NYC Triathlon Race Report

I am sitting here having a hard time wanting to write this, but I know that if I do I will be able to learn something from the race and it will force me to think about it some more.

I started off this morning waking up a little late because I didn't hear my alarm over the air conditioner at Esther's where I was staying. Thank goodness Esther was getting up at 3:30 anyway and her alarm went off. I got out the door a little late and the hit traffic in the city before 4 am. What? So I was rushing all morning and was just pulling my wetsuit on as we were heading out to start our wave.

Swim: 1500m, Hudson River, some current (not as much as I'd like) 18:36. The pro men went first, then pro women, then we were rushed out to start 3 minutes later. Usually the time goes by slowly, but this time was gone so fast. I lined up sort of middle to the right and was sandwiched in between two big guys (tall and muscly). Uh oh! Beth came up behind me and we said good luck. In hind sight, I should have given her my place in the front row. Oh well. I know for next time. I was just too nervous about the dive in and those big guys next to me. It seemed like we had no warning-the start just happened. My dive was okay. No belly flop. Then someone dove on top of me. And I got kicked in the face and my right side of my goggles got kicked a little loose. Then I SWALLOWED a mouthful of water. I hope I don't die. It was rough! Probably the roughest swim I have done all year. A few more people tried to swim over me, and I got my butt grabbed good and hard. Finally, it opened up a little and I started noticing that my ankles and my wrists were stinging. The nasty Hudson water I guess, is what I thought at first. Then I felt a sharp sting in my cheek and realized it was the jelly fish we had seen at the start. Another sting in the face. One down the neck in my wetsuit. Every exposed bit of skin is itchy and on fire. I am starting to think I am just the unluckiest person in the world, what with having been stung by a swarm of bees in a race and now all these jelly fish but apparently most everyone was getting the jelly fish attack. I should have used it to make me swim faster, but I just let it distract me. I swam so crooked. There were no buoys so it was hard to hold a line and hard to stay on task. If I had stayed focused and not been so distracted and spent so much time feeling sorry for myself, I would have done much better.

T1: 4:16 This was a really long transition. I think T1 may have very well been the best part of my race! I came out of the water so happy to be out of there! I ripped my wetsuit top off quickly and started passing AG Elite men right away. There were no other women near me, but plenty of men. I passed a lot of guys who were really just not running that hard into T1. I had a smooth wetsuit removal and off on the bike and ready to go!

Bike: 40k, some hills and wind. 1:15:05. My lack of endurance after being sick for so long really showed here. As well as my ability to not let the actions of others affect my race. The first half of my bike went well. I passed a couple of girls right away. I got passed by several of the men, but didn't really care. Then I got passed by a couple 40+ women who were riding in a group with men for a little while. They both jumped out when the official came by. One stayed out but the other jumped back in and disappeared up the road. I rode hard to try to catch up to the other woman and pass her, which took me several miles to do. She then passed me back right away really fast so then I dropped back aways and then she slowed on a hill and passed her there. On the first turnaround I saw the girls that I had passed riding together very closely. Hmm. Hard to judge by a snapshot though. A couple miles later they passed me riding tightly together and stayed that way. They kept riding that way for the rest of the race. I passed them a couple times and made sure that I passed them hard so that they didn't jump on my wheel. I said something to one of the girls after the race and she said, "we weren't drafting, we were staggered", which they were sort of a one point (still not the rule she wasn't a pro), but the majority of the time she was right on the other girl's ass or vice versa. It made me really upset. I was thinking about how much I hate the fact that there are so many people like this in this sport--people who will trade their integrity to save a minute or two or even a few seconds to do better at something that is supposed to be for fun. This is not fun! I just want to come out and do the best I can and see how I do on my own effort against other people on their own effort. If it were a draft legal race, then okay, but IT'S NOT! I'm sure those girls find someway to go home and justify what they did. But I know I couldn't. It takes the fun out of it for me and it honestly makes me want to quit triathlon and go back to just running or just stop competing all together. So I was thinking all this while I was biking down the Henry Hudson Parkway when I probably should have been focused on pedaling my bike.

T2: 1:02 Another good transition. I didn't swim bike or run that well, but I nailed the transitions today! I passed the drafters, and at least 3-4 women in transition. Awesome!

Run: 10k, hilly, horribly hot and humid. 43:47 (bleh!) There were several girls right behind me and a couple right ahead of me coming out of transition, so I needed to get out well to drop/pass them. There was a hill right away and it killed me, but I passed who I needed to. My legs felt heavy and tired. They never feel that way. I was still on my "I hate triathlon, I want to quit" thinking and so I didn't enjoy the run down 72nd street as much as I could. It was pretty cool though. The streets all shut down for us, the big buildings, the people cheering. I got so many compliments on my trisuit, even someone that said she was going to buy one like it! I guess that's what happens when you pick your suit out of the Triathlete swimsuit issue and more for cuteness than for function :) I tried to smile and relax as much as possible. There were so many great volunteers and all the people of NY who were in the park cheering for us. The first 3-3.5 miles of the run went well for me. I think the mile markers were off, but I hit them in 6:20, 13:00 and 19:00, then I started to get out of it and didn't notice what time I went through 4 and 5 miles. I lived for the water stops, but wasn't really drinking just dumping on my head. The volunteers here were great, no one gave me Accelerade to dump on my head thank you very much! I really slowed down to a death march, a survival shuffle and got passed by 3 women. Talk about demoralizing. I hardly ever get passed on the run and I was already having a rough day. I wanted to drop out. To go jump in the pool that I was running past. It was a struggle. I finally made it to the finish. I'm glad I didn't drop out but I am very unhappy with how I did. I lost focus out there. Maybe I just don't want it enough right now. Maybe it's just not THAT important to me. Maybe I just need to figure out what is going on with my body.

Overall: 16th/34 AG elite female, 2:22:42

I did have a good time seeing and meeting people there. My friend Meaghan had an awesome race and got 5th to get the last spot to the Toyota US Open in Dallas. She can always pull it together in tough conditions. Beth as always raced well and got a spot to Dallas as well. Those ladies will have to represent the east coast well down in Dallas! I briefly got to see Todd from swimming before the race, on the the bike(in the other direction) and heard him announced across the finish line. It looks like he did pretty well for his first Olympic. I met Maggs from Hawaii and a couple other ladies from the AG elite wave that I race and just haven't met. I also met Matt's friend Ruth who was one of the wonderful volunteers and will be racing in a relay next year. And I got to stand next to Andy Potts and Simon Whitfield in line for packet pickup! And see Greg Bennett up close and tell him Congrats-he said thanks with his ever so handsome smile :)

I got some free bandanas for the doggies from the Iams tent. They have been wearing them all afternoon and even did an evening walk around the neighborhood. There will be pictures of my little cuties later.