It wasn’t a stellar race, but it wasn’t a terrible race, either. Nothing really eventful today. I was a bit disappointed in myself on the bike, but I’m happy with my run. I wasn’t really expecting an awesome race, so i really can’t complain.
I woke up at 3:50, made my oatmeal (with 1/2 banana and 1/2 peach) and got out my 2 hard boiled egg whites. I turned on a motivational playlist, reviewed my gear checklist, did my hair and got in some stretches when Morgan walked in the door. Pretty funny that she was getting IN from the night before at the same time I was getting ready to start my day! We caught up a bit and she told me about her fun (late) night and then it was time for me to leave. It started pouring outside so I waited a few minutes for it to die down before heading up the street to catch a cab. I headed across town and a few minutes later found myself in the hustle and bustle of transition. It was dark, wet, humid, and you could feel all the nerves running wildly. I stuck to myself, set up my area, and set forth on the mile-long walk up to the swim start. It was raining pretty hard at this point but not much I could do about it, so I just shrugged it off and trekked on. The body-marking and chip pick-up areas were total chaos. This would probably be the one aspect of the race that could have been better executed. No signs or direction, just mass crowds of clueless people. Finally, I got marked and got my chip and made my way to stand in line for the port-a-potties. I made my way down to the organized areas dedicated to the various age groups/swim waves.
Swim
I was one of the earlier waves which is atypical for F25-29, but I was excited to get started (and finished) early. The current apparently grows less strong the later it gets., so to make up for getting the extra boost on the swim, the folks who were in the yellow transition had a 
All the waves were pushed back 20 minutes due to the lightening and rain storm we received while setting up in transition, but they pushed the swim waves closer together and we were going in increments of 1:30. It was very well organized and the announcer was keeping the energy light and fun. He asked random people where they were from and had a witty response for each one. I think he’s done this a time or two before :)
Anyways, not much after the pros and elites were off (they got to do a dive start while the rest of us had an in-water start), the age groupers started. I ate 1 shot blok and washed it down with the rest of my water ten minutes before my predicted start. Like clockwork the next 3 waves jumped in and were off. Now it was our turn. I’ve never been so at ease before a race. A couple girls around me had said it was their first triathon and were asking for advice, it was kinda fun to feel like the veteran! I was totally at ease and I put so little pressure on myself for this race, I was just excited to get out there and enjoy my morning. They called our wave to start walking down the barge and we all jumped into the Hudson and quickly grabbed on to the rope. The current really was pretty strong and if you didn’t grab ahold you’d start floating downstream. I set up to the far outside, it seemed as though that’s where the pros had chosen to swim and i figured they probably have a good idea as to what’s the fastest. so i followed their cue. We waited for a little bit and then the horn set us free.
I started off and used a long, relaxed stroke. I planned on going very low-effort on the swim and saving my energy for the bike. I was right on task. I felt like I was swimming warm-up pace. I was still in the lead pack which really surprised me for how little energy I was putting into it. I lifted my head to spot more often than I usually do because the water clarity was zero. 
The only time my HR spiked was when a fellow red-capper continually grabbed my ankles from behind and I tried to kick back. Hey, she started it.
I continued along in this fashion for the entire distance. I did manage to swim into a paper bag and get my hand stuck inside for a second. I’m pretty sure I can safely say this was the poorest water quality I’ve had to swim in (and after swimming in the Potomac twice, that’s saying a lot). Every time the water got in my mouth my stomach churned. Disgusting.
My goggles fogged up a bit, but as soon as I saw congestion ahead I figured it MUST be the finish area and that’s when I decided to add a little bit of a push. I glided in, passing 2 more red caps and glided in to the ramp. We were warned to swim all the way up the ramp until we were basically “beached” as to avoid the muck on the bottom. If you try and stand up too early, you risk getting your feet stuck in the mud. They had volunteers at this section to help you stand up and get your footing. I got myself up and out of the water, ripped off my goggles and began my transition.
Swim Time: 17:44; pace 1:04; AG place 23/268
Transition
By far… by FAR… the longest transition I have ever seen. I’m not sure the exact distance, but I bet it was close to a mile. Now a mile in a normal setting is not bad, but when you are running barefoot, in a wetsuit, and have two more events ahead of you, a mile is a lot. Not to mention a blow to the ego when you see your T1 time has quadrupled. Under the circumstances, I sucked it up and did what I could. I turned off the boat ramp, hit the pavement and held a good, steady pace. I pulled off my cap, reached for the zipper on my wetsuit and pulled it down to my waist. There was a good crowd along the sidelines cheering along and clapping. A few hundred yards in, one of the spectators yells “wipe your face!” … awesome, I had remnants of the Hudson adorning my cheeks. I sure hope the race photographers captured that. Thankfully a little bit further and there were sprinklers to run under.
I still held my pace but I took advantage of the clean water. I was passing all the athletes around me and feeling pretty good. I was going through my next steps in my head– visualizing the transition area and the route to my bike and going through my list of to-do’s once I got there. My bike was positioned in the center of the row, so I spent some time yesterday figuring out which side I’d run in from. I always pick landmarks to help me find my row. There were banners along the fence and ironically there was an Orbea banner at the end of my row. Perfect.
I ran in, spotted the Orbea logo, jumped over a few messy transition spots, saw my bright pink transition bag and with a quick yank my wetsuit was off. I liked having my socks on my gear shifters last weekend at RI, so I repeated that trick today. They were damp from the rain, but no more wet than I was already. Slipped on my socks, velcroed my shoes, sunglasses on and helmet on. I decided since it was a short race I’d just wear my contacts the whole way, so I didn’t have to worry about ripping those out. I pulled my bike off the rack and ran towards the bike out exit. I made the mistake of not fastening my helmet back before grabbing my bike and once I hit the mounting line I lost a few seconds dealing with it.
T1 time: 5:29; AG place 11/268
(ouch)
Bike
I had racked my bike in a low gear in preparation for the short but steep incline that comes pretty quickly, but there was a short straight-away before the hill and I ended up shifting up to pass riders ahead of me first. After the climb we had a sharp left turn onto a traffic circle and then another sharp left onto the highway. It was a little dicey with wet roads and lots of cyclists, but luckily no crashes. I followed my plan of taking the first 5:00 to get comfortable spinning and going high cadence. At 5:00 in I took a few sips of cytomax, washed it down with water and then shifted gears. I was passing several people ahead of me. I started playing a game in my head– I kept track of how many folks passed me. I counted each person that passed me then if I passed them back I subtracted them. For the first 15:00 the number was 0. Eventually 2 men slipped ahead. Then a girl. Then another man. Then I passed the first man. I kept this going the whole way. I actually made up names for each person. There was a guy who had to be 6’5, his seat post was taller than me when I was in aero position, he would be called “Tall George”. The girl with the t-mobile hot pink bike spun her feet at an insane cadence, she would be “Speedy Gonzales”. Little did these folks know they were playing the game, but it kept me entertained and focused. I knew what was ahead and who I had to take down. The largest the number got was 13, but I kept picking them off along the way. I think the final count was 9, and most of them were men.
I didn’t know much about the course going into it. I had heard there were some rollers, a few good hills but didn’t sound too terrible. It didn’t feel too bad, but it must have been worse than I thought b/c my bike split was nowhere near what I thought. I must have knocked the magnet or the reader b/c my computer didn’t pick up any data. I had to do the entire ride by feel, which in itself isn’t necessarily a bad thing, I think it’s good practice to judge pace by feel every now and again… but I really do like having my cadence at the ready so I can adjust accordingly. I definitely think not having my computer affected my overall ride. I felt like I was holding a good pace and pushing myself. I kept reminding myself that today was all about the bike portion of the race. I wanted to hammer it. Regardless of how I felt on the run, I wanted to crush the bike. Today was about experimentation… I’ll call it an experiment failure. I didn’t push myself hard enough and didn’t at all reach my potential. Oh well, just gotta train harder for next time.
I followed my nutrition plan pretty well–
5:00 cytomax
15:00 1 endurolyte
30:00 1 shot blok
45:00 1 endurolyte
I was supposed to drink cytomax at 60:00 but I was also supposed to not take in anything (except water) after 20 miles, and since I never saw a single mile marker I wasn’t sure which trumped the other. I decided to skip the drink and just continue with water. I had no stomach issues and had plenty of energy. As we rounded the final hairpin turn and headed back up the last hill, I pushed pretty hard to pass a couple folks and knock the number down a few more.
Getting back into the yellow transition was a little ugly. We had to pass the “bike in” for the red transition and that caused a bit of congestion and awkward/cautious riders slowing down. Despite my “ON THE LEFT!” calls, I had a really hard time getting by anybody. Finally I hit the dismount line, jumped off and rushed towards the Orbea banner.
Bike time: 1:21:26; pace: 18.3; AG place 15/268
Transition
This went quite quickly. Racked the bike, slipped on my shoes, and grabbed my race belt, shot bloks, and baggie of endurolytes (wasn’t gonna forget those again!). As I ran towards the run out, I stuffed the nutrition in my pockets and clicked on my race belt. I jumped over the obstacle course that was everybody elses transition areas and realized I didn’t start my foot-pod. I quickly stopped, turned it on, made sure it connected and started running again. I hated that I had to stop, but I think it only added a total of 2-3 seconds. It’s funny how that can seem like an eternity while racing. It’s true– every second does count.
T2 time: 1:21; Place in AG 15/268
Run
There were too many athletes clogging the path at the aid station directly outside of transition so I ran around them and skipped the water. We were immediately greeted by a pretty nice hill which spiked my HR up a bit, but shortly after we were on 72nd street and a multitude of people were lining the course screaming and cheering. I felt like I was the only one out there, like they were all cheering for me. It was such a rush. I definitely had a huge smile on my face. The crowds here were incredible. I can’t explain enough how much it helps to have people encouraging you and pushing you to push harder. Makes all the difference.
I was trying to use the first few minutes to get a grip on my cadence and find my “fast feet” before settling into my groove. Just before entering Central Park I heard my name, I turned to see my friend Ellen and a group of her friends. I was so excited and I know I got an extra jump in my step. She had a few other friends she knew doing the race and I think it’s awesome she came out to support. (thanks Ellen!)
The course was awesome. I loved it. It was hillier than I expected, but turns out I think I like hills now! Who would have thought!? There was only one big climb, the rest were rollers, but not much of it was actually flat. There were aid stations at just about every mile and I grabbed water at each one. We had the far right lane dedicated to us and the rest of the path was still being used by recreational runners, bikers, walkers, etc. So many of them cheered us along and shared encouragement. I got a lot of women cheering for me as I was in a crowd of men. I passed a group of ladies who informed that I was one of the first women to go by. Really?! I knew I wanted to wait until the halfway point to pick up my pace, but her comment made me want to push. I’ve learned that when I feel like I’m doing well it motivates me to want to do even better, and likewise, when I feel like I’m doing poorly, I lose my drive and begin to give up. So, to the lady who gave me the ego-boost, I thank you.
I decided to play a different game on the run– I knew I’d be passed by all the crazy fast runners, so I’d only count the women who passed my with 25-29 written on the back of their calves. I was about 2 miles in when I counted the first. I found myself running alongside with a gentleman about the same pace for a little while and for the first time in any race, I actually held a conversation with him. He had a great accent and it was fun listening to him talk. He had a great sense of humor and made many of the spectators laugh when he ran past. It was great, then we hit an aid station and I suppose he must have slowed to grab his beverage, b/c that was the last I saw of him.
I kept passing the mile markers and couldn’t believe how quickly this race was going. At mile 3 I popped an endurolyte. 3-4 girls in my AG had passed me, but I kept my speed and held steady. One girl passed me and was going SO fast, I couldn’t believe her pace. She was definitely a college runner and I had no plans of trying to keep up with her. 
The day seemed to be flying by. My time, however, was not where I wanted it to be. I passed mile marker 4 and shortly after someone yelled “1 and a half to go!!”. I looked at my watch and it said 2:22, I had approximately 8:00 to cross the finish line in order to make my 2:30 goal. I knew it wasn’t going to happen but I pushed anyway, I wanted to get as close as I could. I told myself not to leave anything behind and crank it out- I can rest once I cross the finish line. This felt like a repeat of ITU where I sprinted too early thinking the finish line was closer than it actually was. The end of the course sort of snaked around twisty-turny and there was no telling where the end would turn up. I was holding a (too) fast pace that I couldn’t sustain and ended up having to drop it back a little so I’d have that last spurt of energy to sprint the end. Once I saw the line ahead, I had very little left in the tank but I kicked it in and passed the last two men ahead of me.
Run Splits
Mile 1 - 6:42 (unlikely); max HR 172, avg 169;
Mile 2 - 8:16; 172, 166
Mile 3 - 8:01; 171, 164
Mile 4 - 8:08; 175, 167
Mile 5 - 7:53; 179, 175
Mile 6.2 - 8:51 (also seems wrong); 192, 184
Run time: 47:56; Pace: 7:43 ; Place in AG: 28/268
Overall time: 2:33:53; Place in AG 12/268
I crossed the timing mats and had a momentary lack of balance. A nice volunteer took my arm and insisted he walk me over to the med tent. I assured him I was ok and just needed some water, but he made me talk to one of the medics. I completely understand it was a safety precaution and he was just doing his job. He asked me all sorts of questions to make sure I was cognizant and assess my mental state. It was actually kind of fun to have someone to talk to and tell about my race, plus I got a place to sit and an ice cold water! Despite his attempts to keep me longer and make sure I was in fact healthy, I convinced him to let me leave. The volunteers were top-notch and seemed to not only take their duties seriously, but went above and beyond. Well done, NY, well done.
After I finished I knew I had a while before Charlie finished and with the CROWDS of people, the chances of finding anyone was not gonna be easy. I decided to go wander the finish festival on my own. I picked up my morning clothes bag which really just contained a pair of flip flops and a biz card with my friends’ phone numbers on it. I switched shoes and ventured towards the food area. This was the best post-race spread I’ve ever seen. Bagels (plain, cinnamon raisin, poppyseed, etc), oranges, bananas, apples, etc. There were tons of vendors and free samples and all sorts of goodies like water bottles, Muscle Milk, cytomax, protein bars, glutamine packets, nuts, etc. They handed out drawstring bags to carry all our findings and I filled two of them! They had a massage/stretch area that was pretty empty and with plenty of time to kill, for the very first time, I put myself in line. The line started with 6 chairs with foot massage machines on the ground. It felt alright, nothing to write home about and it kinda grossed me out to be sitting in a chair covered in other athletes’ sweat and put my bare feet on something that several others’ put their bare feet. That’s gotta be a fungus breeding ground if I’ve ever seen one. About 10 minutes later it was my time to be stretched. I told the guy about my IT band and my calf and he did a few really good deep stretches that felt really good.
I kept on exploring and found my way to the crowd-covered posted results. I waited patiently for a spot to view the (unorganized) papers. I finally found my name and ran my finger across the rows and there it was: “total time: 2:33:53”. Not my goal time and slower than my last olympic race, but not bad. I was ok with it. I read the numbers again and realized I actually PR’d my run! I went almost a full minute faster than at ITU (which was a PR, as well) and this course was much hillier! I’m continually making progress in my run, and I love it. I can feel myself becoming stronger and faster and it really encourages me to want to continue the trend. My bike, however, was a big let down. I planned on using this race to test my strength on the bike leg and really drop the hammer. I dropped it alright, fumbled and let it fall. Oh well, can’t win ‘em all and it was a good learning experience and I’m glad I did it. This was a great race and I’d recommend it to anyone.
I got the chance to have a front row spot for the pro awards. Greg Bennett took home the gold for the 4th year in a row- pretty incredible. The announcer handed over the mic to all the podium finishers to recount their races and every single one of them talked about the difficulty of this race. I really didn’t find it to be bad, but maybe my view is just so skewed after racing the infamous hill in Rhode Island. Nothing could compare. Makes me feel good though to have had a decent race on what is apparently one of the tougher courses in the sport. The girls were given their awards and then all 6 of them stayed on the stage for the famous champagne “toast”. My front row spot turned out to be right in the “splash zone” and seconds later I was wet and sticky and smelled like New Years Eve. It was great. Salud!
In Review
Things I did well
• No nerves, put little pressure on myself
Mistakes I made
• Not fastening helmet strap before grabbing bike
• Not double-checking bike computer before race
