The Jersey Shore Triathlon

Pre Race Routine: Everyone always talks about what they do the night before a race to prepare....My pre race routine is pretty simple, eat a good dinner: chicken, fish (personal fave) salad, pasta, whatever is on the menu at the Dorgan household and then either a bowl of ice cream or milkshake. I used to do the whole, eat pasta before a race thing but it never did make a difference in my racing so I just eat a healthy meal...and ice cream.... In moderation.  Fact is, I race better when I consume it the night before a race. I know it works for me. Do what works for you...or give ice cream a try!
Now lets get into race morning and the race itself....
Up at 4:30 am to be out the door at 5am. Right on schedule I head to Asbury Park. As I am approaching a light I look to my left to see a guy standing by the crosswalk with a towel around his neck wearing an old school sweatsuit, no big deal. The light turns red, I slow down to a stop...He starts walking towards me. GREAT. Adrenaline pumping he goes towards the back of my car, "ok he's walking around me to get to the other side." NOPE. Next thing I know he's at my window. I make a quick decision and go through the red light....No idea what he wanted at 5:20 am but wasn't about to roll down the window and find out. I calm back down and start mental prep work for the race during the rest of the drive.
I arrived in transition, set my bike up next to a landmark so I knew exactly where it was and warmed up. Down to the beach for the start and the ocean pumping out some medium sized waves that lacked power. Perfect swimming conditions for me having grown up at the beach body surfing. The Olympic distance started first and then the mens sprint wave with us starting 3 minutes later. I swam out, turned at the buoy and body surfed my way back in. I dolphin dove when it became inefficient to swim but still too deep to run. Out of the swim in the lead and into T1. Flawless transition in 51 seconds, wetsuit off and bike gear on, out onto the bike. As I hop on my right shoe came loose from its rubber band and hit the ground popping off into the road. I had to stop, dismount and go get it. Unfortunate but not the end of the world. Back on the bike and into a head wind on the way down and a tailwind on the way back, two loops of that and I hopped off having had a solid ride averaging just about 21mph (20.9 to be exact). Into T2 and out in just over 30 seconds. Out onto the run, I was feeling pretty good. I picked off a bunch of guys who were ahead of me on the bike. As I ran past some geese I got a very serious hiss which I translated as "stay away from my babies," which I happily did. I didn't have the best run but it was a solid effort and I finished in 19:18.
During the run I made up some serious time on the leader... my brother! He put a 5 minute lead on me on the bike, a gap a little too big for me to make up during a 5k but I came within 1 minute 40 seconds by the end. Congrats to Sean for winning his first triathlon ever! I wound up being second overall and 1st female.
A little sibling rivalry...I'm coming for you Sean! All in fun of course.
All in all it was a great day, a great confidence booster and fast transitions which I am very happy with. Ending the day with the fastest swim, T1, T2 and run overall; I am pretty happy with the results but then again never satisfied.
Big shout to XTERRA Wetsuits and PowerBar for the support and products I need to succeed! Wearing their names on my suit is an absolute pleasure!