To date i've completed 6 triathlons. 2 sprint distance and 4 Olympic. I did the olympic distance NYC triathlon last year and since it's home base seemed to make sense to do it again so i could have one race where I could assess goals and see what improvements I could make. Plus I have a client who will want to train for the race as well. This is my 3rd season for triathlon, and last year was cut short after I had a bike accident and needed shoulder surgery. This is one of my primary races for this year, after this the DC Nations tri and planning for the Bassman Half Iron in Oct. I set goals based upon what I learned from last year as well as another Olympic tri in did in June in Connecticut as a warm up.
Before I get to all the little details I'll say that this was one of those days where I felt priveleged to be a New Yorker. Swim in the Hudson River, ride up the Henry Husdon Pkwy and finish in the familiar territory of Central Park. The second time around I absorbed a bit more, had a fantastic time and finished in position 6 out of 136 in my age group.
The day before the race I left everything at the transition except my tri suit and running shoes. That was definitely the best plan. The week going into the tri I put in a total of 6.5 hours of training. Nothing long, but some moderately hard. I’m feeling good about improving over last year’s race. Nice to go into it knowing exactly what to expect or so I thought. Had dinner at 5pm with Richard. Ate at Citrus, light meal for the most part, fish and vegetables. Had two beers and half a cupcake. Headed home on the subway and was not feeling ready for bed but had to. Everything was already out for the next day except breakfast. So I prepared that and set off to bed around 8:30pm
Awoke to David’s alarm, and I had not slept well. Should have been 7 hours, but really tossed most of the night like usual before a race. Had only 30 min to get out of the house and David did most of the work to get the apartment ready for the open house. We left at 4:15 and just as we left the pouring rain began. I ate my mixture of 1/3 cup oatmeal, some strawberries, ½ cup yogurt mixed with 1 scoop Isagenix isalean shake. Checked the weather and is supposed to be scattered thunderstorms throughout the day. Not Good. I started stewing and thinking my idea of a great race was starting to go south. What brought me back was seeing all these racers throughout the city making their way to the start and that put me in a better mood. This is our day! We had no traffic on the east side and headed across the park to 75th street or so where David dropped me off. He decided to head back home to nap and would head out later with Kramer and meet me at the finish line.
At transition everything was wet, but was only drizzling now. Set everything up and decided I didn’t need my sunglasses so put them away. Bad idea. Left transition at 5:35 giving me 1 hour to get to the start which is a 1 mile walk. It stopped raining and was starting to look like the skies might clear. Met an interesting woman on the way and talked about injuries. She had been hit by a car during a race and had major surgery on her knee and heel. This was her first race back. There were way more people than last year at the start. I think I heard last year was under 3000 and this year was about 3500. Picking up chip was a mess, body marking was a mess and this took awhile. Hit the bathroom (oh, I think I drank about 36 oz or so of water at this point). Stopped drinking water, used the toilets and put on glide and my wetsuit. Dropped off posst race bag and now it 6:35. Race is starting 20 min late, so glad for that because my wave is supposed to start right now.
My corral was full so I sat back and watched swimmers for a few heats. Once my line started to move I jumped in. I saw Cristin Bullen in line and we helped each other with zipping wetsuits. At start I was not able to get in water, and just got to outer edge of platform when horn went off. Jumped in (no time to set watch). The swim seemed much more congested than last year, got bumped and slapped a few times, but nothing aggressive. Did almost all my breathing on my left side (where the wall is), which is also my easy side. Water was calm and current seemed to slow down towards the end. Maybe because I was closer to the sea wall at that point. Goal is to swim in 20 minutes. No idea how I’m doing and don’t really care. Started out fast and then slowed down a bit as I got out from the initial crowd. Next time get in the water for the start and stay to the outside for awhile.
Ran pretty quickly to transition which was a long stratch. Passed a lot of people so that felt good. First thing is to get my sunglasses out. Forgot in beginning that I must wear them because of my contacts. Note, always set up your sunglasses. Sat down to remove wetsuit at back side of bike where my bag was. Ducked under the rack, put on helmet, shoes and off I go. At exit of transition there was a line, moving very slowly, then straight away portion up to the highway was super slow. Think I lost about 3 minutes here, but figured this was the case throughout the race as conditions were slippery and crowded.
Started the bike really fast. Like 24mph on the beginning flat portion and hr at 174bpm. I recall that I didn’t push it hard enough in the beginning last year. There was room to pass people so I took the opportunity to get away from the crowd. Feeling like my HR is too high, but I’m going with it. Road is wet and throughout the race there were plenty of times where I could not pass because of a fairly slow person already in the passing lane so whenever I had the opportunity to ride aggressively I did. At the turn around I don’t recall the time, but was happy with the first half. There were more hills on the way back that required a slow climb. I didn’t remember this before and now this was slowing me down. Not seeing a lot of people in my age group, so thinking I’m doing really well, but I’ve been fooled with that thinking before. Had a gel 5 minutes into the race and another one about an hour later. Had three gels on bike total and two in my pocket for the run. I drank only one bottle of water with want more energy. Never touched the other and I knew that was a mistake, but I hate slowing down to switch bottles. Have to get a better hydration system and they should really have a bottle exchange.
At t2 I found my stuff right away, did a much better job of sighting my gear both times during this race. Sat down to put on socks and start slipping on sneakers. Skipped the cap, kept glasses on and headed out. I was feeling at the end of the bike like this run was going to be harder than any run from past tri's. I grabbed water on the way out. I think I took water at all but one table throughout the race, so probably 5 times. Drank a little and dumped the rest on my head or sometimes took two. Felt the need to keep my body cool. It was humid and was feeling that during the run. The spectators were great through the race, but really got me pumped along 72nd street. Want to run miles 1 through 3 harder this year than last but I chugged up the hills. In the park there were lots of volunteers cheering us on. One woman looked at me and said, “looking fantastic as always” I wondered if I knew her. But it’s true, although I’m feeling like I’m about to hit a wall I don’t show it. Kept a good pace down hill and on flats but had to slow to 9mm on most up hills. Noticed around the 4 mile mark that my monitor is not correct and I’m actually running faster than it says, so that was good, but still not running quite a fast as I wanted. The last mile I was able to pick up the pace a little bit as the terrain leveled out again and finished strong. Didn’t see the time on the clock and should always do that because they post the times in order of that clock time.
Was very grateful for the icy wet towel that was handed to me. Usually I have to walk it off, but my heart wasn’t beating quite as hard as usual. I Saw Richard immediately after in the med tents and stopped to chat. So the excitement is over and have to hang out for awhile before the transition area opens up and I can take my gear out.
My goals are based upon results from last year NYC tri as well as the Pat Griskus Tri from 6 weeks ago
Last Year Goal This year
Swim 23:04 20:00 20:37
T1 5:51 6:07
Bike 1:23:07 1:14 20mph 1:22:31 18.1mph
T2 1:52 1:52
Run 49.07 46:00 7.25mm 47:00 7:35mm
Final time 2:38:05, last year was 2:42:58 so improved about 5 minutes.
Swim was very happy with. 1st place was 16:54. I improved by about 3 minutes.
T1 went great except for the sunglasses. 1st place was 5:22. Mine would have been faster than previous year had it not been for the line getting out.
Bike Could not have done much better considering the wet roads and crowded conditions. Get new wheels and drink more water. Once you have the Garmin you will be able to see ave HR and AV speed which will help a lot. 1st place was 19.9mph. Av Hr was 167 and high was 179. Think last year was around 163 av hr.
T2 went great again. Socks are not an issue. Use them. 1st place was 1:21
Run was just a little under my goal. I think I would have done a little better if I had done more hill work. Really felt like the hills were much harder than they have ever felt in central park. If nothing else, do hill repeats on Brooklyn bridge as part of training. Think the amount of brik workouts were appropriate, was not transitioning that was the problem. 1st place was 7:13mm. I ran a 7:18mm at the Pat Griskus tri 6 weeks ago which was hilly as well, so think I can improve here. Av HR was 178 and my goal was to run it at 175 like I did at Pat Griskus tri.
Final Results:
Came in 6 our of 136 women 40-44
Came in 63 out of all 1067 women which is the top 5%.
Overall- VERY HAPPY!
