Tuckahoe Triathlon (run-bike-canoe) - TriathlonOther

(Not sure how to enter a race report with a non-standard sport or a non-standard order. So this is not a swim report. It's the tale of our debacle of a canoe leg, which came last.)


Did I mention the part about not practicing the canoeing? We had figured that paddling would be pretty straightforward. It was. But we hadn't reckoned with the challenge of paddling along a marked course, in a consistent direction, and navigating hairpin turns around a series of buoys. Oops. I knew that my swim navigation is bad, but it turned out that I have laser-like precision compared to our canoeing. I tried to paddle hard and Zoe tried to steer, but we frequently found ourselves pointing in quite the wrong direction. And it was hard to steer, as we were probably sitting in the canoe in the wrong order. One parent-child team pulled smoothly away from us right at the start of the canoe leg, and a few grown-up teams passed us too. When we finally navigated our way around the final buoy we saw that we were being caught by another parent-daughter team that we had passed early in the bike. We readied ourselves for a frenzied sprint finish ... but soon found that we were sprinting in entirely the wrong direction, and they paddled smoothly past us.

Practice. And chill out.

(This was the run-to-bike transition. You're following along, right?)


Dad helped daughter with helmet and bike, then she set off while Dad messed around with bike shoes and then headed off in pursuit.

The bike went by pretty well, especially considering that we hadn't ridden as much as 10 miles together before. Zoe really enjoyed riding her new grown-up road bike -- we recently found her a women's XS bike on Craigslist that fits her great. We picked off a couple of the other parent-daughter teams, who were struggling along with kids bikes, and we got passed by a few grown up teams. The miles went by fairly quickly, and we had some good conversation along the way - admiring horses, noticing snakes in the road, all the kinds of things that I'd normally not get to appreciate in a race.

Nothing - this was fun.

(This was the bike-to-canoe transtion. I actually have no idea how long it took.)

Quickly drop off bikes and send Zoe to run down towards the lake while Dad again messes around with shoes. Run to the lake, wondering if there will be a canoe there for us. Not exactly the smoothest transition. We struggle to get Zoe's lifejacket on, then we're intercepted by a park ranger who says she has to change into a smaller one. The canoe is pointing backwards, and we're not sure how to get off the beach. Perhaps the fact that we hadn't practiced at all played a role here.


Pay attention to who sits where in the canoe. The person who weighs far more probably shouldn't sit in the front.

Individuals set of in the first wave, and teams in a separate wave 10 minutes later. The run followed a snaking forest path along the park's fitness trail. We settled into a steady jog in the mid pack. Zoe got a side cramp within the first few minutes, but managed to tough it out. We took only a couple of short walk breaks and finished strong. A couple of parent-child teams pulled ahead of us, but we reeled in one more. Average pace around 11 min/mile.

We really weren't out there to compete, so this question doesn't apply. But we were rather taken by the wooden paddles that were given as race prizes, and so we might want to do some practice if we come back to do it in future years.


This is a fun event, not a race-race. And it needs to be taken in that spirit. I don't think I saw a single tri bike in the transition area. All the serious triathletes were a few miles down the shore getting psyched up for Eagleman.