Survival of the Mills - Waretown, New Jersey - Running

"Surviving the Mills is AWESOME!! I will do this every year!"

"This race was Amazing and perfect for the racer with a short attention span:).
It was perfect weather, and a really well organized race for being the first race of its kind. I just drove down with my fiance the morning of from Hoboken, and got there in about More... an hour and a half. The race director is a triathlete and really knew how to set up and plan one of these races. All of the runs were on trails, that were somewhat slippery at parts due to rain the night before on wood bridges,and wet leaves, but varied terrain that kept it interesting. It was a cold morning at first, and everyone was fearing the water, but my fiance and I decided to tough it up and not use wetsuits - hoping this would reduce our transition time as well - which it did. Even if you did have a swim bag, it looked easy to drop off your swim bag and they brought it to the swim transition for you. We started out with a quick jont through the woods for about 1.3 miles, and then hopped on our bikes for 9 miles. The bike transition point was our home base, and if you ran the race with someone, you had many chance to run into them along the way. I find seeing a friend boots ones energy. After the first bike we ran the trails out for 2.3 miles until we got to the 0.4 mile swim. Everyone was somewhat sweaty and hot from the two runs and ride, and the water was about 65 degrees still this late in the season. The moment people hit the water, our bodies went into shock and we convulsively tried to catch our breath. The lake was smooth water, though and the swim went by pretty quickly. From there, though, I at least felt revived, threw on my shoes and sprinted back to transition for the last bike - part because I was happy I survived, the other because I was FREEZING!! My feet were numb for about a mile into the run from the cold water. The second bike was somewhat slower as exhaustion was setting in, before finally finishing off with a 5k run through trails we had seen before. I think I was pretty zoned out by this time, my legs feeling like jelly and I was having trouble adjusting from bike to run for a second time, but made it to the end with a smile on.

All in all, the race was great. They had water stops and gels along the run portions, not much traffic on the bike path, not too many people since it was the first race of its kind, great labeling of trails and volunteer support, and when you jumped into the water, people were pretty spread out because the swim was in the middle of the race. I still got kicked in the head and legs a couple times by people, but not nearly as much as a tri where you start with the swim. Next year, they plan on having a beergarden, and you can believe, we will be present!"