Last weekend I competed in the Black Bear Sprint Triathlon and in one word it was AWESOME. If you’re looking for more than a one-word recap, here you go!
The race took place at Beltzville State Park in the Poconos, about 2 hours outside of NYC. While not a long drive, it was worlds away from the city (in a good way). On Saturday I attended a pre-race meeting to hear about the course and ask any questions. This is where I learned that the course was super hilly and due to a recent storm, the bike course would be extended to 18 miles (pretty long for a sprint race). For interested racers, you could do a practice swim in the lake (no thanks!).
Sunday morning we left the hotel around 5:30 am to head to the race start. Again, there was time for a practice swim (again, no thanks!) and about an hour to set up your transition zone. I met up with my friend Lydia who was also racing. Races are so much more fun when you’ve got a friend by your side.
At 7:34 am my race began. We started by swimming out a bit from the shore to the official start. It was COLD. It was still early and we were in the moutains so the air temp was in the 50s and the water temp was 65, brr. The race start was split up into distances and men and women so I started with all the women doing the sprint distance. It was quite a crowd, which meant getting kicked a few times but it wasn’t so bad. Swimming is definitely not my strongest leg but I found it to be ok. I completed the half mile swim in 16:40.
After the swim it was time to grab my bike and go. I was feeling pretty shaky after the swim and getting on my bike was a challenge but after a minute or two I got comfortable.
Well, as comfortable as you can get while riding your bike up a freakin’ mountain! This was by far the hilliest ride I’ve ever been on. The hills were so steep that a moments hesitation would mean you’d fall over. I saw a couple of people get off their bikes to walk up the hills. It was super challenging but beautiful. For most of the bike ride I rode either slightly in front of or slightly behind another woman. Every couple of minutes we’d pass each other, so much so that we started laughing every time we had to say “on your left” to each other as we passed. We even exchanged a few words here and there. It was nice to have someone to keep pace with and I think we did a good job of keeping each other going. I completed the bike portion in 1:16:52.
By the end of the bike course I was getting nervous for the run, my legs were super tired from all of the hills. Once finishing up the run I had a few people in my sights to stay in front of.
I was trying to pass everyone in my age group (you can see people’s age group as it is written in marker on their calf). I really wanted to place in the top 3 of my age group (25-29) so whenever I saw someone with that age on their calf I worked REALLY hard to pass them. It didn’t always work. One girl zoomed past me and was out of sight immediately so I knew I wasn’t catching her. There was one girl who I had been battling with on the bike and this back and forth continued on the run (the girl slightly ahead of me in the above photo). I stayed ahead of her for about 2.5 of the 3.1 miles and towards the end she finally caught up and passed me. I think we did a good job of pushing each other even though in the end, she beat me. The run took us on a trail through the woods which was pretty cool. There were some hills but nothing that crazy. By this time the temperature had risen significantly and I was hot and tired. I was pushing super hard and finished the run in 25.11. I crossed the finish line just slightly behind the girl I was battling with and at the end I went to congratulate her and thank her for pushing me and she basically said the same thing to me and we hugged! Aw I love triathletes.
So in the end I did not place in the top 3, I actually got 6th in my age group (out of 26 athletes), HERE are my detailed results. I was really happy with my performance and the race made me eager to train harder, push harder and get ready for the rest of tri season!
A few thank yous: thank you Lydia for racing with me and thank you MM for waking up super early with me, cheering like crazy and for taking all these pictures! And a big thank you goes out to CGI Racing who gave me a complimentary entry into this race. The race really was one of the best I’ve done; it was well-run, in a beautiful setting, had really friendly people and is a race I totally want to do again!
