Family Tri’ing in the Poconos

When I started triathlons 11 years ago it was part of some New Years’ Resolutions to engage my creative side by writing about my triathlon ventures and staying connected to family, and that hasn’t changed! As I looked for 2022 races, and with historical June races like the Philadelphia Triathlon and the Stamford Triathlon no longer in existence, I saw the Philly Tri Club was making the Kinetic Multisports Poconos Triathlon a focus race.  I recalled a fun stop at Lake Wallenpaupack years ago so this equidistant location seemed like the perfect venue for us to meet my parents and Barb for a triathlon weekend.  Mike and I planned to do the Olympic on Saturday, and Barb planned for the Sprint on Saturday.

We made two mistakes before the weekend even began.  I discovered that I had left my Torpedo water bottle for easy aero fueling at our home on Martha’s Vineyard.  Fortunately, our local CT tri shop, Pacific Cycling and Triathlon had one in stock!  We made the mistake of checking routes during non-peak travel times so we thought the route that goes across the Tappan Zee Bridge by our favorite NY bagel place would take the same as the Northern route over Bear Mountain, but our bagel detour ended up costing us about an hour in traffic.  

 

I had found a house right on the lake with a dock, and upon arriving we discovered we could
even see and kayak to the swim course from the house.  Upon arrival, we hurried over to check in, review the transitions, and check out the bike course, a 29-mile course, which is 3 miles longer than a typical Olympic race.  Oh my – the hills on the bike course were daunting.  There was a nice downhill for the first half, but the second half featured a 2-mile climb followed by more rolling hills.

 

We headed back for our traditional triathlon eve pasta dinner and another hour of race preparations.  Things moved at pre-race triathlon warped speed and before we knew it, it was past our intended bedtime.

We headed out the next morning around 5:45am.  Unlike so many races, parking was easy and close in the high school parking lot.  We had plenty of time to secure a good transition spot and meet up with our Philly Tri Club for a picture.  

 

SWIM:  45:41 - After the long course athletes went off on the swim course, it was our turn.  The water was a comfortable 70 degrees and having not swum in a wetsuit for some time, I tried to stay calm and slowly ease into the swim.  Normally I’m good at sighting but for some reason, I was having trouble following the right buoys of this rectangular, double loop course.  On 3 occasions kayaks were directing me to get back on course, including one time when I was pointed to the wrong buoy.  I thought for sure I must have swum extra, but my watch indicated I swam right around .9 miles, but I know I wasted a lot of time since my pace was recorded as 3:03/100 yards.

Of course swimming!

 

T1:  7:31 - The somewhat long transition up the hill on rocks didn’t bother me as much as I thought it would.  After “being mad at the swim course”, I was just happy to get out of the water. And then, I couldn’t get my wet suit over the chip. I wasn’t thinking straight and should have just taken it off!

 

BIKE:  1:53:43 - The bike was Mike’s lowpoint and my highpoint.  As he was exiting the high school, he hit a bump that sent him to the ground and caused a flat tire.  Or maybe the tire was a little flat to begin with given he had had trouble with the valve.  The good news for him was that the race mechanics were right there and helped fix it.  So on he went with a bloody elbow and bruised hip.

 

As for me, I knew I wanted to make up time on the downhills so I stayed aero as much as possible and flew as fast as 40 miles mph down the hills.  I was so glad we had driven the course the night before so I was ready for a couple of sharp turns into hills, and I was mentally ready for the 2 mile climb.  As I saw many people give up and walk their bike up the hill, I was determined to stay on the bike.  And, I did!  The remaining rolling hills weren’t really rolling so I continued the quest to climb them all.  In the end, I could tell my legs were tired but I gained huge bike confidence on this course.  In fact, averaging 15.3mph, I had the second fastest bike time in my age group and it proved to be my best event this time.

 

Killer 2 mile climb!

T2: 1:36 - Non-eventful and fast!

 

RUN:  1:11:35 - Normally the run is my best event, but not this time.  Between legs that were toast and a slightly hilly, trail course with just about every surface – pavement – grass – dirt – bark mulch – sinking mulch – mud – stones – uneven pavement – there would be no run PRs today and a slow 11:31 pace.  The best part of the course was the high school running track where I waved to Mom and Dad as I made my second loop, and gladly finished.

 

This was certainly my longest Olympic, finishing at 4:00:08 – yes, wish I had been paying attention to the total time to break 4 hours.  I used this race as one of my race rehearsals for our upcoming half Ironman, and I’m glad to have worked out some kinks and get my race brain back on.  But most of all, I was happy to see some of my Philly Tri friends and spend time with family in a beautiful lake setting.  Oh yeah, and remember Nala, from last year – the foster dog.  Proving she can be a good traveler and companion during triathlons, she’s now a permanent member of the family!

Nala competed in the kayak-swim event!