check in before 6 a.m. when it was still dark outside (see the picture to the left) and was surprised to find that it was not raining for the first time in the history of the event but was extremely chilly, likely in the low 40 degree range. At check in there were two black SUV's with tinted windows and four huge dudes in black suits there to provide security to DC's mayor Adrian Fenty who would be participating in the triathlon. I got checked in, set up my transition area, and started preparing myself for the 6:30 a.m. start time for the 1st wave that I would be going off in. Adrian Fenty gave us a pre-race motivational speech, and before I knew it we were in the pool waiting to go off.

I have been working hard in the pool all winter and was excited for my first triathlon swim of the year. However, it turns out I was a little too excited and had a lot of trouble getting into a rhythm the first few laps. I was only 750 yards into the 1000 yard swim when people started cheering for the first person out of the pool - the girl I was sharing a lane with, Patty who swam at Georgetown undergrad. I just kept going and was out of the pool a few minutes later in 17 min 4 sec (30 seconds faster than my time last year). I ran out into the freezing cold and got changed into my cycling gear and hopped on my bike just ahead of Mayor Fenty. I have been riding with the Georgetown Cycling Team all spring and hoped that I could make up some time on everyone ahead of me now that my feet were on dry land. I made my way down the Georgetown hill and onto the unpaved C&O Canal Trail for the 16 mile out-and back ride. It was damn cold but I have been getting used to riding in the cold all spring and just put my head down and biked along. After passing a couple people, I found myself at Lock 10, the turn around, and started heading back. I knew that Adrian Fenty was somewhere behind me and I had been peeking over my shoulder every once in a while to see if he was in sight. With about 2 miles to go on the ride, I heard a bike coming up behind me and sure enough I got passed by the mayor of the District of Columbia. The last time I saw Adrian Fenty before today was at the 17th Street High Heel Race back at Halloween when he shook my hand and told me I was looking hot. There were no niceties exchanged this time as it was now time to chase this 35 year old down. He didn't get too far ahead of me on the bike before it was time to fight our way back up the Georgetown hill to the transition area. I had a little homefield advantage on him on the way back up and we both were putting our running shoes on at the same time after finishing the bike in around 55 min. He beat me out of the transition area by about 30 seconds and the race was on. It was a 10K (6.2 mile) out-and-back loop on the paved Capital Crescent Trail. The feet were completely numb and the legs ached as I took my first steps out of the transition area after chugging some Gatorade. My footsteps were loud as I plodded along the first mile or so as I slowly regained sensation, and I was only a couple hundred feet behind Adrian Fenty the whole way out with people screaming at me to catch him. I got within about 50 feet shortly after we hit the turn around and started making our way back but that was the closest I would get as he pulled away out in front during the last couple miles. Adrian Fenty wound up crossing the finish line at 2 hrs 1 min 13 sec in 3rd place, and I came in about 30 seconds back (more than 4 minutes faster than last year) after a 44:30 run. The finish line brought great happiness and the opportunity to take a hot shower to get warmed up. Steven went off in the 7:00 a.m. 2nd wave start and did very well in his only 2nd triathlon ever. He looks to be having a great time in the picture of his run back to the finish line.

Following the conlcusion of the race, everyone came back to my place for the fourth leg of the quadrathlon, a BBQ and beer drinking competition. We had a blast playing beer pong and trying to eat the 10 pound Toblerone bar that Mr. IronMed champion Wolfgang brought over. It was definitely only 9 p.m. when I went to sleep that night.

Overall the event was an enormous success. Thank you all so much for your generous support of the H.O.Y.A. Clinic in support of my running in the 2007 IronMed Charity Triathlon! Together my brother and I raised over $500 and the event raised more than $20,000 to provide health services to the underserved families living at the DC Village emergency shelter in Southeast DC. I will be sure to keep you posted as the clinic readies to open it doors this fall.

Please stay tuned for new and exciting race adventures with The Relay out in Cali and Ironman 70.3 Florida both less than a month away. Signing out for now.

~ D.

JMU's Reddish Knob Hill Climb and UVA's Jefferson Cup Road Race - Bike race weekend #4, March 24th and 25th

On the morning of Saturday March 24th I picked up another Georgetown graduate student Mary at 7:30 a.m. and took off down to Harrisonburg, Virginia to meet up with the rest of the Georgetown cycling team and participate in James Madison University's Reddish Knob Hill Climb Individual Time Trial. The course was an 11.7 mile climb over which riders gain approximately 2800 feet of elevation to the top of Virginia's tallest peak, Reddish Knob. The course begins on a straight road with a gentle false flat climb. At the 6-mile mark riders pass the dam and the grade increases and remains sustained for the next four miles. The last two miles involve several steeper pitches and one or two short rolling sections as riders roll along the ridge road up to the summit of Reddish Knob at 4400 feet elevation. See the course map above and elevation map below.

Lin Distance: 11.7 mi
Elevation Gain: 2,881.4 ft
Average Grade: 5%

Climb Elevation: 3,196.5 ft
Descent Elevation: 315.1 ft
Max. Elevation: 4,369.4 ft
Min. Elevation: 1,487.8 ft

The first rider of the day was sent off from the start line at 11:30 a.m. and additional riders were sent off the line at 30-second intervals. Men's D went off first and then Men's C. I was the 5th rider out of 30 to go in my category and started around 11:40. The first 6 miles were not too intense at all, and I was chit-chatting with a UNC rider most of the way. But when we hit the 6 mile mark, HOLY SHIT! I had never done anything like this before. I have no idea why it was called a hill climb because it was certainly a mountain that we biked straight up that day. D.C. is totally flat and I just don't get too much training in on hills which was definitely not a good thing come this Saturday. My legs were screaming, several people passed me, and all I could think about was "please god get me to the top" for those last few miles. It wound up taking me 1 hr 10 min 57 sec to reach the summit good for 26th place out of 30 riders. It was ridiculously chilly at the top of the mountain even though it had been a warm but rainy day at the start of the ride and the last thing I wanted to do was go flying back down the mountain in the cold wind. It was an intense but fun ride back down the mountain and I wound up riding the last several miles with a rider from UNC talking about the big game the next night to see who of our teams in the face-to-face battle would win to make the final four. Mike from our team is a monster rider and finshed the climb in 48 min 50 sec, the fastest time on the mountain that day. I am inspired. Next year, next year.

After the hill climb, we all drove up to Charlottesville, Virginia to stay for the night and then participate in the University of Virginia's Jefferson Cup Road Race on Sunday March 25th. "The race is held on a classic loop road couse with plenty of ups and downs and one longer steeper climb to keep you honest. The roads are usually slow (rough) which can make it a job to even sit in on some sections, and the hills are not long but enough to chew you up if you do not ride smartly." Everyone else's race went off early in the day including a USCF Category 1-2-3 race which was awesome to see all the sponsored and semi-pro riders racing. Men's C was the last scheduled race of the day at 2:30 p.m. but it was closer to 3:45 p.m. by the time we started lining up in the parking lot of the elementary school the race was staged at. There was a 2 mile neutral roll out to the start line of the 10 mile loop course we would be riding 3 laps on. It turned out to be a hot hot day (the first of the season) and getting warmed up before the race had not been difficult. The race didn't go too well as I got dropped by the pack only a few miles into the first loop when I just couldn't keep up with everyone on the hills. It was a pretty ride for the hour and half or so I was out there. There were 54 riders who started the race, and I was listed as crossing the finish 7 from the bottom. Ouch. Need to start training harder. "The guy who trains the hardest, the most, wins. Period." - Floyd Landis

The President's Crit at University of Maryland - Bike race weekend #3, March 18th

On Sunday March 18th I drove up to the University of Maryland in College Park to ride in the President's Crit. It was a chilly morning somewhere in the 40's as I pulled up around 7:45 a.m. in order to check in and get warmed up before the 9:00 start. This was a lot smaller race than Philly the weekend before as there were 28 of us that lined up to race Men's C. We would be racing for 25 minutes and completing 12 laps on the 0.70 mile course featuring three 90 degree turns, a small climb up to a tight technical chicane around the President's house, and a wide open finish. I started off pretty timidly toward the back of the pack for the first lap getting the feel of the group and the course. At the top of the hill on the 2nd loop there was a wreck in the middle of the pack that a few riders went down in that slowed me down quite a bit and totally spread out the group of riders. After I got by the downed bikers I put my head down and started chugging to catch up with whoever was in front of me. I passed a number of riders but never really found a pack ahead of me and really had no idea where I stood as the laps passed by. I was climbing up the hill behind an American University rider who just turned to the right, puked, and then kept on riding. Hardcore. On my last lap I saw a Maryland rider down over the curb in one of the turns who looked like he was in pretty bad shape. In the end I wound up crossing the finish line in 4th place out of 20 finishers and got our team 15 points. Everyone else did awesome and Georgetown took far more points than any other team at the race. After this 3rd weekend of racing, the Georgetown cycling team is in 1st place in Division 2 of the ACCC ahead (but not by much) of W&M, Appalachian State, and Johns Hopkins. Woohoo!

The 2007 Philly Phlyer - Bike race weekend #2, March 10th & 11th

Julia and I drove up to Philadelphia on Friday March 9th and met up with the 3 undegrad boys at the Best Western in the museum district around midnight and got to sleep pretty shortly thereafter. After grabbing a quick breakfast at Wawa, we drove over to Fairmount Park for the 2007 Philly Phlyer. Hosted by Drexel, UPenn, and Johns Hopkins, the Philly Phlyer is a cross-conference race with teams from both the Atlantic and Eastern Collegiate Cycling Conferences. With more than 500 racers competing, the weekend turned out to be the largest collegiate bike race ever.

I was signed up again this weekend to ride Men's C for Saturday's road race and Sunday's crit. The road race course diagrammed above was a loop approximately 6 miles that Men's C was riding 3 laps on. The first stretch on Lansdowne Dr was a steep downhill onto a sweeping 180 degree turn followed by a straight run along the river. The Strawberry Mansion Bridge loop features a solid climb after a sharp 180 degree turn off the river and a fast, winding descent into a 90 degree turn back onto the river. Black Rd is a moderate climb to the final sequence, which includes an off-camber, hard turn. The Men's C group was so large that it wound up being split into Division 1 and Division 2 races based on the size of the school. I got to see the Men's D, Men's Intro, Women's B, Women's Intro, and a couple USCF races go in the chilly morning before my race. It was about 1:00 p.m. and a lot more warm (maybe about 50 degrees) when we got to line up at the start. There were 71 of us that started the ride and everyone took off at a blazing pace. I was sticking to the back of the pack but keeping up ok until we got to the first hill after the 180 degree turn off the river. I just got ditched. After I eventually made it up and caught my breath, I was able to sprint for a couple minutes and catch back up to the pack only to be ditched again coming up the hill at the end of the first lap and did not catch back up during the race. Though I felt good throughout the ride, there are just no hills to train on in D.C. compared to where some of these guys are from. I wound up crossing the finish line of the 18 mile ride in 60th place out of 61 riders. Fortunately some other Georgetown riders had a much better showing than I did. After Saturday's races were complete, we all made our way back to the hotel and got cleaned up. Then we all walked out as a group and got strombolis for dinner, and I ran up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art like Rocky Balboa on the way back to the hotel. We all stayed up and watched Georgetown beat Pitt to win the Eastern Conference Championship that would get Georgetown a number 2 seed into the NCAA tournament.

The crit course on Sunday was approximately 0.7 miles long, perfectly flat, and very wide all around. It was designed as a fast course with four 90 degree right turns that is well suited for beginners but requires great pack riding skills and strong legs to excel at, especially with the strong headwinds on Sunday. The Men's C race would be riding for 30 minutes and completing 17 laps of the course, and there were 66 of us that lined up to start the Division 2 race around 1:00 p.m. on a much more pleasant Sunday afternoon. I was a little distraught after Saturday's ride and had some determination that day. It turns out that the crit is much more my style of race as I am able to sprint with those guys despite not being able ride hills with them. We sprinted the straight, slowed in the turn, and sprinted the straight over and over again. I started towards the back of the pack but found myself pushing up towards the front a couple of times. At around lap 8 there was a pretty nasty wreck where several bikers went down in front of me, and the 15 of us or so that got caught behind it and didn't go down were slowed dramatically getting going again. We spent the rest of the ride racing trying to catch up with the pack but never quite made it. I was recorded as finishing in 41st place out of the 50 finishers. Overall, Georgetown faired well on the weekend finishing in 27th place out of 57 teams in the points standing.

Somebody needs to tell me this is bike racing, not a GQ add.

My first bike race - William & Mary's Tidewater Winter Classic on February 25th, 2007

Eight of us met up on campus on the afternoon of Saturday February 24th, got our bikes and gear packed up in three cars, and then set off south down I-95 to Williamsburg, Virginia to compete in the College of William and Mary’s 2nd annual Tidewater Winter Classic. We rolled into Williamsburg around 9 p.m. and got checked into our hotel for the night before walking over to IHOP to fuel up on eggs and pancakes before the morning’s race.

We all got up at 7 a.m. to a frigid morning with freezing rain that continued throughout the day and then drove over to the staging ground for the race at the KOA campground. A.J. had brought a large tent that we set up a couple bike trainers underneath to warm up on. The course for the road race was a 9.38 mile mostly flat loop culminating with a decisive climb and hilltop finish line. There were 10 of us from Georgetown there to ride that Sunday but I was the only one riding in the Men’s C division that was completing 3 laps of the course for a total of 28.1 miles. The Men’s D and the Women’s B divisions went off around 10 a.m. There were riders from so many schools there competing including Duke, UNC, NC State, Appalachian State, Johns Hopkins, WVU, William and Mary, Mary Washington, UMD, George Mason, James Madison, and more. It was exciting to see Julia, Sarah, James, and Tim all finish so well in their races before mine went off.

I am not sure what time everyone from my division started lining up (maybe 11:30ish) but I was pretty nervous and pretty cold. And that was before we started riding. There were 62 riders that started in my division and I stuck to the back of the pack as we took off. I made the terrible mistake of wearing fingerless gloves and not wearing my shoe covers, and my fingers and toes were completely numb within minutes of taking off – so much so that I had to watch my gears change because I couldn’t feel my fingers shifting and braking. The pack (or “peloton” if you’re into the whole biking terminology) wasn’t riding particularly fast at first but keeping up was challenging – when the leaders slow down for any reason like before a turn, the braking gets amplified along the train of riders such that the people at the very back are slowed down so much that they then have to sprint to catch back up, kind of like a slinky or yo-yo or something. I just hadn’t done very much pace-line riding before the race and my confidence at riding up in the middle of the pack (where you need to be to stay up with the leaders due to the effort you save with drafting off the riders in front of you) was not there that Sunday. I stayed up with group for the first two loops around the course as several other riders fell off but got ditched on the third loop. I felt strong riding the last few miles on my own and made my way up the final climb for the 3rd time to the finish line that I crossed in 43rd place out of 53 finishers about a couple minutes after the leaders. See the picture of me freezing at the finish line as my body temperature plummets after stopping working so hard. It took the better part of the afternoon to get warmed back up, especially since we kept running back out in the sleet and cold to cheer on Jeff, Alex, A.J., Mike, and Chris as they completed each lap during their races. Georgetown finished well on the day with 6 riders scoring in the points and 4 top 10 finishers in the first race of the season. Of course no trip to Williamsburg was complete without a trip to The Peanut Shop and Pierce’s BBQ before returning back to D.C. in the pouring sleet and rain.