This past Saturday was the 29th Annual Wyckoff-Franklin Lakes Triathlon and my 7th year (in a row) racing here. There's something very special about this race and it is one that I plan on doing for as long as I can. It's the race that everyone talks about all year, the race that everyone competes in or goes to watch, and the race that offers some bragging rights amongst training partners until next year's race. The best part is that no matter the outcome, it's always a fun day of fast racing with great company.
So on race morning, there's always a positive buzz in the air. I got to the race real early and got my bike set up. Then, the Wyckoff Tri Club gathered to take a team picture which came out really great. Especially since we got new running tanks and everyone had it on. It's really great to see how for everyone in the club has come since January and they all had awesome races.
After the picture, it was time to warm up. I got 15 minutes of cycling in to check everything out, then ran an easy 1.5 miles with Ian to shake out the legs. Then I headed back to transition to hang out and get the wetsuit on. The transition area before this race is always fun. It's always filled my all my friends and training partners so the mood is light, but since we're all each others competition you can tell there's some tension in the air. I do my usual scope of the talent and psyche myself out. Eventually I head down to the water with Jeff and Ian to swim a little. We were unpleasantly surprised by the amount of weeds in the water, but nothing we can do about it now! So, that was it. Warmed up and ready to go. National Anthem is sung and the gun goes off. Wait! The gun went off!? All of the athletes who were standing by the water's edge couldn't hear the countdown or the timer start the race. When the race started, I still had my goggles on top of my head. Oh well, no time to complain, gotta start swimming!
The swim -
The plan was to go out hard and settle in once I got past the dock. Since there was some confusion at the start, I didn't get to find the guys I was looking for to swim with. When we passed the dock, I looked around and saw I was slightly out in front. Not where I wanted to be. I have a bad history of "pulling" people through the swim at this race. But I wasn't about to slow down, so I kept in controlled to the buoy. I thought for sure that someone would have beat me to the first buoy, but I got there first. I couldn't tell how close 2nd place was, but I knew I had to make a move or I would have the same fate as in previous years. I know that if I go hard, I can swim between the two buoys in about 1:45 so I picked it up and went for it. I got to the second buoy and knew no one was on my feet. Now I had to try to bring it in as straight and fast as possible. The glare coming in was tough, but swimming in the lake a few times had helped with sighting practice. I knew where I should be and trusted my instincts. I swam until I hit the sand and then did three dolphin dives until I could run out of the water. I saw the clock and it read 10:40 and I was shocked! I ran as hard as I could to the timing pad and officially my swim time was 11:40, which I am told is a new course record. I sped through T1 and was on the road with about 30 seconds of a lead.
The bike -
If only I could ride! I knew that I wasn't in great cycling shape coming in to the race, but thought I could hold my own. I got passed by Chris Gebhardt just after mile 4 and he passed me like I was standing still. I rode solo until about mile 12.5 when Mike Llerandi and some relay guy passed me. I was able to keep them in my sights and didn't let them pull away. All in all, I am pleased with my split. It's the fastest I've ridden the course and I entered T2 with Mike basically tied for 2nd. I had a super fast transition and was on the run in no time. Overall bike split was 44:54, 22.7mph.
The run -
As I was leaving transition, Paul Scire gave me a shout to tell me that Chris was about 1:50 ahead of me. This wasn't going to be easy. I've been running the fastest I've ever been, but Chris is still probably faster than me. I was able to put some space on 3rd place, but gaining in Chris was a slow process. After two miles I picked up a few seconds, but it wasn't looking good. At the 2.5 mile mark I actually got a bad cramp running up a hill and had to walk a few steps. After a few seconds of digging into my stomach, I was able to continue running but it was very uncomfortable. At the next out and back section I was able to assess Chris' position and he still had over a minute lead. We were already over 3 miles in and I was running out of miles. At this point, I basically knew I had to hang on for 2nd. As I came back down the out and back, I had a very comfortable lead on 3rd and 4th place so if I could hold the pace everything would be OK. Just past the 4 mile mark, both Chris and I missed a turn so we ended up adding about 0.15 miles onto our race. No change in the outcome (except for the additional time) so no one was upset. Even with the addition, I still ran a 30:28 for the 3rd fastest run of the day.
After seven years of racing here, I have the following results 80, 19, 9, 2, 5, 5, 2. I'm getting there! This was definitely my best race here. I surprised myself in the swim, plus I had the fastest times for T1 and T2. I always try to be as efficient as possible and it paid off here.
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