The pressure was on. As a two time champion in my age group of the Central Park Triathlon I really wanted to make it three in a row. Before last Sunday’s race I checked out who was competing. The usual cast of characters was there; Bill Nealon and John Megaw - two guys who have beaten me in the past, but I have beaten for the past two years. My old nemesis Basil still isn’t racing so wasn’t going to be there. However, there was a new name in my age group; Stuart Calderwood. He just turned 50, and he is very fast. Last year he came in third overall with a much faster time than I had.
I got to the transition area pretty early and was able to get the first spot on the bike rack, which makes the transitions easier, especially in this race where the racks can get very crowded. After getting myself set up I walked around a bit, and ran into some Terrier Tri teammates - Nate Horne (who won the race overall last year), and Pei-li Guan (her first triathlon). I also saw a friend from the New York Cycle Club A-Sig biking series I did earlier in the year; Jen Saunders (her second triathlon).
My only hope for winning this race was for Stuart to have a really good day and finish in the top three overall – that would leave me with the possibility of wining the age group award. My running injury seems to be healed, but since I didn’t run for so long, I’m not back up to speed yet. So I really had to worry about John and Bill too.
I was to start in the first of four waves. The quarter mile swim is 6 lengths of the enormous Lasker Pool in Central Park with up to 5 people in each of 15 lanes. I was taking my time chatting with people, and by the time I was ready to jump into the pool to warm up, they called everyone out of the water! After a brief talk from the race director it was time to get started. I got into my lane (13) and stood there shivering until they were ready to start. There were initially only two of us in the lane, but eventually a third person arrived.
The horn went off and the race was on. The others in my lane were kind enough to let me go first and I pulled away a little bit on the first lap. But not having warmed up meant that the first lap really hurt! I was breathing really hard, and needed to slow down a bit. I got into a rhythm and pulled a little ahead of the woman in my lane. On the final lap I actually lapped the slower guy in my lane. That doesn’t happen very often!
I got out, and despite lapping a guy, it had been a pretty slow swim again. Most of the bikes from my area were gone already. But now it was time for the bike. We start the two loops of the park (12 miles) by heading up Harlem Hill. It’s not steep, but a rough way to start a ride! I passed Bill (from my age group) before the top of the hill. He’s not a great swimmer either!
I continued passing quite a few people. I felt like I was going pretty well and wasn’t really pushing too hard. I knew I would really need something left for the run. I passed a friend, Neil at about mile five and said “Hi” as I went by. Then I saw John (also in my age group) and said “Hi John” as I passed him. After the race he said that he was glad that he hadn’t heard that!
As I finished the first lap, after passing both John and Bill, I figured that I was probably second in my age group. I continued on to the second lap passing more people from my wave and people from later waves just starting out on their first loop. At the end of the second loop I pulled into transition and was out on the run pretty quickly.
But, as with the bike, we started the run going up Harlem Hill! There are a few hills on the three mile out and back, but I knew that this was the longest and probably the steepest. It was painful! By the top I was panting for air! But I recovered a bit going down the other side, passing a guy in the next age group above me. I settled into a pace that I thought I could maintain for the remainder of the run.
As it’s an out and back you can see who’s ahead of you on the way out and who’s behind you on the way back. About half way out I saw Nate heading back – he was flying! A long time later I saw the second place guy – Tim Oaks. Tim works in a great bicycle shop downtown and actually sold me my new road bike.
Then came the third place person. Rats! It wasn’t Stuart! I guess he wasn’t having a good race. That meant that the best I could hope for was second place. I kept going not knowing if Bill or John were right on my tail or not. Just after the turn around I saw Julie Cook right behind me. I really expected her to pass me before the finish line. A little while later, there was Bill. Time to step on it! I pushed a little bit harder, especially when I was going downhill.
A little while later I saw John. We gave each other a high five as we passed. The last part of the run is going down Harlem Hill. I usually run it in the other direction, and forgot how long it is, even running down it!
Eventually I got to the spot where I crossed the street and headed into transition. Once inside the transition area we make a left turn and run half way around the pool to the finish line. As I made the turn I looked back for the first time and, fortunately, didn’t see anyone! Whew! Bill and John and even Julie hadn’t passed me. I crossed the finish line running as fast as I could anyway and finished in 1:07:44. That was only a minute and a half slower than last year.
I wouldn’t know for sure what position I came in until they announced the official results, since there may have been someone I didn’t know starting in a wave behind me. But I was pretty sure I was second. Not too far behind me came Julie, then Bill, then John. Also Jen came in a few minutes later, and not too far after that Pei-li. She did a great job on her first race.
After most of the people had finished they announced the official results and handed out the trophies. Nate had won overall with a new course record! Tim was second, and I don’t know the guy who came in third. On the women’s side, Stuart’s wife came in second, and Julie was third woman overall. When it came to my age group Stuart had won, and I was second! Bill was third. Poor John, a really nice guy, got shut out again.
Jen actually came in second in her age group and Pei-li was third in the same age group! Great results! It turns out that Stuart had a head on collision in the pool and it took some time for the stars to go away. He also had an incident with another bike going up Harlem Hill, and was forced to stop and restart on the hill. Not a good day for him at all.
I can’t be disappointed with my result. I did pretty well considering the injury, but even at my best I would not have beaten Stuart. But that’s my goal for next year!
I ended up being second of 12 in my age group, 14th of 183 overall. My bike split was the fastest in my age group and the sixth fastest overall. I did better than expected on the run even though it was slower than last year - second in my age group, 19th overall at a pace of about 7:47.
The plan was to race my first half Ironman of the year, Timberman, this weekend up in New Hampshire. But this morning during a bike ride I went down on wet roads and ended up with a lot of road rash and a separated shoulder! I’ll see how I feel tomorrow, but the shoulder hurts quite a bit and I doubt that I can swim 1.2 miles! But I’ll go up anyway to cheer everyone on.
It’s been an interesting season!
Last Sunday I raced the Philadelphia Triathlon, an Olympic distance event, run almost completely in Fairmont Park in Philadelphia. I had signed up for this race last year, but wasn’t able to go as my father was in his final days. He died the Monday after the race last year, so this race was going to be dedicated to Dad.
I drove to Philadelphia on Saturday morning and went to register, check out the transition area and go to the pre-race briefing. Fairmont Park is beautiful although the amount of local traffic getting there was just amazing! The Schuylkill River that we were going to swim in was as smooth as glass. The weather was beautiful, sunny and warm. The forecast for Sunday, however, was for showers in the morning and thunderstorms!
I met up with quite a few Terrier Tri teammates for dinner near the hotel we were all staying at. Houlihan's probably doesn’t provide the best pre-race dinner, but it was close and convenient!
In the morning a friend, Amy and I drove down to transition – it was warm and muggy, but it wasn’t raining yet. The race was to start in eleven waves with two or three hundred people per wave. I was starting in wave eleven – the very last wave! That gave me plenty of time to get myself prepared, but it was going to mean a lot of traffic on the bike course.
The 1500 meter (nearly a mile) swim course was a point to point course. We took a bus to St. Joe’s Boathouse about a mile up the Schuylkill River where we were to start. The swim takes us straight downriver back to transition. I watched wave after wave start and still had plenty of time. But just before 7 AM my wave got called to the dock and we jumped in. There was no noticeable current (unfortunately) and the water was warm and fresh! I’m used to racing in salt water. It still wasn’t raining yet.
We spread ourselves out across the start line which was marked by two orange buoys. They counted down, and we were off! I tried to get into a rhythm and keep thinking about my form. I seemed to swim along one guy for a long time and we both kept crisscrossing paths. I kept an eye on the buoys to make sure I stayed on course. This river apparently gets used a lot by rowers. There were a lot of skulls or sweeps (long row boats) at the Boathouse, and there were lane markers on bridges and even some strung across the river!
I believe that this is the first time that I swam under a bridge during a race. The Columbia Bridge is an old stone bridge and we swam under one of its arches. After the bridge we went another couple of hundred yards and turned right towards the small beach on the side of the river. They had folks there to help us out as it was pretty steep and rocky. I looked over my shoulder and saw swimmers still I the water, so at least I wasn’t the last one out!
I ran to transition trying to get my wetsuit off and really struggle with it. Again! When I got to my bike there were not many bikes left, so my swim was obviously pretty slow. I got my shoes and helmet on and headed to the other end of transition to start the 24 mile bike course. Oh, and it still wasn’t raining!
The bike course looked like it was going to be pretty flat. It’s a two loop course combining very flat Martin Luther King and Kelly Drives with “four short technical climbs and descents”, as the website describes it, to break it all up. I thought that it would be a pretty fast course.
It was fairly fast, but as I suspected it was very crowded. People are supposed to keep to the right and pass on the left. But people were all over the road, and sometimes you just couldn’t get by people. Especially on the climbs which has lots of turns. But I did manage to get by a lot of people. On the first loop only about four or five bikes passed me, but I let them go – they were younger than me and they would have been on their second loop.
Towards the southern end of the loop we got pretty close to town and had a really nice view of the Philadelphia skyline. Then there was a pretty steep downhill just before the end of the first loop. Fortunately it’s the only road I recognized and I knew that there was a sharp turn at the bottom. Apparently there were a few crashed there. I got through it fine and started my second loop. I heard the team coach, Robert, cheering me on as I went by. The second loop was much less crowded as most people were now already on the run.
At the end of the bike I got ready for the 6.2 mile run. It still wasn’t raining! The run course is extremely flat – there couldn’t have been more than ten feet up or down for the whole thing. Since I hadn’t been doing a lot of running lately I expected to be pretty slow on the run. I paced myself and seemed to be able to keep up a reasonable pace. Only two people passed me, but when you start at the back, that isn’t saying much!
I managed to pass quite a few people on the run but really felt exhausted. I hadn’t run this hard for this long in four or five months! The run course is basically two out and backs. First we headed north for about a mile and a half, turned back around and came back to transition. Then we headed south for another mile and a half, turned around and headed back to the finish line. As I started the second out and back I passed a cheering bunch of Terrier Tri teammates!
By the last couple of miles I was really getting tired, but it was only a little further. When I passed the 5 mile marker I tried to imagine where I would be in Central Park a mile from finishing a run. It would be Cat Hill. Here at least I didn’t have a hill to climb!
Anyway, I finally reached the finish line. My watch said 2:36:57. I was really hoping for better than 2:30 so was a little disappointed. But considering how little running and swimming I’ve been doing lately it wasn’t too bad. I ended up being 17th out of 91 in my age group. I had the 7th fastest bike split in my age group (21.6 mile an hour average), and my run was just under an eight minute a mile pace.
There was a familiar name ahead of me though. My cousin Steve’s old college roommate, Nace, is in my age group and was in third place. He was way ahead of me!
So it was a fun race, and it never did rain. Not the best result to dedicate to Dad, but not too bad.
The water off of Hempstead Harbor Park was absolutely calm, not even a ripple, with a mist over it so you could barely see across Hempstead Harbor. It was a warm and humid morning when Nicole, Tatiana, and I arrived for the Long Island Gold Coast Triathlon in Port Washington early on Sunday.
This was going to be Nicole’s first triathlon. She was nervous, but I think, more prepared than most first timers. Tatiana was fresh off of a half Ironman, so she was prepared. This was going to be my first triathlon after having a problem with a pulled muscle in my leg. It’s a sprint race, in other words short, with just a three mile run, so I figured my legs could handle it.
I ran into quite a few people I knew from the Terrier Tri team as well as the NY Flyers running club I belong to.
I was starting the swim in the second of nine or ten waves so I had to be ready to go before the 7:30 start. I got my wetsuit on and gingerly stepped into the water. I had been told it was cold, and remembered it being cold last year. But I was surprised how warm it was! The goggles I wore were tinted brown, so that made everything look warm too. I swam a little way out for a warm up, and then headed back to shore for the start. My first swim in two months!
I didn’t recognize anyone in my wave and I was surprised at the diversity of ages. There were, appropriately enough, the old guys, but a lot of young guys and women too. I don’t know how they divided us up at all. We started the half mile swim in ankle deep water and instead of starting all the way in the back the way I usually do, I got closer to the front. When the horn went off we ran into deeper water and dove in.
I pretty quickly settled into a rhythm, and really didn’t have too much interference from other swimmers. Often I was completely alone – and yet still on course! Every once in a while I’d bump into someone, but I’d keep swimming. The course took us straight out to a buoy where we make a left to another buoy where we make another left back to shore.
As I hadn’t been swimming in months, I didn’t really expect to do too well. I kept trying to concentrate on my form, but my mind wandered a lot, thinking about the transitions coming up, how I would do on the bike, how my leg was going to hold up on the run, what I would write about in the race report! When I did concentrate I think my form was not too bad. I was actually passing people from the wave that started four minutes ahead of me.
I kept an eye on where I was going and stayed on course pretty well. I never saw anyone from the wave behind me pass, but I’m sure some had by the end. When I got close to shore I tried standing up, but there was no bottom! Rats! I had to start swimming again. When I saw the guy next to me standing I tried again and this time I had more luck finding the bottom. It takes me a few seconds to get used to standing again, but then I started running towards transition peeling off my wetsuit as I went.
When I got to transition I struggled, again, to finish getting the wetsuit off! Such a waste of time! I really need one that fits better and comes off more easily!
Once free of it though, I got my biking shoes on, got my helmet, my glasses, and grabbed my bike. I was pretty close to the bike exit from transition so I was on the bike for the twelve mile ride in no time. I took it fairly easy to start with – I often start off too hard and burn out. We ride out onto West Shore Drive and head north for about a quarter of a mile where there’s a tight U-turn. Then we head south and make a right turn into an industrial area, make another tight U-turn, and head back out to West Shore Drive and continue south. Then we make another right turn back into the industrial area and make a loop out onto West Shore Drive where we make a left and head back north to the start. We ride this loop twice. On the first loop there wasn’t too much traffic, but by the second loop there were a lot more bikes out there and it got really crowded.
I kept an eye on my speedometer. Last year, according to the official results, I averaged 24.3 mph. This time I was rarely seeing any speeds like that. I was passing people, but it didn’t look like I was averaging 24.3. The U-turns were getting really crowded. Fortunately most people took them very wide and I was able to pass three of four people at a time by taking the turns tighter.
By the end of the ride nobody had passed me. In a longer race I hear that that’s a sign that you’re riding too fast and you’ll pay for it in the run. For a short race like this that rule doesn’t apply. At least I hope it doesn’t!
Once back in transition I racked the bike, and changed into my running shoes and headed to the other end of transition to start the three mile run. As I was leaving transition, I saw Nicole heading in from her swim. She didn’t look like she was having a good time! Within a few hundred yards of the run we go up a few stairs onto the boardwalk that we run along for a while. Just after reaching the boardwalk, I ran past my old swim coach Neil Cook.
I wanted to take the run easy, as that’s where my pulled muscle had been bothering me. This course has us running up stairs, up and down curbs, onto and off of grass; all things that might aggravate the injury again, so I was really being careful. I was getting passed by quite a few people, but I just let them go. I ran at my own pace.
My legs felt fine, but tired. I hadn’t run this fast in months. The run course is basically two loops, and about half way through the second loop I picked up the pace a little bit, at least I tried to. As I was approaching the finish line I resisted the temptation to go flat out. That, and I was exhausted! I crossed the finish line in a round 1:13 something! Very similar to last year’s time!
A little while later I saw Nicole coming in on the bike. I went up to cheer her on from the boardwalk as she started her run. She was as white as a sheet. She said that she didn’t feel good and was having an asthma attack, something that hasn’t happened to her in years! I was sure she was going to stop, but she said that she wanted to keep going! I saw her again as she started her second loop, and she didn’t seem much better.
Once she finished the race I tried to talk her into talking to the medical staff, but she thought she’d be OK. After a while she was and she could breathe again. What a trooper, I think I would have bailed a long time ago!
I ended up being 5th in my age group – same as last year! My time was actually 18 seconds faster than last year – so it’s another course PR! My swim time was about a minute faster than last year, my bike time was 25 seconds faster, and my run, as expected, was about a minute and a half slower. However, out of the 38 finishers in my age group I was the fastest biker (by 18 seconds)! I was very surprise that I was the 9th fastest swimmer and the 8th fastest runner too! My transitions still need work. I lost 4th place because of a really slow first transition. The distances in this race I think are all wrong. I really don’t believe that I averaged over 24 miles an hour on the bike, or ran better than 7 minute miles, but we all run the same course and it’s a fun race anyway.
The rest of the Terrier Tri team did really well. There were two first place finishes, and Tatiana, who I gave a ride to, was third in her age group!
As miserable a time as Nicole had, she plans on doing more!
Since the race my leg has been bothering me a little, so I’ll lay off it for a few days. I plan on doing an Olympic length race next weekend in Philadelphia! Wish me luck!
I started this year with plans for racing my first full Ironman as well as lots of other races from sprints to several half Ironman’s. But early in the year something happened - I pulled a muscle in my leg. It came from nowhere and it hurt whenever I ran, so it stopped me from running for quite a while. After three months of doctor’s visits and often very painful physical therapy I am finally starting to run again. But my triathlon season is in question. I have already missed three races, and I will probably miss several more before I feel fully healed. That means that I probably won’t be doing the Ironman this year.
However, all was not lost. I couldn’t run, but I was able to ride a bike without any problems. So I rode a lot! The New York Cycle Club, which I’ve belonged to for years, has spring training programs called the SIGs (for Special Interest Groups). They have different levels starting with C which is fairly slow, up though several B groups, an A-19 group and on up to the original Sig; the A-Classic.
I started the A-Classic Sig a few years ago, and had a pretty hard time with it. The first ride in March had been my first ride since November and I was really out of shape. No matter how fit you are, if you don’t ride for months you are not going to be very fast on the bike. I struggled to keep up from day one. I almost had to walk up one of the hills they took us up on that first ride! I got faster, but so did the rides and I could never keep up. After weeks of struggling and dreading each ride, I swallowed my pride and moved down to the A-19 group. My first ride with them was great! I was finally able to keep up.
However weather, races and work conspired to force me to miss a few rides, and if you miss more than two, you’re out of the program. So I never “graduated”. Ever since then I have trained on the bike over the winter, either outside on the road, or in spin classes or trainer classes (where you put your own bike on a trainer and ride indoors.)
This year, since I couldn’t run I thought I’d give the A-Sig (A-Classic) another shot. I had been training all winter, and I was in pretty good shape. Several of the A-Sig leaders were friends of mine and I thought that it would be fun. I was pretty sure I could keep up this time, but was concerned about being able to make the 12 rides, I didn’t want to miss too many again.
So on Saturday, March 1st, we had our first ride. We rode out to Westwood, New Jersey. I remembered the ride from a few years ago, and remembered Walnut – the hill that almost got me last time on the way home! That year I was the last one up the hill. One of the leaders actually came back to see if I was OK! This year I was the first one up it! I’m sure that the leaders let me go first, but I wanted to make a point to myself; this year was going to be different!
Every Saturday they forecast rain, but almost every Saturday we rode (usually it was not raining). The rides got longer, the rides got faster, and we all learned to ride as a group. Instead of being a scattered group of riders, we were riding in a nice clean, cooperative pace line or double pace line. It was really a great experience. I wasn’t always the first up the hills, but I was never too far behind those that were. Instead of dreading each Saturday, I was hoping for dry weather so we could ride!
I was having such a good time I decided that it was time for a new bike! The one I was on (an Aluminum Trek 2300) was about 7 years old, and I wanted something newer. For a while I had had my eye on and eventually I bought a new Cervelo Soloist Carbon! This bike is all carbon fiber, light, beautiful, strong and handles great. It has won just about every accolade and award a bike can win from bike magazines around the world! I love it!
The rides were all great, usually on great roads with amazing scenery and lots of hills. A lot of the rides took us on roads I used to ride on motorcycles with my friends from Long Island! We even stopped and ate at some of the same diners!
On May 10th I was supposed to do the Spring Couples Relay with Caty. That’s the race where one person runs two miles, one rides 12 miles, and then we both get in a boat and row for almost a mile. Caty and I had won our age group in this race for two years in a row – almost winning it outright one year. I planned on missing the A-Sig ride that day so I could race the Relay. It was going to be my only race against my old nemesis, Basil, this year! Caty had moved out of New York since last year’s race, but I knew she was in town a lot. I sent a couple of emails to Caty to see if she was going to be able to race, but I didn’t hear back from her.
In the meantime, this A-Sig ride was going to be the “Participant Led Ride”. The A-Sig leaders chose six participants to take the lead for the day. That meant doing everything from scouting the ride, taking attendance, checking the weather – to make the call on riding on Saturday or Sunday, making sure everyone had cue sheets (directions) and maps, keeping the hordes under control, etc. Anyway, I heard that I was one of the people they had chosen to be a leader for the day!
As I hadn’t heard from Caty, and I was so honored to be chosen to be a leader, I decided to skip the race and lead the ride. Unfortunately Caty didn’t know that and showed up for the race that day and I wasn’t there – so sorry Caty!
The week before the ride the six of us were busy with the tasks that we had volunteered for. Mario and I took that Tuesday off and we went out to scout the ride. It was about an 88 mile ride to Cold Spring. On Saturday the ride went pretty well. My co-leader, Jen, had a little off-road excursion and fell over going around a pretty fast turn, but she was able to ride the rest of the trip with us. We didn’t lose anyone, no other major accidents, and nobody got lost. We all survived!
The next weekend was the final ride; the graduation ride. We started in Central Park, rode up to and to the top of Bear Mountain, then rode back again. A 116 mile round trip! It was a great ride and again the forecast rain didn’t happen. We broke up into small groups on Seven Lakes Drive on the way up Bear Mountain. Fabienne, one of the leaders, Mitch, and I ended up starting Perkins Drive to the top Bear Mountain first. Mitch hit the summit just before I did. The view from there was amazing! I’d been up it twice before but don’t remember being able to see Manhattan from the summit before.
Once we all made it to the top, we took lots of pictures, congratulated each other, shook each other’s hands and headed home again! Once we got back to Central Park another of the leaders, Allison, was waiting there with Champagne and shrimp to celebrate! We also had a graduation dinner that night which was a lot of fun.
Since then I’ve continued to ride with some of the crew on Tuesday mornings. I have slowly started to run again, and am now up to running six miles again. I’m not very fast, but my leg feels great and I’ll slowly start to build up the speed again (I hope!)
In fact tomorrow I will be doing my first triathlon of the year; the Gold Coast Triathlon in Port Washington, Long Island. I did this race last year, and the year before that I think. It’s a really short sprint, and I hope to finish not too far off my time from last year. I don’t expect to have a great swim time or run time, but my bike time better be faster!
If this race goes well, I’ll be doing an Olympic length race next weekend in Philadelphia.
I’ll keep you posted!
Before I get into the race I ran today, I thought I’d look back at last year’s race results. I didn’t compete in as many races as I had in the previous year, but it was still a pretty good one, despite getting a late start after having surgery in January.
Last year I competed in twelve races: 3 running races (including a marathon), and 9 multisport events. Four of these were sprint distance events, three were Olympic distance triathlons, and two were half Ironman distance triathlons. The total distance I raced was 328.7 miles (5.8 swimming, 108 miles running, 214.1 biking and three quarters of a mile rowing) taking a total of 27 hours, 58 minutes and 36.5 seconds! I had two course PRs (personal bests), and five overall PRs. There were 6 top ten finishes which included two age group wins!
After my marathon report last year I got an email from my friend Margie. After all the PRs she had read about she said, “I hope you won't be super disappointed if, one day, you don't beat your own record.”
With that very much on my mind this morning I headed to Central Park for the first race of the year; the NYRR Fred Lebow Classic, a five mile race. This morning was a perfect day for running; cool and sunny. I usually walk up to the Park and run to the race start as my warm-up. This year the start seems to have been moved further south, so I only had a couple of hundred yards of warm-up.
I was really not prepared to race today; I have been running, but slowly for base training. I haven’t done any speed-work for months, so I knew that a PR wasn’t in the cards. I want to qualify for the NYC Marathon next year, so I need to run nine races this year, so I ran it anyway. Besides I’m the new New York Flyers Veterans (50+) team captain, so I want to set a good example!
I lined up towards the front of the 7 minute mile pace people and didn’t see anyone I knew there. It wasn’t really crowded – the races get much more crowded at the end of the year when everyone is trying to get their ninth race in. After a few speeches the horn blew and we were off.
Sort of. It takes a while for any movement to get back to where I started. About a minute later I crossed the start line. The course was crowded enough that it took a while to get up to speed. People who shouldn’t be up front always are, so you have to get around them.
It’s pretty flat where we started, then pretty soon we make a left turn to cross to the west side at the 102 Street transverse. This means we don’t have to climb Harlem Hill. It also means we get a nice downhill section, and I tried to take advantage of it passing a lot of people.
At the first mile marker, where they have a clock, I could see that I was running sub 8 minute miles. By the second mile marker it looked like I was running right around 7 minute miles! I didn’t feel as though I were running that fast. I was thinking that I should start recording these mile splits by pushing a button on my watch. For some reason I never got into the habit of doing that, but it would be interesting to see those results.
As we were passing Tavern on the Greene at the southern part of the park I could feel that I was slowing down. I am not use to running at this pace right now. Someone famous, don’t remember who, said that racing was 90% mental. I think I need work on this part of my racing. When I was really feeling tired my mind would say that this race doesn’t matter and I could slow down. Then I would think, I can’t quit and slow down, so I would push a bit harder. I could actually feel the difference in speed as my mind bounced back and forth! As I said, I need to work on this!
At the bottom of Cat Hill, at around the 4th mile marker, I knew that this was the last “major” climb of the race. I pushed a little harder up it, but hoping to leave a little for the rest of the last mile. Right towards the end I managed to think positive and pushed hard. I crossed the finish just after the clock read 37 minutes. Not having crossed the start line for a minute my net time was somewhere around 36 minutes. Faster than I thought I was.
After crossing the finish line I ran into a few Terrier Tri teammates; Robert, Eric and Allison. A little further down I ran into some other New York Flyers, including Richard and Pat. Richard had PRed and was very excited. I knew my time was close to a PR but couldn’t do the mental arithmetic to figure it out!
A little while ago the results came out. I ended up being three seconds short of my last PR. My time was 36:02 (my PR last year was 35:59) for a pace of 7:12. I ended up 23rd of 189 in my age group. I was very pleased with that – it was much faster than I expected to go. See Margie? I can handle it. I know that the PRs have to stop sooner or later; I’m just hoping it’s later by a few more years!
Richard did really well. His time was 33:52 for a pace of 6:39! Allison was even faster: 33:05 for a pace of 6:37 – 5th in her age group! I actually beat Robert (my coach) by a second! Pat was the fastest of all; his time was 31:16 for a pace of 6:15 – and he ran injured!
So 2008 is off to a pretty good start. I have three more running races coming up in the next couple of months. My main emphasis for this year though is training for my first full Ironman. I’ll be competing in Lake Placid on July 20th! 140.6 miles! That’s almost half the distance I raced for all of last year – in one race!
I was bundled up as if I were going skiing on Sunday morning when I headed to 86th and Lexington for the New York Flyers marathon bus. The temperature was in the low forties and I knew I’d be waiting in the cold for hours before we started to run in the New York City Marathon. I arranged to meet Andrea in time for the 5:30 bus to Staten Island where the marathon starts. Fortunately daylight savings time ended that same morning so we got an extra hour of sleep. This being a Flyers bus, I knew quite a few people on board.
I’ve done this race three times so far and was never happy with my results. My best time to-date was 4:42:30 which is a lot slower than I should be able to do it. I was hoping for 3:45 or so this time. This year I was better trained for a marathon than I ever had been before. I ran several long runs (18, 20, 21, and 20 miles) and felt great after each one so I was really optimistic.
After getting lots of advice and from past experience I wanted to keep a few things in mind and I had a plan. I needed to stay hydrated as I usually dehydrate pretty badly. This time I would not skip as many water stops along the course. I was even starting the race carrying a full water bottle. I needed to take in calories. I usually don’t take on any food until the stop at mile 18 where they supply gels. This time I was carrying a container with five gels in it. I planned on finishing that by mile 18 and pick up another when I get there. And I needed to control my pace. I wanted to run an even pace for the whole race. Ideally I wanted to run an 8:23 mile pace, but anything around that would be fine. If I needed to I hoped to be able to push at the end. I did want to make sure I did not try to make up for the expected slow start all at once and blow up before the end. I needed to hold back.
This year I actually had a pretty good number – 10882. The numbers went up into the 40000s so I was up towards the front. One year I was so far back it took me 23 minutes to cross the start line! This year should be better. It also meant that there were fewer people to have to navigate around so I could concentrate on running an even pace.
After getting off the bus on Staten Island at about 6 o’clock I wandered around the huge staging area. It was so cold. I had several layers on and ski gloves, and I was still cold. I was in line for the bathroom with a girl who was shivering so violently she could hardly stand up. I offered her one of my jackets, but she said she had something somewhere to put on. Apparently Andrea was also freezing cold. She didn’t have as much with her as I did.
I ran into Tara and Wendi from work. I have a running (no pun intended) competition with Tara – she has beaten me in the last two marathons we ran together. This year I planned on beating her. This was going to be Wendi’s first marathon. I ran into Inga and Sal as well. This was Sal’s first marathon and Inga planned on running with him. I chatted with them for a while – then it was time to get into our “corrals”. First I had to take all my warm clothes off – I planned on running in shorts and a T-shirt – put them in a bag and drop the bag off at my assigned UPS truck.
What a disaster! There were over 10,000 people trying to get to the trucks and back through one small opening! After 15 minutes of trying we had moved about 10 feet closer. The trucks were about 50 feet away and my truck was at the other end of a long string of trucks – about a hundred yards away! And the race was supposed to start in 20 minutes! Slowly we moved forward and finally we walked through and over some bushes to get to the trucks! I eventually got to my truck and gave them my bag. Instead of trying to battle my way through that crowd again I had the brilliant idea to go around another way that I thought would take me back to the same spot. It didn’t! Now I had to push my way through a whole different crowd of people moving from their corrals to the bridge. When I finally got to where I was supposed to be there was only a minute or two before the race start, and I was lined up with people whose numbers were in the 20000s and 30000s. So much for having a great number this year – I was half way back in the crowd again! And I was not in a good mood to boot!
I could not see the start but heard the canon go off. The race had begun! It took me almost 7 minutes to cross the start line this time. The first mile is all uphill to the apex of the Verrazano Bridge. It took a while with people stopping to take pictures and people starting to walk already. The whole bridge was very crowded. I passed the first mile market at about 8 minutes 45. Below the pace I wanted but that was expected. I just tried to keep in mind not to try making it all up at once – it’s a long race. But as the second mile was all downhill, speeding up was easy and I was already back on target.
The crowds in Brooklyn are amazing. They expected 2 million spectators and it looks like most of them were in Brooklyn. There were bands playing music every mile or so, and everyone was cheering us on. We spend a long time running up 4th Avenue. It’s amazing to see miles and miles of road filled with runners in all different colors. I kept an eye on my times and for most of the time I was close to being on target. The roads were really crowded and I figured that it would be easier to run when the crowds thinned out.
I was good about staying hydrated. I used my water bottle and took Gatorade whenever it was offered, which was every mile or so. I took in a little food (Gu) every once in a while too. The water stops were particularly crowded. People would run in front of you to get to the water, and then stop to drink. I managed to keep running and had to run around the people who stopped. Of course drinking while running is an adventure all its own. For future reference, Gatorade in the eyes stings!
I was afraid that I might regret only wearing a T-shirt and shorts with the temperatures staring in the forties and only getting into the low fifties. I did have a pair of gloves on and I felt pretty comfortable once I got running.
There are several “Pace Group” leaders running with us. If you want to run a 4:00 marathon, you follow the pace leader with a 4:00 on his or her back. I had passed several pace leaders along the way – 5:00, 4:30, 4:00. I was looking for 3:45 or 3:40 for myself. But I came up to some 3:50 pace leaders – there were about 10 of them and with all the people following them they were blocking the entire road! As I wanted to get up to the 3:40 pace leaders I had to get past them – it took forever as they would not let people through.
We cross the Pulaski Bridge to cross into Queens right at the half way point. The first half marathon had taken 1:52:45 or so – just a little shy of the time needed to make it in 3:45. I felt pretty good still. I remembered in my first marathon I had started to walk by here. The crowds in Queens were pretty big and enthusiastic too. We only spend a few miles in Queens and then we start climbing the Queensboro (59th Street) Bridge. And it is a long, long climb! Almost a mile.
While climbing the bridge the 3:50 pace group started nipping at my heels again. Either I was slowing down, or they were speeding up! I held them off for a little bit, but after the top they passed me and I just let them go. I wanted to run my race. They seemed to be going faster than 3:50 anyway.
Once we got into Manhattan the crowds of spectators in Brooklyn looked anemic! They were 10 people deep on both sides of 1st Avenue as we headed uptown! I looked for a friend, Sari, who was watching from 63rd Street, and Jeanine who was in the low 90s, but the crowds were so large there wasn’t much chance of finding anyone! I tried to be aware of the temptation to start running too fast with all the cheering and excitement; I held back a little.
At mile 18 near 95th Street I knew that the Flyers would be there with a Power Gel – more food – I had just finished off what I started with. I think it was Sherri that handed me one, and I saw quite a few other friends there.
From that point on, though, the running started to get harder and harder. My pace had slowed down and my legs were starting to get tired. At the end of 1st Avenue we run over the Willis Avenue Bridge into the Bronx. This is the infamous mile 20 where people “hit the wall”! I wasn’t running quickly, but I never felt the need to stop. I did hear bagpipes playing and looked for my piper friend Pat Duffy. He and the other two bagpipers were walking in the same direction I was running while playing and I ran to the side to give Pat a tap on the shoulder as I went by.
In my first marathon I did hit the wall here. I remember having to sit down and I was shaking and really wondered if I would be able to finish at all. Fortunately this year I felt much better.
We are only in the Bronx for one mile and the crowds were small but pretty energetic. Mile 21 is on the Madison Avenue Bridge back into Manhattan. It felt good to actually still be running – this is the farthest I’ve ever run without stopping! 5.2 miles to go – not even the length of one loop of Central Park! My feet were starting to cramp up. They would hit the ground with a slight twist – it felt weird but wasn’t a problem yet.
Back in Harlem the crowds were bigger than I remembered. I saw one friend Katie, and heard another, Andreas, shout out my name. At 119th Street I was looking for Nina. I saw her but she didn’t see me. After shouting to her a couple of times she saw me. By this time I must have looked pretty sad though. My legs were really aching and I could feel that I was getting slower and slower.
This marathon was billed as the largest marathon in the world. I believe it. The course was crowded from start to finish, it never thinned out. In Harlem it was made worse by crowds of spectators on the street leaving only a narrow lane for everyone to squeeze through.
At 110th Street Central Park starts on your right. So does a long uphill climb to 90th Street! I kept on running, more and more slowly. I saw Sandy on the right. I was looking for Basil where his Hashers team was, but didn’t see him. Finally at 90th Street the hill ended and we turned into Central Park. Home at last! Not even a half loop left now.
People were passing me left, right and center by now. I was really feeling the aching in the legs and I was really slowing down. Even as I started to run down Cat Hill I didn’t pick up any speed. No more holding back now – I was going flat out! Flat out just wasn’t very fast. I saw Karen and Robert on the way down the hill. As I passed each mile marker I would try to do some mental arithmetic. My 3:40 was long gone, 3:50 was not looking good, but 4 hours was still attainable. Just keep running.
We leave Central Park at the southern end and run along Central Park South for about half a mile. This was hillier than I remembered. I kept on plodding. I passed the “1/2 mile to go” sign, immediately followed by the “800 yards to go” sign. At Columbus Circle we turn back into the Park. I made sure not to try jumping the curb, I knew my legs would cramp up if I did, so I looked for the wheelchair ramp onto the sidewalk. “400 yards to go”. “200 yards to go”. At the “100 yards to go” sign I saw the clock – nearly 4 hours! I ran as hard as I could for the last 100 yards (“as hard as I could” was a 9:31 pace as it turned out!) My legs started to cramp at about 50 yards. I was running with a limp until the cramp went away. I crossed the finish line! Just under 4 hours! After four attempts I finally broke the 4 hour mark, and more importantly ran my first complete marathon non-stop!
It felt great to stop! I had about a mile to walk to get a finishers medal, get a goodie bag with food and drinks and to get to the UPS truck. On the way I made the mistake of sitting down. I needed help to get up again! I ran into Heather who had also just finished.
My official time was 3:59:32. That’s 42 minutes and 58 seconds faster than I’ve done it before. I was 15 minutes short of my goal, but I’ll save that for next time! I was 909th out of 2,903 in my age group, 11,619th overall out of about 38,000 finishers. I was in the top third this time. Before this I was always much further back.
This year I finally beat Tara from work! She had a hard time with cramping in her legs. Wendi did great despite also cramping. Andrea planned on running slowly as she’s coming back from an injury, but was in a lot of pain. She didn’t enjoy the day! Inga and Sal also had a good day although I don’t think Sal wants to do a second marathon!
Lance Armstrong also raced this year – he just beat me by one hour and 13 minutes – so close!
So that’s the last major race of the year. I’ll probably be doing some short running races over the next few months just to keep in shape. So stay tuned for more race reports!
This is marathon week in New York with the New York City Marathon only a few days away. The week started with the Poland Spring Marathon Kickoff, a 5 mile running race, last Sunday. I had only got back from North Carolina the previous evening and really hadn’t thought much about doing the race, but as I really hadn’t done any running races since January, before my surgery, I thought I could use the practice. So I got up early on Sunday and headed down to the southern end of Central Park. Running the mile and a half to the start was my warm-up, and I felt really sluggish! As I hadn’t actually signed up for the race yet I had to do it there and then. There were a lot of people around, but I didn’t recognize anyone – pretty unusual.
The race finishes at the same spot in Central Park that the marathon finishes, and as we were only doing the 5 mile loop, the start of the race was right there too. Lining up became difficult with all the fences and grand stands they have already set up. I tried to squeeze into the start between the 7 and 8 minute per mile markers, it was really crowded. One of the speakers before the race commented that anyone doing the marathon should not really be racing this race, but to just use it as a warm-up. No PRs (personal records) today.
It was pretty chilly – in the mid 50s I think. In the past I’ve always overdressed when it was this cold, and overheated during the race. This time I just wore a short sleeved shirt and shorts. I’d be warm soon enough!
Once we got started it was the usual problem of trying to navigate though the crowd. It was a good mile before I had any free room to run at all. The sluggishness was gone and I ran fairly quickly, but was not really going all out. I have been experimenting lately with what the coaches have been telling me – lift my knees, kick my heels up and pump my arms. In practice I found that with a little more energy I actually seemed to go quite a bit faster. So I was lifting my knees, kicking my heels up and pumping my arms whenever I remembered – it’s still not coming naturally.
We were running the Central Park loop clockwise, which is the opposite direction to how I normally run it. I feel that this is the easier way as the hills aren’t so steep in this direction. But it’s always fun to see the park from a different angle.
On my second mile I saw the first person I knew, Neil Cook – a swim coach – I said hello as I passed him. Just as I was coming to the 102 Street transverse where we were making a right turn, I saw the first person I knew from The New York Flyers running club; Jaime. I said hello as I passed her. The transverse is all uphill, and I felt myself slowing down quite a bit and thought that she might pass me back. Fortunately she didn’t.
At about half distance I was feeling pretty good. I wasn’t going really hard, but just hard enough to get a respectable time, lifting my knees, kicking my heels up and pumping my arms when I remembered. At about mile three, I came up to another New York Flyer, Glen, who I know is a lot faster than me. He said that he was trying to run at marathon pace (which I should have been doing) and that he was finding it hard not to get caught up in the race and running faster. I was thinking that I still wanted a respectable time (better than 8 minutes a mile) so I just kept going at the pace I had been running.
At the southern end of the park, just before we turn towards the finish line several guys went flying past me but I kept going at my own pace. A lot of the last few hundred yards is uphill – not steep, but uphill none the less. In the last hundred yards I picked up the pace working on trying to maintain perfect form – lifting my knees, kicking my heels up and pumping my arms! I felt like I was running pretty fast and was passing quite a few people, although several were passing me. After crossing the finish line I checked my time. Just about 36 minutes. That was fast! Way faster than I thought I had been going! I am hoping that I didn’t screw up my marathon by running too hard.
As it turns out, my time was 35:59 - a new PR! Oops! It was 5 seconds faster than I’ve ever run that distance before with a pace of just over 7:11 per mile. According to the results I was 18th out of 244 in my age group – I don’t think I’ve ever placed so high in a running race before – in the top 8%! Overall I was 548th out of 5,973 – in the top 10% again.
So tomorrow night I’ll be picking up my marathon race packet then going to a pasta dinner with the New York Flyers. On Sunday morning I’ll be taking a 5 AM bus to the race! Fortunately we get an extra hour’s sleep as the clocks get turned back that night. The race starts at 10:10 and I hope to be finished 3 hours and 45 minutes later. We’ll see how it goes. Wish me luck!
I arrived at the race site in Sag Harbor at just after five in the morning and was directed to parking area B which was just east of the transition area of the Mighty Hamptons Olympic length triathlon. It was cold, dark and breezy, the air was crystal clear and you could see every star in the sky. There were only a few lights set up in the transition area and it was hard to see anything. Reading the numbers on the bike racks to find the correct rack was difficult. My number was 606 and eventually I found the rack numbered 600 – 620. There was already one bike on the rack and he had taken the best end spot. So I took the second best spot next to his bike on the other side of the pole.
It was so dark I didn’t even try to start setting up, I could not see anything. So I wandered up and down the transition are to make sure I knew where we enter and leave the transition area with the bike and when running (not wanting to repeat the last race’s fiasco not knowing where I was supposed to start the run). I saw (barely) quite a few friends who were also racing. Most of them were Terrier Tri teammates that I had shared a house with the previous night, but there were also a lot of friends from another New York City clubs.
Did I mention that it was cold? The forecast had been for 43 degrees, but I don’t think it was quite that cold, but needless to say, everyone was bundled up. As the sun came closer to rising the sky got a little lighter and I was able to set up my transition area. By now several more bikes were on the rack – even another Cervelo just like mine. Once there was enough light to see the bay that we were going to swim in I saw that it was much calmer than I expected. The previous afternoon the winds had picked up and it was getting pretty choppy.
I did this same race in 2004. I remember that morning also being very cold, but much windier. There were white caps all across the bay back then – the swim was very difficult, as was the bike. It took me 3:04:46 to finish back then and I really hoped to do a lot better this year.
The swim started at about 6:45 with five waves each starting about four minutes apart. I was starting in the third wave. I saw Robert, the Terrier Tri coach, a few minutes before I was supposed to start and he suggested getting into the water to warm up, something I really knew I should do, but usually don’t. The water was pretty warm. I swam out a little bit and felt pretty comfortable. By now the sun was up and I put on my tinted goggles; they made everything appear to be much warmer.
We start the swim in the water lining up between two large, triangular buoys. The course takes us west parallel to the beach for almost half a mile keeping a row of smaller buoys to our left. Then we make a left turn around another big, triangular buoy swim about 10 yards, make another left and head back parallel to the beach again back to where we started.
I started pretty close to the middle of the course just behind one row of swimmers. When the horn went off we started. I always start the swims trying to get into a rhythm and think about my stroke; long reach, correct arm strokes, keep my shoulders and head down. But I always seem to get back to just surviving the swim. It started out being pretty crowded with people pushing from both sides. I stayed on course pretty well and soon I was actually passing a few people from my wave and even passing people from the two waves that started before me. I don’t remember that ever happening before! Some of them were actually stopped in the water and I had to avoid running into them. Now I know how I look to the good swimmers! And to get things back in perspective before I got half way, I was being passed by the good swimmers from the wave behind me!
After I made the two turns and was heading back to the start the water got really cold. It warmed up again a bit further on. I continued on thinking that I was doing pretty well. Once I got out though I checked my watch. 38 minutes. Not as good as I had hoped!
I ran into transition unpeeling the top of the wetsuit. Once I got to the bike I struggled to get the wetsuit off again! It took forever. Then I had the hardest time balancing to get my socks and bike shoes on. This was taking forever. It was still pretty cold and I was debating what to wear. I had on my normal tri top and shorts. I had brought along some arm warmers, leg warmers and a long sleeve biking jacket in case I needed it. I decided to risk being cold and leave everything behind.
I ran with my bike to the bike start and as I was getting on I heard Robert saying “Let’s go Bob. This is what you like to do!” For the first hundred yards or so there was a very narrow lane and there was no room to pass. There was someone ahead of me who was going painfully slowly. I stayed behind him and someone from behind squeezed past. Once I got out of the narrow lane I passed them both and took off for the 24 mile bike leg.
I usually start the bike leg too hard, so tried making sure that I didn’t this time. I passed a few bikes on my way past Millstone Road where the team house (and the old Bridgehampton race track) was. The bike course was really pretty crowded; there were people all over the road, most not keeping to the right as they are supposed to. There were a lot of rolling hills but nothing particularly steep and the roads were mostly in pretty good condition. There was one really nice flat section without a lot of traffic where I was really able to move. My bike computer seemed to have crashed so I didn’t know how fast I was actually going.
As cold as it was I never even noticed the temperature, so I made the right call in not wearing the warmers or the jacket – I would have been way too hot. However the wind was picking up quite a bit and for the second half of the bike leg there was a lot of headwind.
Twice I was actually held up by people blocking the road. They were riding three and four across – some trying to pass others, some not. I wanted to go around all of them, but that would have put me into the oncoming traffic lane, and with blind turns ahead I decided to wait. Another guy didn’t and passed me. There were a couple of nice descents that I would have been able to take much faster but for all the bikes all over the road. It was an accident waiting to happen, so I just backed off until the traffic cleared. Very frustrating.
At one point there I saw a marshal on a motorcycle who I recognized (well I recognized the yellow Honda VFR) as Barry, a friend of my old motorcycling friends. He marshals quite a few races on Long Island. I got the chance to say hello to him after the race.
Towards the end of the bike course, it took me a while, bit I passed a teammate Rick. Then I got blocked again and had to back off so I didn’t get a drafting penalty. As I did that Rick went by me! Eventually I was able to get by everyone and head towards the finish. The last hundred yards was also a narrow lane where you could not pass. Again, I had someone painfully slow in front of me.
Once I got off the bike I was running towards my transition area and passed Eric, my roommate for the night, who wasn’t looking too well. Apparently he’d been pretty sick on the bike, and was calling it a day. I put on my running shoes, hat, and race belt, and started off on the 6.2 mile run. I felt pretty stiff at the start of the run; my back had been hurting a bit for the past week. I saw Rick in front of me – he was in front of me again – I really need to work on my transitions! I passed him after a few hundred yards, and then saw another teammate, Sarah, up ahead. I slowly caught up to her and passed her.
In the distance I should see someone that I thought was another teammate, Sharon. I very, very slowly gained ground on her. As I got closer I was pretty sure it was her. The course is basically an out and back – for most of the time we were able to see people on their way back to the finish. I saw people I knew heading back just before I got to mile three, and some of them said “Hi Bob”. That’s when I discovered the downside of knowing so many people in the race. Sharon heard people saying hi to me and knew I was right behind her! I got as close a 15 feet to her and then she took off! She slowly left me behind. She said that she could feel me breathing down her neck.
I tried not to let her get too far away. We were both running at a pretty good pace, passing quite a few people along the way, even some in my age group. About a mile and a half from the end I saw another guy in my age group. I was trying to decide if I should try and pass him now or wait until the very end and attempt a pass then. I figured that I would really like to try to catch Sharon, and if I ran fast enough past this guy he would not even try to keep up. So I picked up the pace and went by him. I heard him try to keep up for a little while and then he dropped back. Whew! It worked.
About half a mile from the end, Sharon was still pretty far in front of me. I passed Spencer, our running coach and he said that I was almost there and I should try to pass a few more people. I had been thinking of just coasting in at this point, but after hearing him I pushed a little harder. I actually did pass about six or seven more people, although none were in my age group. After making a quick turn into the transition area we had another 50 yards or so to the finish line. I ran as hard as I could, and finished the race.
I never did catch Sharon but she was the first person I saw at the end. I wasn’t sure what wave she had started in. If she started in front of me then I actually did beat her. If she started behind me, she had beaten me. Fortunately she had started in front of me. Whew!
After chatting with friends for quite a while, they posted the provisional results. I had finished in 2:37:52, which put me in 119th place out of 733 overall. I looked further up the page and saw several people in my age group that finished ahead of me, so I knew I wasn’t placing in the top three. The team though did really well; we got five first place finishes, two seconds and three third place finishes.
I ended up 7th of 44 in my age group. My swim was not great - 38:27, the bike split was 1:08:03 which was the 41st fastest overall (out of 733), my run time was 45:19 for a pace of 7:18.5 which was the 100th fastest overall (my run was actually 5 seconds faster than Sharon’s!) and both of my transitions were very slow.
Compared to my results from three years ago where I ended up in 427th place, my times were much better (although conditions were better this year). The swim was 3:11 faster, the bike was 12:44 faster and the run was 7:28 faster.
My next major race is the New York City Marathon in November. I might do a small biathlon or running race too before then.
After a cold, windy Saturday in Gilford New Hampshire, I was ready for the worst on Sunday when I got out of bed at 4 AM to get ready for the Timberman 70.3 Half Ironman race. The weather forecast was for lighter winds, but overnight temperatures in the 40s. I opened the hotel door, and it wasn’t quite that cold and the wind really had died down. I got all my gear together and headed across the street to pick up Allison and Rusty who were also racing.
I drove to New Hampshire on Friday with Allison and Rusty. I had raced FirmMan with Rusty last year so I knew him pretty well. Allison I met on a New York Cycle Club trip last year, but didn’t really know her well. I did know that she was a fast biker! Most of the Terrier Tri team was staying at the same hotel; The Margate. It turns out that two other New York City teams were staying there too; Asphalt Green and Tri Life. I knew most of the Terrier Tri team and some people from the other teams. Breakfast on Saturday morning was like a reunion!
On Sunday morning at the race site we met Robert who was setting up to serve the team breakfast. After a little while I headed into transition to set up. The sun was coming up and I could see that Lake Winnipesaukee was much calmer than it had been on Saturday when there were whitecaps all across the lake. I noticed another bike a few down from mine on the rack – a $15,000 BMC Time Machine TT 01! It was beautiful! I spent most of the morning chatting with friends and teammates, but I probably should have been concentrating more on the job at hand.
I was starting in the third of 12 waves. The race was supposed to start at 7:00 Am, but some of the buoys were out of place and they were trying to correct that. I was squeezing myself into my wetsuit as the national anthem started. That seemed to be a little disrespectful, so I waited until the singer was finished. I walked along the beach to the start of the swim. The sand was really pretty cold. It was much warmer standing in the water.
For the 1.2 mile swim we were going to swim three sides of a rectangle. Straight out about a third of a mile, make a right turn and swim another third of a mile or so, then make another right turn and swim to the finish on the beach a little south of where we started.
The Pros and Elites (I think) were the first two waves. Then came my wave; men 50 and over, and women 45 and over. We all got into the water just in time for them to say “Go!” I started my watch and dove in. I stayed pretty much on course keeping the small red buoys to my right. It wasn’t as crowded as usual, although there was the usual collision here and there. There were a couple of people who just seemed to want to swim where I was all the time. I tried getting around them, but eventually just let them go.
At the first big, triangular, turn buoy I made a right turn and couldn’t see a thing! The sun was right in my eyes and I didn’t have a clue where I was supposed to be going! I followed a few other swimmers, but I kept stopping to see if I could see any of the marker buoys. Nothing. I just headed in the direction I thought I should go. At one point a volunteer in a kayak told me to turn right. Later another guy in a kayak saw me stopped looking for the buoys and he said “head for the sun”. So that’s what I did. Miraculously the marker buoys kept turning up just where they should be!
It seemed to take forever but I finally made it to the second triangular turn buoy. By this time, though, there were swim caps of all colors around me. People from several waves behind me were passing me! The last leg of the swim seemed pretty choppy, and I could taste gasoline or diesel in the water. Just like the Hudson!
I finally made it back to the beach. I checked my watch expecting it to say 45 or 50 minutes. It said it was 8:13 or something! Damn! I hadn’t started it properly! So I started it and then started to take off my wetsuit. I heard someone shout out “wetsuit strippers over here”. Cool. I didn’t know we had those here! Note to self: attend the entire pre-race briefing next time. With the help of two volunteers my wetsuit was off in no time.
I ran to my bike. The $15,000 BMC was gone. So were most of the other bikes on the rack! As I was in transition I heard the announcer talking about a Liz Lockwood from New York being out of the water already. She’s one of my Terrier Tri teammates and she was three waves behind me! Yikes! I put on my helmet and bike shoes, grabbed my bike and ran out of transitions. I saw someone with a race number on. Then I remembered one thing I did hear at the pre-race briefing; we were required to wear our numbers on the bike (normally you only need it on the run). Damn! I had to go back into transition, against traffic, to get my race belt with my number on it! Things were not going to well here!
We start the 56 mile bike ride going uphill of course. I always start out on the bike pretty hard, even though I know I shouldn’t. Today wasn’t going to be the exception. I passed quite a few people in the first few miles, including Kate and Alicia and eventually Liz from Terrier Tri, who had all started way behind me. I checked my bike computer to see how many miles I had gone so far. Damn! This computer can be programmed to display just about anything you want; speed, time, lap time, distance, ascent, grade, latitude, longitude, elevation, time of day, etc. The only information I really needed today was distance from the start so I would know how far I had to go. I hadn’t set it to display that!
When we weren’t climbing hills I did make a conscious effort to keep my heart rate at about 75% to leave something for the run. I was actually pretty successful. I even let people pass me while maintaining 75%. Earlier in the day, Robert, our coach, was telling someone that I could not race my own race. So here I was, letting people pass me to prove him wrong!
At one point I was swapping positions with a 34 year old woman on a red Kestrel who would have started behind me. We were both following the no drafting rules and dropping back three bike lengths whenever the other person passed. One time she was ahead of me and two guys passed me pretty close to each other. A marshal on a motorcycle was talking to one of them – telling him to drop back or something. The guy on the bike couldn’t hear him; all the while they were slowing down and in my way! There wasn’t much I could do except slow down too so I wasn’t accused of drafting. The 34 year old woman got away.
One guy passed me and once past decided to slow down and eat some food! Again, I had to slow down, and drop back before I could re-pass him. Very frustrating. The course is pretty much an out and back. They did have mile makers every 10 miles, so I did have some idea of where I was. It was getting windy again, and I always felt like I had a headwind.
There is one really nice descent on this course. When I did the race two years ago, I managed to get up to 49.1 mile an hour down the hill! I was looking forward to see what I could do with a new race bike with race wheels. When I got to the hill, I tucked in as much as possible. But with the wind this time my computer now says that I only did 44.4, although when I quickly glanced at the speedometer on the hill I thought I saw 48. In any case it was fun!
We finish the bike course heading down the hill we started on, but with all the car traffic on the road, they made it a no passing zone. I wished that I had passed one more bike before the no-passing zone, because he was going so slowly!
We turned into transition, jumped off the bikes and got ready for the 13.1 mile run. As I was racking my bike I noticed that the $15,000 BMC was there – he was still ahead of me! I put on my running shoes and hat, and didn’t know which way to go! I didn’t know where I was supposed to start the run! I headed to where I just came in, but that wasn’t the run out. I actually had to ask directions! Not easy for a guy, and even more humiliating as I should have known where it was! I don’t think I have ever been as unprepared for a race as I was for this one! This will never happen again!
I finally got to where I need to be and got started running and actually felt pretty good. As I passed Robert I heard him telling me to do something, but I didn’t hear what. I just tried to run a steady pace. The run course is two loops of an out and back. We run out just over three miles, turn around and head back to transition. We run right past the finish line, turn around and do the loop one more time.
On my way out I saw the female pro, Desiree Ficker on her way back to winning the race! As we run back and forth so much you see a lot of teammates on the run. We all said hi or encouraged each other as we passed each other. One teammate I saw too many times was Jaime (who I also did FirmMan with last year). She started behind me, and after the first turn around she was pretty close behind. Each time I saw her she was getting closer and closer. Eventually she passed me! She has really got fast this year!
There are a few hills on the run course and on my way back on my first loop one short hill was particularly painful. My legs were aching and the hills really hurt. When I did this race two years ago, I conked out at about mile 3. I ended up walking a lot of the run. This year I was determined not to walk!
After finishing the first loop, I was headed out for the second loop and I heard someone on my left shouting my name. I looked over and there was my sister Marie and brother-in-law Larry! I gave them a quick wave and kept running. Rude I know…
The locals really seem to get into this race. The run course takes us through a small neighborhood, and they dressed the place up to look like Bourbon Street in New Orleans. They were cheering everyone on. Actually all the way around the run course and the bike course, there were cheering spectators.
I could tell I was running much slower on the second loop. My legs were hurting so much. I took water, Gatorade, or defizzed Coke at each aid station. Then I came to that hill that hurt so much on my first loop, it really hurt this time. My legs ached and I was so tempted to stop to walk! But I did it – I don’t know how – I kept on running. I wasn’t going much faster than the walker I was passing, but I was running. I’ve never managed to run through pain like that before!
From then on it was relatively easy to the finish. I saw Marie and Larry again just before crossing the finish line! As I hadn’t started my watch properly at the start, I really didn’t know what my time was. I did know that I had easily beaten my time from two years ago. That time it took me six hours and six minutes. I was well under 6 hours this time.
I introduced Marie and Larry to a lot of friends and just enjoyed the after race festivities. Before a race with all the nervousness and during a race with all the pain I always wonder why it is I’m doing this. After the race I remember – this is the fun part!
Eventually they posted the results – I had a time of 5:35:37 – almost 31 minutes faster than two years ago. My swim time was awful – 47:41, but the bike time was pretty good, despite taking it relatively easy – 2:45:54 for an average speed of 20.3 mph. My run wasn’t too bad – 1:55:47 for an average pace of 8:51. I should be able to improve on that next time! I was 15th in my age group of 60 (547 of 1492 overall). My bike split was the 9th fastest in my age group (280th overall).
Jaime crushed my time with a 5:11:52! Rusty beat that (just) with a 5:11:11. Liz Lockwood who started way behind me beat me by a few minutes too. Allison had a great time of 5:42:12.
All in all it was a great weekend. It was great to spend time with so many great people and get to know them all better!
I have a couple more Olympic distance triathlons coming up, then, my main focus from now on, the New York City Marathon.
Race Report – Central Park Triathlon 2007
This past Sunday morning I woke up knowing that I had to do something that I’ve never had to do before; defend my championship! After finishing fourth in my age group for three years in the Central Park Triathlon, last year I won it. This morning it was time to defend it.
The weather was going to be perfect. It was 69 degrees when I left the house, not a cloud in the sky and no wind. I got to the transition area early enough to have the first bike on the rack. The racks for this race are very tight; too many bikes on each rack and the racks are really close to each other. Having the end spot on the rack is ideal.
After setting up the rest of my gear I wandered around to see who was there. As for my competition; I knew my old nemesis Basil wasn’t racing (he retired) and John Megaw, who has won several times, was not signed up. I saw him before the race and he said that the race sold out before he had a chance to sign up for it! He was volunteering for today’s race – I’d see him on the run. But Bill Nealon, who has also won it several times, was racing.
I also ran into several friends doing the race; Fran (also a New York Flyer), Nate (also on Terrier Tri), Neil Cook (my old swim coach), his wife Julie Cook (a New York Flyer who often wins her age group or better), and Mark. Fran and I were actually on the same rack – we even had consecutive numbers.
The race starts in four waves in Lasker Pool at the northern end of Central Park. It’s a really huge pool which is roped off into 15 lanes! We swim 3 laps (6 lengths) of the pool for about a ¼ mile. There were four people in my lane, including Fran.
The water was cold when we got in. Instead of swimming to warm up though we stood there shivering! We could not wait to get started. Actually starting the swim always seems to be the worst part of a triathlon for me. They counted down to the start and we were off. I tried to get a big push off the wall, but the wall was metal and my feet slipped so I ended up going nowhere. I started to swim and I was in second position in my lane. On the return I could see that the two of us had pulled away from the others. On the second lap I caught up to the first place guy and passed him pretty quickly. I was thinking that I really should have done a warm-up lap in the pool. My arms were going through the warm-up pain right now! By the end of the third lap I was still first in my lane though. I jumped out and ran to the bike.
I guessed that I was doing pretty well, because I couldn’t see a lot of empty spaces on the rack. There was no wetsuit to pull off for this race, so it was just a matter of getting the biking shoes and helmet on. I was off pretty quickly.
The twelve mile bike course consists of two full loops of Central Park. Of course it starts with Harlem Hill – the longest hill in Central Park! I’m not really strong up hills, but during training I found that I really could get up this hill pretty quickly if I stood and pushed myself. I did that and passed Bill Nealon by the top of the hill! The down hills and flats are where I am pretty fast and I went for it. I passed quite a few other people during the first half loop.
The Park is closed to motorized vehicles on weekends, but there are a lot of other bikers, walkers, runners, roller bladers and dog walkers out there. Fortunately it was still early enough that the traffic wasn’t a big issue. As I came by the transition area to start my second lap, John (working as a marshal) said something to me and pointed down. I didn’t hear him but I assumed he was telling me to keep left, as people from the following swim waves were pulling on to the course on the right. I passed a few more people from the second or third waves going up Harlem Hill (again!)
By the time I had done a loop and a half my legs were burning! As much as I like the bike, going flat out really hurts! I could not wait to start the run. The bike leg ends on a nice fast downhill with a curve to the left at the top and a sharp right-hand curve at the bottom. I really like this section and I always pass people here. Then it was back to transition where I made a pretty quick transition. I was the first bike on my rack!
We started the run going back out the way we just came in, except that now we were on the grass. Once we get to the road we have to cross the bike traffic to get into the running lane. I took a quick look over my left shoulder and didn’t see any bikes coming so I ran across. John, there to help people cross, said that I was in 11th place and I could get a few more positions because I was running faster than some of the people ahead of me. Of course that was at the bottom of Harlem Hill, which I still had to run up!
The run course is a three mile out and back. We run out a mile and a half, make a U-turn and head back. On the way up the hill I did manage to pass one guy – so now I was in tenth place overall! But someone came up from behind and passed me. Back to eleventh place. I seemed to go faster than him downhill and passed him again – Steve was his name – he had someone on a bike cheering him on – but he got me again on the next uphill section. Then another guy blew by both of us! Twelfth! I saw the leaders on their way back – and leading the way was Nate!
I got to the U-turn, and saw what seemed like a huge pack right behind me! I thought I was about to lose a few more positions. But I pushed harder. I always find it difficult to know how hard to push. I want to find a balance between overdoing it (and conking out before the end), and going too slow, knowing that I could have gone harder, and possibly losing positions. But going up the last hill there was no question. I could not get enough air into my lungs to go any faster. I felt like I was suffocating. Fortunately I got to the top of the hill, and then I kept a steady pace to catch my breath before running hard downhill again.
Right at the bottom of the hill, that guy cheering Steve on from his bicycle was turning around on his bike right in front of me! I swerved over to one side and avoided colliding with him. At the bottom of Harlem Hill we run back along the grass for a bit, and then up a short, really steep hill to the pool level. I never noticed that hill, before! Then we run around the perimeter of the pool to the finish line on the other side. As I was going around the pool I looked behind me and nobody was there!
After finishing I jumped into the pool! It wasn’t cold any more – just really, really refreshing!
Although I finished in twelfth position, there were three waves that started behind me and someone in those waves may have done it faster. And I didn’t really know who else was in my age group. So we all had to wait until the awards ceremony to know how well we did.
After giving everyone plenty of time to finish, they started giving out awards at about 10:30. They started with the overall winners. Nate wa