Way to win me back...

An e-mail I sent to the Harryman race organizers, Genesis Adventures, and the response I got:

Hi Jennifer,

Thank you for the feedback. The signage back into transition should have been in place so I apologize if it wasn't.

Brian


Jennifer Place wrote:

Hi,

I was a competitor at the Harryman Olympic race this weekend. I'm hoping the feedback I give you here will be taken into consideration for future events.

I chose Harryman as my first race back after an injury put me out of competition for half of last season. As such, this race meant a lot to me. Also, given that my last triathlon was in June 2009, I needed a good benchmark for my fitness level and Harryman was to be that marker.

Racing a bike course that has absolutely no mile markers sort of feels like a cruel joke and is very difficult. As athletes yourselves, you shouldn't need someone to point this out to you. What wasn't funny was that at the end of the 21 miles, I had no idea how far I had rode and, with no signs clearly pointing me back to transition, I quickly tried to get the attention of someone, anyone, standing at that intersection to tell me which way to go. Nobody seemed to be able to do that, so I kept going straight. At this moment, I was the lead female. Now, I was forced to descend and climb that long hill a second time and wait until I got back to the top where I could cut safely across the road and head to transition.

My spirits were completely deflated; to say I was angry is an understatement. I continued to race anyway and finished second, knowing that the winner finished only two minutes ahead of me. I'm still shaking my head over how easy it would have been to add a few signs along the way. I know I wasn't the only person who was confused out there, so I hope you take this as an opportunity to improve what could be a great race.

Sincerely, Jennifer Place

Second Place at First Tri of 2010

The start of the 2010 racing season seems like the right time to start blogging again, especially now that I've completed my first triathlon since last year's injury. Yesterday was the Harryman Olympic tri at Lake Welch, NY.

After some doubt about whether or not there would be a swim, the race went on as a triathlon. I was happy I could get the swim in because this is my tune-up race for Eagleman next month and I needed the open-water experience. My swim was pretty good and I finally felt what it's like to draft off a strong guy and stay on his feet. It's like surfing and I can't believe the amount of energy it saves!

The bike course was one 21-mile lap through the park. Simultaneously, there was a 1/2 ironman in progress, which was multiple laps on the same course. It started with a right turn and quick, long downhill. At the bottom, we "U" turned and climbed up the same long hill. There were lots of false flats and a pretty strong headwind, and a few other big descents and climbs along the way. I felt really strong and found myself in the lead pretty early on. It was pretty much me and a few guys and, at some points, just me!

This is great, but with nobody around to follow and NO mile markers or clearly identifiable officials pointing us in the right direction at the turnoff back to transition, I missed it and wound up descending that big hill and having to climb it a second time to get back on course. I lost at least 10 minutes because of this and was so angry, I told myself I'd remove my timing chip when I got back to transition and do the run as training with no pressure.

But I get back to T2 and can't believe what I see. There are hardly any bikes around! Is it possible I'm still doing this? My spirits are lifted as I refocus and realize it's not over yet. I go back into "race mode" and am the first woman out of T2, though I didn't realize it at the time.

At around mile 2, I was passed by super fast runner, Lauren Cullen. She encouraged me to keep going, but I couldn't quite stay with her. At this point I knew I was going for second place, which is still better than I could possibly imagine while I was climbing that hill again. I finished in 2:10:13; about 2:00 behind Lauren and 3:00 before the third female finisher.

Though it's frustrating to know how much time I lost because of poor course markings, it's encouraging that I still managed to stay in the game and hold on for second place. Maybe this will be what fuels my fire even more when I go down to Maryland for Eagleman 70.3 in three weeks! I'm so excited to be racing again.