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 Swim
Comments: The gun went off and I started to swim. I was getting POUNDED from every side for the first few minutes. Nothing hard but it definitely threw me off my game and all I could think of was swim-swim-don't swallow-swim-sight (actually try-to-sight). The water was not as bad as I expected so that was good news. At least I can get back to trying to swim. My seal-mask started leaking on one side which had never happened before. I took a few seconds to stop and adjust and got right back to swimming. I had to stop periodically to fix the mask leak and it finally dawned on me that the cap was under the mask skirt allowing a slow leak. As I got closer to the finish the water became darker and silty. I think this is because people start standing up and stirring up all of the silt on the bottom but I was not covered in slime as I have read in prior years reports. Total time around 19+ minutes! What would you do differently?: I was so distracted from getting pounded and the leaky mask that I forgot about even trying to draft. I would also make sure that the mask skirt was not over the cap. Finished overall borderline FOP for the swim.  Transition 1
Comments: I took a leisurely run to T1 stopping only for a few seconds in the water spray but I could have stayed there a few minutes, especially if I had some soap. I took my time, put on my socks, shirt, bike shoes and headed out to the West Side Highway. What would you do differently?: I could have gone faster but I didn't want to screw anything up.  Bike
Comments: I am not the fastest cyclist and my goal was just to keep going slow and steady. The course was rolling to moderate hills up and back on the west side highway. The time went by farily quick by watching all of the stronger riders fly by me on some really sweet bikes. One gel a few miles into it with water and another on the last few. I have only had my bike for a few months so I am still relatively new and the biking is my weakest sport. There is nothing really special to report other than my p What would you do differently?: I am still a new rider and I need much more time on the bike to get faster and see what my limits are. Overall: finished BOP on the bike. Transition 2
Comments: Again I wanted to go slow. I only did 2 bricks during training and one during the sprint. Each time my HR was sky high within seconds so I wanted to manage that as much as possible. I took my time to make sure everything was ok, put on my shoes and a quick spray of extra sunscreen. before heading out I hit send on my cell phone which was the signal to my wife that she should be looking for me on the run course. What would you do differently?: nothing  Run
Comments: I headed out of T2 and headed up the hill and out onto 72nd street. My wife and friends were waiting for me in front of Gray's Papya as planned and my 3 y.o. had the biggest grin on his face and yelled out "That's my daddy!!!!" I was so happy to see them!!! From there it was into a shaddy CP which I have run in dozens of times so everything was familiar to me. My only gripe was they had accelerade on the course and I didn't want to touch it so I just drank water. I was still at the outer reaches of my training so I kept running slow and headed to the finish. No problems until mile 4.5 and when I really started to feel fatigued and hungry. I kept running and eventually saw the finish chute. I emptied the tank and made it to the end. The ice cold wet towel felt great. What would you do differently?: Remember to bring a gel or just suck it up and drink the Accelerade next time. Maybe some chicken parm. Overall BOP for the run. Post race
Warm down: I got my finishers medal and a bottle of water. I was having a little trouble breathing but nothing that a few minutes of walking wouldn't solve. Finally found my family and tried to get out of the park. We were in such a rush to get out of the park that I totally forgot that I had a bag checked. I only realized this after I got to the transition area so I had to go all the way back to get it. Event comments: I really loved this race. Maybe because it was my first OLY? Maybe because it is right near my house? Maybe because it is NYC or Maybe the Hudson Swim. Either way I am hooked on triathlon and I will be back for this one next year when the current should be even stronger!!!! Profile Album Last updated: 2007-06-22 12:00 AM
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Sunny
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Age Group = 34-39
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Allow this to be my introduction and race report. I have been running for the past 3 years and always wanted to Tri. 2 years ago I jumped in the pool after having a good running season and couldn't make it more than 2 laps. I gave up on the idea until this past November when I went on to the NYC-Tri web site, saw that registration was open so I registered on the spot. It sold out a few hours later.
I was committed to do whatever it would take to figure out the swim and to buy bike to get ready. I began swimming 3 days a week that November and was not improving a lot until I found TI. I was lucky that their HQ is only 75 miles from my house and after a private 5 hour session at their HQ my swimming began to improve drastically.
Building up to the race for the past 2 months my workouts (I have no training log here) have basically consisted of 2 runs/week of at least 5 miles each, 2 rides of 16-25 miles/week and 2 swims, one with at least 1500m non stop. I also did one sprint back in June to feel things out. Now that I have introduced myself... On with the report...
Race morning transition opened from 4:30 until 5:45 only. The problem is that my swim didn't start until 8:11 so that left a lot of time in between. I really wanted to set up the transition on Saturday when we had to check out bikes in but everyone I talked to at the expo talked me out of it. I realized that there was too much risk finding out that something was missing. So I asked a friend, who was also doing the race to pick me up at 4:00 to allow plenty of time.
Saturday afternoon I checked, rechecked, re-rechecked (and did those things twice) my gear and lists to make sure that I wouldn't forget anything. My plan was to cook pasta at home and just relax but as soon as I started boiling water my brother called and wanted to go our for dinner. OK, I said and my wife, son and I picked them up to head out to a pre-race favorite in Cliffside Park. That place was packed but waiting to get in for dinner with a 3 y.o. is just not part of my plan. Plan B was another Italian restaurant but I like their chicken parmigiana better than anything else on the menu. So what if I deviate with a chicken parm hero instead?
That night I went to bed early, woke up at 1:30 and couldn't get back to sleep. My stomach wasn't feeling great either (I won't get into detail here). Note to self: STICK WITH ORIGINAL PLAN and eat at home next time. 3:30 came fast and I was literally ready in about 5 minutes since everything was laid out. I had 20 minutes to kill so I checked BT to see if there were any new postings regarding the race.
4:00 I was standing in front of my house in the dark for another 10 minutes before my friend showed up. I was really pumped since I have been looking forward to this day for 8 months!!! The ride to the upper west side took less than 15 minutes since I live directly across the river on the NJ side and we got a parking spot about 2 blocks from the transition area.
We split up at that point since we were in different areas and had vastly different start times. I made my way over to my bike and was happy to see it just like I left it. Again, I checked and rechecked everything to make sure that there would be no problems and carefully laid out the transition gear on my towel. I hung around and talked to some people, just killing time because 1) I had time to kill and 2) I was nervous leaving everything alone.
At 5:45 I left with my camera, wetsuit and some other stuff and started to make my way up the start. My plan at that time was to just hang out and watch. As I walked by the swim finish I saw everyone hanging around and decided to watch the pros come out of the water. I ended up watching the pros and about the first 7 waves come out of the water, paying attention to how they were exiting and briefly chatting with a Daily News photographer who was snapping away.
It was about 6:30 and I still had a mile to walk and realized that I did not eat anything yet today. When ever possible I like to eat at least 2 hours before the race but in all of the excitement I forgot. I dug out my buttered bagel and Gatorade and I quickly consumed those on the way there.
My leisurely walk took about a half hour since I stopped along the way to watch the swim. Next, to visit the porto-pots which had very long lines and almost everyone was passing around TP so I knew that I was not going anywhere fast. Again: Note to self: STICK WITH ORIGINAL PLAN and don't eat chicken parm or over eat the night before a big race.
Down to 30 minutes before swim time and I began to get a little nervous. I only had 2 real worries. One was the river water and what would it taste like and the other was would I burn out and have to walk the run. I couldn't do anything about the first one so I got my wetsuit on, chose my goggles and checked in my bag. My goal was slow and steady.
I chatted with some other green caps about the water quality and what it would be like. As we stood there watching the other waves I noticed that 1/2 of the people started in the water and the other half started on the pontoon, quickly jumping in after the horn. I wanted to be in the water so when our wave moved on the pontoon I jumped in and tried to get as far from the wall as I could. This area had deeper water and a stronger current flow but it also put me in the middle of everyone which is not a place that I would choose if it was a beach start. I really couldn't believe that I was *IN* the Hudson River.
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