NYC Triathlon #2- The Race

Hi. It's Laura.

Race Weekend is very exciting. The weekend starts with a mandatory athlete briefing and Expo.

Who doesn't love pre race Expos?! There is so much gear and equipment and athletes generating excitement about the upcoming race.

The NYC triathlon is the only race I am aware of that does a pre race mandatory briefing. I do understand why. The logistics of a race this large in New York City are quite complicated. And with the recent bombing at the Boston Marathon, new security measures were put into place. The organizers wanted to make sure everyone was aware of what they were going to be.

The briefings stared Friday ran through Saturday late afternoon. Not much else happens on Saturday except for mandatory bike check in which happens between 2:00pm and 9:00pm. This is no surprise. The organizers put this information out long before race weekend. No bike, No race, No exceptions.

I got my bike in around 2:30 Saturday afternoon, fully loaded and ready to go. I decided to put my rinsing water on the bike because I didn't want to juggle multiple liquids race morning. I don't care if my rinsing water is warm so, to have it sit over night, is not a big deal. After the bike was dropped off, it was home to rest.

I was really looking forward to a good night on the sofa with a great movie. It is summer time so apparently nothing is on so The Husband and I wound up watching some cheesy movie on Netflix streaming (Netflix streaming sucks BTW, they seem to only have movies that no one ever wanted to watch in the first place).

A little supper and off to bed. I make this sound so very simple. It was not.

Saturday was one of the busiest days on the UWS that I can remember.

If you are a baseball fan you know that the All-Star game is on Tuesday and that it is at Citifield. Apparently that means there are events all over NYC. Most of them seem to be happening in my neighborhood. There was a HUGE concert in Central Park on Saturday night, a boy band concert that had a matinee and evening performance at the Beacon Theater. I happen to live across the street from artist entrance. Oh yeah, there is the triathlon on Sunday. To say that the UWS was busy on Saturday is an understatement.

It is bad enough to have prerace jitters and have to go to bed at 8:00. But to have several hundred screaming teenagers outside on the street added to my nerves. I was very worried that the concert would let out in the middle of a bad night's sleep. As it turned out, I fell right to sleep (lack of nap certainly helped). It was not the screaming teenagers that kept me up but The Husband's intermittent bouts of snoring that kept waking me up. Don't worry he got punched, a lot.

The new security procedures were promised to take a little more time so I decided to get up a little earlier and give myself some time. The alarm had me up at 3:15 AM. I was sure this would give me enough time. I am a notorious bad “waker upper” (it is a technical term). I need my coffee and scheduled this into my time in the morning. It takes me a solid half hour to get going any morning and I took that into consideration. By 3:45 I was making breakfast and getting my tri-tats applied by The Husband. This year I ate all of my breakfast. Last year I only ate half. I knew it was important and my nerves were better this year over last year.

Transition is open from 4:00am to 5:15 am. If your crap (another technical term) is not in by 5:15 you are S.O. L.

We left the apt at about 4:20 plenty of time (or so I thought). We left the building and crossed Broadway when I realized I had forgotten my bike computer and Chapstick. We headed back to the apartment. Items gathered we head to Riverside Park again. We are almost at transition when I realize, I forgot my water in the fridge. Seriously! This is not a good start. I asked The Husband and he (being the amazing husband that he is) ran back to the apt to get my water bottles. I went into transition to set up everything else. Unlike last year, this year I am in a middle row in the middle of the zone and quarters are tight. I have no great spot to get organized so I wound up putting my stuff under the tire of the bike that was racked opposite of mine. I finish setting up and go back to the entrance to wait for The Husband.

As I stood there waiting the kept announcing how much longer transition would be open. I also spotted Tara Costa formerly "biggest loser" fame, not sure if she was a volunteer or participating. I thought to myself “how stupid of me, of all things to forget”. If I had no water out on the West Side Highway, where there is no bike support, and if something happens I am stuck out there until the final sweep at 10am, yikes! I hear the announcer say 4 minutes until transition closes when I hear my name being shouted. It’s The Husband!! He has my water. Oh thank goodness. I run into transition against all of the people heading out which it looks like most everyone and get my water on the bike with minutes to spare.

I was concerned about getting to the start line on time. From transition it’s a 1 mile walk

I know I need to use the restroom before I get my wetsuit on and I also need to drop my sneakers from the walk into the waiting trucks. We manage to get to the start area on time.

The restroom lines are huge but I am in and out without incident.

I asked The Husband if he could drop my sneaker into the truck while I get my wetsuit on.

I stood to the side and struggled to get my wetsuit on because of the humidity. You try pulling on 1/2 inch thick neoprene when you are drenched with sweat. It ain't easy. I swear it took me 15 minutes.

I get it to my waist, which was enough before I need to get to my corral, and The Husband returns. We head down to the start together. Twice on the way, I had to stop. I thought I stepped on a rock I bent over to wipe it off my foot. I took a few more steps and had to stop again because it hurt. After I cleared the foot a second time and it still hurt I asked the husband to look. He tells me I have a splinter. Are you kidding me? We go to the medical tent. No doctor, no nurse and no tweezers. They tell us there is another medical tent beyond the start. We head through the chaos next to the pros who were just going into the water, and there is no second medical tent. I am slightly panicked at this point because once the pros start it goes fast. I don't want to miss my start. I head back to the coral and The Husband heads out in search of tweezers.

Please keep in mind the humidity is 100%. The poor guy is drenched from running home for my water and now running all over Riverside Park looking for tweezers. In the end he comes up empty handed. It’s too late. It’s time for me to go.

My age group is headed to the barge and we are moving quickly! NYC Triathlon does a time trial start format. The whistle blows every 20 second and 15 athletes enter the water. The pros started at 5:50 am. I was the 9th group into the water and I entered the water at 6:23am. I was less nervous this year waiting to go in and on the barge I felt good. I started my awesome watch and when the time came, I jumped.

Once in the water, I swam. Yes that is what you do when you jump in the water. I felt ok and then I didn't. I picked my head up at about the 600 meter mark and looked back. I was pretty far from the barge and definitely far from the finish. This is where I had my panic attack. I stopped swimming and sat there. The internal conversation sounded something like this: “WTF where you thinking, triathlon again?” “You are such an idiot”. “I can't do this, I have to stop”. “I feel like I am suffocating”. “Everyone will be so disappointed”. “I need to quit but I can't quit”. “I could get them to pull me out now I can take a DNF”.

At this point I unzipped the back of my wetsuit and flipped onto my back. I cannot tell you what exactly changed. Maybe the internal conversation continued but I don't remember. I do remember telling myself “you are an idiot and you have a plan you have trained for this”.

So I flipped back onto my belly and started stroking. I remembered not to kick and just kept stroking. Once I got going I refused to look ahead because I didn't want to freak myself out again. So when I felt the wrist bands (mandatory for participation and getting your bike back at the end) cutting into my wrists I just let it go. I told myself it didn't matter I didn't need my hands for the rest of the event. I now however look like I tried to commit suicide from the gash on my right wrist.

I came to the end of the swim. It was relatively free from incident except for being cut off at least once before getting to the finish barge. But I made it.

All of the thoughts of quitting I had towards the beginning of the swim were now gone.

I head down the long 700 yard jog from the swim finish to T1. Last year I walked out because I was so wiped out. This year I run it. I find my bike, get my bike gear on and realize I need to pee. The port-a-potties are at the back of transition, grrrr. That will take too much time but I know I cannot head out on the West Side Highway without going.

I exit transition and wind up using the public restroom out of T1 which is adding time to my bike ride. I say “priorities”. I thought about peeing my pants and not worrying about but I knew I stood no chance of winning my age group at this point so, into the bathroom I go.

The bike course is just as brutal as I remember it. I am 8 minutes in and the sweat is just pouring off my head and down onto the bike. From my placement in the race, I get to see some of the elite athletes already on their way back, way impressive and perhaps just a little inspiring (Ok a lot). I was grateful that it was overcast for most of the ride, actually all of the ride.

The West Side Highway has not been paved recently and the potholes are brutal on the butt. Between Hurricane Sandy and snow removal, the pavement is best described as “ouch”.12 ½ miles from bike to the turnaround at Mosholu Parkway and back down the west side. Rolling hill after rolling hill after rolling hill.

It’s amazing what happens in a race like this. I caught a group of women and we were riding and chatting. The camaraderie & cooperation was just amazing. When you are half way through one of the best triathlons in the country, it’s awesome that people can be that respectful and considerate of one another. I must note here that my foot with the splinter in it was throbbing like crazy. The splinter entered the foot in the exact spot where my cleats are which is the power position for cycling.

As I finish the bike and head into transition, I see there are swimmers still coming out of the water, wow!

Into T2 (same place as T1 just headed for a different sport), quick change and I head out. On the list of things that I have forgotten to do, reapplying sunscreen was one of them. I knew I was tired so I allowed myself to walk out of transition and up the steep hill to get onto 72nd street.

Again, after the panic attack, winning the age group was not going to happen. Once I was out on 72^nd street, my right calf started to tighten. I allowed myself to walk and stretch the calf. In addition to the calf, I had a wicked stitch in my side. I know from all of my bricks that it takes me a little while to settle into the run. I allowed myself run/walks down 72nd and into the park. The morning was ticking away and the sun come out just as I was making my way into the park. I remember reading on the weather channel that the heat wave was supposed to start around noon. I disagree. As soon as the sun came out, the heat was overwhelming.

I hit 1 mile mark upon entry into the park. 5.2 to go.

I am not recovering and I am a little worried. I keep trying to push myself and making myself run but I have to keep stopping because of the stitch in my side. My foot is fine. Fortunately I am not striking the foot where the splinter entered.

At mile 2, I feel better and start to run, I took water at every station and Gatorade at every other. I would take one water for drinking and dump one on me for cooling. By the time I hit the 5K mark, other than the sun bearing down, I felt ok. I could feel that I was not getting my feet far off the ground and didn't care. I was going to make it.

Once on the east side of the park, the home stretch, I execute my plan like I planned and not the improvised plan the course and heat were forcing to me to do. I allowed myself to walk through every water station from beginning to end. It gave me a minute to rest and consume.

I saw two runners passed out on the course at about the 4 1/2 mile mark. At mile 5, I borrowed some one else’s friends who were cheering her on. They were loud and they were awesome and they were happy to cheer for me since all of my people were at the south end of the park.

I run this park 3-4 times a week and I run this course at least twice a week. It is never as long as it was during the race. I finally made it down to the 72nd crossover and had almost forgotten they make us run through Cherry Hill before being able to cross the finish line. Through Cherry Hill and into the finish line corridor to the finish line. I was elated and hot.

The second I stopped I could feel how high my core temperature was. I did the following in this order: cross the finish line, get an iced towel, get my finisher’s medal, drink water & Gatorade and then onto medical.

I entered the medical tent to see if they could get the splinter out of my foot. I had yet to check in with my family and was worried about how long it was taking. But exactly like the start, there were no tweezers to be found.

The medical staff was doing the best they could. It was not their fault. They were all very nice and very accommodating.

I found The Husband and home we went. But of course, not before having to walk all the way across town to collect my bike.

Bike collected, I go home to celebrate with my family. Thank you family for all of your support. You have no idea how much it means to me to have there for me.

You will be happy to know I slept for 12 hours.

Onto the next one!

Laura.