Pine Bush Tri

Location: Albany, NY
Distance: Sprint (325yd s, 11.5mi b, 3.25mi r)
Participants: 311

When I found out I was heading home for not one, but two family reunions this summer, on back-to-back weekends, I thought it would be fun if I could add in a race to the trip.  And so I signed up.  This race report is almost two months late at this point, funny how time slips by...

One of the big reasons I signed up for this race was so that some out of town family members would get to see me race.  That being said, I didn't quite realize that the swim start, T1 and T2 were all in different locations- not the most spectator-friendly race ever.  Choosing to situate themselves in T2, my parents and aunts were able to see me twice, going in/out of T2 and then coming back in for the finish.  There's something special about racing when you know you'll have some friendly faces in the crowd, and I was glad to have them there :)

Swim
The swim is in a small lake so it was short.  Crazy short.  I'm sure all of the first-timers appreciated it, but it seemed like they could've tried to cover a little more ground pond.  I was in the 10th wave and they ended up starting 15min late, so I had some time to stand around and...  wait.  The water temperature was perfectly comfortable sans wetsuit and while it wasn't clear, there wasn't much of any muck to contend with (I heard some chatter about it beforehand, so I was a little worried).  In my wave were both men and women in my age group, so I was a little unsure of where to start.  Turns out I overestimated others' ability and wasn't able to swim my own pace.  Before you knew it, though, we were already at the shore.

And is a really big beef from this race:  timing.  Since when do we not separate out transition times from the other disciplines???  I didn't pay too much attention to the placement of the timing mats during the race so I have no idea where the breakdowns were; all that is listed in the results is swim, bike, run and overall times.  #wtf

Bike
The bike course is a mix of pine bush preserves and sectioned off major roads, with some gentle rollers along the way.  I did what I could to push here, but 60miles in the Adirondacks & central NY in the week leading up to the race left me with legs that only had so much to give :-P  What can I say, I couldn't help but take advantage of my surroundings!

Run
The run is an out and back, with a little lollipop in the middle.  There's a sizable hill at the beginning/end of the course so you know what to expect when you head down it out of T2.  While I didn't have that much left on the bike, I was feeling good on the run and kept passing people (none of whom were in my age group), so I couldn't help but wonder if I had a chance to place.   I was able to power up the hill and finish strong in 1:13:10.  Or so they say.  Based on what I saw on the clock and my wave, I thought it should've been 1:10??

top of the hill, in the home stretch

While I like racing by perceived effort and not having to worry about hitting the start/lap/stop button, this experience has made me realize that I still want those numbers!!!  I can't help but want to compare past performances and want to improve.

I did have a good race though, and my parents and aunts cheered me on to a 4th place AG finish  (79th overall).  Which I was unhappy about until I was on my way back to Boston and realized that I left the blueberries I picked for jam-making in my parents fridge.  That quickly became the tragedy, and I realized that no matter what place I finished, I was satisfied with my performance ;)