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SRRC Race Reports
Culpeper Sprint Triathlon, Culpeper VA—August 7, 2005
by Catalina Gomolka
There's nothing like getting up at 4 am to do a race. My supportive
husband and I drove to Culpeper on the morning of August 7 so that I could
participate in the Culpeper Sprint Triathlon. The drive wasn't bad, although
it was dark the whole way and we must have seen about 20 deer near the side
of the roads.
The race was well organized. The swim started out in the water, which I
thought was much better than starting from the beach. That way you can get
in and make sure that your goggles aren't leaking, which is always one of my
biggest fears. It was very foggy in the morning though, so I could barely
see the buoys where we were supposed to turn. Good thing I had people in
front of me to lead me the right way!
The transition area was not to far from the swim exit. I grabbed my bike,
and even though the bike timing started as soon as we exited the transition
area, we could not mount our bikes until we ran up a steep grassy hill with
our bike (not ideal). I then proceeded to clip my shoes on to the pedals
before riding down a steep gravel road (also not ideal). The rest of the
bike portion was on paved road and was hilly, but that meant being able to
catch a lot of speed.
The end of the bike was a bit tricky. Once again we had to ride on that
patch of gravel road--this time, we were going up hill. I told myself that I
had to keep on pedaling and moving no matter what; other wise, I would go
down (I still don't have the unclipping of the pedals thing down). So up I
went. The gravel was loose and deep, so I almost slipped, but somehow stayed
on and made it up to the top. That effort tired my legs for the run though,
which was pretty much all up hill for the first
2 miles. It was mostly on grass and gravel roads, so it was easy on the
joints.
I finished strong, looking forward to the next one--Reston Triathlon.
I was lucky to have good weather. It was cloudy all day and it didn't feel
too hot.
August 2005
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