2007 Forks of Cheat Forest Triathlon!

This year, the SIXTH annual FCF Triathlon was held on Saturday, September 8th. As is the tradition, the triathletes assemble on the McGraw deck at 8 AM. It was a warm, clear, gorgeous September morning. After loading bikes on Charlie's truck, we trundled down the path to the dock, loaded our running/biking clothes into the canoe, and loosened up while the canoe, piloted by Caitlin and Chris, ferried our gear across the lake. This year Jan and Bill donated some extra flotation from their sailboat to help the musclebound 'sinkers' in the crowd stay afloat - 'safety first' is our motto for the triathlon! Because this triathlon is all about having fun. Some of us like to push ourselves a bit to see if we can beat our last year's self, others just want to see if they can do it. It doesn't matter.


Once the race started, I can only comment on my perceptions, but I felt like I swam quite a bit faster this year than last...doing the crawl most of the way across the lake. My best evidence that I was faster was that I was close on the heels of Jan, the premier swimmer in our neighborhood! I emerged from the lake right behind her, and though she threatened to shove me back in the lake off the dock to give Bill an advantage, her better self prevailed. I was amazed that the bulk of swimmers were very close behind the first ones out. It seemed to me that everyone swam faster this year. My biggest problem was getting my new bike shirt on - it was tight! and got stuck half way on. That took a while to untangle. I had also decided to run with my ipod shuffle, and I kept having problems getting the earpiece untangled so it would stay on. Ah well.


The nice flat rail trail (thanks, CLEAR!) and the cool morning air made the run a pleasure. The views along the lake were awesome. I don't think I ran as fast as last year for some reason (perhaps I had spent more energy in the swim), but when I reached the 108 steps at the end by the dam, I had plenty of energy to run up most of them. My transition to the bike was slow - I had taken Ann and my bike over early in the morning, so I had to unlock the bikes, switch to clip on bike shoes and glug some liquids before hopping on my bike. To my surprise, only John Souther was ahead of me at this point.


The bike ride was also really nice this year. I was glad my tires were pumped up and the gearshifts were working. In previous years I had coddled myself going uphill in the lowest gear, but this year even on the steepest section coming up out of Pt. Marion, I kept the front gear on the second gear (what is that, 8th?). Anyway, I felt like the bike ride section was my biggest improvement this year, and I was able to finish more than 3 minutes ahead of last year's time. For those who don't know, the bike ride is pretty challenging; 4.1 miles of 'flat' along the Cheat River below the dam, 0.6 or so in town, then a steep hill climb to Stewartstown. The deceptive part is that there are actually 3 hill climbs in that 2.5 mile stretch. Aerobic fitness is essential there! My calves came razor close to cramping on the last hill.

Jan, Dylan and Cody opted to kayak back to forks-of-cheat forest from the Cheat Lake park, instead of bike - very good exercise in itself...so they completed a 'modified' triathlon; a nice option started by Jan in previous years. On the bike leg, Sara Souther decided the regular route did not traverse enough of the town of Pt. Marion, so she took an alternative route, ultimately retracing her steps and adding several minutes to her time. She still managed to come in first among the women finishers. Ann learned a valuable lesson in bike pre-race maintenance as she had to pump up her tires prior to starting the bike leg of the race...and the presta valves took some figuring out.

Please check out the next post for more!