New York City Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

Ahh, the Hudson river, where everyone will have their PR upon. A swift current right at Low tide pulled people down the river to the end. I swam sans wetsuit which apparently 90% of the people were in. The crowds of neoprene bodies in the water was almost comical if it weren't a race. Bouncing off bodies in the water as we were all trying to swim on the far right side of the narrow boundary. The water was slightly salty and almost identical to the Chesapeake Bay. Some slight waves made people swallow salty water, but I lucked out and didn't swallow any. The last 300 meters, the water started getting darker with the algae that grows towards the end. Seeing through the goggles any light whatsoever was out of the question. You felt the bottom of the river on your hands on each stroke, but listened to the forewarning, and resisted the urge to stand up until reaching the ramp.

More technique practice, half john wetsuit possibly.

I rocked the Transition, a lot of guys were walking. The NYC course makes you run down a long asphalt path to transition. At least we weren't in the yellow transition area which had to run even further (300 meters) barefoot.

Nothing.

Started off from mount standing up in the saddle to get up the hill, then proceeded into a headwind smelling pleasantly of the Hudson River. Started off quickly, passing people left and right, getting passed on the hills sometimes. Worked into a nice pace, the long rides really helped make my legs stronger, although they still burned. Two Gu's were taped to my top bar, some Cliff Shot blocks in my Bento box, mixtures of Accelerade and Gatorade Endurance in my water bottle holders, tightly secured.

More long hill training, speedwork.
There wasn't much heat, and I drank as if there were. I probably could have brought just one bottle and had been fine, and could have knocked the mixture's strength in half as I was replacing electrolytes fine with the Gu and shot blocks.

Rocked the T2. Hardly remember it, I was in and out so fast. Saw Mayor Fenty run by me while I was tying my shoes.

Ehhh, those stretchy elastic Yankz don't work for me. I'm very happy with my T2 time.

This is where the drinking too much on the bike really affected me. I need to urinate, no porta johns in sight, should have pee'd in Transition, but didn't think about it. Getting my legs back was fine, I was loose and steady. Eventually ran into the woods, urinated and came back on course, that took about a minute ten seconds. Then the Accelerade starting coming up, orange. I walked a few times to get the heart rate down, but felt bloated.

Not drink as much on the bike, and longer distance running after long bike rides.

Involved walking the Gauntlet of advertising, marketing, and brochures for home loans or financial whatever (about 20 booths) to get to the food. Wayy more people there than just racers. Some homeless, street kids, just cheapskates too eating the food, so they added to the crowd. The bag pickup was insane and not very safe as people were wandering around trying to find their bags. Warm down included trying to find my bags and the people around.


The race was crowded, need more training on the bike portion, and drink less on normal days when it's not so hot. Run longer and faster on brick training days.


We really enjoyed this race overall. Very fun, New York weather was great, lot's to do and keep us entertained. It's not as expensive as D.C. in some ways which was surprising. We stayed in a hotel BelleClaire near the Tranistion area, which was nice and we got good rates as well. Overall, the whole course was challenging, and beautiful. It was a great way to finish our Triathlon season.

Notes for Race Director
The race, as a whole was planned well, executed a meh...ok. Not enough volunteers, the transitions and start times were very poorly organized. My 30-34 swim wave, bright green caps, started at 8:07 and guess what, the 35-39 year olds were bright green swim caps as well, and they started at 8:15.
1) Have the Transition area open earlier on Saturday, there's no reason to have everybody wait till 2:00 pm to setup transition. Also, open the Transition area up until the first swim start, then kick everyone out. The Red Transition area's swim didn't start until 7:20 or something, yet you kicked them out of the Transition area at 5:30, 2 hours before the race to just stand around.
2) No painted markings on the Hudson Highway to mark dangerous areas. A few cans of neon spray paint before the start marking drains, large bumps or holes in the road.
3) Mileage markers on the bike course.
4) Yellow Transition people had to run barefoot farther than the Red, but th excuse is that the red had farther to run on the run portion. Which is more beneficial, running barefoot with a wetsuit on, or running in your running shoes?
5) More enforcement of drafting, so many people drafting from the headwind on the first part of the course.
6) Drop bag pickup had random racers, and random non-racers(no wrist band) walking amongst the bags picking them up without volunteers there. Should have had volunteers fetching the bags themselves, and handing them to the participants instead. Not enough volunteers to do that though.
7) Good job on the enforcement of bikes leaving with peoples numbers on the wrist bands. But, the arm bands were flimsy and fell off for ma

ny people.