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07-26-09, 09:43 PM
Hey all, finally completed my first Olympic Distance Tri, the Nautica NYC Triathlon. And I have to say it was awesome, and despite my training schedule that got totally screwed up I am more than satisfied with my performance.
I live 45 minutes (by Train) from NYC but me and my friends thought it would be fun and easier to just stay there so we did. Partied a bit friday night after the race briefings, then saturday dropped off the bikes in transition (my other friend drove them in for us). Of course one of my friends is a moron and realized during dinner he put his bike in the wrong spot, so we go back to transition (at like 9 pm) and luckily the person he took the spot from moved his bike for him. That worked out since we also found out it was gonna rain so we got some plastic bags and covered our bikes.
So we wake up at 4 am and hey wow it DIDN'T rain... We spoke too soon as we planned to hit the subway around 4:30 the Monsoon showed up. Transition was a swampy mess at this point, but ah whatever we are about to go swimming in the Hudson river, eating dirt is cleaner. Unfortunately me and my buddy were situated in the LAST 2 waves (36 and 37) my other friend was far earlier (26 I think).
So we wait it out, watch the current drag the trash by in the water, and then finally make it in. I am a poor swimmer but thanks to the current here I set a PR in a mile at 28:46 on the swim (that said that time is kinda slow and a lot slower than I wanted to be or my friends who were at 20 and 22 min, and we are all in equivalent shape). With about 200M to go I get kicked in the face and it knocks my noseplugs off (yes I know they are a crutch), so I took a crash course in breathing out and pressed onward, I mean what else could I do?
Out of the water and into transition I felt great, hopped on my bike and for some reason my computer went dead, not a game changer but I like to use it to pace myself. It turned on just for some reason wasn't getting any signal (wireless). Problem never ever happened before. Anyway we take off down the West Side Highway, which was just really cool, long rolling hills, some really high speed sections. The fastest I've ever been on my bike was 40mph on a downhill, and based on feeling I was DEFINITELY going faster than that. The bad part here was there were a LOT of crashes. I saw quite a few damaged bikes, and must have been passed 4 or 5 times by ambulances tearing up the road. As well the bumps dumped water bottles everywhere. I'm really glad I got the wheelbuilder disc cover I was following people that I was slowly gaining on in the flat sections, then once the downhills came I was able to completely drop them. I gained back a lot from my poor swim on the bike.
I did however manage to run over one of those water bottles at around 20 mph... I had one of those "wow this is how its gonna end" moments, as on this course there are retaining walls, if you hit them hard enough or the right way you're going over... a cliff... or a bridge (which is where I was). Luckily it was empty so my bike just crushed it however my bike started to make some funny noises after that. It still rode and shifted fine so I'll have to disassemble it tomorrow and see whats up. I finished the bike in 1:32:49 averaging 16.1 mph over 26.2 miles....
I headed out for the run and hit the first water station where they also offer Cytomax (a race sponsor)... Which at this point was a poor choice as soon as i took it in it came right back out. The run was basically uneventful, ran down 72nd st into central park and around. Its really exciting running through the buildings and the big crowds going nuts. I came through the run in 57:16 giving me a 9:14 mile pace (6.2 miles) which I am happy with.
I was hoping to break 3 hours, my T1 was 6:44 and T2 was 3:35 giving me a combined time of 3:09:07 still not bad for my first one. My friends finished in 3:00 flat and 2:51. I've matched and beaten these guys before, however the guy that did 2:51 has upped his training game cause he has a lot of free time, where mine has diminished quite a bit. Plus he can out swim me any day of the week, so I may not have been able to make up the 8 minutes he took me in the swim by, but IMO there no excuse for the 11 minutes he took me by on the bike (I beat him in the run, he took an hour).
Overall I can't wait to do it again next year, anyone else do this event? Pics coming soon!
I live 45 minutes (by Train) from NYC but me and my friends thought it would be fun and easier to just stay there so we did. Partied a bit friday night after the race briefings, then saturday dropped off the bikes in transition (my other friend drove them in for us). Of course one of my friends is a moron and realized during dinner he put his bike in the wrong spot, so we go back to transition (at like 9 pm) and luckily the person he took the spot from moved his bike for him. That worked out since we also found out it was gonna rain so we got some plastic bags and covered our bikes.
So we wake up at 4 am and hey wow it DIDN'T rain... We spoke too soon as we planned to hit the subway around 4:30 the Monsoon showed up. Transition was a swampy mess at this point, but ah whatever we are about to go swimming in the Hudson river, eating dirt is cleaner. Unfortunately me and my buddy were situated in the LAST 2 waves (36 and 37) my other friend was far earlier (26 I think).
So we wait it out, watch the current drag the trash by in the water, and then finally make it in. I am a poor swimmer but thanks to the current here I set a PR in a mile at 28:46 on the swim (that said that time is kinda slow and a lot slower than I wanted to be or my friends who were at 20 and 22 min, and we are all in equivalent shape). With about 200M to go I get kicked in the face and it knocks my noseplugs off (yes I know they are a crutch), so I took a crash course in breathing out and pressed onward, I mean what else could I do?
Out of the water and into transition I felt great, hopped on my bike and for some reason my computer went dead, not a game changer but I like to use it to pace myself. It turned on just for some reason wasn't getting any signal (wireless). Problem never ever happened before. Anyway we take off down the West Side Highway, which was just really cool, long rolling hills, some really high speed sections. The fastest I've ever been on my bike was 40mph on a downhill, and based on feeling I was DEFINITELY going faster than that. The bad part here was there were a LOT of crashes. I saw quite a few damaged bikes, and must have been passed 4 or 5 times by ambulances tearing up the road. As well the bumps dumped water bottles everywhere. I'm really glad I got the wheelbuilder disc cover I was following people that I was slowly gaining on in the flat sections, then once the downhills came I was able to completely drop them. I gained back a lot from my poor swim on the bike.
I did however manage to run over one of those water bottles at around 20 mph... I had one of those "wow this is how its gonna end" moments, as on this course there are retaining walls, if you hit them hard enough or the right way you're going over... a cliff... or a bridge (which is where I was). Luckily it was empty so my bike just crushed it however my bike started to make some funny noises after that. It still rode and shifted fine so I'll have to disassemble it tomorrow and see whats up. I finished the bike in 1:32:49 averaging 16.1 mph over 26.2 miles....
I headed out for the run and hit the first water station where they also offer Cytomax (a race sponsor)... Which at this point was a poor choice as soon as i took it in it came right back out. The run was basically uneventful, ran down 72nd st into central park and around. Its really exciting running through the buildings and the big crowds going nuts. I came through the run in 57:16 giving me a 9:14 mile pace (6.2 miles) which I am happy with.
I was hoping to break 3 hours, my T1 was 6:44 and T2 was 3:35 giving me a combined time of 3:09:07 still not bad for my first one. My friends finished in 3:00 flat and 2:51. I've matched and beaten these guys before, however the guy that did 2:51 has upped his training game cause he has a lot of free time, where mine has diminished quite a bit. Plus he can out swim me any day of the week, so I may not have been able to make up the 8 minutes he took me in the swim by, but IMO there no excuse for the 11 minutes he took me by on the bike (I beat him in the run, he took an hour).
Overall I can't wait to do it again next year, anyone else do this event? Pics coming soon!