2009 Spring Couple’s Relay: 1st place in our age group!

Hooray! Nate and I won our age group. The Couple’s Relay age groups were based on the team’s combined age, so we were in the 36-49 years old category (24 yrs + 24 yrs = 48 yrs). The morning started off early – I woke up at 5am to the sound of pouring rain. Luckily the rain tapered off my 6am or so. We arrived at the race site (near the boat house in Central Park) around 7am. I ran a mile or so as a warm-up and Nate set-up his bike in the transistion area. As you can see, he was super psyched to be wearing all of his fancy biking gear!

The run started promptly at 8am and despite only running twice in the last 3 weeks (and dealing with my stubburn IT band/right leg injury), I felt OK. The course was about 2.3 miles and I finished in 17 minutes (about 7:23 mile pace). I think I was around the 15th finisher (out of 100). Check out the dude in the dark blue shirt/shorts – I smoked him at the end. Hehe.

After I tagged Nate’s hand, he ran grabbed his bike and took off on the 12 mile bike leg of the race.

While Nate was biking 2 laps of the park, I ran a few miles for a cooldown. Towards the end, I ran into my CPTC friend, Mayumi! It was nice to have company for a part of my run.

Nate finished the 12 miles in a speedy 33 minutes. This photo was taken right before he finished the bike leg. To get ready for transition, Nate removed his feet from his clipped in cycling shoes. Check out the sweet aero helmet and disk wheel! Every second counts during a triathlon.

Nate had just jumped off the bike at this point and was in the process of removing his helmet and putting on running shoes. Once he was ready, we sprinted to the lake and hopped in a row boat.

Nate was a champ and did 99% of the rowing. Part way through the 3/4 mile rowing course, I attempted to take over the oars, but was pretty awful at it. I nearly capsized us. I did, however, pull a pretty clutch move at the outset of the rowing leg – our boat was originally facing backwards and  I suggested that we turn it around so that it was facing the right way :-) In this photo I am flexing my muscles in attempts to entertain Nate while he toils away.

Up close:

I think I am being a navigator in this photo – don’t hit the rocks!

Hooray we finished! Nate specifically asked me to post this photo – he’s lovin’ the goofy look on his face :-)

After I changed into some dry clothes (I got soaked in the row boat!), the race directors announced the winners of the costume contest. Some competitors dressed up in costumes for the row leg of the race. Below are the runners up -Team “Fresh off the boat” and Team “Streaker and Hefty Ballerina”. The streaker was about 80 years old and was really hamming it up.

The winners of the costume contest were dressed as a 1920′s couple – complete with a straw boater hat, parasol, picnic basket, and 2 bottles of champagne!

When the age group awards were announced, Nate and I were very happy to receive FIRST in our age group. Woo-hoo! We were probably about the 8th or 9th finishers overall (out of 100). We’re still waiting to see the official results!

After the race I headed back uptown while Nate hopped on his bike to get in some more miles for the day (Saturdays =  long bike ride day). He cycled across the G.W. bridge, into New Jersey, into upstate New York, and back again. There’s a little muffin shop on the bike route that is super popular with runners and he was thoughtful enough to bring me back a blueberry muffin! He had to wrap it in saran wrap and tape it to his aero bars for the 25 mile return trip home. That’s baked goods dedication! The muffin contained A LOT of blueberries and was extremely moist and delicious :-) I don’t think this photo quite does the muffin justice.

Later in the evening, I finally baked up my homemade whole wheat-chicken sausage-broccoli rabe calzone. Yum! The savory sausage, salty cheese, and crispy broccoli rabe combined perfectly within the hearty whole wheat crust. Below is a cross-section of the calzone.