Follow Omar on Facebook (“ Omar Nour – Triathlete – The road to the Olympics is o.n.” ) in his quest to become Egypt’s first Olympic triathlete Keep an eye out for Omar Nour who placed 6th - 3rd if he hadn’t been practicing his ITU drafting technique ? - despite being 3 weeks into fasting for Ramadan. Overall a beautiful day to race, an exceptionally well-run event - especially considering the size - and a great time racing with the men and women of AOAT. As I pulled alongside Steuart Martens within sight of the finish, I said, “I can’t sprint, so you better not let me beat you!” He surged to hold me off, thus maintaining his 3 second cushion from last year’s race ? Very pleased to hold a steady pace and for my calf to hold up to 6.2 miles on pavement. He ended up surging away, but I caught three people in the last mile. I got passed at about the 3 mile mark, but stuck close and actually caught back up by the 5 mile mark. By the 1 mile mark I was feeling strong and confident, so I started to ramp up my pace. I didn’t really have anyone in sight to chase, so I just took my time establishing my rhythm. But I also went in open to the possibility of demonstrating freedom from that physical limitation. After tweaking my calf on Thursday, I didn’t even know if it was a good idea to try today. Thank goodness for the aeroness of my P3 and Pete Warner’s 808s, or I would have been REALLY slow. By the end I was down to 223 (I averaged 215 for a 60 mile aerobic ride just the week before). Hips and glutes were baked after 5 minutes as I watched my avg watts drop lower and lower. Like everything else, I haven’t ridden my TT bike this summer at all. Pretty slow, but not bad for my 2nd swim since July! It’s in a section of the river that is not fast moving, so you don’t feel much current on the way out, but it sure would be nice to feel a little with you on the way back! Out of the water in 22:40 or so. It’s wide, the water is not terrible and it’s pretty cool to swim under the Memorial Bridge. Potomac River swim is starting to become one my favorite swims. So my expectations were pretty low coming in to the race. Most of my training time has been devoted to helping CycleLife get off the ground (which is going great! Look for details on winter CompuTrainer classes coming shortly), spending time with Allen (he turned 18 mos on Saturday), giving my wonderful girlfriend Aimee the attention she deserves, and shopping for a house. This has not been a great summer of training for me. Or so I thought….but after some shmoozing and minor arm twisting, I negotiated my way back into the 1st wave instead of the umpteenth wave. So when I signed up for The Nations Triathlon and it’s 4000+ competitors, I absolutely signed up for the Open Wave. I like to compete against the fastest competition head-on, even if I get my tail whooped. I generally prefer to race in the Open Wave of races that offer it. I try not to be long-winded in my race reports, so let’s see how I do….