Nautica New York City Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

I started in the water hanging onto the rope. It wasn't too bad at the start some jostling for position, but nothing too bad. I tried to keep myself to the outside edge of the swim lane near the kayaks as the current is stronger there. Got stung on both of my arms from jelly fish, thought to myself "well at least it wasn't my face" then whamo right across the nose. Oh well, I wasn't too surprised we had gone down to the river the day before and checked out the course. We saw the pizza sized jelly fish as well as some even nastier things floating near the exit barge. I had hoped that the morning current would have taken them back out to sea, but no such luck! All I could think about was my poor wife, I had assured her that the jelly fish wouldn't be out on the swim course they were just 'stuck' between the exit barge and the sea wall. I hoped that she wouldnt be too mad or freak out. (turned out she did fine, even after a number of stings) I lengthened out my stroke for the rest of the swim and took advantage of the current.

Not much I was pleased with my swim. I might opt to wear my long sleeve suit to avoid the jelly fish on my arms, but they weren't that bad.

Long run to T1, I did stop by the shower to hose off on the way, had a sponge soaked in ammonia in case of jelly fish stings so swabbed off with that and got my helmet, glasses, race belt, and shoes on. Grabbed bike and headed out.

Probably start with my shoes on my bike. I was concerned with the tight corridor for the bike lane heading out to the bike course, so I didn't want worry about trying to get in my shoes and navigate the narrow path.

I was pleased with my bike leg. I felt good the whole time tried to keep my cadence up and HR around zone 4 I wasnt wearing a monitor so I just would base it on how I felt. If I could converse with the voices in my head in short sentences I was fine, when I got to one word responses I knew I needed to back it off a bit. My hills went well, a couple of times people were riding two and three wide making passing a little difficult, but when I called out 'on your left' they would get over. I thought that my nutrition was good, two GU packets, about 60-70 oz of water with 6 Zym tabs, about 1500mg of sodium. (little did I know that that would not be enough)

Not much. I could always get faster, but overall I was very pleased with my bike segment.

A decent transition, not blisteringly fast but decent. Got out of my shoes before dismount line and made a nice flying dismount. I did put on socks and a hat for the run, to avoid blisters and trying to shade some of that sun. Usually in a sprint I would have skipped both socks and the hat.

This is where my race fell apart. We had a steep climb up to 72nd street and I started to feel twitchy and crampy in my hamstrings. By about midway down 72nd street both of my hamstrings cramped up. I figured I would run through it but by the park the cramps had expanded and now my quads decided they weren't going to be left out. I was in severe discomfort with each stride, I tried slowing my pace to see if that would help but it didn't. So I started the mental bargining.... Okay just run to that next aid station and then you can walk a little bit. Or just run to the top of the next hill then I will let you walk, heck you made it to the top you can run down a hill that is easy. I played those head games for 6 miles alternating between walking and running. Finally I could hear the PA announcer and thought I was in the final stretch. I swear that finish chute was a half a mile long. But I finished.

I don't know yet what the cramping was from. Nutrition, heat, muscle fatigue, skipping that brick workout a few weeks ago, or a perfect combination of all of the above. I am planning to work on my brick workouts and maybe taking some additional salt tabs on the run before mhy next race in Chicago.

I was tapped. It took me two cold towels and a few bottles of water to start to feel human again. Got to sit and chat with this really nice lady from FL who was there waiting for her husband. I actually got up and left my Oakleys sitting on the bench which when I realized and went back for them she had and was looking for me. Very Cool! Thank you!

Walked around and then went back as close to the finish as I could to wait for my wife.


My run. I was definitely on pace to hit my race goal, but blew it in the run with the cramps.


I thought the race was a first class event. The volunteers were awesome, the course was tough, but amazing. The logistics to putting on an event of this size in NYC must be staggering and they really did a great job. I am looking forward to next year. Hopefully no cramps and no jelly fish!