Race Result

Racer:	Heather Rosso
Race:	New Jersey State Triathlon
Date:	Sunday, July 22, 2007
Location:	Mercer County, NJ
Race Type:	Triathlon - International Distance
Age Group:	Female 35 - 39
Time:	3:43:38

Race Report:

Four for four for perfect weather for my races, and I certainly can’t complain about my racing conditions. The weather for the NJ State Tri was temps in the mid 70s in the morning, low 80s by mid morning, sunny, with light winds. The water was reading at 80 degrees, so wetsuits were not allowed, but the water was still and I was feeling pretty confident about my swim after swimming the Chesapeake the week before.

The day before, my friend Cuong and I drove the race course, and I was thrilled to find it was mostly flat—just one small, low-grade hill near the end. And the bike course was through a rather scenic rural/suburban community of corn fields, carefully tended gardens, beautiful homes, and park land. If anyone is ever visiting or going through New Jersey, stop by Mercer County (near Princeton) and check out the Mercer County Community Park—it’s an athlete’s dream with every sport field imaginable, a skating rink, trails, lake, picnic grounds and shelters, tennis courts, community center, even a dog park called the Bark Park. I was envious! I’d never seen such a great park before. Other than checking out the bike course, Saturday was spent chatting with other racers, discussing the water temps and almost nill possibility of using wetsuits, sharing past race stories, and checking out the water, which Saturday was rather choppy with a decent wind. Thank goodness the wind died down over night.

Race morning I woke before the alarm, my mind racing already. So when the alarm went off, it was easy to get out of bed. I was ready in about 20 minutes and had to rustle Cuong out of bed to get him moving. We got to the race site in about 10 minutes, and the line for body marking seemed long at first, until I realized most people didn’t notice the two lines of only 3 people each just off to the left. I got through body marking in a record 5 minutes and headed off to set up transition. My one regret later was that I hadn’t thought to attach my bento box to my bike prior to the race, which cost me at least a minute in my first transition. I certainly still need to work on my transition times anyway.

The race went quite well after that. The swim was my best swim yet, even though I still came in at about 50 minutes. I kept a steady, focused, relaxed pace and only got about 2 yards off course once. Nobody kicked me in the face or head this time, and I only got bumped around a little. The water was warm, and was pretty clean—no annoying bad tastes or smells—although it was murky and I couldn’t see more than about a foot in front of me. My practices in the pool of swimming with my eyes closed have gotten me over my fear of swimming in these blind conditions.

My bike went well, although I had some pain in my left hip muscle that kept the speed down to some degree, but I managed to come in around 1.5 hours, which made me happy. I only had one mishap where my bento didn’t close completely after taking a bite of my energy bar, and my inhaler fell out, causing me to stop and run back a couple of yards for it. This also caused me to tumble a bit, as my legs at this point were not ready for walking, having been either in the water or on the bike for so long, and I had trouble getting my legs under me as I got off the bike. So I tumbled over the bike and caught my knee on something giving me a lovely little gash that bled down my knee the rest of the bike. But that was the only real problem I faced until I got to the run. Now, running is supposed to be my strength, what with the ultras and all, but I tend to find myself winded from everything else by the time I get to the run, and my times have been quite slow. The same applied today, and it took me about an hour fifteen minutes to finish—very slow for me! It didn’t help that my asthma kicked in periodically during the run (it’s very mild asthma, and if I stop and walk a bit, it goes away—but that means slowing to a walk, which affects my time).

All in all, though, this race was an improvement over my past races—that’s what’s most important! Now I am sitting in the hotel room watching cable (I always enjoy this at hotels, since I’m too cheap to pay for cable at home). We’ve been watching Man vs Wild on Discovery channel. I’ve eaten three meals since the race, napped three times, stretched twice, and am ready for bed again. I feel pretty worn down and not ready to move too fast—getting up and down is quite a task! I think I’ll sleep well tonight, and tomorrow we’re off to Maine for my cousin’s wedding this Saturday on Deer Isle. I plan to do some kayaking and hiking while up there, and we’ll probably stop by Boston to tour around on our way up.