This Sunday I completed my second Jersey Girl Triathlon. This Triathlon is a sprint with a 300 yard swim, 11 mile bike, and 3.1 mile run. The Jersey Girl Triathlon takes place in Long Branch, New Jersey with the swim in the ocean, bike along the streets of the beach town, passing beautiful beach mansions, and running on the boardwalk.
I signed up back in January/ February with my 2 sisters (Kaylee & Kristine), 2 cousins (Kate & Audrey) and aunt (Linda). Kate, another cousin (Jackie), Aunt Linda and I had done it together 2 years ago and when we decided to do it again we were so excited to have our group grow. Unfortunately, Jackie tore her ACL in the spring and was unable to do it with us this time. She was a wonderful cheerleader and helped us tremendously on race day!
As I've mentioned, this year marked the 10th Anniversary of my Grandmother's passing. She always wore a vibrant shade of pink lipstick, called "Naked Pink". We wanted to honor her during the race and know she would have been so proud of us. We all wore the same shirt, though the color didn't totally match her shade of lipstick, and decided to call ourselves, "Team Naked Pink".
Everyone is split into age groups to start the swim, which is the first step to the Triathlon. Kate, Kaylee, Kristine, and I were all in the same heat because of our age. Audrey and Aunt Linda were in separate age groups. The swim was about 100 yards out into the ocean, 100 yards across, and then 100 yards back in. When we did this 2 years ago, it had just stormed or a storm was coming, so the waters were extremely rough. They had cut the swim down to just out and back. This made a big difference. Naturally, the swim was much harder this time than I remember it being.
After the swim, we run up the beach to the transition area to quickly dry off and get on our bikes. Our family was cheering for us as we got out of the water and started biking, which was fun! Kate, Kaylee, Kristine and I started together because we were in the same heat. Kristine and I started to fall a little behind and all of the sudden came across Kaylee off her bike on the side of the path. Her pedal fell off her bike. We told her to just cut across and head in the other direction, which would have cut off probably 2 miles. She refused to do that, continuing to the turn around point and finishing the race with one pedal. Kristine and I stayed with her the whole time and kept offering to take turns with her, but she kept saying no. She could pedal normally with the left foot and tried to put her foot on basically nothing to pedal on the other side, but it was a struggle. We even stopped at the "bike repair man" and he said that she was missing a part and there was nothing he could do. She probably pedaled a good 5-6 miles of the race with one pedal (we don't know for sure because there were no mile markers). Could you imagine? I would have cut across and headed back to complete the run, for sure.
This obviously messed up our times because it took us so long to complete the bike. But I wasn't worried about time, I just wanted to do it. My mom said she started to get worried that something happened because we came in a good 20 minutes after Kate. They all couldn't believe what had happened.
We completed the run a little staggered. And when we saw Aunt Linda coming towards the finish line, we all got back on the track and ran the last little bit with her to cross the finish line together! She had told us she wanted us to do that before the race and it was so fun!!
I love my family and the fact that we do these crazy "Forced Family Fun" things together. It was so much fun to push each other in training and plan the "activity"! I'm so proud of us! Can't wait to see the next "Forced Family Fun" adventure we come up with! :)
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