NYC Tri

After the Lifetime Fitness Triathlon 2 weeks ago, I returned to New York determined to focus on training for 10 days straight.  Leading up to Lifetime, I kept finding myself distracted in workouts, not really paying attention to what I was doing.  Then, when I got to the race, I did the same thing.  Halfway through the bike ride I found myself just riding and not really thinking about competing for a place on the podium.  It wasn't until the run started that I snapped out of it, but, by then it was too late.  

So, it was back to the compound in NP for some quality training.  Starting the Monday after Lifetime, the plan was to make the most out of every workout and to stay focused on what I was doing, weather it was a hard track workout or an easy run.  I was able to put in some long training days with hilly bike rides and double swims, making each session quality but not over doing things.  

The training block, crafted by my coach, Cliff English, was just what I needed to be ready to race in NYC.  

Things almost didn't go as planned when we set out to leave at 4:15 am on race day.  The darkness we were prepared for, but pouring down rain?  That wasn't part of the race day schedule.  I'm not a huge fan of riding in the rain, especially as part of my race warm up, carrying a transition bag (which was likely to get soaking wet).  Luckily, the rain started to taper off as we were discussing whether or not to take cabs uptown.  We made the decision to ride through it  and 25 minutes later we were in Riverside park.  By the time we got to the swim start, another 20 minute run/walk, I was tired.  Good thing the race was delayed 20 minutes and we had some extra time to recover from the warm up!  

Once we dove into the Hudson, everything turned around.  By the way, when we dove in, it was BLACK.  It was the weirdest feeling.  The surface water was a murky brown, but underneath it was pitch black.  This isn't the first time I've been in the Hudson, but it was definitely the first time I've experienced that darkness.  As usual, the swim was short due to the current.  I was able to sit behind the leaders and then run into the transition area and get on my bike in the lead.  The roads were still wet from the road, so the technical turns at the beginning of the ride were slow.  There was some wind and some huge puddles on the road which I had to go through for fear of getting called for a stagger violation.  There were also a few stretches where glass was all across the road.  As a result, there were groups of people on the side of the road with flats.  

My bike, with its new cranks, worked so well on the hills.  I was able to put my head down and ride and it wasn't until about the turn around when Becky L. first passed me.  After that we went back and forth a few times until she finally stayed out in front of me for the rest of the ride.  I was happy just to keep her in my sights since she's one of the best cyclists out there.  After a casual transition, which would have never flown in an ITU race, I set out to run the 10k race.  It was a huge relief to feel so good coming off the bike.  It took me about a mile to catch Becky.  She was running at a fast pace, so it wasn't easy!  But, once we hit the hills in the park, I felt at home and was able to pick up the pace with each mile.  It helped that I was caught by an elite age group guy.  We ran together trading the lead until the last mile or so when I convinced myself that he was a girl and that I couldn't let him win.  He still "won" though because his overall time was about 15 seconds faster than mine!  

Heading into the finishing chute, the fans in YELLOW were out in full force.  I gave my dad the now traditional high 5 on the way in.  He was the last in a long line of 5's and he wasn't quite ready for such a hard hit.  See karl's blog for an action shot.  New York does things in a big way and this race was no different.  Coming across the line there were at least 20 photographers lined up across the road.  It was like the paparazzi that I see all the time in the west village.  Thanks to John Korff for making this event so big and also for telling me for the last 4 years that one day I was going to win this race!!  Congrats to everyone who raced yesterday--SJ, Karl (my training partner who I forced to compete even though she had to take 16 subways & trains to get to the city late saturday night after racing and winning in south jersey on saturday afternoon), the Team Lipstick ladies, and Becky and Margie for great races and podium finishes.