Skylands Tri Photos

Genine, Me, Matt, Todd, and Xue prerace. We kept saying, where's Bob?

Me gracefully exciting the water.
And now the focus on the long run up the hill in that hot freaking wetsuit.

Warming up. That was enjoyable.

Trash talking in transition. I need to shut my trap.


Pretending to kick Todd's butt in transition. He was in the zone and didn't notice me. And then outran me. Never tell a guy that you are going to run his sissy ass down as he is exiting transition with a 3 min lead on you...he will only run faster than you.

Ohhh, I felt like I was gonna barf. Yuck.
I must smile for the camera!
Finishing straight! I felt so dizzy!
The KB2 kick!

Take that Todd! I'll show you to beat me!
Genine, Xue and I sitting on the hay bales after eating perogies and hot dogs.
Time for our award!

Yay! We won $$$!
Our silly squating on the hill with the money pose.

Trying to look tough...well G does, but me, just silly.
Genine is the best relay partner ever!

Buckman/Skylands Tri Relay Race Reports

Saturday--Buckman Sprint Tri, Bike leg in relay

I woke up early Saturday morning to heavy rain and immediately wished I had not agreed to do the bike at Buckman. Why didn't I just let Matt or Genine do it? Then I could skip the spectating, and stay warm and cozy in bed. But then I got over my little lazy pity party, and got out the door and over to Round Valley. I love it there, it is my favorite park. Cooper and Frito too. They were so happy to come along, even though Frito was a little chilly in the rain. And a little sad they couldn't sport their swim bark run collars because they are still at Mark's house and he keeps forgetting to return them. Grrr. That's what Coopy says :)

Anyway, I was biking on a team with some of Matt's college friends Jeff and Kevin. I have never been so relaxed at a race before. We were Team Tonemeister, they were/are all music people.

Prerace with most of the group of friends there.
And...the Tonemeisters!
Removing layers in transition...cold, rainy oh so dorky with the shirt tucked into the trishorts.

Jeff started off the swim and did quite well after the expected first time panic attack in the water. I'm glad I was ready early at the bike rack to start. Goofing off while I wait in transition.

Doggies wanted in transition sooooo bad!

We were at the far end of transition, so I started with my shoes off. Hey, why not, I can do this now! I had a fast run through transition and was quick to start. I saw our friend Chaz to the side messing with his chain. Tough luck! The bike was around 17 miles with some hills. Tough ones. I ride this course all the time. It is my home course. I know the turns, each hill, everything. I won the inaugural Buckman back in 2007 when it was Olympic and easily handled the bike and the run. This course was made for me.

It was raining and hard to see and we were going downhill. I was just cruising along, having fun, not planning to push much since I had Skylands the day after and the roads were pretty slick. I made it past the first tricky steep downhill and sharp turn ok, and then got passed not long after by a 49 yo woman. Now around here, the woman 40-49 are really good (and actually there is a woman in PA in her 50's that is really good too). But I was not gonna get passed by some 49 yo that I didn't know. Time to bring it. But I couldn't shake her. I slowed up on the downhill by the railroad tracks where I got my flat last year. Then on the flatter or downhill sections she would get ahead for awhile and I would get ahead for awhile often on uphill sections. I can climb like nobodies business ya know. Finally, I was getting really annoyed. I just wanted to get away! Why can't I drop her!!!!

Okay, when I get to the big hill, she is gone! It's on, no one stays with me then! It's my hill. A minute or two before the big hill, I passed her again. She said something to me, but I didn't hear it. I thought to myself. So long! You don't know what your in for now!!!! Then the punishment began. I passed people on that hill like they were standing still. I heard people say "Damn!", "Wow your fast!", and "That is so not fair". I love climbing that hill. I just kept moving and moving and pushing and pushing, then pushed over the top and then onto the next hill. And she was gone! Yes. Mission accomplished. I finished the bike out strong and had a good transition to pass off to Kevin who ran it in strong. I did the 17 mile bike in 52:45. Not too bad considering the hills, rain, slippery roads and my slacking for the first several miles.

The bike had a great density of people. Not overcrowded at all, which was nice for a change. I hope this race continues, because the bike course is nice. The whole venue is nice. I would like to see it go back to an Olympic distance and see the swim moved back to the original location in the main reservoir.
Cooper begging Todd for post race eats while Frito keeps his eyes on the bees.
Frito had fun watching the bees, then they started to bother him I think...don't mess with Frito!


Post race with Ed, Kevin, Matt, Todd, Frito, and Cooper.

Our relay team was the only coed one and first of all 3 relays. We won bobble head trophies. Something different. The guys in our group all won awards too, Matt 3rd AG, Todd 2nd, Ed 1st. And I got to see Alice kick butt winning the overall collegiate title (even beating all the guys!) and 4th overall for everyone! Very cool. She is going to be a great representative for NJ at Best of the US!

After the race, time for a quick nap, then up for a party at Matt and Genine's! Burgers, brownies, hard cider, cookies, hard cider, brownies, fruit salad, hard cider. Hmmm, maybe not the best thing when you have a race the next morning. Carbo loading perhaps. It certainly was fun and Genine sent me home with a huge bag of food. Yikes! Not easy to sleep after all that.

Sunday--Skylands Sprint Triathlon, swim and Run legs of KB2 relay (photos to come later)

Up early again this am. What was I thinking?! I almost forgot my goggles but remembered to go back for them. I did, however, have my wetsuit, skin suit and two choices for a run outfit. Priorities.

I wasn't so sure I was going to deliver the fastest times on my swim and run, so I had the idea yesterday that maybe Genine could wear my aero helmet on the bike to help offset some of this. She looked quite sharp. A black aero helmet may be in her future.

The race started super late. Maybe 20 or 30 mins and we were the 5th and last wave. It almost 10am by the time we started and heating up. Oh man! I lined up next to Oscar and Matt and we were the relay/beginner wave. It was rough for a tiny bit and then it was just really hard to see. The buoys were small and it was sunny. So, I just swam. It was nice to be able to actually swim and not just fight people. I probably swam all over the place because I couldn't sight for the life of me, but I had fun just swimming and felt smooth and good. I mad a good turn at the turn around, and headed for home. Again, not too easy to see, but tried to pick it up a little. I didn't feel like it was a great swim, but it wasn't bad either. The water temperature was perfect and it felt good to swim in nice clean water and have some room to swim.

I got our of the water and was a little dizzy. Someone told me I did 14 mins. Ugh, slower than last year, but it seems everyone was. I ran to the mat and kept running hard up to transition, leaving my wetsuit on. It got hot and uncomfortable running up the hill! Oh man. Finally I saw Genine, then we couldn't get my chip off. Finally we did and she was off! Whew! Ok, a little time for me to relax.

Swim: 4/17 relays, 14:37 (to the mat), Last year I was the 4th/17 relay split, with a time of 13:19. for reference, Oscar had the fastest split this year, second last year (by 2 secs because he got out ran at the mat) last year 11:15 (swam way off course), this year 11:39.

T1: 1:29, 2/17 relays

T2: 1:48, 10/17 relays (but we were faster than the top 9 teams...I think the other teams didn't realize you swap the chip at your transition spot)

Run: 5k, more like 3.25, 6/17, 22:34
Bob had passed Genine during the bike but she hang tough. He can climb quite well and escaped on one of the hills. He came into transition a couple mins ahead of her. I started to get antsy. I was worried that she had a flat or got hurt. Then I saw her. I had shouted something to Todd about coming to chase his sissy girl legs or something as he left transition. I need to stop talking trash...I think it fuels the fire. Anyway, I took off and felt ok to start. Tried to control my breathing passed lots of people and finally caught GK from Oscar's team by mile 1. I must have been wheezing already because he turned before I was passed him. And I have light little (ok big) but light none the less, feet when I run so it wasn't that. I kept focusing on controlling my breathing and passing one person at a time. I got some major cheers from the hs boys volunteering at the turn around. Thanks boys, just wish I could have run faster. Grabbed some water and started the water dumping on the head. I wasn't catching Todd. Darn him and his little girl legs! I was wheezing more and had developed a nasty side stitch. Keep going! Over half way. At the mile, I started feeling like I was going to vomit. Oh, partying should be left until after all the racing is done. The sidestich, wheezing, burping, and I think I might vomit feeling dominated the last mile. I kept moving, but probably much slower. I was so happy when I got to the finish. I stopped, dumped 2 bottles of water over my head, and got really dizzy.

Our overall time was 1:30:02. Genine biked faster, I swam and ran slower than last year, so we were slower overall, but still came out with the KB2 victory and the cash winnings! KB2 is still undefeated vs. the womens. I didn't catch Todd. Steve Austin (the boys team) won the battle between us. We are still way awesomer! They should be proud, they did pretty good between today and yesterday. We all did!