Wyckoff/Franklin Lakes Triathlon - TriathlonSprint

Started towards the back, and side closer to the buoys. Countdown to swim start and go. Ran in – it’s a weedy lake, lots of debris, lots of contact, but thought, hey, I’ll get some open space and settle into a rhythm soon. Never happened. Felt contact the whole .5 mile – saw some of the wave before me, but mostly lots of 50+ men from the wave after me who ran me over. It was by far the most physical contact swim I’ve had – I don’t think I had 3 strokes without someone touching me. As a result, I just could never settle in and I think my sighting was terrible because the back half was directly into the sun. I knew the swim was taking long – I was hoping for 20 min – saw my watch said 23 min when I hit the beach. Damn it. There was about a ¼ mile from the beach to transition area – I jogged (slogged?) it while trying to pull my wetsuit zipper down. Zipper stuck – uh oh. Finally worked it free on the way to transition.

Time includes the swim, 1/4 mile slog to transition including the wetsuit malfunction. I've never wanted a swim to be over so badly. Although the wetsuit was supposed to help with buoyancy (and I did practice with it in the pool and was faster), I didn't like it because I could feel the water all that well. I think no wetsuits for me for a while. It's a rental and it fit well, but it feels like you are swimming in your clothes. Very weird.

Tried to shake off the swim once I got to transition – had everything set up well. Wetsuit legs came off fine, all good.

All in all, my transition times weren't bad for the field, so I'm happy.

I actually felt pretty good on the bike. I made it up all the hills – including the two back to back climbs on Colonial. When I practiced this route a few weeks ago, I actually stopped on the second hill to rest for a sec, so I was proud of myself for making it up the hills. Bike had some shifting issues in a couple of spots, but nothing major. If I had the money, I really need to get a new bike. I ate GU chomps, drank Gatorade – but perhaps too late as my stomach was sloshy on the run (more on that later). I tried to make the most of the downhills. More traffic/annoyed Bergen drivers on the route than I would expect (it was NOT a closed course), but I can’t say that really slowed me down much.

My weight is a limiter on the hills, so yeah, there's that. But I felt pretty good overall with this effort.

Felt good coming from the bike. Unclipped fine, found rack no problem. Saw my official cheering section. Thought “OK, just a little run to go”.

Felt fine with this. It was a pretty big transition area, and I should have moved a little faster.

Started off on the run, and then the wheels came off the bus. Just could not make my legs move. I can’t say I could pinpoint what felt bad – my stomach was a little sloshy, my head hurt some, and my legs were dead (no specific pain, just dead). Not really so much the same dead legs as every brick run, just different. So I walked but tried to at least run every downhill. After the biggest hill at mile 3.5, I decided that I had to at least run in for the last 1.5 miles, and I did. First, fairly steady, and then I picked it up at the finish. Looks like my last .9 mile was about a 12mm pace.

Uh - actually run the course? I just didn't feel great at this point and I still don't know how much of it was psychological and how much physical. I really need to learn how to push myself when I don't want to. I've been training very hard since January and I think I have the ability to push myself, but my head wasn't in the game for this one.

Saw my husband and friends at the end. Always nice to have a cheering section. I got lots of congrats from them, but I was very disappointed and thought I could have done much better. I stuck around for the awards just to see my team folks – and saw that a few got awards. They forgot to post the Clydesdale/Athena placements at first, so I asked the RD if he had those rankings – and he looked me up and said I was 2nd place Athena. Later I was embarassed to find out there were only 2 Athenas (there were 6 last year) – but hey, I’ll take the nice transition bag that was the award. I never understand that - it was a 650 person race, there were 25 Clydesdales - why only 2 Athenas??? I am still happy given the longer distances, my first wetsuit swim, and the hills that I finished at all.


It was a bad race all around. I've learned that hills are not my forte, but I guess I only have room for improvement.


This is a really nice community race and was well organized. Bike and run are both fairly hilly, but it's a good crowd.