Boiling Frog: Wet and Wild Times at North East Triathlon, 08/14/11!

Got a nice medal...then got the heck out of there while there was a break in the rain!

Everyone in the racing world knows that each event can be a “character-building” experience in its own way. The North East Triathlon in North East, MD was no exception. With thunderstorms and record rainfall hitting the area the night before and morning of the race, all registrants were wondering what would become of the event, if it was even held at all.

Day before the race...I'm smiling to keep from having a complete freak-out!

Chris and I had a particularly interesting pre-race experience. Camping seemed like a great idea on Friday night…not so much on Saturday. Not only did we have puddles in the tent, but a river was literally flowing underneath it due to the drainage for the entire camping loop flowing directly through our site! After Chris attempted to stave off the water with “Verry dam,” we literally threw in the towel(s) and joined our friends, David and Deanne at the Comfort Inn, about two miles from the start of the race.

Pol, Chris, David and Deanne...nice and dry at dinner the night before the race

Race morning was full of uncertainties, and I wouldn’t have wanted to be the frantic race directors who were running around trying to decide what to do. First, the race was delayed by half-an-hour due to thunder. A duathlon was surely the next decision to be made, right? Wrong! We would indeed swim, though only 750 meters instead of 1500 (due to the debris up-river)! Then, due to the fact that most of the roads on the course were flooded or full of debris, the bike course was shortened from 24 to 11 miles! The good news? The run was not affected and would remain 6.2 miles!

Chris coming out of the swim...hey, no worries - you're already wet!

Adding insult to injury, there were several power outages during the race broadcast. Bob, our illustrious announcer had to lead everyone in the National Anthem because the sound system broke down! When the race finally got underway, it wasn’t so bad! I was in the last swim wave and by the time I started, there was an actual break in the rain until just after I finished the bike. Awesome! Not having planned on a “sprint,” I was actually happy with my swim and bike legs. People were being extra cautious on the bike and it was very crowded from the Sprint race, which started ahead of our Olympic, but all-in-all there appeared to be no major mishaps.

Doing my best to power through on the wet roads!

Transition was a mud pit, with much of it completely underwater! Going out on the run, you literally had to run through a lake of water. So much for dry shoes, but it ended up pouring on the run anyway. All the better for staying cool on an August day! By the end, I was definitely ready to be done with this. I kicked it up a notch and sprinted in the last .2 as Bob shouted my name at the line (Chris had alerted him that I was finishing, as the electronics were again down at that point!). The day’s efforts were good enough for 1^st in my age group, so after collecting my medal we were ready to get out of Dodge! Unfortunately, we still had to retrieve our soggy tent and break camp in the pouring rain! But, I can truly say that after this harrowing event, things couldn’t get much worse, could they?! Here’s the breakdown of Chris’ and my results:

Chris going super-fast in his new aero-helmet!

Polly: 4th overall female; 1st in age group (F35-39); 30th out of 162 finishers
Swim: 15:20; T1: 2:02; Bike: 34:33; T2: 1:08; Run: 42:09; Total: 01:35:12