So here's how it went down:
As I was setting up my transition area I met a sweet young girl in her early 20's. She was nervous because it was her first triathlon. I tried to calm her fears as I set my transition area up. My brother, niece and nephew were doing the duathlon so their race started with a one mile run. In the meantime, I headed down to the beach for my 1/4 mile swim.
It was crazy I tell you! There was less than 400 swimmers, but it felt like 1,000. Typically, swim starts are broken down by age/sex grouping, but not this triathlon! The swim start was based on your race number and your race number was based on when you signed up for the race. Because I signed up early, I was assigned a low race number. Therefore, lucky me was in the first swim heat. The young girl that I met in transition was scared and stayed with me. We got into the water and I could see she was freaked out. I swam beside her and kept telling her she was doing great and everything was going to be fine. But then I heard the horn go off. The second wave of swimmers was heading towards us like a pack of hungry wolves.
Now I have to admit that I was freaked out too, but I tried not to let it show. I didn't want my friend feeling any more nervous than she already was, so I just kept reassuring her that I was watching her back and that we would get through this together. She alternated between breast stroke and backstroke. I alternated between swimming with my head up and freestyle.
The water was pretty calm and there were a lot of life guards around us. The swimmers however were pretty...aggressive. Earlier in transition, I noticed many of them had "Ironman" gear so I knew it was going to be like the wild west out there. And boy was it!
We rounded the last buoy and were heading towards shore when I lost sight of my friend in the frenzy of swimmers. I felt so guilty losing sight of her. I noticed another girl doing the backstroke heading in the wrong direction, towards a jetty of rocks. I yelled at her to get her attention. She must of heard me because she stopped backstroking and realized she was heading towards rocks. Oy Vey! I swam freestyle, got to shore, stood up and and started running towards transition. A large sand dune was built up on the beach after hurricane Sandy. We had to run up and over it. Yet again, I was grateful to have the swim over with!
Transition from swim to bike went really well. Before I knew it, I was heading out for 3 laps on Father Cappodanno Blvd which would total 12 miles. Lap one went without any incident. There was one guy hogging the left side of the road and I heard a cyclist SCREAM (and I mean SCREAM) "ON YOUR LEFT"! Hmmm I thought. So THAT'S how you let people know your passing on the left. Interesting. I made a "note to self".
I was about a quarter of the way through my second lap when all of a sudden I heard the sound of metal hitting the ground and I saw a cyclist go bouncing and rolling across the road. Oh man, that freaked me out! I didn't notice anything in the road or around him that would have caused him to fall like that. By the time I looped around, the fallen cyclist was gone but his two water bottles remained scattered on the road.
Lap three was uneventful until the last half. That was when a mama turkey (yes, you're reading correctly) decided to cross the road with her baby turkeys. Cyclists had to hit the brakes and fly around the turkeys in the road. I kept thinking "no one is going to believe me that there were turkeys in the road...on Staten Island no less". Then I saw a guy sitting on middle of the road and an ambulance came flying up towards him. I have NO idea what was up with that! I saw his bib number and I saw online that he finished the race. Question marks still surround that.
12 mile bike ride complete, off to the run. The run was tough. It started out on pavers along the beach and went up onto the boardwalk, then turned around and headed back to the finish line on the pavers. It was supposed to be a 3 mile run, but with the heat and constant sun beating down on us, it felt brutally long. My brother said he did fine on the first run and bike, but he struggled terribly during the second run (he did the duathlon). I stopped once to grab a quick drink of water, but that was it. No stopping after that!
And SURPRISE, SURPRISE...I won 3rd place female for my age group in the Staten Island Triathlon! My first age group triathlon win. I'd like to think that my "pay it forward" attitude on the swim, where I stayed with that young girl, gave me some positive karma. Well that, and cycling and running as fast as possible because my swim was nothing to write home about. But I'm working on it. My niece and nephew each won 2nd place for their age group in the duathlon as well. Stats:
Swim: 17:56
T1: 1:26
Bike: 39:33
T2: 1:22
Run: 25:02
Total: 1:25:21
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