2017 Triathlon Season

[A. Wendolowski]

Hi All,

The snow is falling and the open water seems soooo far away but the season is fast approaching! I've been spending my morning (and money) registering for races and imagining the warmer days ahead!

We are hoping to get NCC out in force for two races that have overall team awards this year.

6/11/17 - The Westfield Wave Triathlon (https://www.trireg.com/wavetriathlon )

7/30/17 - The Whaling City Triathlon (https://sunmultisportevents.com/events/whaling-city-triathlon/)

It doesn't matter if it's your first race or your 50th, register as an Northampton Cycling Club Tri Team Member!

Is your race schedule set for 2017? Share it with us! It's always nice to find a teammate at a race, even better if you can travel together too!

My 2017 Season is coming together:

5/7/17 Thrill in the Hills Duathlon in Litchfield CT

6/11/17 Westfield Wave

6/25/17 The White Mountain Tri

I'm traveling in July but might have time to squeeze in a race before I go it's TBD.

8/6/17 Greenfield Tri

9/16/17 Wallis-Sands in Rye, NH

Stay Warm!

Alicia

[Yosh Schulman]

I'm new to the group so correct me if I'm doing this wrong.

I'm going to be traveling to St. Petersburg FL for an Olympic Tri at the end of April and looking for someone to train with for Bike and once weather warms open swim.  I live in Northampton.

I'm also looking to sign up for Greenfield Tri for August (but haven't yet) and likely to sign up for others as I can squeeze them in with my marathon schedule (I run 6 a year and to add tri's ontop of that is sometimes hard to schedule both logistically and politically with my family)

Looking forward to connecting with this group.

Yosh Schulman

[Aleks Kajstura]

Here's what I have so far for 2017:

5/21 St.Louis Triathlon

6/11 Westfield Wave

7/16 Give Peace a Tri

8/6 Greenfield Tri

9/9 HMF Women's Tri

[Kate Queeney]

Here's what I'm planning:

5/14: Season Opener Tri, Hopkinton 

6/18: Hyannis Sprint

7/30: Whaling City Tri (THIS IS A TEAM EVENT! We need 10 NCC members to have a team; I think we have 3 registered so far. I did this last year, so message me if you have questions about it.)

8/8: Greenfield Sprint, maybe

8/26: Cranberry Trifest Olympic (THIS IS THE NE REGION CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP! It would be great to get a bunch of NCC folks there.)

September: maybe another sprint, depending on scheduling.

[Carson Poe]

My race plans right now are:

American Zofingen: canceled
Westfield Wave Super Sprint
Hudson Valley Olympic
Greenfield International
Greylock Hillclimb

Hope to see you soon

[Jason Johnson]

It was nice meeting you today. Great job!

[Jason Johnson]

It was nice meeting you today. Can I ask if you still have those men's tri shorts?

[Kate Queeney]

Hi everyone! It's mid-July, so a great time to check in and see how folks' races have been going. We'd love to hear how it's going, whether you're a first-timer, a seasoned veteran, or somewhere in between. I'll start with a few results I know about:

Aleks Kajstura went to St Louis early in the season to visit family and got in a sprint while she was there, finishing 3rd in her age group.

At the recent Quaboag Plantation sprint in West Brookfield, Lisa Chase was 4th woman and 2nd in the 45-49 AG, while Pat Mahar was 7th woman and 1st in the 50+ division! 

Jess Saalfield has been crushing it--she recently won the HITS Olympic triathlon overall and won her AG at the super-competitive Quassy Tri in June. At that same HITS race series, Carson Poe took 3rd overall in the Olympic race, and Chris Buckland finished his first full-iron distance race!

At Mass State last weekend, Madeline Nagy was the 7th woman overall and 2nd in 50+, while Joellen Reino took 6th in that ridiculously competitive 50-54 AG. Over on the men's side, John Reino took 9th in the 50-54. 

I've done two races so far, and I have yet to get to swim. At the Season Opener, the triathlon was changed to a duathlon on race morning because of the frigid air temperatures. Jess Saalfield and I went 1-2 in the 45-49 age group (though honestly, by the time I'd finished I think Jess had already showered and changed) and got a great podium picture in our down jackets. At the Hyannis Sprint the swim was canceled because of rough water in the sound, coupled with the fact that a ferry crash nearby the night before (no one was hurt) meant there were no emergency responders available. I was 2nd in my AG there as well, though 1st had the good manners to place overall and be pulled out of the AG awards. Looking forward to actually getting in the water at Whaling City!

I know a ton of folks raced Westfield, plus I'm sure other races I didn't hear about. Tell us how it went--the good, the bad, the ugly! Alicia, I know you had a great race up in NH, so let's hear about it. . . 

[Owen Wright]

Hi Kate, 

I should be able to run 3 miles by July 30th, so count me in for NCC for the Whaling City Triathlon 

-Owen 

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[Yosh Schulman]

I did an international distance in February in St. Petersburg FL and a Sprint in June in Lake Keuka NY (finger lakes). 

The FL race was my first Ocean swim and the chop was so bad they cut the distance to a 900meter swim. I totally panicked and literally swam from kayak to kayak to let my heart rate come back from peak. Had any of the kayakers asked if I wanted to get rowed in I would have said yes. Thankfully they didn't and I eventually finished the swim at a 3min/100 pace. But when I got out of the water I was so euphoric that I made it out alive the rest of the race was super fun. I was chatting up everyone and had such a high throughout the rest of the race. 

The Sprint was much better and I PR'd my swim and bike and comfortably cruised my run. 

I'll be doing Greenfield Aug 6 as an international distance and aiming to PR on all three events. 

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[Kate Queeney]

Yea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Make sure to register by July 26 and enter Northampton Cycling Club as your team.

See you in the pool,

KQ

[A. Wendolowski]

It's been a great season so far for me!

My season opener was a DU in Litchfield CT, Thrill in the Hills. It was a small race but I can't figure out why, the course and volunteers were awesome! It started with a 2.5 mile run that was a nice combination of road and trail, the bike course went around a lake on nice, quiet roads, then we did a repeat of the run course. I had a solid race, coming in 3rd Female and first in my AG. It was a nice replacement for the canceled Shamrock Du so if you’re looking to shake off the winter cob webs next year this would be a great race.

Westfield Wave was a Tri/Du this year. Competitor’s choice. I choose Du since water quality was the concern. My "A" race was coming up and I didn't want to deal with any GI issues in the week leading up to it. I had a zippy (maybe too zippy) quarter mile first run, a solid bike and then the wheels came OFF on the 3 mile run! It was hot, it was not hot in the weeks leading up to the race. I suffered. I managed to hold onto 1st in the 40-44 AG but it wasn't pretty!

White Mountain Triathlon was another new race for me this year, it was my "A" race and it was birthday weekend! 

Millennium Running had taken over race management after I registered and what a pleasant surprise it turned out to be! It went from a single day event to a weekend of racing that included a sunset social at the summit of Cannon Mt., sprint, Olympic and half iron distance races.

Before I get into the details I have to say; this was the best race I've ever had. Regardless of the finish I have never had things come together so perfectly in a race. My training, the weather, the course, my capacity for suffering on the bike and most importantly my ability to shut out the noise all came together and made it an unforgettable day.

If you know me, you know birthday weekend must be celebrated with GF chocolate cake and Pinot Noir in a fancy hotel after (for best results) participating in some form of epic sportsing event. If you don't know me, all of that is true and beware I am always looking for folks to come with me. This year it was just Mark (my most dedicated sportsing partner) and I so I found us a lovely hotel in Lincoln just a 15 minute drive to the race venue.

The swim? Magical. Echo Lake is clean, cool and beautiful. It was my best Olympic swim ever and that includes taking in the beautiful views a little too much on lap 2. Much love to my master swim team peeps for helping me find my kick!

The bike? Crazy fun! If you are into epic descents, rolling hills and a long, slightly uphill 8 mile grind into T2, this race is for you! I enjoyed every minute except for when the lid on my trunk (that's right my bike has a trunk) came off during the screaming 2 mile descent out of T1. It's never good to feel something tickling the back of your leg at 35+ mph. Gulp.

The Run? Wildly hilly for a course that is all bike path and access roads and short, 4.25 miles, but so challenging it makes sense. I started cramping on the run which is something I've never had happen before. It really messed with my strategy for the run which was managed the ascents, smash the descents. I had to play it steady the whole way.

The Result? 5th W overall, 2nd Masters W overall and 1st in the 40-44 AG.

This past weekend I headed out to Littleton for Appleman, a sprint distance race in Long Lake. It sounded like a nice local race with an interesting run and I needed to blow off some steam so I signed up! It turned out to be the biggest race I’ve done so far this year at 350+ participants. The swim wave was the biggest I’ve been in this year and we were the 4^th wave so it was a busy swim course! I found clean water and had another solid swim. The bike course was busy too but it made for some interesting riding and gave me lots of people to chase. The run was somehow uphill both ways and included a pretty gnarly, steep trail section. If I did it again I would consider wearing my light trail shoes. It was slippery ascending in the woods and a beach finish which is always interesting on tired legs! It was another beautiful weather day and I finished 2^nd on the 40-44 AG podium where there was less than 60 seconds separating 1^st through 3^rd. It was a great battle that included a T2 assist by yours truly to the winner, at least one of us knew where we were going!

On Saturday, April 1, 2017 at 9:37:22 AM UTC-4, A. Wendolowski wrote:

[Tim Cary]

Very much appreciate these race reports, and congratulations on an awesome season so far, Alicia

-Tim

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[Aleks Kajstura]

I'm still not sure how I feel about my season.

As Kate mentioned, I started off with the St Louis Tri. I did the sprint this year, finished 3rd in AG 30-34. I literally beat out 4th place in the transitions,which I'm still very excited about, because I've been working in getting those shorter :)  And with ~900 athletes there, the transition itself is nearly 0.2 miles long!  Last year was their inaugural year (and my first Olympic), and while things went remarkably well for a 1st attempt (for them and for me), they've very clearly learned a lot of lessons and implemented good changes this year, if anyone is ever out there for some reason I highly recommend it!  Awesome highway bike course, nice swim and tree-lined run in the park along the lake :)  I got extremely lucky with the weather, St Louis was steadily in the upper 80's by that time of May, and I was still training in the 50's and 60's, but a series of storms passed through that brought the race morning temperature down to New England levels, so while everyone else was shivering, I was happy :)  Oh and the cleaning crews did an amazing job clearing the storm damage from the course!

Westfield was up next, and like Alicia, I completely fell apart on the run... Given the temperature drop in St Louis, this was my first hot-weather experience of the season and I didn't have nearly enough to drink on the bike. I ended up mostly walking to the 1st water station and took a standing break while downing a couple of cups of water (slushy stomach be damned, at that point I was aiming to avoid a DNF).  But I guess some folks were having a worse time than me because I ended up with 2nd AG.

Then I was supposed to be at Give Peace a Tri last weekend aiming to smash my time from last year (and maybe aim to break the 1h mark - it's somewhere between a sprint and super sprint)... but I came down with a stomach bug, so instead of racing I was just happy to be able to stand upright without getting dizzy, so you know, new goals :)

Which brings me to today, when I'm supposed to be on day 3 of my last peak week of training before tapering for Greenfield, and my biggest accomplishment for the week so far is being able to eat solid food... good times.  But I'm still really looking forward to Greenfield (back to down to sprint this year), and that'll will likely be my last tri this season... I signed up for my first century ride which will fall on the day after the HMF women's tri, and something tells me doing both might be a poor decision.

-Aleks

[Kate Queeney]

I'm going to post a quick (for me!) team recap of Whaling City; I STRONGLY encourage anyone else who raced to add your own report of whatever length you desire.

Seven of us made the trip to New Bedford; from my perspective, the only real downside to this race is that it's 2.5 hours away, but it seemed like most people found good options for staying overnight, or else they were young enough to tolerate getting up at an even more ungodly hour to make it there for the 8 am start. We were given rack spots together as a team (in two different places, depending on how late you signed up), which was fun. Side note: I love that this race gives you an exact spot for your bike, so there's no angling for the best spot on the rack. 

The weather was great--cool to start out with, sunny, reasonably dry. It was a little windy, which made the water choppier than expected. I had a moment of extreme guilt about talking a novice swimmer into her first triathlon in these conditions, but I dealt with that by basically lying to her and saying, "This isn't that choppy at all!" as we warmed up, got smacked in the face with waves, and swallowed salt water. 

And speaking of first-timers: I know we had at least 3 first-timers (Owen Wright, Hannah Durant and Sarah Dolven); I am not sure Kirk Sanger if this was your first or not? It was great to have so much of our team be out there for the first time, and I'll start with them, because they did an amazing job.

First up, Owen: he signed up for the "open" category, not realizing that was actually the elite wave and made him ineligible for an AG award. No problem: Owen finished as the 3rd male elite and 6th male overall. This is coming after a stress fracture that has seriously limited his running, which is his "sport of origin." Hannah, whose motto is "I hate running," has swimming as her sport of origin and proved that by nonchalantly crushing the swim in non-ideal conditions. She had a goal of finishing under 1:30 and obliterated that goal by almost 7 minutes. Sarah is known to old-timers in the club, because she raced way back in the early days of NCC, and if you've ever seen her on a bike, that wouldn't surprise you. She is also a fast runner, and she is the abovementioned first-timer who I dragged into an ocean swim for her first tri experience. While Sarah claims she doggy-paddled the entire swim, in fact her swim time was pretty middle of the pack, and she worked her way up through crowds on the bike and run to finish as the 14th woman overall and 5th in her AG. Kirk, who may or may not be a first-timer, finished 11th in his AG with solid efforts across all 3 disciplines, though I think the bike was his strongest leg.

Pat Mahar pretty much got off a plane from Europe, turned around and came to the race. She shook off the cobwebs of vacation pretty adeptly, breaking 1:20 to finish 8th in her AG. Karyn Nelson came in 2 minutes behind Pat to finish top 10 in her AG. I had a pretty similar race to last year--solid swim and bike for me, and then a run where I felt like I was really crushing it and then saw my time afterward and was like, huh, not so much on the crushing it. In a stroke of luck, though, the woman who finished one place ahead of me both years has aged up into the next AG, so I was 3rd in my AG, 9th overall. 

I also want to mention that two Smith students--one seasoned triathlete and one runner trying it for the first time--came out to do the race, encouraged by Hannah. We'll get them signed up with NCC next year, and hopefully more of you can plan ahead and join us to get a team score. Casey Hecox (some of you met Casey at the lat Deerfield TT) had a great race across the board, including obscenely fast transitions (draft legal experience will do that for you, I guess!) to finish as the 4th woman overall. Julianne Hilsammer finished right between Pat and Karyn.

I'd love to hear what others thought of the race. The bike is 2 loops with 2 out and backs, so it gets a little crowded, but on the plus side they have it completely closed off to car traffic, which I love. The congestion mostly came into play on turns for me, and there were a lot of those, but as Alicia can attest, I am sort of a granny on turns anyway, so it probably affected me less than it did the more skilled riders. The run is, as advertised, mostly shadeless, but it's not a bad run course--there's a long out and back to start, which is a little tedious, but the second half through the park is fun. The swim course was a little weird this year because, in addition to the chop situation, the tide was such that it was REALLY shallow out to at least the first guide buoy. I was able to swim before then, but a lot of people walked/ran/dolphin dived for a long way, which was somewhat awkward. Other than that, though, I like the swim course just fine, though it's just the case that a choppy day makes for a tough swim if you're not used to it (and it's hard for us to find chop to practice in out here in the 413). Swallowing salt water is also not so kind to the stomach on the bike/run. Although for real, the swells were not very big--like maybe 6 inches. I really enjoy this race, so if we can get a group to do it again next year, I'd be up for trying again.

[Carson Poe]

Nice one Alicia. Congratulations on a good season! Hope the Scotland trip is/was awesome.

And great job everyone who did the Whaling City.
It's been a weird racing year for me (somewhat purposefully), so I appreciate all the updates.

[Kate Queeney]

Carson, it was fun to se you called out in Rick Roy's email about Greenfield! I'm planning on jumping in the sprint, so hopefully I'll see you and lots of other NCC folks there!

R.e. Whaling City: as I perused last year's Greenfield results, I see that in fact Owen was NOT a first-timer at Whaling City, so my apologies for saying you were, Owen! But your finish was no less impressive!