It was a breezy 75 degrees on the morning of the Nation’s Triathlon. Among the thousands of athletes getting ready in the transition area were six of our Sport and Spine Rehab employees. Unfortunately, due to the water quality of the Potomac river, the swim portion of the triathlon was cancelled; however, we were all still very excited for the morning to come!
Around 6 am on Sunday morning, athletes of all ages were getting ready for the day’s events. People were attaching race numbers, pumping up bike tires, organizing their equipment, and warming up. Personally, I am a bit of a newbie to the triathlon scene so I didn’t have too much equipment to prepare just a helmet and my bike! As the transition area closed, athletes began lining up near the start line according to their wave. The main groups were Olympic distance and Sprint distance with many other subgroups mostly divided by age.
I was in the very last wave so I had a lot of time to watch my fellow coworkers and mentally prepare!
Our Rockville Clinic Director, Dr. Patrick Engracia, was up first for the bike portion of the Sport and Spine Rehab Olympic distance relay team. After a rough start to the morning (a fairly long lasting bloody nose thank goodness for the absorbent property of tampons!), he managed to pull through for team SSR. At an astonishing average of 18 mph, Dr. Engracia completed the 40 km biking portion of the triathlon in 1:22:46. As Dr. Engracia raced into the transition area, Dr. Sarah Corcoran (our Rockville Associate Doctor) grabbed the time chip and then completed the 10 km run in an impressive?time of 44:24 (7:10/mile)! Our Olympic Relay team did amazing and finished 7th overall for co-ed teams!
CEO of Sport and Spine Rehab, Dr. Jay Greenstein, was up next fo
r our Sprint distance relay team. He started the team off strong with a time of 1:13:35 for the 21.5 km bike. Emily Perry, our Fairfax Rehab Specialist, then wrapped up the 5 km run with a time of 26:41. Our Sprint distance team rocked the triathlon and finished 10th overall for co-ed teams!
Next up, Lauren Klumpp, our Director of Sales and Marketing, was off to compete in the individual sprint distance triathlon. After powering through both events, she finished in an amazing time of 1:41:41 with a great big smile on her face! Not only did Lauren compete in the triathlon, but she also organized everything so that Sport and Spine Rehab could act as the Official Chiropractic and Physical Therapy providers for the Nation’s Triathlon.
I also competed in the individual sprint distance and I loved it! After completing the first mile on the bike, I realized how much fun it was to go fast…unfortunately, that did not bode well for my legs on the run afterwards oops! I still had a blast and finished the triathlon with a time of 1:32:05.
Our team had great fun competing, but we also had an amazing time getting to help all of the athletes after the race. Dr. Elizabeth Meliski and Dr. Tiffanie Le used manual therapy, soft tissue mobilization, low level laser therapy, electronic stimulation, and much much more while treating the hardworking athletes who just completed the triathlon. Adrienne Hunt, our Fort Washington Rehab Specialist, was able to help many athletes with their cool down process by instructing foam rolling and stretching techniques.
Our whole Sport and Spine Rehab team had a blast and we look forward to next year. If you didn’t get a chance to be treated by one of our amazing doctors on Sunday morning, have no fear!
We have 6 different locations around the D.C. metro area. If you’d like to schedule some post-race treatment with our team, don’t hesitate to schedule now!