NYC Triathlon

Just completed my first NYC Triathlon this morning. Here are my results:

Swim: 20:31 1:14/100 pace
T1: 4:36
Bike: 1:12:19 20.6 mph avg
T2: 1:50
Run: 52:36 8:29 pace
Final time: 2:31:51

Prerace:
Up @ 4 AM. Had strange dreams all night about what time to get up and if I was going to be late to transition. I was staying 5 blocks away! Talk about prerace jitters!

I turned on the TV to the weather station and the firs thing that popped up was a large green, yellow, and red blob that was b-lining it for Manhattan. Great...

It came through, dumped a bunch of rain, then went away. It never rained again that day!

After setting up transition I started to make the long walk up to 96th street to the swim start where there was body marking and chip pickup. I was in the 4th to last wave, so I had TONS of time to get up there and do all of the necessary stuff along the way.

I ran into my freind Rudy and talking to him just melted away the nervousness. I was good from then on.

The pros and elites soon went by and boy can those folks swim! They were so high in the water!

I lined up and slowly worked my way down the line until it was our turn to jump in.

Swim:
We had the current! It was hard to feel it, by my swim time showed it! I was adventurous and hopped in and held onto the road. Some guy decided to sit on it and drag us all down with him. Not nice! We got going and it was VIOLENT. Not my best swim start ever. I think it would have been better to sit on the barge and wait.

When I was in the current, I was moving quickly. I tend to drift left, and when I did that, I lost the current. It was hard to site on this course for me because I couldn't see a good marker straight ahead of me to keep course.

The water was very salty and it felt like I was just swimming in the ocean. The Hudson didn't feel anymore nasty than swimming in Long Island Sound.

Towards the finish of the swim, the water turned deep black under the water because the silt was being stirred up. I made sure that I didnt put my feet down till the volunteer pulled me up and I was onto the metal ramp.

T1:
Long 300 yard run to transition. My legs felt good running though! Everyone had long transition runs.

Bike:
I had a good bike! I felt totally consistent and smooth during the entire bike. The only time I had to slow was when I hit pockets of traffic. I was passing EVERYONE! I must have passed at least 1000 people on the bike! haha! I hit a new average on the bike as well, 20.6 mph.



Wasnt my best ride with wattage though. I averaged 198 watts. I think this was due to this course being a bit flatter than Stamford. I did big ring the entire course though. There were a few pitches where I prolly should have gone to my small ring and spun, but those pitches weren't that long. Besides, I was passing EVERYONE.

The best part of the ride was when we passed 79th street and all of the skyscrapers were on the left side. THAT was cool!

I was really happy to finish the bike as strong as I had began it.

T2:
Another long tranistion due to traffic coming in and a long run through the most GINORMOUS transition area I have ever been in.

Run:
Immediately during the run you have to go from the river level up to street level, so that means going up this short but steep hill following by a longer slow climb to 72nd street. Once on 72nd, the crowds are there lining the running path and you feel like a rock star cuz everyone is there cheering you. The crowds get bigger and louder as you approach central park. Kinda surreal that you are running right along a major street of NYC with traffic completely blocked off for YOU!


My legs on the other hand, did NOT feel like rockstars. This turned out to be a not so good 10K for me. Oh well!

They just couldnt get out of 2nd gear. I accelerated a few times to get around people and I was able to take off, but there was no way I could hold that pace that I held so easily 4 weeks ago in Stamford. My 10K PR is 48:51 for a 7:53 min/mile pace and I did that in Stamford. Now granted that NYC's run was a lot more hilly, my legs just werent firing on all cyclinders, cuz I have held an even FASTER pace in central park before. I know the course!

Oh well, sometimes every race can't go perfectly.

The good news! I beat my previous Olympic distance PR by 6 seconds. So I still went faster. I guess I shouldn't expect 20% time decreases in every race :)


Now would I do this race again? I would like to, but I wanna give it a year's rest. The race was one of the best run, if not THE best run that I have done. I had no question that these people and the city NYC know what they are doing. This race was a good trial run and I want to harden myself for another year or two before I attempt this again and really beat my old time.