Ironman U.S. Championship - TriathlonFull Ironman

The pros started before the main athlete ferries docked. Once we did, we shuffled off into a big crowd, listened to a well-performed national anthem, had Mike Reilly pump us up a little bit, then the canon went off and we all shuffled down to the water. Once there, it was find an open spot, a 5-foot jump in feet first, and start swimming.

The swim itself was a piece of cake, due to three factors - comfortable water temps, virtually no crowding, and a nice swift current assist. This became obvious as I whizzed past the first buoy at seemingly Phelps-like speed. On the way up to the swim start on the ferry, I saw that the buoy line, which was maybe 50 yards offshore, led straight to the swim exit ramp, so I got on the buoy line as early as I could and swam buoy to buoy the whole way. Near the swim exit, the water got very murky and I swam the last little bit with my head up. At the ramp, landed on my feet with the help of a volunteer and got on my way. Ran through a shower on the way to the wetsuit strippers, for one last shot of the Hudson River. Strippers did a great job and I was on my way.

About the current assist, all my 2.4 mile training swims in a lake with wetsuit were about 1:12, so I got a 22 minute boost starting early. My age group placement in the swim leads me to believe that folks who started later definitely got more help than I did, but probably just a couple of minutes worth.

Probably swim a little harder. I knew there would be current assist, just wasn't sure how much. If I knew the swim would be this short, I would have pushed a bit harder and probably gone a couple of minutes faster.

Got my bag quickly, ran into the tent and took care of everything myself, including repacking my bag and handing it to a volunteer. The volunteers were awesome, as always, but at certain times appeared less experienced than volunteers at other races. The T1 volunteers fell into this category. Sun screeners were all over it, though, and got me covered well on my way out.

I was on the bike course about an hour after the race started, so the plan to get a quick start had worked. The hills out of transition, and then up out of the park, weren't as bad as I expected, so it was a quick arrival onto the Palisades Parkway. I settled into aero and pushed the first 10 mile flat section pretty hard, then flew down the big descent screaming at a guy just ahead to get over to the right, which he never did. From there, the rest of the first northbound leg was a series of .5 to 1 mile ups and downs, with the road gradually narrowing and the pavement gradually getting worse.

This culminated in the last climb up to the turnaround, where there were large chunks of pavement missing at expansion joints in maybe six locations, leading to 6x12 potholes 4 inches deep. These should have at least been marked, and more appropriately repaired prior to the race. They were on the uphill side of the road, but still caused people to swerve to avoid and apparently led to several significant accidents. I personally didn't see any crashes all day, but have read the stories. It appeared while heading back south on the first loop that the crowding behind me was worse than what I experienced.

The other notable feature of the bike was the wind, which was mostly out of the south, leading to an easier first half of each loop, and a hindrance on the back halfs, especially in the ten miles at the southern end of the course, which were a bit more open. It also blew around some on the descents, leading me to be a little less courageous as the ride wore on. The crowds thinned out notably by about the 3/4 point of the first loop, and it really turned into a solo time trial for most of the rest of the way. Except, of course, for the obvious drafting teams, about 3 or 4 of which passed me during the ride.

In the end, I felt good the whole way, except for my helmet being too tight and giving me a headache, and my back being unhappy based on my insistence in staying aero for miles 100 thru 112, due to the flat terrain and headwind. The helmet has always been borderline size wise, and for some reason it was near unbearable in this race. I desperately wanted to just toss it off to the side all day - in the end, I had two nice welts on my forehead for sticking it out.

From a nutrition standpoint, my plan was half a Honey Stinger waffle and half a bottle of water at 15 minutes past each hour, half of bottle of Perform at the top and bottom of each hour, and shot of EFS vanilla shot and half a bottle of water 45 minutes past each hour. I figured out I needed this much fluid late in my training, and it worked well, with the bike aid stations frequent, well stocked, and having solid hand offs. I brought the waffles and liquid shot with me.

In the end, I was pleased with the bike, probably left 5-10 minutes out there if I had pushed a little harder in spots, but felt strong the whole way and it passed by quickly, despite the limited amount of spectators along the way. It's hard to imagine a less technical course - we had 3 turnarounds, a right turn, and a left turn. Everything else was a straightaway.

Push a little harder here and there, and learn to pee on the bike. I lost 6 minutes on the day with pit stops, one during the bike portion and again during T2.

Dismounted, ran with my bike for a little bit before a volunteer took it, although she looked pretty unsure of herself. Hopefully TBT found it and gets it back to Colorado for me.

Grabbed my bag and ran into the tent, again did everything myself, although a volunteer did take my bag and throw it onto the pile. Just after he did this, he must have heard me say "oh sh*t" when I realized I forgot to put my 310xt onto my quick release band for the run. Unrequested, he found my bag and brought it back, which I was impressed by and really appreciated. I had already started planning to run without it. After that, a quick pit stop, well-applied sun screen, and onto the run I went.

The run starts with a .3 mile stiff climb, which I resolved before the race to run, to avoid letting myself off the hook mentally right away. Then it was a long, gradual downhill before the first of four climbs over the ridiculous Dykman hill. On the long descent, I didn't feel great leg wise or energy wise, so I decided then to walk aid stations and the five big climbs on the run (4 Dykman's and the climb out of the park up to the bridge) and I mostly stuck to this for the first 13 miles. I found my stomach getting upset at times, so I walked a bit more here and there to settle it back down.

By doing this, I was averaging just over 10 min/mile for the first half of the run, which I was OK with given the heat, humidity, and hills. Once I completed the second loop, it was a great feeling to get to keep going straight and head out of that park. There were few people heading that direction along with me, which gave me the feeling that I was having a pretty good day. There were volunteers stationed about 100 yards prior to the point where you either had to circle back for loop two, or got to get out of there, who took the race numbers of people who claimed to be done and apparently had them verified to allow you past the gatekeeper on towards the end of the race.

I ran all the way out of the park, then walked the steep hill up towards the bridge, then started running again and high-fived as many spectators as I could as I approached the bridge. I anticipated running across the bridge would be the highlight of the day, so I was psyched to finally be there. Up and down the stairs was no issue at all, with plenty of volunteers stationed to help those who needed it. The bridge itself was all of mile 17 of the race, and a memorable experience. I managed to make it my second fastest mile split of the day. It also pounded my knees relentlessly - who knew running on a concrete path attached to steel girders would be so unforgiving? A race photographer took my now all-time favorite race photo at the center of the span, probably the first one I'll ever buy.

After the stairs at the NY end of the bridge, it was pretty steep downhill running though a supportive crowd, and then onto the run path along the river to the finish. In the parks along the path, NYers were going about their usual Saturday afternoon recreation, most seemingly oblivious to the runners going by. I had to run around large families out for a stroll, people walking their dogs, and any number of recreational cyclists.

A few short walks started getting mixed in here and there, either to avoid the pounding of the steep downhills, settle my stomach, or to convince myself that I would run the last 10k if I walked a half mile prior to mile 20. This promise got me about 2.5k further before another walk break, with a promise to run the last 5k. I managed to keep this last promise, including running through the final, cruel indignity of the run course, where the race director somehow found some significant hills on the west side of Manhattan around 85th street and had us run them for most of miles 24 and 25.

But these last three miles of the run had by far the best spectator support of the day. The last half mile or so was packed with cheering spectators on both sides, and I had a clear shot through this with no one else close in front or behind. It brought a smile and a great ending to the race.


Somehow would have liked to have kept my stomach calm, but not sure where I went wrong. It was probably too much orange perform, but it seemed like the best option because the coke, which was my second choice, wasn't flat at the aid stations on the first half of the run. Once I started having issues, I was afraid of taking Gu, which was what I trained with.

Otherwise, my legs felt decent the whole way. Running six times a week definitely was the right call for training, I just wish I could have kept the energy up the whole way to take advantage. But this was the first time I've ever improved my finishing position on the run, so I'll take it. It's also probably time to run a stand alone marathon to know what running the full distance feels like, before I do IM again.

I felt so-so at the end, two volunteers kept me moving to medical, where they took a quick look and sent me on my way. There was no staged post-finish photo, which I found strange, just a quick surprise shot by photographer shortly after getting the medal - mine looks awful, I suspect man others will as well.

I found my family quickly and needed to sit on the ground for 15 minutes or so to feel a bit normal, then walked into the food area and had a slice of pizza, cola, and chocolate milk. It took a while to be willing to give up a chair and start walking again.

After that, we walked to the ferry back to transition, then switched to the NJ ferry at transition to get back to the hotel. My family had picked up my transition bags after seeing me run out of the park, before they hopped on the ferry over to the finish line. Since my bike was being handled by TBT, I was in the clear as far as post-race logistics and just needed to get to the hotel.


A little more courage on the downhills when I needed to trust nearby riders, pushing a little harder here and there on the bike. A bit more HTFU between miles 18 and 23 on the run. Probably left 10-15 minutes out there by not giving absolutely everything I had.


There are obviously several unique elements to this race. A few thoughts for those considering doing it in the future, in the event it does happen again in a similar form:

For participant logistics, I think they did as well as possible given how spread out the course has to be across a major metropolitan area. The ferries worked well, but did chew up significant amounts of time. Plan on dedicating a few extra hours of time to this race in the days immediately before than the typical IM. Stay at Sheraton Lincoln Harbor if the ferry routes are the same in the future. The race hotel in the city is more hassle and, according to reports, not that much about the race.

For spectator logistics, I got ferry wristbands for my family, some all-day, some half-day, depending on who was willing to wake up early. These were borderline worthwhile, particularly because you can't see much of the bike, and for some reason they severely limited movement inside the park to watch the run. My group had to beg to be able to get up the hill from transition at all, to watch the run at the traffic circle. The whole race seemed intent on making the spectator experience as difficult as possible, except for the run course in NY, where non-spectators were allowed all over the place. They need to find a way to improve this going forward - if people can walk their dogs on the course on the NY side, surely spectators with wrist bands they paid for can be allowed a little freedom of movement on the run course on the NJ side. Having spectator access to the ferries themselves definitely helped getting around, particularly staying where we did.

Compared to IM CDA, which is my only other 140.6 experience, IMNYC was clearly a small fish in a huge pond, compared to CDA, which is a big fish in a small pond. Heck, IM NYC was barely a fish at all, it seemed. There was hardly any positive publicity about it, just stories on the pre-race sewage issue and, tragically, the loss of a participant in the swim. Without those two situations, it wouldn't have moved the needle at all.

On the cost of the race, I really think it is due to the cost of putting it on, not getting greedy on profit. Booking the exhibition space on the west side for the expo, running all the ferries, paying for 3 or 4 barges for the swim start and ferry "docks", having a number of ambulances staged along the bike course - these all have to be huge expenses not necessary at the typical small to midsize town IM.

Finally, from a personal race performance perspective, I doubt if I'll ever find a way to get in as good a shape as I did for this race in the future. I managed to stay relatively injury and illness free, hit almost every workout, settle at my race weight goal to the pound, and literally trained as much as my day-to-day life could allow. My goal was to finish in the top quarter of my age group, and I managed to exceed that. It's going to be a little while before I decide what to do next, since this has been the goal for 14 months.

In the end, I'm glad I got to do IM NYC due to its uniqueness and ties to where I grew up, but it is a different animal than most of these races in many ways. I'm amazed and impressed that they managed to pull it off so smoothly, and am thankful that I was able to participate and have a good day.