Race Report: Westchester Triathlon - September 25th, 2011

So this was a total unexpected bolt-on event. My friend Jess, who I drafted onto our Reach the Beach running team, convinced me to sign-up for it at the last minute. And I'm really glad she did, for obvious reasons I'll talk about below.

I know some friends were thinking: 

Good God, man! isn't it enough? You've done five triathlons and a running relay already this season - you really need to do another???

Although there's no good answer to that, I can say very simply that since I'm all trained-up, and I love the excitement of the races themselves, why shouldn't I do it (as long as Karen will let me)?

Since the event was booked up solid and there were no spots left, I had to call on a few friends for a favor (thank you, Julie at Pacific Swim, Bike, Run and Liz at Team in Training CT!!).

This is a local event - it takes place about 20 minutes from home in Rye, New York. God bless the local events. The logistics are so easy, so the preparation stress is low. Pack the night before, throw the bike in the car, show-up at the crack of dawn and go like hell...

Race Report: Reach the Beach - September 14, 2011

Hard to do a race report for an event that lasts 24 hours. I could write a book. All the funny things that happen, and the strange little places we ran through, or pitched a tent in the middle of the night...

Team Rowayton Runners 2011 - at the beach!

The Reach the Beach running relay has got to be one of the craziest and most-fun things I've ever done: a team of 12 runs 200 miles over a 24 hour period. The race starts at Cannon Mountain, in the highlands of New Hampshire, and ends on the New Hampshire coastline at Hampton Beach. 


Each team member runs three or four segments - sometimes an 8-mile segment at 2:00 in the afternoon, sometimes a 3-mile segment at 3:30 in the morning. Everyone, and I mean every team member, of every one of 400+ teams - about 5,000 people, rides from staging area to staging area in vans. White vans. So many white vans.