RACE REPORT: Great Six Flags Triathlon

A Race for Your Bucket List

I am not a roller coaster person, but how cool is it to rack your bike in the shadow of the world's tallest and fastest roller coaster? Welcome to The Great Six Flags triathlon.

Despite a kind of lame race at TriRock Asbury Park last week (lame in the sense that the swim was cancelled and my run was a joke), I was in high spirits for today's race. My limited training prompted me to switch from olympic to sprint distance. But precisely because I have had no time to train lately, I felt extremely happy just to get out there today. (Thanks to my mom who stayed over night and got up with V this morning and made her breakfast).

The Swim

The man-made lake was warm and there is a pretty nifty grandstand where families can sit to watch the action. It has often been said that triathlon isn't a spectator sport, which is basically true, but Six Flags was a reasonably good place for friends and family to watch. Moreover, racers were able to get cheap tickets to the park for the day, so if theme parks are your thing, this could be the perfect race.

The downer with the swim was that the entrance was slick and used a time trial rather than wave start (meaning you couldn't look around and compare yourself to others with same color caps and just see how well or poorly you are doing in relation to your peers). Further, the water was brackish and everyone exited covered in a kind of mud slime. I had a small chamois towel I'd left by my shoes at the swim exit, so I tried to get some of the goop off very quickly, but it was hopeless. Every inch of me was covered in what looked like viscous snail poop.

Another weird feature of this race is that there is a seemingly endless 0.3 mile distance to cover between the swim exit and the transition area where you get onto your bike. I was lucky to put my sneakers at swim exit, but I saw people trundling through the Black Beard's Lost Treasure cove in Croc shoes or flipflops. Some even ran barefoot. One word: Ouch.

There was something a little disconcerting about trying to follow the serpentine path of yellow arrows through the deserted theme park as the carousel lights twinkled and various arcade games whizzed and buzzed and clanged. I struggled to drive thoughts of the famous amusement park scene in Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train from my mind.

The Bike

The bike route began back in transition under Kingda Ka, the world's fastest and tallest roller coaster. The first bit, just getting out of the park, was a mess of loose pebbles, sand and potholes. I saw three different people fixing flat tubes on my way out.

The rest of the bike route winds through scenic hills in Cream Ridge, NJ, which is known as horse country. I noticed some people struggling with the hills, one chick was even walking her bike up one of them. It was early on in the loop, so that didn't bode well.

Although I wasn't able to maintain the 18.5mph average I've hit in my last two races, my time was reasonable (good enough for 7th place among women) and I quite enjoyed the beauty of it all. To put this in perspective, a year ago I was riding a rusty mountain bike I got at Target in 2003, and was averaging 14mph while trembling from head to toe from fear following a bad accident.

My one regrettable moment on the bike was when, on a steep downhill, I managed to pass through a thick cloud of gnats. Naturally they all adhered to the sludge coating my skin, except for the two that flew into my left eye. This was around mile 11 and there just wasn't any way to get them out of my eye while riding, so I spent the last two miles with my eye weeping as it tried to eject its passengers.

(Addendum: My friend Kathy stopped by after this race and assured me that when I finally make the move back up from flat pedals to clipless and get back on the tri bike she sold me, my speeds will increase and my leg exhaustion decrease. Those are goals for next season, as this one is drawing to a close and I am not up for changing things this late in the game.)

The Run

I have been struggling with runs lately and today was no different. The sun broke through the clouds as I set out, and even though I am certain my legs weren't over weary from the bike effort, I couldn't find my groove. I struggled and then struggled some more. Some of it was mental, but mostly it was lack of training and I knew that at the start. So I slogged along.

The final portion of the run passes through the Wild Safari area where I got to see llamas, an ostrich and even a big group of baboons. One baboon came down from its climbing structure, evidently intrigued by me and the other runners going by, and so ran along side us on the other side of the fence. And then I realized he was passing me.

I was passed by a baboon. I think that about sums up my run effort today.

Results

I finished 3rd in my age group, but that was out of three, so it doesn't count. I was 10th female in the swim, 7th female in the bike, but 37th in the run. Overall that was good enough for 17th place out of 52 female finishers. Meh.

Take aways 

If you have the opportunity to run under giant twirling teacups, through a pirate cove and past a baboon, you must take it! You only live once, people.