I have been a little lax in my blogging for the last few
months. It’s not that I have been sedentary, I just haven’t felt like writing.
During my “break” I completed 3 event: a GoRuck Light in NYC, which I
really enjoyed, the Buffalo Half Marathon, which I completed with my best
friend Suzi, and ran the Lincoln Park Triathlon again and beat my time from
last year.
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| GRL |
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| Buffalo HM |
I thought I should get my butt in gear and write about this last race, since it was a big one. Two of my cousins, Gary and David flew in from out of town (Arizona and Nevada, respectively )
to do the race also. They both, of course, both did way better than me.
The NYC Triathlon was my first Olympic Distance race. For
those unfamiliar with the course, it starts with a point-to-point 1500m swim in
the Hudson , followed by a 40k (24 mile) bike
ride on the Hudson River Parkway ,
then a 10K run around Central Park .
This was the most logistically challenging race that I have
ever done. The packet pickup and briefings were held Friday night and Saturday
at the Midtown Hilton, the mandatory bike check in was on Saturday evening at Riverside Park Central Park so
that my husband and son did not have to wake up at 3am to drive me in.
As it turned out, I got zero sleep the night before the
race. The hotel room was too humid and the air conditioning was too loud. So,
at 3:40am I gave up trying to sleep and got ready to head to the transition
area, which was open only from 4am to 5:15am. I had left my transition items
overnight in the provided plastic bag. In the morning, however, everything was wet due
to the park sprinkler systems – even the stuff inside the bag.
If that wasn’t a bad omen, shortly thereafter, after setting up
my transition and walking to the swim start (over a mile away), I used the
port-a-potty and when I unzipped my trisuit, the zipper broke at the bottom.
So, when I zipped it back up, the zipper popped right open from the bottom up.
Wardrobe malfunction. Thankfully, I found a nice lady who had a safety pin and
after pinning the bottom together it stayed closed the rest of the race. Whew!
I thought I might end up having to race half naked.
Swim: 23:53
The race was a time trial race, with the swim starting in waves by age group off of a platform anchored in the
water and ending at another platform. I was a bit tired, but the adrenaline kept
me going. I found it to be a fun and uneventful swim. I didn’t really
try to push it, and just swam at an easy pace, enjoying the view from the water. I
found the water quality to be fine and much cleaner than the East
River . No funky tastes, just salty. It did seem to take a bit
longer than I expected, but I think this was mainly because there so much talk about a fast current, that it had my hopes up and also the fact there were no giant orange buoys to
gauge my progress. Overall, I was happy with the swim.
T1: 13:11
This was the longest transition I have ever done at a race. It was an almost mile walk back to the bike transition along the waterway. Some
people were jogging it; I have no idea how. A smart person would have worn
watershoes or clipped some flip flops to the fence near the exit or even spent
a bunch of time before the race developing calluses. I did none of that. This
was so painful for me on my delicate bare feet, that I just winced the whole
time and walked very slowly.
Bike: 2:00:19
I enjoyed the bike course. It was on the highway and had
really interesting views. At many parts it is elevated, so that you could
really take it all in. It was also, however, very hilly. Up and down, up and down.
I really enjoyed the downhills, the uphills not so much. My Garmin shows that I went 35 miles per hour
down one of the hills. Whee! This was my longest bike ride and I was very proud that
I kept the pace up. (Well, for me. I was actually one of the slowest riders out
there.) I learned a few things on the ride, for instance, if someone is going
slowly down a hill, pass them! There is a very good chance they will lose all
momentum once they get to an uphill. A number of times I got stuck behind
slower people on the uphill and just couldn’t get any momentum back. It was
excruciating. I avoided this in the second half and it went much better. I was very proud of myself that I never walked my bike up any of the hills, even if I was only going 2 miles an hour in
my lowest gear.
Another thing I learned was that if you are going 2 miles an
hour, don’t try to drink water. At one point I did this and actually tipped
over. I totally felt like an idiot. I literally just tipped over because I had
zero speed. Thankfully, I landed on a soft patch of grass and the only thing I
bruised was my ego. Doh!
The last thing I learned was that I can’t get my second
water bottle out and back in its cage when I am moving. I just can’t. The angle is weird
for me to navigate while riding. As a result, it was as if I didn’t have the
second bottle it at all. So, I ended up only drinking from my water bottle and
barely touching my Gatorade. By the time the transition came along, I think I
was fairly dehydrated. But at the point it hadn’t really hit me.
I keep saying it, but I really just need to bike more on the
roads. I think it is also time for some clipless pedals and a bike fit. My back
was not feeling happy after that many miles.
T2: 5:44
It was an uneventful transition. The longer time was
because I stopped to use the bathroom.
Run: 1:34:10
This is where my race went all to hell. The lack of sleep,
dehydration and exhaustion finally caught up with me. My intention was to walk
out of the transition, but when I got the road, and tried to pick up the pace
to a jog. I just couldn’t. I had no energy left and just felt overheated and
tired. I kept telling myself, just walk a little and you’ll feel better. But I
never did. Finally, after mile 2 I just decided to resign myself to the fact I
would have to walk the whole thing.
I was able to talk with another girl for a bit, who was also
struggling and that helped my mood. I also managed on two downhill sections to jog a
little, but not for very long. By mile 4, I had developed a painful blister on
the bottom of my foot, so that it hurt to even walk. I am fairly certain there
are no photos of me from the run portion of the race, or if there are, they are
not very flattering. I pretty much had WBF (walking bitchy face) throughout.
At every water station I grabbed some water to dump over my
head and some more to drink. It helped for a few seconds and then I was back to
hobbling along. I was not about to quit, no matter what, so I just concentrated
on moving grumpily forward.
By the time I got to the finish line, I was spent. I saw Mark
and Teddy cheering me on, but didn’t have the energy or mood to really wave.
Some kind stranger grabbed my hand to try to cross the finish line triumphantly with
me and I yanked it away. I didn’t want anyone to touch me or talk to me.
It
took all of my strength to drag myself across the timing mat and into the
medical tent. I’m pretty sure I started crying at that point. I only really do
that when I am completely physically exhausted.
A man in the tent asked me what was wrong and I couldn’t really put
together a sentence. Hot. Tired. He asked if I wanted to sit or lie down. I
just looked at him blankly. He repeated the question. I couldn’t make up my
mind. Sit, I thought, and nodded to the chair. In my head, I just was so
disappointed with myself and my inability to get it together. Why wouldn’t my
body cooperate? He put bags of ice all over me and gave me a bottle of Gatorade.
He told me to sip it. I disobeyed and drank that sucker down and I felt a bit
better. I adjusted the ice and tried to cool off. I realized that I never got
my medal and asked him where I could get it. He took down my info and asked me
more questions and let me sit for a bit more. I probably could have used another Gatorade at that point, but I was feeling slightly better and was worried that Mark and Teddy would be worried about me taking so long.
When I finally felt well enough, I went out and grabbed my
medal. My cousin’s wife saw me at the food tables, where she was volunteering, and I think I said Hi. I grabbed a bagel and chips and went to find Mark and
Teddy. I know I was still a bit out of it at that point, because I took one bite
of bagel and handed it to Teddy, then completely forgot about it. Mark put the
chips into his pocket and I forgot about those too. Looking back, I think I may
have had too much water and not enough salt. The only salt I really had was
from the Gatorade and I think that was what made me feel better the most.
Finish: 4:17:16
Then came time for more logistical crap. I was supposed to
check out of the hotel by noon, but despite being so close by, the hotel key card was in my bike bag back
at the transition. I called the hotel and got a late check out. We hightailed it
the four blocks to transition, got my bike and gear and hightailed to back the four blocks to the hotel.
It is really not fun to have to race back and forth that many blocks when you are
already exhausted and in pain. But, I managed to check out in time to avoid a
late fee. Then Teddy and I waited for a half hour outside the hotel for Mark to get
the car from the parking garage at 56th
Street and drive it back up to us. Finally, were we were finally
able to load up everything and drive home. Ate home, I bathed, I ate a burger and took a nice
long nap. It felt so good.
Overall, I can’t say I would recommend this race, unless you are from out of town or live in the city. The race
course itself was not bad, but the heat was ridiculous and that logistics were
just a huge pain in the ass. The medal, however, is pretty cool.
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| NYC Triathlon 2015 Medal |
I think
though, I would much rather stick to smaller local races. I seem to have much
more fun at them. I am looking forward to racing the Iron Girl Sandy Hook again
in September.
