Ford New York City Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

I'm new to writing race reports, and fairly new to triathlons. I figure that I've received so much help and inspiration from other reace reports that maybe someone might find my report helpfull. So here it goes...

The Swim: I'm not a swimmer. I learned to swim less than a year ago and still never received any formal lessons. I can now at least freestyle and move through the water at an average speed. I may not look pretty pawing at the water but I can at least get from point A to point B. Luckily for me the New York City Triathlon (oly dist) was a point to point and was known for the current that usually sucks swimmers down stream.

The morning of the race I suited up in my wetsuit and headed to the staging area along the Hudson River boardwalk. Since it was a point to point swim we all had to walk a mile to the swim start. While waiting in the age group holding corrals I watched as other groups went before me. The current didn't seem very strong, but you really can't tell standing above the water. I could tell there was a current because I watched several swimmers just floating downstream not working at all. They weren't moving very fast but they were moving. I watched two female athletes floating upright having a conversation like they were taking their Sunday bath. I also nervously watched as two swimmers called for help and were dragged from the water. How sad for them. All of the training (assuming they trained) and to end up riding in a NYPD boat. We also watched and laughed as we spotted condoms floating downstream. Twice we spotted condoms and a floating near-empty 40oz bottle of beer. I've heard that the Hudson was dirty, but they assured us that it passed all of the tests and was human safe.

It was my age groups turn to jump into the water. We started by walking out onto a platform then were told to jump into the water. The current caused by the platform was so strong that it was very difficult to hang onto the rope that attached to the deck. The current wanted to suck you under and downstream. A few short seconds later the horn blew and we were off. I tried to hold back a little so I wouldn't get the snot beat out of me from fists and feet. It didn't matter. I was soon in the middle of an all out battle. This was my first in water/open water start and I was expecting to get punched a couple of times, but nothing like what I experienced. I swear it was like being in the most violent mosh pit at a punk rock show. I've been thrashed around a bit in my life so I didn't mind it. As I got my rythem and started getting some distance in I felt someone clawling up my legs. This swimmer swam right up and over me pushing me under. I ended up swallowing a good mouthfull of water. (More on that later). I continued on and soon found myself at the swim finish. Damn I was happy to have that over. I looked down at my watch and noticed I had just swam the 1.5k in a little over 21 minutes. That was 10 minutes faster than I had trained. The current did help.

Not swallow any Hudson River water.

The Bike is my strong point. I didn't worry too much about how well I'd do. I heard that the course was moderately hilly and that ended up being true. I'd been training in the hills so it didn't bother me much. My goal was to keep my heart-rate under 170 and to keep from flatting or having any other mechanical issue. The first few miles into the race I was passed by a few riders on Tri specific bikes. The humming noise of the disc wheels told me there was someone coming up on me. I ride a road bike so I had a slight disadvantage on the level portions of the course. But as I said this course was hilly so it wasn't long before I was passing most of the riders who had just passed me when we got to the hills. Apparently Tri bikes don't do to well in the hills.

I continued to hammer the best I could while trying to save a little for the run. I ended up placing in the 88th percentile on the bike, finishing in 1 hour 11 minutes. I was happy. Legs still felt good.

The first two miles into the run everything was fine. After T2 we ran towards Central Park from the Hudson River. Crowd and Police support was outsanding. Once we entered Central Park the hills appeared. Maybe because I was tired or maybe they really existed but Central Park is HILLY. I managed to run the entire distance without walking but had slowed quite a bit on some of the steeper climbs. My average time being 8:40 min/miles.

Towards the end I could hear the crowd noise building. The tired feeling went away for a moment and my pace quickened, as did everyone elses. Before I knew it I was through the chute and it was over.

I would highly recommend this race to anyone. The officials and staff ran a tight ship and there were plenty of friendly NYPD to hold the roads. I heard complaints that they ran out of water for some of the later runners. The finish line also soon ran out of sports drinks and bottled water. Maybe they didn't expect the large turnout. I believe 05' was a record setting year as far as attendence is concerned.

I mentioned earlier that I has swallowed water while swimming. Well, because of this I developed a stomach problem a few days later and have been on "Culterelle" for the past month. Apparently the "good" bacteria in my system had been replaced with "bad" and I was having some issues. Another teammate of mine pointed out in our post race pictures that people were coming out of the Hudson with black sludge on their faces, like they had been coal mining. Strange.

In closing, I plan on racing this again in 06'. New York City is the greatest city I've been. Friendly people and easy to get from place to place (assuming you know how the subway system works). Anyone is welcome to email me if they want any further details about race.