Du or Die, It’s Still No Tri

Race day started at 2 a.m., which gave me just enough time to get my gear ready, shower, change and start my nearly two-hour drive down to Long Branch.

Getting up that early wasn’t hard because I could barely sleep at all, stricken with pre-race jitters. The drive was the difficult part, not because of any shore traffic but because it was a long distance to be traveling alone and tired. Even though the race didn’t start for a few hours I wanted to be sure I got there early since I wasn’t familiar with the area, needed to find a parking spot close to the start/finish and avoid the long lines of other athletes at race day packet pickup.

The race itself was kind of confusing due to the lack of announcements, both the long/short tri-athlon started at the same time as the long/short du-athlon and the course was completely open so we were constantly running into people on the boardwalk and having to watch out for cars while cycling on the streets.

I knew going in that I was severely underprepared–I had a heavy bike not designed for racing, I didn’t really put in the necessary training time and I was completely exhausted not getting any sleep the night before. It all took a toll while on the bike course as my knees started to bother me and as a result, I ended up getting swept. 

In all honesty, I’m really not that upset since I was there more for the experience than anything. Besides, for the first time this whole summer I can finally say that I actually went "down the shore." I was really fortunate too that the woman who helped bring me in was a good coach, gave me a lot of practical advice and was really supportive.

Before my next multi-sport event I am planning on:

1. Getting a road bike that's lighter and built for racing.
2. Train, train, train and
3. Compete in a bigger race because I want to bring home another finisher’s medal!