Clare L. Deming

Just when I thought that my triathlon season was over, I found one more event to participate in! This was the Central Jersey Tri Club’s second annual Turkey Tri, a fun and laid back event taking place over Thanksgiving weekend.

While this was only open to club members, everyone brought a lot of enthusiasm to the event. The Turkey Tri is a virtual triathlon, where each participant completes all three disciplines on their own and reports their times via Strava, but also a Google form.

Race packet for the Turkey Tri.

Race packets included a long-sleeved t-shirt, race bib, and medal. The event planners had prepared an Athlete Guide which detailed the format. Everyone had to swim, bike, and run in any order, all in one day, on any day from November 21 – 25. The events were timed, with each athlete reporting the distance that they were able to go in that time period.

Bike – 30 Minutes

I decided to start out on my bike because I’m just not a morning person, especially when it comes to cold water (yes, the pool is cold). I also needed to bike before I ran, because the running is the toughest on my legs.

My bike segment was completed indoors on my Tacx Neo trainer, while running Zwift. The map for Zwift was London, and I put myself on the flat Greater London Loop. I worked hard, with my heart rate over 180 bpm for a good portion of the ride. Thirty minutes went by and I had traveled 10.9 miles.

Run – 20 Minutes

For my run, I drove over to nearby Nomahegan Park where I have done a lot of my training. I usually run there from my house, but I wanted to avoid having to cross roads for this event. The weather was overcast and a chilly 41°F and the park was relatively deserted.

I had bundled up in layers – fleece-lined leggings, a base layer top, second layer running top, and my Central Jersey Tri Club tri top over it all. I brought out the winter hat and gloves as well. Oh – and here was my chance to wear my bib for the event!

Sitting in the car at Nomahegan park before my run. I don’t want to go out there – it’s cold!

My run went well considering that I hadn’t done any running in 4 weeks. I didn’t have any weird aches or pains and pushed myself as hard as I thought I could manage. The path at Nomahegan is about 1.9 miles, and I made it 1.8 miles in 20 minutes.

Swim – 10 Minutes

After my run, I spent some time fueling myself in transition with a roast beef sandwich. I almost took a nap as the day’s efforts were starting to add up.

Finally, I took myself to the Robert Wood Johnson Fitness & Wellness Center in Scotch Plains, NJ for my pool swim. The pool always feels cold to me, so I was a bit reluctant to jump in, but I knew that I’d warm up quickly. This is a 25 yard saltwater pool, and there were plenty of lanes open.

I swam freestyle for the entire thing and started out hard. After 75 yards, I had to breathe more often and felt myself gasping. I backed off a little and knew that I should end up with between 400 and 500 yards. After 10 minutes, I had clocked 475 yards!

Results

I’m not sure how I placed in the event (not really the point of it), but I had a good time fitting all three disciplines into one day of activities again. I need to be more consistent with my swimming and running in general.

Flat me!

I wish that I had been able to meet up with some other club members for this, but my meandering plan for the day didn’t seem to line up with anyone else’s schedule. It was a fun time and I’ll be sure to sign up next year!

See my other race reports here.