2014 Wyckoff/Franklin Lakes Triathlon Race Report 2

Wyckoff Triathlon transition always has the best balloons

Today I took part in the 2014 edition (32st Annual)  Wyckoff/Franklin Lakes  triathlon.  Its very popular ( usually over a 1000+ participants ) local triathlon held in the Franklin Lakes/Wyckoff area. The race itself is a somewhere between a sprint and   Olympic distance race. Its a  800m swim, 17 mile bike and 5 mile run. Weather was perfect,  sunny but not too hot. This year again it was a wet suit legal swim ( water temp 75°f). I had swam here last weekend, so was pretty comfortable with the water conditions. Arriving at the Indian Trails country club where the event was held, it was clear this was going to me a massive turnout..  In addition to the large number of solo triathletes there’s almost an equal number of competitors doing relays …

SWIM (800 meters)

Wyckoff Triathlon swim exit.. unleashing our inner fish..

Being in a new age group this year my wave would start further back, last year I was in the third wave this year I would be in the fifth.. so that means a lot more traffic in the water.. and a lot more folks to pass on the bike course.. but that’s racing.. Wave 5 started and instead of hanging back I decided to run in quickly and dolphin dive and shockingly, very little contact, dolphin diving works, but after sprinting  plus a few dives and swimming like a mad man,  I could feel my heart rate was going through the roof, so I had to settle down a bit.. I tried to hop onto a few feet, but no luck, they just swam faster.  Then my new darn goggles started to fill  with a bit of water, I had to stop and clear them a few times. The sun and glare popped up through the overcast right about mid-way into my swim, making it more of a challenge on the return leg.

Wyckoff Triathlon me at swim exit

I never got  a really good groove in the swim , even though my time appears faster than from last year.. But as we got close I sighted the inflatables, and just cranked it out to the shore… then in a few more seconds, I felt the sandy bottom and popped up and began the few hundred yard run to T1. Wetsuit came off pretty quickly…

BIKE (17 miles)

Wyckoff Triathlon Bike Mile 14 climb

This year I would again be atop my trusty Cervelo P2, unlike last year I checked and tighten all my bolts to make sure nothing “came loose” during the ride. Also I was trying on my new action camera (Air Pro) after I broke my Contour in my last race, check out the video below.  The course this year was the same as last year and I was afraid because of the nasty winter it would be pothole ridden, but besides one gnarly deep  pothole around mile 4.6 the course featured a couple of stretches of newly paved roadway, so that was nice! As a cyclist you can  appreciate much more  the road surface conditions  than just as a driver.

Wyckoff Tri me approaching T2

The bike leg felt easy this year, I came out of T1 and almost immediately settled into a comfortable rhythm on the bike. Never pushing too hard,  but still doing a lot of passing… even the climbs weren’t overly taxing.. The only rider to pass me was athlete #289, I know this because we rode together for almost the entire bike leg and both of us were doing all the passing… Of course I suck on the run, so I gave a lot of that back.. to  those that passed me back on the run, your welcome! I surprised myself by passing a couple of folks at the mile 14 climb.. (See video) , nothing impressive, just that I have trained on mostly flat terrain this year, so to see that I had some climbing legs, was a pleasant surprise…  but overall I had a lot of fun on the bike and perhaps should have pushed harder, but I fear blowing up even worse on the run, I need the freshest legs possible to salvage my miserable run times…

Bike Course (Video)

As I mentioned I had my Air Pro action cam on the bike and below is the abbreviated version(~13 min)  of my bike leg…tell me what you think…

RUN (5 Miles)

Wyckoff Triathlon me approaching finish

T2  came up quickly and I didn’t even get a chance to un-velcro my shoes, so I ran in with them..  from there it was an ok transition , I forgot something and had to go back while I was running out of T2, cost me about 3o secs… Then the run started slowly and I tried to keep up with a few folks, but as I trudged along, a steady stream of faster runners, passed me up.. I tried to go with a few of them, but I just didn’t have the legs. At about the two mile mark I looked down at my watch and did some mental calculations and could see that I was not going to go sub 1:50 for the race, so I was a bit disappointed. but I need to do consistent sub-8 miles for that to happen…. Also the run course for this race, is no joke, it’s pretty much up hill from mile 2 through mile 4 . So while there were no super-steep hills the constant gradual inclines, were not pleasant… The good news is that there were no signs of cramps, maybe I had better race nutrition, let’s hope the same for next week’s Philly TriRock race…

Wyckoff Triathlon triathletes near finish

After about the 4.25 mile mark its literally all downhill for the last 3/4 mile . Maintained a little better pace, and then when the finish line was in site, I kicked it in a little, disappointed not to hear any race announcer.. get the Race announcer back!!!  but it was over, I was still pretty energized after the race, perhaps I  need to leave it all out there..

POST RACE

Race results were about a minute off my last year’s pace.. again not much of an improvement in my run, that’s what needs to be worked on…

Grabbed some post race food, amenities here are pretty bare bones.. nonetheless I  always  have a great time at this race… , then headed to a diner for a late brunch..