Jersey Girl Triathlon - August 2, 2015

This was my very first triathlon back in 2010, and so I was really excited to do this as my last triathlon of the season.  My tri club buddy Susan was awesome enough to pick up my Jersey Girl packet earlier that week so I didn’t have to trek down to Eatontown to get it! 

The day before the race was a busy one.  I ended up doing the 50-mile Princeton Freewheelers ride, and spent the rest of the afternoon/evening at nearby wineries with Mike and his mom.  We stopped by Old York Vineyards and did a tasting there before heading to Unionville Vineyards for a lobster bake.  It was a great time, and the hardest part was holding myself back from drinking too much wine and eating too many raw oysters.  I did eat the entire lobster though!  We got home around 10 and I quickly packed my transition bag (my bike stayed in the car from that morning’s ride) before bed. 

I set my alarm for 4:45 since I knew transition closed at 6:30, and I wanted to get to the race site by 6.  I headed towards the main parking area in front of the hotel, but since there was a long line of cars waiting to get in, I drove behind the CVS and found a spot on the street.  It was only a few blocks from the transition area, and I didn’t have to pay or worry about timing.  I biked the few blocks to transition and found the rack that coordinated with my wave (Wave 7).  The racks were roomy, and I found a wide empty spot next to a rainbow pinwheel, which would be helpful in finding my transition spot during the race.  It was cool to see a bib a few bikes over that said “Nikki” since my grad school friend Nikki was the one who actually introduced me to the Jersey Girl Triathlon (and I believe triathlons in general!!). 

After setting up my transition area, I walked over to get body marked.  There were volunteers everywhere, and everyone was so friendly and helpful.  I wasn’t nervous, but there were a lot of newbies who were.  As I was waiting to get body marked, a girl who looked really familiar asked “hey, are you Didi?”  At first I couldn’t place my finger on how I knew her (sorry, Olivia!), but then remembered we had met on the race-day packet pickup line at Iron Girl Sandy hook last September!  After putting my Lava pants on (wetsuit legal swim) I waited on the porta-potty line before heading down to the beach, and was nervous about going in there barefoot, but the portapotties were surprisingly really clean! 

As we were waiting for our swim heat to go off, the waves were crashing along the shore and I was hoping they would calm down when our heat started!  Although it was a wetsuit legal swim, I didn’t want to wear my sleeveless wetsuit since it was such a short swim (300yds).   I did wear my Lava Pants for the buoyancy, and it was a tiny bit cooler than NJ State, so I was happy to have the little bit of warmth.  As the air horn went off, a giant wave crashed into the first group of women heading into the water.  I stayed towards the back of the pack, so was able to avoid it.  Even though I didn’t feel like I hit my groove until halfway through, the swim went by really quickly.  Once I got to the shore, I was helped out of the water by a nice volunteer, and jogged through the sand and back up to the boardwalk.  It would have been awesome if there were a carpet or something to run on, since running through sand is tough!  

Once I got on the boardwalk, a volunteer with a hose sprayed my feet to get the sand off, and I ran over the pavement and grass to T1.  Lava Pants off, socks and bike shoes on, bike gloves on, race belt on, helmet and sunglasses on.  I grabbed my bike off the rack and headed to Bike Out. 

The bike was 11.5 miles, and relatively flat.  I tried to channel my NJ State Sprint bike leg, but wasn’t as fast.  I started my bike computer, but the sensor wasn’t reading and I ended up doing the bike leg without.  My legs were a little tired, but otherwise it was an uneventful ride.

T2 was quick.  Bike on the rack, helmet off, bike gloves off, bike shoes off, sneakers on, hat on.

The run started off a little slow.  For the first time in months, my legs felt like bricks starting the run.  About a mile into the run, my plan to run sub 8:30 miles went out the window, and it became a matter of just pushing to run a sub-9.  The sun was out and it was starting to get hot.  I could feel myself flagging and knew my heart rate was going through the roof.  I struggled to slow my breathing and maintain a steady pace.  I had been getting closer and closer to 8 minute miles during short brick workouts the weeks leading up to this race, with the last one being at an 8:04 pace.  Unfortunately, since the ride the day before was a little harder/faster than I had planned, I think it tired out my legs a little more than I had anticipated.  However, I was able to push it towards the end, and about 200 meters to the finish, my sprinter’s instinct kicked in and I gave it all I had going through the finish chute.  Although my bike leg was the slowest this season, my swim, T1, and run ended up being PRs for the season! 

My favorite part about the Jersey Girl Triathlon was that everyone was SO encouraging and supportive, and you could just FEEL the positivity in the air.  It was like that in 2010 and it’s still like that now.  It’s such a great beginner’s race, and is in a beautiful area.  I didn’t end up sitting on the beach after the race, but met up with a bunch of my tri club buddies and toasted our endeavors with peach bellinis at the Ocean palace beachfront tiki bar.  We followed that up with a refueling lunch at surf taco (my first time there!).  Perfect end to a great race day!  I’ll definitely do this race next year if it works with my schedule.  

Also, check out this video the race organizers made of this year's race!

Princeton Freewheelers 35th Princeton Bicycling Event-Aug 1, 2015

I had originally planned to relax this Saturday, but with enough cajoling, ended up doing the 50-mile (52.5 mile) Princeton Freewheelersride with two of my tri club buddies.  In addition, my earlier excuse of “I have a race the next day” went out the window because the two ladies I rode with were also doing the same race! 

We planned to meet at 8am, which was a nice change from the usual 6am Saturday wakeup calls.  I got to the Mercer County Community College parking lot by 8 and walked over to the race-day registration table.  I paid my $35 (no t-shirt for race-day registration) and got a wristband for the post-ride lunch.  It was around 8:30 by the time we started riding, and it was a gorgeous day. 

Within the first five miles, I lost a bottle full of CarboPro, and since I had replaced my seatpost with the RedShift seatpost the night before, I guess I didn’t fully retighten the rear bottle cage holder.  It must have gotten jarred when I lost my bottle (which i subsequently ran over), and fell down against the back tire.  I didn’t have any tools with me, but we pulled into a parking lot and my friend flagged down a Good Samaritan Biker who let me borrow his.  A few miles after that, I was slowing down at a red light, but didn’t unclip my left foot.  I figured I’d just put my right foot down for a second if the light didn’t change right away.  Unfortunately my bike (and I) was leaning to the left.  I slow-mo fell to the ground and got a little road rash on my left knee, and bruising where the bike pedal slammed into my leg. Ouch. 

The following miles leading up to the first rest stop were pretty uneventful.  We met some new friends during that ride, including a guy from our tri club (Floyd) and a train conductor (What up Uncle Ernie?!).  By the time we got to the first stop, I was STARVING.  I grabbed some food, drank about two bottles of Gatorade, and had my road rash cleaned up.  The volunteers were very friendly, and the rest stop was well stocked.  The second rest stop was at mile 41 (I think), just before a giant hill.  Thankfully we didn’t have to go up that hill, since the course turned back the other way.  Overall the ride was 52.5 miles, and took about 3:30-ish hours.  I was so happy to get off the bike.  I hadn’t ridden over 12 miles since my June 20 half iron race, so I was a little unconditioned for it. 

After loading our bikes back in our cars, we grabbed some of the catered lunch before heading home.  Overall, it was a fun ride and I’m glad I did it.  The course was relatively flat with enough rolling hills to keep it interesting, the roads were pretty well marked (spray-painted colored arrows), and the weather really cooperated with us.  I do wish there had been more rest stops, but then again, it was only $35, so you couldn’t really expect a ton of amenities.  Also, there were a lot of traffic lights in the beginning of the ride, but I guess you can’t totally avoid that!

New Jersey State Triathlon - July 18th 2015

"Swim, Bike, Rain"

Mike and I drove down on Friday late afternoon to pick up my race packet for Saturday’s Sprint race.  Packet pickup was quick and painless, and the vendors had already set up.  I was excited to see that RedShift Sports was there, since I had wanted to try their system.  I had been looking to put aerobars on my road bike anyway, after the Patriot race, and thought this might be a good way to go.  After talking to the Redshift guys and a little Bondi Band browsing (LOVE the headbands), we stopped at the Triumph beer tent for a few beers.  We ran into some friends from my tri club, and did a quick walkthrough of the swim and transition areas before heading out.   Mike and I ended up going to the Triumph in Princeton for dinner and tried to get Halo Pub for dessert, but all of the ice cream places in Princeton had lines going halfway down the block.  Went home, packed my bags and filled my bike bottles (Shaklee electrolyte powder in one, CarboPro powder in the other) guzzled a bottle of water to refill with tap water (for rinsing sand off feet in T1), threw my bike, air pump, and helmet in the car, and fell asleep around 11:30. 

I had set my alarm for 5:15, but hit snooze once.  I really did NOT want to get up.  Finally I rolled out of bed at 5:30, brushed my teeth, threw on my clothes (laid out the night before), filled the two bike bottles with water and realized I had absolutely nothing else to do/get ready, and it was only 5:45.  I figured I’d aim to get there by 6:30, so I still had some time to kill.  I made myself a peanut butter sandwich for breakfast, guzzled some more water, and off I went.  Parking was easy and plentiful, and body marking was quick.  I dropped everything off in transition, racked my bike, chatted with some people in my transition area, and then wandered back to our club tent.  One of the greatest things about CGI events is that they have a portapotty section reserved just for tri clubs.  We had our own club portapotty!  Anyone who has ever stood in one of those lines on race day knows how great of a perk this is.  I ran over to swim start, where we were taking a club picture, then wandered over to a section of the lake where they were allowing practice swims.  I walked in waist deep just to get wet, and then walked over to the start since I was in the 4^th wave.  

The water temp was reported at 81 degrees, which meant it was not wetsuit legal.  I thought about wearing my Lava pants, but decided since it was a shorter swim (500yds), I’d just stick to my tri kit.  Once my wave was called, we all waded into the water and hung out for a few minutes.  It was nice to have some time to acclimate to the water.  I started towards the back of the wave so I wouldn’t get elbowed/kicked too much.    This was my first OWS since my first triathlon (Jersey Girl 2010) without a wetsuit, so it felt a little weird.  The swim was uneventful with the exception of my goggles, which I could not seem to get in a good position.  I must have stopped at least five times to empty the water out and readjust them.  I also couldn’t really seem to get a good rhythm going.  Finally I got to the exit and carefully made my way out of the water, since it was really rocky coming out of the lake.  Race mgmt had dumped a bunch of sand at swim exit though, which was helpful. 

T1 was faster than usual since I didn’t have my wetsuit to take off, and I didn’t bother with the water bottle (to wash my feet).  I wiped my feet on my transition towel and put on socks/bike shoes, race belt, sunglasses, helmet, bike gloves, and headed out on the bike. 

The bike course was great.  I felt strong and fast, and my little bike computer was reading speeds in excess of 18mph.  For once, I was the one doing most of the passing.  There were a handful of times I could have passed other bikers but felt the lane was a little narrow, so I dropped back a bit.  However, I would then catch myself coasting, and then speed up again.  I also saw a few friends on the course!  And by "saw" i mean "they passed me really quickly on their bike and shouted encouragement ;)"  The bike leg went by pretty quick, and before I knew it, I was heading back into the park for the last mile or so.  That’s when I noticed the giant wall of dark clouds in the distance.  I joked to a fellow biker that there was no better motivation for the run than not getting hit by lightning.  Little did I know we wouldn’t have a chance to get out on the run course.  When I got to bike dismount, volunteers were telling me to dismount, and one guy was shouting “the race is over!”  I thought he was referring to the bike leg being over, until I started walking my bike to T2.  

Normally I would have jogged my bike to T2, but it was unusually crowded in the chute leading to transition.  I heard people talking to each other, some saying the race was cancelled, and others still wondering if they should go to transition and continue.  Then, we heard the announcer over the PA system saying that the course was closed, since a dangerous storm system was coming through the area.  They urged everyone to find shelter, specifically in their vehicles if possible.  I continued into transition, grabbed all of my stuff, and headed back to the club tent.  Everyone was packing up so I headed back to my car, but not before getting my timing chip cut off by the finish line and getting my medal.  I felt a little weird about getting a finishers medal since I didn’t technically finish, but not by choice! Plus, it still counted as an aquavelo.  I was bummed about the race being cancelled, but happy about the parts I did complete.

I walked over to the field where my car was parked, and at this point, the rain was coming down in sheets.  I had to keep wiping the rain from my eyes since I could barely see in front of me.  Bikers were still coming in from the bike leg, and it was getting a little chaotic.  As I walked over to my car, I heard someone shout “hey, Central Jersey!”  I looked over and this guy I didn’t recognize shouted “Great job today…you looked really strong!!”  Turns out his name is John... I met him again the next day (when I was cheering for my teammates at the Olympic distance race) when he came over to the club tent to say congrats before heading out.  

Later that day the race directors issued a letter to Sprint participants.  While it was a bummer we couldn’t finish the race, it was definitely the right call.  We ended up getting our official results (for the sections we had completed) and I was so excited to see that while my swim felt slow to me, it was actually a PR.  And I went over 18mph average on the bike!  I’m definitely looking forward to doing this race again next year.  Last but not least, our club took 2nd Place in the New Jersey State Triathlon TEAM UP Challenge and 1st Place in the USA Triathlon Mid-Atlantic Division II Championship.  Great job, everyone! :)

Running with the Iron Cowboy-July 4th 2015!

A bunch of us from the Central Jersey Tri Club joined the  IronCowboy on his way into the history books!  We joined him in Sea Bright, NJ, on July 4^th, to run a 5K with him (State #29).  He was very humble and gracious.  In case you haven’t heard about the cowboy (and I'm not talking about the naked one in Times Square), he set out to do 50 full-distance triathlon races in 50 states, in 50 consecutive days, to raise awareness for childhood obesity.  Spoiler alert: he completed it!!

No “race report” for this one, but here are some pictures from the event:

Posing for a pre-run pic

 

Running with the Cowboy!

 

Success! #CJTC