Hillsborough's Fittest: Trio Takes on First Triathlon

It was a combination of determination, athleticism and friendship that led Hillsborough residents Carole Zydiak, Lisa Medawar and Robin Crispin across the finish line at the Jersey Girl Triathlon in Long Branch on Aug. 7.

“We’re not super women,” Carole Zydiak said. “We’re just doing it.”

All members of the Hillsborough Racquet and Fitness Club, Zydiak, Medawar and Crispin’s introduction to the sport came from an instructor at the club, Lori Butterfield. Butterfield hosts indoor triathlons every so often that the women signed up for, they said.

After considering it for about two years, the trio were finally able to sign up for the Jersey Girl Triathlon this year. With that, they were training for the Aug. 7 race in Long Branch.

“We just wanted to do it for real,” Medawar said. “I needed a new challenge. You get complacent and bored and you want something that is going to get you excited about those workouts.”

Despite a training schedule that had them swimming, biking and running, the women still stuck to their regular workouts at the racquet ball club. Often, they’d follow a class with one of the biking or running workouts, building strength and endurance as they trained.

“You just put it on your calendar and you do it,” Zydiak said. “You don’t get to wait until it feels good to work out. You pencil it in and you do it.”

“The whole mental part of it is that are you going to stay motivated,” she added.

In addition to training, the woman all work full-time and balance their jobs with taking care of their kids and families, they said.

“The support of our family helps and the support of the gym family helps too,” Cripsin said. “They could not wait to hear how we did on Sunday.”

Despite the race atmosphere, the trio never felt they were competing against each other during the event. Instead, it was an intense sense of camaraderie from spending so many hours training together.

“I don’t know that I would have done it without my girl friends,” Medawar said.

“They ran me into the finish line,” Crispin added. “I don’t think of it as a race. I think of it as an event.”

With the trio barely home for a day, they’re already signed up for the next event—The SheRox Triathlon on Aug. 28 in Asbury Park.

“We cursed Lisa and we’re on,” Zydiak joked. “It wasn’t a fluke.”