Greater Nashua Tri

Location: Nashua, NH
Distance: Sprint (.3mi s, 16mi b, 3.1mi r)
Participants: 382

While friends may discount their ability to complete a triathlon, I always try to bait them and say they don't have to do it all- there are relays, after all ;)  The way I see it, once they get a taste, you never know what might happen!

Maybe it was the wine and cocktails, or just good company, but I convinced some friends to do a relay a few months back.  Luckily I didn't have too many, so I remembered the next week to research some races that would fit with our schedules.  Between the six of us at the table, we decided on women versus men.  #Game On.

Our furry cheerleader!!

I did my best to quell any fears and convince everyone that they would do just fine in the race.  Before we knew it, race day was upon us and after a week of rain and cooler temps we had a gorgeous, sunny day.  The lake had cooled off a bit from their readings the week before, but not so much that our swimmers were uncomfortable sans wetsuit.  The sun did however make for a hot run as it got later on in the morning, as the first couple miles were not in the shade.

See, we were relaxed!!

Quite a different experience from competing in the entire race, all I had to setup was my bike stuff and make sure we all got bodymarked, knew how the transitions (aka timing chip handoff) should go and figure out the layout of the transition area.  It was strange watching the first wave go off and cheering on our swimmers, knowing that I wasn't going to be jumping in the water soon.  Another first was the chance to watch wetsuit strippers in action, they are pretty amazing!

heading out for the bike

The bike course is a lollipop which you do twice, I'd say it was pretty flat, with some gentle rollers.  Given the fact that I was only biking that day, I tried my best to push the pace as much as I could.  There was one turn that was poorly marked for some of the race.  Luckily there was someone there when I passed, but our other biker wasn't so fortunate and added an extra mile or two :/  I finished the bike in 49:54 (19.2mph), handed off the chip to our runner, and my day was done.

Well, sort of-- we backtracked from the finish and met our runner for the last half mile or so and finished strong as we got back to Camp Sargent :)

Post-race

Final Thoughts:  Our first tri was a success!  Especially when everyone said they'd be up for another relay (although I haven't gotten them to commit), and one or two of the men said they could see themselves doing the whole thing :)  I was pleased with my bike, especially given the craziness of this summer and inconsistency of my training up to this point.  Races always have a way of rekindling my love for triathlon, and this was no exception, especially because I got to share it with friends.

Congrats guys, you all did awesome!!  And thanks to Ed for being our photographer for the day!