NJ State Tri RR

As a long time lover of the greatest state in the Union (better known as New Jersey) the NJ State Olympic Distance Tri has been on my calendar for months with a little star next to it. Besides being right in middle of my two biggest races, Eagleman and Nations, how cool would it be to have the title NJ State Champion? (A distinction I never gained in swimming, despite many attempts…) Unfortunately, sometimes life does not always agree with your plans and I hit the race feeling a bit flat. With my grandmother passing away the Friday before and the combined fatigue of a New York work trip and my epic 3-race weekend, I wasn’t even sure I should toe the starting line. On the other hand, there is something to be said for seizing opportunities, not passing on them and, sure enough, I was lined up at the water’s edge on an early Sunday morning at Mercer County Park, NJ.

Now, I don’t want to sound too pessimistic here, but how are the officials taking water temperatures these days? It was almost laughable when the official reading was given as 77.9 degrees (conveniently 0.1 degree below the wetsuit cutoff, hmm….) It would be nice to actually participate in a race where swimming was a real factor, but I digress…
Despite my recent avoidance of the pool (every once in a while it just gets plain unappealing, what can I say?) I felt good in the water. More and more I’ve been making an effort to keep things mellow on the swim and put a little more into the bike and this was a great race in which to execute this strategy. Unbeknownst to me, there was actually an elite wave on offer, which hadn’t known I could sign up for. That went off first, followed five minutes later by my age group. It would have been nice to know about this as that wave contained some guys I’ve raced against before and it’s always more motivating to go head to head against your closest competition…but at least I’d have some folks to chase!

Came out of the water first in my wave at 19:20, a very good time considering the effort I’ve put in and my recent lack of pool time (Hopefully that will be down to 18:15 by the end of August) but had an uncharacteristically bad transition as I couldn’t get my wetsuit to release its dastardly grip on my ankles. (I blame my wetsuit-less warm-up swim, which definitely knocked a good deal of Pam off of my legs). I hoped I could make it up on the bike course. After a long run up to the mount line (always an equalizer for me) I was off with a good flying mount. I didn’t know how many people were ahead of me, but I made it my goal to pick off as many of them as possible.

The bike course for this race was rather unusual in that we exited the park, went about a mile on the main roads, then had a 3 mile technical ride through Mercer County Community College. After this, it was a long loop around the park, back through the college again and a final return to the park via an entrance on the other side. This was definitely a course where you had to pay attention, as well as one that would reward power AND bike handling. Should be interesting…
I picked up a few guys before the college and knew that I’d get a look at the rest of the field in that section as there was a turnaround halfway through. Sure enough, coming down one of the straights I saw the escort and the race leader. I checked my watch to find the differential between his passing that point and mine, knowing that if it was under 5:00 I’d be the (as the they say in Le Tour) virtual leader on the road. Sure enough, when I went past the same place I was only about 3:45 down on the first rider, placing me in the ‘front.’ I picked up a few more guys as we powered along the long straights the ringed the park, but did have a few ‘exciting’ moments involving boat-towing trailers and a rapid transit bus… Not that things ever got dangerous, but it can get frustrating when all your room to pass is taken up by vehicles, especially if you’re just coming up on someone slower!

I came into T2 ‘tied’ for second (though my later start put me ahead time-wise) with the guy that I beat two weeks ago at Diamond in the Rough. I guess I wasn’t going to be lucky enough that he wouldn’t recognize me. After all, I remember everyone who’s ever beaten me to the line. Cough, Rick Fesler, Cough. Had another bummer of a transition as re-racking my bike caused another to fall to the ground. Annoying as it wasn’t my fault that the bike was tenuously secured, but I wouldn’t want anyone to leave my ride laying on the ground so I did the right thing and put it back on its rack.

As we headed out on the run the sun really started to show itself and I was glad I’d opted to wear a hat. It was getting brutal! I tried to keep the pace mellow for the first few miles (despite several shouts that I was in ‘third!’) but still ended going out with a pair of 6:25s. A good pace, but a bit much for me to sustain in the heat (or the middle of the season for that matter!)
The run was actually two out-and-back loops, the first being used only for the Olympic distance and the second sharing the sprint course’s 5K. As we headed back to the end of the first loop I really started to feel that piano stalking my back. I was still in ‘virtual’ first, but there was no doubt the last 3 miles were going to REALLY hurt. I passed my parents, which made for nice motivation, but with no shade the wheels started to come off and it was difficult to tell if I was still within 5 minutes of the leader.

As he (a cross country runner from George Mason, great…) passed going the other way from the second turnaround it looked as though he had a bit over 4:00 on me, which was a bummer with 2 miles to go. And by now I was really hurting in a big way. Between the heat and my early run speed the race was exacting a mighty toll.

Somehow I managed to drag myself to the finish chute and pick up a little speed to the line…before promptly collapsing on the ground. It was by far the worst I’ve ever felt at the end of a race. Compared to this I was downright peppy after Eagleman! Shoveling ice down my jersey I made my way to the medical tent to see if I could grab a quick minute in the shade. Ironically, they were quite reluctant to let me in, saying they were trying to keep the area clear for people with medical emergencies. I tried to explain that I NEVER ask for any kind of assistance and my wanting to chill in there for a minute was in the hope that we could avoid a medical emergency in the first place. Eventually they relented and five minutes later I was feeling much better, despite coming in a disappointing :42 behind first place. Oh well, you can’t win ‘em all. (Even though I want to!)

Interestingly, the story doesn’t stop there. I hung around to wait for the awards and happened to notice an official posting a DQ/Penalty sheet. Since there was nothing else to look at, I took a peak and was very surprised to see that I had been disqualified for an ‘Entire Course’ violation! The referee said the timer had made the call and I should speak with him. If he felt there was a mistake he would then tell the referee and get everything squared away. Interestingly, the female winner from early July’s Metroman was also disqualified for the same violation. It was nice to make a new friend while seeking out some correction…and probably hilarious for those watching as we both sat in the Lin-Mark camper vouching for the other’s ability, despite having never spoken before!

In the end, her ride was called into question because it was so fast relative to her swim. (She’s a very poor swimmer, but a super-fast cyclist.) My 10K split had come up as 21 minutes because I was misdirected over the sprint tri’s transition mat. Since I still registered a finishing time that made sense the 10K time was removed and I was reinstated to second place. Got a very nice glass plaque, too!