As much as I enjoy the workouts, and as many benefits I've gotten already from the training, ultimately it's about the events. In the Northeast, the event season starts in May and runs through September. I had a lot of fun planning and talking to buddies about what events they are doing this summer.
I decided early I didn't want to go trekking all over the U.S. to different events this year - maybe next. So I primarily looked at the Northeast.
My friend Jon inspired the early choice to do the NYC Triathlon on August 7th. Simple to say, that's one of my "A" events for this season. Having popped that into the calendar, I then started to look at other events that could serve either as warm-ups, or local bragging rights, or just plain fun in nice places.
Having scoured active.com for events that wouldn't come right on top of each other, and would fit into a complex and busy family summer schedule, I finally came up with an eight triathlon program that seems to make some sense.
My first event of the season is on May 8th: the "Northeast Season Opener" in Hopkinton, Massachusetts. Right, it's not local - it's just the earliest one I could find in the Northeast, and it's only a three hour drive from here.
It's the classic warm-up event - low key - and organized by an outfit that has a lot of experience putting events together. I also like the fact that this has been held several years in a row, so it's likely to have the kinks worked out, and that it's a Sprint (1/4 mile swim, 10 mile bike, 3.1 mile run). 1/4 mile swim in a freezing New England lake - wetsuits "recommended".
Most of these events have great web sites with all kinds of information. I am a preparation freak, so I wanted to do a dry run of the run and bike courses. A dry-run would serve to clear my mind a little on race day. But because it's three hours away, I'm just not going to be able to get up there before hand.
The next best thing would be the course maps (which are on the site), and one thing I didn't see but could be really helpful, so I created one, a
Google Earth flyover of the bike route
They did this for the NYC Tri and it was really cool to watch, especially from a low altitude because it gives you a good perspective on ascents and descents on the course. To download this file, click here. (if you don't already have it you will also need to install Google Earth to view this.
In any case, I now have a level of comfort that I won't go riding off into the Massachusetts country side, having missed a critical turn, and maybe this fly-over will be useful to some other competitors.
I also learned in searching around that last year, they had high winds and had to cancel the swim portion of the race (but not before several panic stricken swimmers capsized a local fire-boat). Hope for the best!
Thanks for reading! And please visit my American Cancer Society fund raising web site: http://main.acsevents.org/goto/pmeese, click the RED "DONATE" BUTTON and, if you are able, make a small contribution in support of my entry in The NYC Triathlon.
Due to the generosity of friends and family, my personal fund raising goal of $3,000 has been exceeded by more than 60% now, and still climbing. Don’t let that stop you from joining more than 50 other supporters and contributing a little more if you feel this is a good cause and this contribution would fit into your annual giving budget.
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