PACKET PICKUP:
Was at the New York Hilton Midtown located at 1335 Avenue of the Americas. Everyone was required to attend the mandatory meeting after which you got your hand stamped as proof for packet pickup. No stamp, no packet. We arrived early so that we could do the 10:00 am meeting but what we didn't realize that transition didn't open until 2:00 pm, so we had to wait around a few hours before my brother (and team-mate) could rack his bike in transition. Everyone was required to rack their bicycles in transition the day before.
Since we had a few hours to kill, we walked around the expo and I bought myself a swanky looking NYC Tri-Kit. Can't wait to wear it :) After that, my niece (the runner) took the subway home while my brother and I went to the Hard Rock Café in Times Square for lunch. Transition opened at 2:00 pm sharp. He racked his bike and we both headed home.RACE DAY:
I prepared all of my gear the night before and hit the sack early. I got up at 2:30 am and left my house by 3:00 pm. It sucked hard knowing that Tom couldn't be there. I had been looking forward to doing this race with him, so leaving him at home felt horrible. I arrived in Manhattan at 4:10 and my brother and I found street parking not far from the transition area.RACE DAY TRANSITION:
The transition area looked amazing and was buzzing with nervous yet anxious triathletes. The relay teams had a special area designated just for them. Everyone got their own personal racking area and each one had a motivational saying. This was ours: THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE TRANSITION...We met a lot of nice people in transition and hung out with them until it was time to leave. When transition closed, everyone had to leave except for the relay members NOT doing the swim. All of us swimmers left transition and made the 1 mile walk up to the swim start.
JUMPING INTO THE HUDSON:
I got to the swim start with a lot of time to spare. I had my wetsuit, goggles, swim cap and ear plugs in hand. I had a cheap pair of flip flops that I threw away when I got to the swim start. The water temp was 73.9 degrees, so it was wetsuit legal.The corrals were set up and clearly marked. I waited near the Relay Team corral and chatted with a group of really nice folks. We all stared at the river and couldn't help but notice how many dead fish were floating on the surface, along with debris. There were a lot sticks, Styrofoam cups, plastic plates, an empty bottle of Sprite, all heading down stream. Everyone felt a little panicked about this, but it is the Hudson and we knew what we were getting in to. Suck it up folks!
After the professionals took off, it was our turn to go. I was in the last wave of swimmers. Once they started getting the age-groupers into the water, everything moved VERY quickly. There was really no time to reconsider what was about to happen.
I lined up with my Relay Team Swim Wave (silver caps) and followed the line onto the plank. Just before you walk the plank onto the dock, there are showers to get you acclimated to the cold water. We walked down the plank and there was a group of about 15 swimmers sitting on the edge of the dock. The whistle blew and they all jumped in. Next we stepped up and sat on the edge of the dock. Everything was happening so darn fast. I sat down in the middle and the whistle blew. I jumped in and held my goggles and nose. I popped back up to the surface and felt as if my goggles were too far down. The river began carrying me downstream, however my goggles felt really wonky. At first I tried swimming with them as they were, but I had to flip onto my back so that I could re-adjust them. I couldn't swim that far with them feeling so uncomfortable. Once I had them re-adjust, I flipped back over, stuck my face in the water and simply began to swim. I didn't really "feel" the current pushing me, although I knew it was. Very quickly I started catching up with other swimmers. I did feel a bit panicky at first, but within about 5 minutes the feeling started to subside and I was able to focus on just swimming.
The swim was going well at first and then I realized I had swam into a debris field. Suddenly I felt something on my arm and on my forehead. I stopped swimming for a moment and saw that a piece of plastic had wrapped around my arm and a there were sticks and cups floating all around me. I untangled the plastic and threw it aside and got back to swimming. For some reason I kept swimming too far to the left and that was where all of the debris was going. I tried getting myself to the right since there seemed to be less garbage in that area. I noticed a lot of people floating on their back and it was becoming difficult to get around some of them. One girl had a panic attack and needed the help of a lifeguard. As she clung to his paddle board a jet skier came flying over to help her...directly in front of me. We had to swim far right to get around them.
I did a lot of sighting because the river started to get a bit crowded and the people floating on their backs were being pulled towards the left (in front of me) . They were completely unaware of where they were heading. I saw one really panicked swimmer and stopped to ask her if she was okay, which she said she was. I continued on. Another woman who was floating on her back suddenly flipped over to start swimming just as I passed her and swam directly onto my back. I kicked hard and got her off of me. As we got close to the swim exit, there were buoys squeezing us in so that we could be guided towards the exit stairs. This was where it really started getting a bit bogged down. I swam all the way to the stairs, grabbed the railing, 2 volunteers yanked me out. I had brown gunk covering my entire face but I didn't care, I had SURVIVED THE HUDSON RIVER! I got out and start hauling ass, running towards transition. I was so excited that I kept yelling at everyone "that was so awesome". Every time I yelled, a group of people would cheer. I know I was acting like a big dork but I ran all the way to transition screaming. Yeah I was a bit excited! And the distance between the swim exit and yellow transition is far. But I didn't care. I was thrilled!!!
T1:
Like I said, the distance between the swim exit and the yellow transition area is FAR! But I ran all the way to the transition area and saw that my brother was waiting for me and ready to bike. I threw the timing chip on his ankle and boom, off he went!
BIKING ON RIVERSIDE DRIVE:
The bike along Riverside was hillier than my brother expected; and he's a good cyclist. You meet your first big climb immediately out of the transition area. They tell you at the mandatory meeting to make sure your bike is on a very easy gear. It's a steep upward climb.
The entire course is in the sun with no shade whatsoever. Plus it was a blistering hot day. Lester mentioned that most of the cyclists stayed towards the right except to pass. And when they did pass, most of them moved immediately to the right again so that everyone else could pass. There were a couple of turn around points on the course, but for the most part the bike ride was uneventful. He had a bottle of water and a bottle of Tailwind with him for electrolyte replacement. When he came back to the transition area, we noticed he didn't look too good. He stopped at the bike racking area and I removed the timing chip from his ankle and put it on my nieces ankle. She took off while I helped my brother rack his back
T2:
As my niece left the transition area for her run, I stayed behind with my brother. He was completely over heated and on the verge of passing out. I got him to sit down and I poured cool water on his neck. I got him cold water and Gatorade to drink, praying that he wasn't going to faint. After about 10 minutes he started coming around and we made our way out of transition so that we could go to the finish line to see Joanna cross.
THE RUN:
The run is pretty neat. You hit your first incline as soon as you leave transition and you head towards 72nd street. 72nd street is completely closed to traffic and there are a lot of spectators cheering you along. You enter into Central Park and do the long course heading uptown. Central Park is hilly, so be prepared! There are plenty of fluid stations along the way, but on 90+ degree day, there can never be enough.
The finish line is really nice. The finish chute is long and is line with flags from around the country. The announcer announces every finishers name as they cross the finish line. We saw my niece Joanna as she was ready to cross. I yelled out to her but she didn't respond. She wasn't feeling well and I knew it was a tough run for her. We met at the family meeting place and she was kind enough to collect medals for each of us.
There was a great after party area with so much good free stuff. We wandered around and enjoyed the after party, then decided to being the long walk back to the transition area so that we could leave. Its a really far distance between the finish line and transition. They began allowing everyone to leave at 11:00 am. We packed our stuff up and headed back to the car. I was amazed at how many random people stopped us in the street and congratulated us. It was like a big party for everyone in the area. 72nd street was re-opened to traffic and we had no problems driving or getting stuck in traffic. If we do it next year, we'll definitely street park again. But yes, the Panasonic NYC Triathlon is everything that it's cracked up to be!
SWIM ANXIETY:
Much to my surprise I didn't have any swim anxiety. I do admit that I wasn't thrilled watching all the dead fish floating down stream, but I really thought I would have been more panicked. Once we lined up and we started going in, the line moved quickly. Before I knew it, I was standing on the dock getting ready to jump in. There wasn't much time for procrastinating or overthinking. You just lined up and jumped. Once I was in I felt a slightly nervous but I managed to put my face into the water and started swimming freestyle. Other than adjusting my goggles when I first got in, I think I stopped twice (very briefly) just to see where I was in the pack. Each time I got back to swimming quickly and after my second look around, I didn't stop until the end. I was pleasantly surprised that I didn't have any panic attacks. There was plenty of room for everyone in the river and it didn't feel like people were swimming over you. There were times when people got close, but everyone had more than enough room to claim their own personal swim space. Honestly? The swim was MUCH better than I anticipated it to be.
SWIM: 26:36
T1: 4:31
BIKE: 1:56:42
T2: 1:08
RUN: 1:04:10
FINISH TIME: 3:01:59
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