NYC Triathlon, July 22, 2007

Here are the stats from today's race:


139 Gabrielle Rubinstein 34 New York NY
overall rank;name;........................age....yadayada...

139 24:39 /9:35
swim rank & time/transition

161 1:42:10/ 3:34
bike rank&time/transition

88 / 54:54
run rank&time

3:14:49
overall time

Ouch. That's 139th out of about 220...not my PR...although I have to say that at least my run was better than the rest.

Details: I woke at 4:30 this morning. I set two alarms but was still restless with excitement (really fear..). I took the free bus they provide to be closer to my competition..ok, these people are generally superfit and heavily armed (muscles, that is). I chatted with a Tri wife - kind of like an army wife. She follows her hubby of 39 years all over the world to watch and support while getting to pick the locales and not do any competing herself..not so bad. Lovely woman.

When I got to the transition area - the place you run back to between swimming, biking and running- I had half an hour to get organized, which includes setting biking and running stuff in little piles by ones bike so as not to forget anything when in great haste later.

I had met a lovely young Israeli woman on Friday at the expo, who was competing to raise money for One Family, an organization for victims of terrorism in Israel. Orli. It was her first Olympic distance tri, so I used my calming skills to, well, calm her fears. We walked the roughly mile and a half from 72nd to 100th street for the start of the swim. N.B. always bring your own toilet paper for the vile port-a-potties.

My swim start was 6:40 a.m. The current was swift, and yet the swim felt interminable, perhaps because I was weaving all over the place. It's easy to get kind of lost in the action of the race..especially when swallowing the city's waste.

When i finally made it out of the water, I decided to take off my wetsuit before the half mile run to transition. That was a good idea. As the salesperson who sold me the wetsuit said to me yesterday, the wetsuit was engineered for swimming, not running.

I took my time at the transition area(as you can plainly see above) and started my bike ride, forgetting to take a Gu (can I blame that for my slow time? I sure can-it's MY blog!). The ride was beautiful, but seemingly endless and with some nasty hills. There were several dazed and bloody people on the side of the road as a cautionary reminder of the fact that we are speeding down hills on nothing more than 2 wheels, some chain and some very tight bicycle shorts. The end of the ride goes down to 56th street and turns around, and at that point I almost lost the will to live. Really, it was that painful.

Then, the part I'd been longing for: The Run! My strong suit! usually... My legs felt like lead, my will alone pushed me along for 54 minutes. I tried to pass as many disspirited runners as I could to make up for the other portions of my tri.

All that said (and that's already too much), I had a blast and can't wait for the next one! My competitive spirit has awoken, and I am sure that with enough training and expensive gear, I'll be able to beat this year's time and maybe...even last year's time!

Am now signing off to enjoy a well earned beer and a large meal. Cheers!