32 Miles of Awesome

I swam in the Hudson, biked down the middle of a major NYC highway and ran through central park chatting with strangers. Three things I never imagined doing in my whole life. And peed my pants doing all three.  Yep.  You read that right.  Triathlon is the only sport where it's OK to do that.  ;)

My husband Mark, aka The Sherpa, accompanied me for obvious reasons (see nickname again if you didn't get it). Because he's also an endurance athlete, he gets it. He knows all the crap I need to get done, the massive amounts of equipment i need to haul around,  and doesn't question why I need my $7 watch from Walmart (that has been on every race for 5 years).

Or why I have to do my pre-race routine exactly the same way every time.

He also doesn't complain when I make him haul my bike in its case (52 lbs) up to the third floor on a narrow staircase to a rented room in Harlem.  Yes, Harlem.  I now know the neighborhoods in New York much better than I used to.

So the tri transition area was in Riverside Park, next to the Hudson.  About 72nd street.  The day before, I checked in my bike, toured the transition areas, the swim entry and exit and reviewed the map of the bike ride, important turns, and the route to run from transition area, along 72nd to Central Park, around the park and to the finish line. All very good things to do.  We then proceeded to get a bit enthusiastic and walk towards our apartment in search of something to eat.  By the time we gave up and took the train, we'd walked around 5 miles that day.  NOT a good thing to do.

Morning of the tri, both phones were blaring annoying alarms at 345 am.  By 415, I was in the tri suit, bags in hand, heading to the A train downtown. Exactly on schedule.  BTW, riding the subway at that time of the morning is a little unnerving.

You hear about rats on the subway, but......

We jumped off on 72nd, and turned toward the park.  But as we approached,  it was disturbingly vacant.  Finally I saw some lights and tents. But something was off.  Not till I saw the VIP sign did I realize we are in Central Park! AT THE FINISH LINE!  Transition closes in 20 minutes and I am 10 blocks away in the center of the WRONG park.  Thank you cabbie who works the night shift!  Made it, threw down my crap and was out with 5 minutes to spare.

It's a weird experience walking to the swim start alone in a sea of thousands of athletes.  Striking up random conversations, trying to calm your nerves. I met a pro doing this race with her first timer friend, a grandpa who's done it every year since it started, and two lovely ladies who happened to be racked right next to me in transition.  What are the odds of that?

Karen got Veronica and I in more pics than I can count!  And I had the opportunity to encourage a new athlete scared to even start the race.



Along the way, some lessons were learned.

During the swim, I discovered that the Hudson really is a bit salty. Which resulted in finding that if you play "suck and blow" with the Hudson, you will lose.  I'm still hacking from that!  I also found out that even if you've never cramped before in the swim .... there's always a first time.  And big rookie mistake: don't take a wetsuit to a race that you haven't trained in recently at least once. I actually have used this wetsuit before, a couple years ago.  However I've done a lot of upper body work over the summer and my delts are definitely bigger. So the range of motion was not good.  But river swim=fast. Thank heavens!

The bike ride was gorgeous!  The Henry Hudson Parkway borders Riverside Park and is green and lush!  It also has hills.  When I think New York City, hills do not come to mind! Yay for past training in my Utah home!  While training for this race mostly happened on a spin bike, past rides on little hills like Unity Pass, climbs up to Camp Williams and killer rides up Suncrest all have taught my mind what my body is capable of doing, even though my body had kind of forgotten. Mental toughness makes all the difference.

The first little hill out of transition was really, really steep! And my chain came off right after I got up it.  As well as two more times during the race.  This is a known issue with Speedster on specific gear changes. :/ Speedster is awesome for training,  but I think Green Flash will always be my racing partner from now on.  She's super light, aerodynamic and a very sexy bike! I race WAY faster with her.

It rained quite a bit up to this point, which resulted in a LOT of triathlon glitter, aka muddy road grit, on me after the ride.  And my socks were soaked!  So glad I packed a spare pair and changed out at T2.  By this time the drizzle was about gone and the sun was coming out.

As I ran from T2 to 72nd street and towards Central Park, the reality of this whole race began to sink in.  I am running in Central Park!  Who thought little me, from small town Utah, would get to participate in this huge, amazing race through NYC!

I high-fived spectators, chatted up other racers, thanked volunteers, oorahed some marines, claimed to be Ryan to get cheers from some poster holders,  gazed at the gorgeous skyline, and just took it all in.

Crossing the finish line, I felt like such a champion.  I'm so grateful and happy I had the opportunity to do this race.  Much thanks to my employer who gave me the entry as well as the transportation!  ;)

BTW, to my single girlfriends .... you really should take up the sport.  How often do you get to see how cute a guy is,  know his age and his physical fitness level before you even exchange names.  Seriously. You're missing out ;)

Triathlon is the best sport ever! And I'm so proud to have been able to check this race off my bucket list.