First of all, what a miserable drive to NJ. What should have been a 4.5 hour drive on Friday late morning ended up a 7.5 hour excursion. There just is no good time to travel through New York. We hit traffic all the way through Connecticut, just enough to catch Friday rush-hour traffic in NYC and on the NJ Turnpike.
We made it to Mercer County Park at 6:15pm, just in time to pick up my race packet and sign in with the Ryan's Quest tent (packet pickup closed at 7pm so it was a bit too close for comfort). Too tired to browse around, we headed back out to find the hotel, which was about 3 miles from where the navigation system had it. It was a Residence Inn recommended for the triathletes and there was no food on premises, so I had to venture out at 8pm to the only nearby establishment... a Subway. Off to bed at about 9:30 and woke up every hour. May have been nerves, may have been that darned light in the stairway that you couldn't turn off (it was a two-level suite), but 5am rolled around and I was TIRED. Thankfully the girls cooperated in the morning and only subjected us to minor drama getting ready.
I knew it was going to be a brutal day when it was 85 degrees and humid at 6am (yikes!!!). Yvonne and the kids were troopers coming with me that early. It was amazingly organized, so I had no problem moving through body marking and into the transition area for setup. Found a spot on the rack and set up like I knew what I was doing. It was comforting to find that a good percentage of the people there were first-timers as well. Transition closed at 7:20 so I grabbed my swim stuff and ventured off to find my family since I was in one of the last waves at 8:45.
Now, it was really starting to heat up. Once the sun came up, it was already in the 90's. I did a quick venture to the swim start to check out the area and broke open my only food for the morning... a banana, and a nice water bottle of Infinit which I sipped over the next hour. I hung out with our friends by the swim finish since my friend Lee was due to start at 7:40, so I figured I'd stay for his swim finish to cheer him on and then head back over to the start. I guess they started a few minutes late, since I still had not seen his wave by 8am, so I'm now thinking that the swim is much longer than expected. I watched the first couple of waves which included the elite athletes and watched them gracefully fun full speed out of the water into the cheering crowd. I was pretty pumped to start at this point but didn't want to wait too long for Lee, so I headed over to the swim start, which luckily still had some remnants of morning shade.
It seemed like forever before my wave started, and it was getting in the mid 90's already. The MC kept up the humor with comments like "there are over 3000 people here and you are bound to be faster than somebody..." We FINALLY got our cue to get ready and our wave started venturing into the water. I was strangely calm, although the distance looks a lot further when put in a straight line than laps at the pool. It was a water start and everybody (including me) kind of gathered toward the near buoy since you could still touch the ground. In retrospect, I would have been better off treading water and starting at the far end. The race started and NO amount of training could have prepared me for the battle scene that ensued! Everybody tells you there is nothing like it, but I couldn't string two strokes together without being kicked, punched, or otherwise beaten up by nearby swimmers. I was exhausted only halfway into the swim, which was frustrating since I would train at double that distance. I rounded the buoy that marked the final turn and I had to shift to side-stroke, a little back sculling, and only a few freestyle strokes all the way in. It really caught me off guard, and I was much slower and more tired than I should have been.
Back into transition and I felt pretty comfortable getting my stuff together. I didn't realized how far it was from the transition area to the bike start, otherwise I would have run it barefoot and threw on my shoes at the start (too hard to run in bike shoes and I use TRI shoes without socks anyway). The bike was much more within my comfort zone and I could honestly say I passed far more people than passed me (that's a good thing right?) At this point, the heat index was 107. I'm pretty sure that a vital organ melted somewhere along the way. It was pretty cool that a lot of the local residents were on their front lawns cheering us on. At one point, a garbage truck passed by and one of the workers jokingly asked if I wanted an energy drink he found.
Back down to transition jogging past the family (needed to put on my game face), threw on my socks and running shoes and headed out for the run (past family and friends again). About 1/2 mile into the run, I got a horrible side cramp, and I hadn't cramped once in training. This hampered me for a good part of the run but I managed to still pull out the 5K in just over 30 minutes. At one point I saw the photographer and put on my game face as I ran by, almost dying just after I cleared him. The cold water stops were a blessing as were ice cold towels they had at the turnaround. Coming back into the finish area was the best feeling in the world and I ramped up my speed enough to finish at 1:36:57. Not great, but not horrible considering the weather. I was aiming for 1:30 so I'll take it!
There is no feeling to describe that final burst into the finish area with everybody cheering you on. It was a huge rush and pumped me up to really ramp up my training. I finished my first triathlon and learned some great lessons.
- Don't travel the day before the event! That was more exhausting than the TRI itself.
- More open water swims, preferably with professional fighters.
- There is such a thing as too much GU energy in a short amount of time.
- Nothing quite makes the same noise as ZIPP wheels flying by you.
- Your age on your calf is humbling, especially when you see 66 running past you.
- I am officially a triathlete. Look out world!
