NJ STATE TRIATHLON

July 20th 2014. Up and out by 4:45am. Headed to Mercer County Park with my parents, my awesome supporters who wake up at terrible hours to travel with me and help me with all my gear.

I got to the race and went into transition to find a little NJ state flag on my bike spot to represent the state champion. The age group state champions had theirs too! It played a nice role in marking my bike so I didn't have to look as hard for my spot when flying in and out of transition!

The water was 77.5 degrees on race day, making it wetsuit legal. So it apparently dropped 2+ degrees from the day before when they had the sprint triathlon.... Into my wetsuit and into the swim. Was out of the water in 23 minutes and change. Not bad but still want to improve that time. The swim was hot, almost too hot for a wetsuit but I was still ok. Into T1 and out shortly after. Onto the bike my legs felt dead for the first loop so dead that I was getting super mad at myself for being so slow! FINALLY onto the second loop of the bike and my legs felt much better so I hammered away. Averaged just over 22mph on the bike and into T2. Out quickly and onto the run. I felt the best I have in a long long time on the run. I had something left in the tank after the bike and that's a great feeling when you have a 10K to run left to go. I averaged 6:22 miles, over 10 seconds faster per mile than last year but I still have some work to do. I finished 3rd place overall but being the first NJ resident I was still able to claim the title of NJ State Triathlon Champion.

Thanks to XTERRA Wetsuits and PowerBar for helping me power my way to the finish and walk away with the NJ State Triathlon Champion Title.

Next stop: Chicago!

Until then....back to training.