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We ventured to New Hampshire for a family vacation and to participate in the Mooseman Triathlon Festival. Christy and I entered the half-iron event with 850 other entrants and the girls ran the 1K Moose Calf the day before. The event took place in a beautiful clean, clear and cold (59F) lake and on the rolling and tree-lined roads surrounding it.

Let me start by stating this: my wife Christy kicks ass. In addition to working 30+ hours per week she is an always-on über mom to our two girls. She also has sacrificed her own personal time and goals so that I can pursue mine this year. With all that being the case, she still found time to do a lot of training in preparation for this event. Most of that training was done on either a treadmill during our girls’ swim lessons or a bike trainer in our basement while they slept or even set up in our driveway while she watched them play in the front yard. This triathlon was a special one for her and we chose to come here because Newfound Lake, the event site, is where she grew up. She came here and busted out a 6:09 finish, an 11 minute improvement over last year’s 5430 long course (this was a much tougher bike course and hillier run).

As for myself, I had a fun race and ended up 10th of 87 in Age Group. I gave up a couple minutes and a couple spots prepping for the finish line “bust-a-move dance contest” - stretching my arms and legs, clearing out the long finish line chute of other competitors and the first woman finisher. The goal was to look something like this. Although I am not sure I pulled it off, I was a bit tired and stiff. Still, I got the crowd hooting and the announcer in a tizzy. Silly, I know, but Christy threw out the challenge and gave me massive incentive to try and outscore her. Her’s was to be like this, but what I saw was a very abbreviated version. Apparently she was just too tired. Really, I think she just wanted to make me look like a jackass, and surely I did .

After the race I was treated to the best post-race massage I ever received from a wonderful woman from Vital Massage named Kim. She did mention in her thick NE accent “You are wicked stiff, wicked tight - I could bounce a quarta off your hamstrings right now.”

Overall, I am content with the swim effort, happy about the bike ride and not happy about the run. 4:35 was on the table and I missed it. Legs just had no cadence, perhaps still wasted from the previous weeks, perhaps stiff from the long car trip, but more likely I just need to get back into the run work. Not being satisfied is a good place for me to be, lots of work to be done in the next 76 days to get where I do want to be - time to notch it up a couple…
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