Alright, I’m ready to fill you all in on the details of Sunday’s race!
But first, let’s start with Saturday-the day before the race everyone racks their bikes at the transition zone and leaves them overnight.
Then I headed home, ate my pasta and went to sleep so I could wake up at 3:30am! By 4:20am I was headed out the door so I could head to the transition zone to get my gear ready.
Once all my gear was ready I had a mile and a half walk up to the swim start.
At the start I had about 30 minutes to calm my nerves, get my wet suit on, and of course braid all my teammates hair.
(and take some pics)
At 6:30am my group was jumping into the Hudson!
For the first time EVER in the NYC Tri I enjoyed the swim portion. I was actually prepared from all my practices/coaching that I was able to get comfortable in the water, keep a calm stroke and get through the mile swim without panicking or getting out of breath. I thought my time would be way faster than in past years…but nope, it was about the same (20:29) but the difference was I felt great and ready to take on the next portion of the race.
Here is a picture of me mid-swim, but seriously, where is everyone else?? The race starts 15 athletes every 20 seconds so it doesn’t get too chaotic but it seems odd that I’m really off on my own in this picture.
After emerging from the Hudson I ran about half a mile in my wetsuit to my transition zone, quickly took of my suit, put on all my cycling gear and I was off. My transition was done in 6:04 and then it was off for a 26 mile bike ride.
The ride starts with a somewhat steep hill and then continues to be hilly throughout the entire ride. I felt good on the bike but at times felt like I wasn’t pushing hard enough. It’s easy for me to get caught in a calm slow ride on the bike so I tried to pick out people ahead of me and pass them to quicken my pace. My ride was done in 1:29:45, my fastest yet by about 6 minutes, a huge win in my book.
And then it was time for the final leg of the race, the RUN. The run was super hot and tiring but at that point you’re so close to the end you know you have to push hard and get through it. After coming off the bike it always feels like I’m moving in slow motion and estimated my pace to be around 9 minutes (clearly I am bad at guessing my pace) because I later found out my first 3 miles averaged a 7:42 mile. I ended up running next to another girl and we realized we had the same pace and sort of worked together (mostly silently) to keep each other going. We stayed together for about 3-4 miles then separated somewhere around mile 4. I don’t know who she was, but I thank her for keeping my pace strong!
Throughout the run there were TNT coaches giving tips and it was AMAZING to have them there. Mostly they told me I was going to slow and I had more in me and maybe that’s what got my pace going to quickly but whatever it was, I felt like I was crawling; my legs felt like they weighed 1,000 pounds each. Because it was so hot I kept throwing water on my head, which eventually dripped down into my shoes causing a sloshy/blistery mess. Note to self: drink the water and keep it out of your shoes.
I was in pain, but I was able to keep a strong pace and overall ran an 8:03 per mile. I felt great when I finished but also couldn’t wait to down gallons of water (let me emphasize it again: it was SO HOT OUT).
So overall my race time was 2:47:58, approximately 7 minutes faster than last year (which had been my best race). I am SO happy with my time and feel like I properly trained for the race and really pushed it on race day.
A big shout out to my teammates, my coaches and all my friends & family who came out to cheer me on. I couldn’t have done it without all of you!
