Thursday, July 9, 2009

New Jersey or Bust!

Well I think our long weekend would be described as a Bust! Maybe we should have taken the closed due to flooding tunnel as an omen to not make the trip....or maybe we should have considered the resulting 15 mile back-up at the other tunnel a sign...but silly us...decided to change plans, meet Geek some where in MD to return the puppy and continue our trek up the Eastern Shore to NJ...only to land here less than 30 minutes after our arrival to the parental units....Yes that would be the emergency 24 hour vet hospital!!! In keeping with my strong sense of fairness, Jack decided that he too needed some emergency surgery...fortunately with a lot of luck and the quick actions of his well trained owners, his bout with GVD (aka Bloat....180 degree flipped stomach, filled up with air...) was successfully resolved with surgical intervention by Dr. Jessica. Needless to say, we are so thankful it was successful as we were in no way prepared for the alternative. 48 hours after surgery...when he decided he would eat for us instead of the great hospital staff that took awesome care of him, he was released back to us for a little R&R and the salvage of a nice last day at the beach...which was spent swimming, running, biking and running...at a little race called Islandman.... ...I'm going to let my sister rant about this race...mostly because she chose it, but let me just say, I disagree a little with this particular course but I'm sure that the race director had good reason why it was organized as it was...however it involved a TON of running and a good deal was on softer sand...which I know is unavoidable when doing a beach triathlon...but starting the swim away from the transition area and then swimming even further down the beach just didn't make sense!! So with that little explanation, here's my quick race report...ocean swim...a little choppy but with a good current it was very quick, not that you could tell that from my 11+ minute time for the 1/4 mile swim but really the fastest woman's time was 8+ so I'm not too disappointed....most of my 11 minutes was spent running from the swim exit to transition...I think they could have lessened the blow of this largely soft sand run to transition by having another timing mat at the swim exit but everyone did the same race...on to T1 which was mostly uneventful for me...I'm never super fast but this year I've really mastered having coffee and scones in transition so my just over 1 minute time pleased me especially since I opted to remove my wetsuit once I got to my bike....and speaking of the bike...it was a lovely 3 loop 12 mile ride...it was enjoyable but really hard to remain legal with 400 racers in a 4 mile area but surprisingly few penalties were handed out...and luckily I was not one of the lucky ones receiving one of those even though I was convinced I had incurred one trying to pass a couple guys that were already blocking the guy I was trying to pass...it was ugly but I was pleased with my time of 38 minutes and some change but grossly reminded that my ADHD can really only handle two laps tops!!...T2 was also uneventful...despite that others tell you not to talk to anyone even your parents I had a nice quick conversation with my mom while changing shoes and quickly got on my way to run in some more soft sand. Originally this run was described as a 5K beach run on the boardwalk...but thanks to some nesting Piping Plovers it was run entirely on the beach...and I'm pretty sure the boardwalk in Avalon, NJ isn't very long so it would have been a lot of circles to get 5K...not that passing the finish line not once, not twice but three times before actually finishing was much better!! Despite the sandy run and my awesome vomiting at the end of the race (UGH...think I swallowed a bit much salt water during the swim...) I actually managed a 25 minute 5K which I thought was ok...in all I finished 4th in my age group netting an awesome beach towel prize. And while I have been there done that on this race, considering its reasonable price tag the goodie bag, technical t-shirts and prizes were really awesome....and best of all an iced down towel as a finishers medal...I love useful gear! So with that a few more pics from the weekend....
The Boys Chillin' after Jack's Return Home


The Big Sissy and I in Transition


Off We walk to the Swim!!

...I'll have more pics for the Big Sissy's guest race report...but until then hope everyone's having a great week! :)

5 comments:

Michelle said...

not sure i like the big sissy...implies that i was a whimp which my race report will reveal that i was not!!

Lee the Cyclist said...

It sounds like an interesting adventure all the way around. Glad to hear your pup's ok. To speed up your T1 transition time you could try and make a coffee & scone smoothy. Throw in some disgustingly flavored protein powder and you should be good to go.

Nicole said...

'Chelle...please reference your previous race report which was also entitled the Big Sissy's Race Report (in case youd don't look)...I think you are feeling a little sensitive, but I would never call you a wimp unless you were one, in which case it would be entitled "My Wimp Sister's Race Report"!!! which it wasn't so there for by the transitive property it was just in keeping with the original theme...I know you were never good at math but the transitive property is a good thing... :)

Michelle said...

wise a.....

Rainmaker said...

Cookie tossing - awesome! That's where the money's at.