New Jersey State Triathlon - Olympic Distance - TriathlonOlympic

I started off the front...and had my best first 50 meters EVER. After 30" or so I looked to my left and I could see the LEAD PACK! Freaking awesome! I start drifting to the left to suck off their feet. But there was some STUPID chick between me and them...going the exact same speed as them but not moving over into the draft. I was pretty much blocked. I didn't want to slow down to go behind her because I would lose the pack. And I wasn't fast enough to swim ahead of her. So, I swam over her. But that still took up too much time and I lost the leaders. I really wish she wasn't being stupid...why wasn't she moving over to draft????

Okay, after that I just swam. Really nothing interesting here. Just kept swimming. The swim was feeling long...felt like I was out there FOREVER. But I didn't look at my watch until I stood up at the finish. I was VERY surprised at how long it took. Based on others' swim times I believe the course was long.

I ran into a lot of people from previous waves...way more than I expected. Must have been a lot of beginners. Waves were 5' apart...and I caught up to at least three different color caps. Never saw anyone from the wave behind me catch up though...that's good.

Line up to the left of stupid chick so I could draft off the lead pack.

Loooooong run up to transition. And an ouchy parking lot on my feet! Found my bike with no issues....I had scored a spot near the end of the rack and it happened to have a grass median right next to it. So, easy to find.

Not sure I could go much faster...the only time I "wasted" was taking a few seconds to wipe dirt off my feet. The rest was probably just running. It was a very long transition area.

And it was complicated by the fact that all the sprint people were in there getting their bikes out. I don't think the RD should have allowed that until everybody was at least out of T1. Not fair to the Oly folks. Or maybe somehow have split the transition area in half so the sprint guys wouldn't have been in the way. But it definitely added an element of chaos.

Nothing.

LONGEST FUCKING RUN FROM THE TIMING MAT EXITING T1 TO THE MOUNT LINE EVER. Seriously...it was fucking ridiculous. I repeat...fucking ridiculous. SPECTATORS were asking if we normally had to run that far (really...someone asked my mom that). I wish I had timed it. It was loooooooong.

Okay, once I was done with the pre-bike RUN...I caught my breath and started biking. The course first went through a college area. Lots of turns and such and it was the part of the course that you would hit twice. So at this point there were a lot of boys from the waves ahead of me.

First dangerous and confusing bike course problem: There was a right turn that apparently was not closed to traffic...as you made the right hand turn you ran into a line of cars taking up the whole lane. In order to proceed to had to go to the LEFT around the cars...straight into oncoming traffic and bikes. F'ing brilliant one there...

Second not really dangerous but confusing bike course problem: At the end of the first college loop you had to proceed STRAIGHT to go to the main loop, but going to the RIGHT went to the finish line. Now, it WAS marked and if you listened at the prerace meeting and at least glanced at the course map, it made sense. But we all know everyone doesn't do that so several people around me were all confuddled. One chick even asked me if we were going the right way and I tried to explain the two loop college thing, but...whatever. The RD was standing there shouting directions, but you'd made so many turns by that point that I could see how people were confused.

Third dangerous but not really confusing part of the bike course: Out on the main loop there were several unpatrolled intersections and one very very narrow road that was NOT closed to traffic. I got buzzed by an impatient minivan. It was downright dangerous. Lots of traffic and not lots of room. It was only a few miles, but still...very poor choice. That road should have been closed to traffic.

I played tag with another BTer for most of the bike course. We passed back and forth several times. I played tag with a few others too. Helped pass the time.

I came around to the second college loop...much more deserted this time since I was in the second to last wave to start. But the dangerous intersection was still there...it was a two way section for bikes too and on my way out there was an idiot trying to pass in the blind and full of cars corner so he was practically in the opposing shoulder where I was trying to ride. Dumbass.

Made the right hand turn "to finish" this time...the RD was still there directing straight or right...which I thought was odd...surely no one was on the first lap anymore. Whatever. I eased up a bit once back in the park trying to spin out my legs. I had pushed pretty hard most of the course. Got my feet out of my shoes before the dismount line.

And then....LONGEST RUN BACK FROM THE DISMOUNT LINE TO T2 EVER. Again, fucking ridiculous. At least this time it was downhill.

I probably could have pushed a LITTLE harder...though, I was working hard.

Didn't do much extra. It's just a very long transition area. I did take a few seconds to switch shirts and I am glad I did. My BT top rides up when I run. At least with a real tech shirt on I wasn't going to be pulling down on my first for the entire run.

Nada.

Okay, so the knee had been acting up the weeks prior to this race. So the plan was a "walk the aid stations" and not go crazy pushing hard. Okay.

So, uh...that's what I did. I tried to drink some at every aid station. Ate some capri sun juicers (had forgotten to pack real sports nutrition...oops). They worked okay for being a last minute fix. I just kept a very steady pace. I think a lot of the mile markers had gotten lost...I only saw a few...1, 3, and...maybe 5...I dunno...definitely not enough. But I know through the first 3 I held 10:50's...so I guess I didn't slow down too much. That's good!

It was warm, but really not that warm...surely not Florida warm. So I probably underestimated how much I should have been drinking. Never really felt thirsty or too warm though. Definitely got ready to be "done" eventually. I didn't really have a goal coming into the race, but eventually decided that finishing under 3 would be nice. As I went along I was able to start gonkulating whether it was possible. Made more difficult by the lack of mile markers. But was pretty sure with about 2-3 miles to go that I would be able to. And I did!

Not weigh so damn much.

I walked a bit after the finish until I found my mom. Then I told her that I was hungry so I wanted to eat and stretch a bit then we could go. So that's what I did. I hit the food tent (nice post-race spread!) and we found a picnic table. Ate my food then stretched for 20'. They had a "spray tent" set up near the finish line so I used that to "wash off" and then collected my stuff from transition. My mom helped me carry my stuff back to the truck then I changed in the back of the cab and got ready to drive for eight hours. Isn't that what everyone does after a race?


I weigh too damn much. And I hadn't run much for a few weeks before this.


This race is okay. I think they could work on a few things.

1. They were pretty disorganized in the morning. I got pretty frustrated trying to walk from parking to the start with my mom. I had no less than THREE people point us in one direction and then when we get there and start to cross we got yelled at and told to go back to the three people who had just told us to cross at that specific point. They obviously had not thought it out AT ALL how to get spectators back and forth after the race started. This one is an easy fix...f'ing PLAN.

2. The bike course needs help. You read my comments above. SEVERAL very dangerous spots. And lots of confused people. And I wish they would find some kind of fix to the uber-stupid-long run from the transition to the mount/dismount line. At the very least move the damn timing mats so most of that running time is actually included in your transition time and not your bike time so your speed is more accurate.

3. Timing. I did not appreciate sprint participants wandering through transition to get their stuff when I was still racing. Nor did I appreciate waiting so long to start. Five minutes between waves? Seriously? NOT NECESSARY and it spread out the timeline too much. Put it this way...the AWARDS were already going on when I had 30 minutes left on the course. Which means the winners of my AG had finished within minutes of the awards starting. And the AG that started behind me hadn't had a single girl cross the line yet. I hope the awards I heard were for the sprint.

And in case you didn't notice, I have no individual sports AG placings listed. That's because they don't list the results by AG. Yes, I'm serious...no list of your AG all together so you can tell how you did in each segment compared to your AG...they just the top 5 in your AG. The only other list is of your overall placing. Which is absolutely NO good whatsoever. What kind of timing company doesn't list results by AG?????? On Monday I might print the results out and highlight everyone in my AG so I can go through and count how many people were faster than me in each sport. Boy, that's a lot of work...if I get bored then.

Oh, and I hate when we don't have assigned transition spots. We were only assigned a rack...and I got lucky and scored a good spot...but I had just rather not worry about it! Just assign us spots and we don't have to think!

Okay, I swear I'm almost done complaining. Did they have to have the stupid mini sprint during packet pickup? I realize it was only about 30' of packet pickup....but if you happened to show up then it was a HUGE pain in the butt getting from parking to the packet pickup area.

Nice venue though, and good post-race food. Plenty of water and gels on the course. Cool medals. Nice option to upgrade to a tech tee (which was also nice). Excellent heads up on the pre-race e-mails about the super secret squirrel back entrance to the park. Got in WAY faster that way. At the intersection where you had to decide which way to go, I went to the back entrance and this other SUV with a distinct bike on the roof went for the main entrance. I had parked, organized my stuff, and walked all the way to transition before I saw that SUV even turn into parking. Sweet.