MHS graduate finishes first in age group
By: Justin Feil
Dana Rosen still thinks her biggest challenge may be teaching first graders in the East Brunswick school district, but now she has something to which she can compare elementary education.
The Montgomery High graduate completed her first triathlon, the 7th Annual Hudson Valley Triathlon in Ulster Landing Park, N.Y., Sunday and did well enough to finish first in the 20-24 year old female division. She covered the Olympic distance triathlon a .9 mile swim, 26-mile bike and 10k run in 3 hours, 30 minutes, 46 seconds.
"I was glad that I finished," said a recovering Rosen on Monday. "My results were not as good as I was hoping for. But it was my first one. That just makes me want to do even better next time.
"I’m thinking about it again. I’ll give my body a rest now. Maybe in the next weeks or months or next summer, I’ll give it another shot. There’s a community of triathletes and they stick together and they do them every week it seems. I don’t think I’ll be one of them, but I’d like to do another one."
For Rosen, competing in a triathlon gave her a way to stay active following high school and college.
"I did sports in high school and college," said Rosen, who ran for two years at Richmond after competing in cross country and tennis for MHS. "It’s always been a part of my life. I thought of this as my next challenge."
Had she remained healthy at Richmond, she might not have got around to triathlons for years. But when an overuse injury forced her off the cross country and track teams, she had to find a different way to stay fit.
"My second year is when I was injured and stopped (running for Richmond) after that," she said. "That’s when the biking and swimming came in. I figured I can do all three. Why not put them together?
"The therapist at the school said biking is good and swimming is good. They’re low impact. I didn’t really do them before."
After a few years of cross training, and following her graduation in 2001, Rosen began to think about competing in a combination of the events. Last year, she finally made up her mind to give the triathlon a shot.
"I got more into biking and I figured I might as well go for it all," she said. "This triathlon was in New York, and it ended up being a nice day. It wasn’t too hot and it wasn’t too rainy. I tried to be competitive, but I also wanted to have fun."
Her first race was an eye-opener, not just because of the effort it took to finish it. It also gave her an introduction to the triathlon culture.
"I made a lot of friends there," said Rosen, who as a senior in 1996 was 22-7 as the first singles player on the Montgomery girls’ tennis team that went 22-3 and won the Group I state championship. "It was amazing to be in this mix of really motivated and fit crowd of people. It was also at the same time very humbling. I was thinking I’d do really well. There were a lot of people that did fantastic times."
With a finish time now in hand, Rosen can focus on improving in the coming years. Already, she jumped headfirst into the sport by entering an Olympic distance race rather than a much shorter sprint triathlon.
"The other one was too easy," Rosen said. "I wanted a challenge."
In competing in her first triathlon, she got just what she was looking for Sunday. It’s a challenge that she can remember when she returns to a classroom of first graders this fall.
"I have to keep up my energy and stamina with them," she said. "A week of them is tough work, sometimes more painful than a triathlon, I’d say."