Nautica New York City Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

I was thrilled with this swim. I have been practicing OWS every weekend and it finally paid off. We couldn't get in the water for a warm up due to the current so I just had to jump in and swim. I didn't experience any panic and it only took a couple hundred meters to regulate my breathing. I was able to do the entire distance in freestyle with no backstroking or treading like in my first race. My sighting is still really poor and I'm not good at navigating through other swimmers so I zig-zagged a lot. I'm also not comfortable drafting. There were a lot of jellyfish about halfway through and I got stung on the face, but again after all the stinging I took in my practice swims, I was able to push through it.

Get better at sighting, learn to swim more comfortably on a crowded course rather than trying to avoid other swimmers.

T1 in NYC is what it is. We had a 400y run to transition and I was at the far end, so I had another long run to bike out. I could have moved a little faster once in transition perhaps to save a minute or two.

Nothing. I'll get better at transition with more race experience.

I really enjoyed this course. I was able to maintain a good average speed with a comfortable effort. My wave was a bit crowded and the women from the previous wave were also on the road so there was a lot of passing and struggling for position, particularly in the narrower stretches. I wanted to keep my average over 17mph and cadence around 100 so I pushed for that and not much more. As we neared the end, I realized I could have probably pushed a little harder, but I was really happy with my overall time. I was less timid on this ride than previous rides so I think my comfort level on the bike is improving.

Nothing. I've improved a lot on the bike this season, it will get better with more riding.

Another short run to get to my rack, everything went very smoothly.

Nothing. Given the size of transition, I don't think I could have done better.

This was my best 10K ever. I set a PR of 50:29 and felt strong throughout. My first mile off the bike is usually my best so I hit just around 8 minutes. I regulated my pace to keep from burning out and felt good. It was thankfully overcast for much of my run across 72nd, but the sun came out in full force as I neared the park. I've been battling stomach cramps this entire season so I skipped the water and drank only Accelerade. I had a full Gatorade Endurance on the bike as well as a salt packet prior to the race and it seemed to help. I had a slight cramp from Mile 2-3 and again about 400 yards from the finish, but nothing too severe. After the last of the hills I picked up the pace for a strong finish. When I saw I was well under 3 hours, I was so excited and a little emotional, which caused a slight bit of hyperventilation in the final 200 yards or so.

Nothing. I will likely not run another 10K this fast for awhile, it was my best yet and I couldn't ask for more.

I drank two bottles of water at the finish, had about half of an Endurox, soaked myself with an ice cold towel and had a few bites of a bagel. I walked through the festival and then back across 72nd to transition, watching the later wave runners along the way. I got to see Scott Rigsby coming across 72nd which was really exciting for me. He's an incredible inspiration. After packing up I rode 4.5 miles home with a friend.


My lack of experience in racing. I need to get more comfortable with all aspects of my bike so I can be more confident on the course. But overall, for this time in my training and the fact that this was my first oly/first big race, I don't think I could have done better and I am thrilled with my performance. I also finally feel like I can swim and that it will only get better from here. Having just started to learn in May, that was a big accomplishment for me not just in triathlon, but in my life.


This is a really well organized and fun race. It's big and it's all in NYC so the logistics may not be appealing to some, but I didn't mind. I think it will be hard to match this experience in another race. I hope to do it again next year.