2012 Culpeper Sprint – My first ever triathlon »

Here is my first race report on my first ever triathlon.  The Culpepper Sprint.

I easily spotted two other members in their DC Tri Club outfits and introduced myself as NTP Bob Malloy – they were very encouraging and wanted to know what I thought of it all.   The race organization was excellent.   Everything from packet pickup, transition setup, timing, on course support etc.  was great.   I had two friends have bad luck on the bike – one got a flat and the other busted his real derailer.  The first they had fixed within minutes and the second they actually got the derailer off, put the chain in a lower gear because of hills and took a few links off the chain and he was back riding in no time also.  Amazing.

The swim was nice in a warm 82 degree lake.  Like most lakes around here it was murky but there was no weeds, duck poop or anything that I noticed.  Coming out of the water the PA System announced my name and where I lived – I nice boost of energy for me.  The bike course was all hills.  You were either going up or you were coming back down.   I found it challenging after having trained mostly on the flat Mt. Vernon trail in VA (those little hills near Mt. Vernon don’t compare).   The run was uphill for a mile, flat for a mile and then downhill to the finish.   Again at the finish they shouted my name.   They had a nice ceremony for the age group winners while newbies like me ate the free watermellon, oranges and dominos pizza.  I got a medal, t-shirt and some cool socks with peppers on them for my efforts.  I’ve put my line in the sand / set my bench mark so I plan on doing it again next year so that I can beat my time.

Bob NTP 2012