Other than my alarm, there are three things that wake me up living in NYC – the recycling truck after a particularly high glass bottle volume night, when my upstairs neighbor moves a heavy piece of furniture – is it a guillotine? An oak armoire?, and the anticipation of a race the next morning. I woke up a few minutes before my 4:06am alarm on Sunday, July 1st for the New York City Triathlon and traipsed over to the heap of clothing I left out for myself the night before. I’m always afraid of my pre-dawn brain not working.
While the city was just starting to go to bed, I was just starting my day. At 4:20am, I cabbed it to the race site and set up my transition area. I made my usual arrangements: tape gels to the top tube, pump the tires, check that the wheels spin freely, lay out my helmet with the straps open, lay out my running shoes, and hope that going sockless doesn’t rip up my feet.
Cecilia and I took our easygoing mile jog to the swim start, weaving through crowds of people and picking the cleanest line like we were already on the bike course. You see, racing in the pro field is more or less just being in the most competitive wave, but at most races, you also get perks like a pro-designated port-a-potty (pro-ta-potty?), which I witnessed being enforced! (Though there is this weird intimacy of knowing exactly who else is using your port-a-potty.) I did some swim warmup exercises with Cecilia’s swim bands, looking as clueless as I always do when attempting strength-bearing activities. I put on my brand new TYR Torque Swim Skin. While I had tested it in the TYR swim lab and knew it’d be fast, it was my first race with the swim skin. Ten minutes before the start, we filed into our race coral. I was the first to head to the “acclimation shower” that I wrote about last year, which is a sprinkler of siphoned Hudson water. Observing how crazy good the swim skin repelled the water from the makeshift shower got me really pumped to swim fast! Cecilia and I gave each other final good luck hugs – seriously, it’s Hudson water-level gross how cute we are – and we filed onto the pontoon right after the men went off at 5:50am.
The current was so fast that we could barely see the men anymore though they left only two minutes before us. We dove in, and for the first 30 seconds I endured the washing machine start while our pack of 14 sorted ourselves out. Given that the race had a lot of ITU, shorter course athletes who are really fast swimmers (a much larger percentage of their race is swimming compared to longer course triathlons), I knew that it’d be dumb to try to keep up with the front pack, who ended up swimming faster than all of the men! (The current changes quickly, but still!) I found some feet for a few minutes before becoming impatient and taking over the lead with about half to go. Because of this, I found myself alone and swam west, closer to the center of the river, and lo and behold, I found Cecilia! Cecilia and another woman latched onto my feet, and I played workhorse of the group.
One thing I’m really proud of this year is the level of awareness I have during the swim. In the swim, drafting is vital, and a small women’s field makes the swim the highest risk discipline. Lose the group in the swim, and not only will you find yourself using much more energy, but you also jeopardize the rest of your race by going it alone (though NYC can be a really lonely city, so this is fitting!) Anyway, I was swimming close to the westernmost edge, and I got close enough to the Coast Guard to see the eye color of the men on the boat. I made a very gradual turn and swam the tangent to the swim finish.
I ended up with a 14:16, faster than last year *and* without a wetsuit!
A little ego took over as I still wanted to be the first out of the water of our second pack after doing all the work, and I held that position until I grabbed my shoes along the fence. I run very dainty on bare feet, so I knew that the 5 seconds to put on shoes would be worth it. I charged down the West Side Highway and covered the 700 meters to my bike. I put my bike shoe halfway on before realizing I still had my swim skin on – thankfully, this was not the race where I tried a flying mount, so I was still in transition to remove my swim skin and put my shoe on again.
And then all of the long course racing tendencies materialized. I started the bike completely alone with no one in sight. I immediately settled into half ironman-pace effort. No one was catching me, but I also could not see anyone ahead. It was easy to become complacent, though I told myself it was supposed to hurt more. As soon as it started to hurt, I backed off. I was uncomfortable being uncomfortable. At the northern turnaround, I saw Coach Cane, and I knew that I was riding very timidly. The mental battle of knowing I should push harder but feeling so quad-burny when I did continued for the rest of the race. I ended up riding almost 4 minutes slower than last year – two minutes of which I attribute to the thicker, muggier air and two minutes that I attribute to my own weenieness.
On the bike…(video credit: Sophia)
And onto the run – note all the spectators! 😉
I dismounted the bike and felt fresh as a sassy teenager. After such a complacent effort on the bike, I felt it was my obligation to run a fast 10K. “Just another day at the office,” I thought. I set out on the run with a formidable 6:16 opening mile (and missed the only ice station)! I fell into a promising rhythm as I started to pass a few pro women. I clicked off a 6:14 and 6:06 as I thought how racing a tri on the roads I train on so often was surprisingly refreshing as it was comforting. “This is my backyard!” I thought, invigorated every time I saw a teammate or friend. The sting of seeing a 6:31 5th mile up the three sisters was alleviated as I heard my roommate yell that I could catch another woman ahead. A 6:09 final mile solidified running my way from 12th or 13th off the bike into 7th place of 14 pro women and a 10K split of 38:36 for the 2nd fastest women’s run split of the day.
Oh, the heat? Yeah, it was hot. But the fans were hotter! Seriously, it was so fun to listen and hear the support of my teammates and my friend Sophia, who blocked her calendar for this weekend before I even did. She told me how she set her alarm for 4:30am and was already looking to her afternoon nap! I had the encouragement of my local partners, like Aaptiv and Team City Coach following my race, and my parents back at home were watching closely too.
Back to the heat, since it was projected to hit 100+ temperatures that day – I was done racing by 8:02am, when it was projected to be in the low 80s. Central Park is mostly shaded, and there were sprinklers every other mile. While we’d been experiencing mornings in the 60s leading up to the race, there were enough scorching City Coach Red Hook Track workouts and bike trainer rides I’d done with faulty AC that the heat wasn’t a big factor for me. The NYC Tri is always hot. Complaining about it is like complaining that the subway is unreliable.
Cecilia placed 3rd pro but was 1st in the champagne spray!
Final result: 7th of 14, 2:10
I made up for a very low-key birthday (which was June 30th, the night before the race) by going out with a few close friends after the race. While it wasn’t my best NYC Tri, I had a lot to be proud of and a swim and run to celebrate. And, that night, after being awake for 19 hours, nothing could wake me up before my alarm.
Not even another race.
Next up: Boulder 70.3 on August 4th!
You’re a rockstar! I cannot begin to imagine putting my toe in NYC waters—let alone swimming in it! Congratulations on another great triathlon. Love following your journey.