By coach Frank Byskov

Once again, it was time to get the season going, and once again I had chosen the sprint triathlon at Westfields in Chantilly, VA. I finished the race in 2nd place, with some very strong competitors around me.

The organizer had changed since last year, to Rev3, which made the field quite a bit larger (almost double in size) and stronger. The weather was pretty cold, around 40F, but at least the rain had stopped early in the morning.

The swim was a 250 yds pool snake swim, seeded on your expected time for the swim (a big improvement over last year, with the seeding being based on a sprint 50 yds), with about 5 seconds in between participants. I started second, the swim was pretty uneventful, and I excited the water a few seconds behind the first starter.

Running up the hill to the transition, it was a bit cold, but nothing else to do than just jump on the bike and go. Within a few miles I had overtaken the leader, and kept pushing from the front. It was hard to gauge where the others were, as the bike course was a big loop to be completed twice.

In T2, I could almost not get my running shoes on, as both toes and fingers were cold despite toe warmers and lots of hand movement on the bike. On they came eventually, and onto the running course. It was mostly on a path system behind the CubRun complex, and slightly undulating. The weather was perfect for fast running, as there was no risk of overheating…

About a mile into the run, I could hear someone coming from behind, and the eventual race winner got past me. I felt good, ran quite a bit faster than I had expected, and could probably have kept it going for a bit longer.

In the end, I secured a solid 2nd place finish, and with a time that was faster than last year. Good start to the season.

Unfortunately, the timing system was a bit off, so it took a couple of days before the final results had been correctly posted. But a great event, and nice to also see a large group of youngsters for both the full race and the splash-n-dash.

Thanks to all the volunteers, that did a great job of cheering and supporting the competitors.

#rev3 #RockCreekTriClub #WestfieldSprint