{"id":193,"date":"2009-08-10T09:19:51","date_gmt":"2009-08-10T14:19:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/?p=193"},"modified":"2009-08-18T13:58:39","modified_gmt":"2009-08-18T18:58:39","slug":"central-park-triathlon-race-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/?p=193","title":{"rendered":"Central Park Triathlon – Race Report"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is getting ridiculous.<\/p>\n

I wasn’t nervous for this race.\u00a0 I don’t really get nervous anymore.\u00a0 That’s what experience gets you.\u00a0 I have a very matter-of-fact approach to racing.\u00a0 I think that doing the Ironman changes a person; that which seems daunting in life always seems to pale in comparison to what a person faces in an Ironman event.\u00a0 Even my second Ironman in Brazil wasn’t hard; it took me forever to finish it, but it was nothing compared to the what-if-I-don’t-finish feelings I had during my first IM in Lake Placid in 2005.<\/p>\n

Maybe some other time, I’ll go into details about why an Ironman is great and terrible.\u00a0 For now, I’ll leave it at this:\u00a0 it’s great because you get to call yourself an Ironman forever; talk about the mad respect you get from everyone!\u00a0 It’s also terrible because you are warped forever; ultra-extreme events aside, very little in life compares to it and as a result, it’s almost as if you’ve lost your taste buds; things can feel bland.<\/p>\n

Back to the story:\u00a0 I have good taste buds.\u00a0 And, I was hungry to have a good day at this event.\u00a0 Training has been good; health has been good; mental toughness is great; weight is right where I want it; equipment has been great.\u00a0 I went into this feeling like I’d have a nice result.\u00a0 And, it was a nice result, but oh so bittersweet for I missed the podium again.\u00a0 This is getting ridiculous.<\/p>\n

It was my 9th time doing this event.\u00a0 In 2004, I won my age group by 0.2 seconds with a finish line thrust of the chest.\u00a0 Talk about exhilirating.\u00a0 See below:<\/p>\n

\"0.2

0.2 Seconds!<\/p><\/div>\n

In 2006, I was 27th overall but came in second in my age group.\u00a0 That was good luck since there weren’t many in my age group who were fast.\u00a0 In 2007 though, I was 18th overall but was 6th in my age group.\u00a0 One caveat to that:\u00a0 the overall winner was in my age group, but since he got an overall award (top 3 get them), he’s not counted when they consider age group awards (top 3 there too).\u00a0 So, I was really 5th despite a high finish.\u00a0 Dammit.\u00a0 Some photos from 2007 are below.<\/p>\n

\"Finishing

Finishing up the Bike leg<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Starting

Starting the Run<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Finishing

Finishing the Run<\/p><\/div>\n

In 2008, I finished 16th overall but again, was 6th (really 5th) in my age group.\u00a0 This year, I finished 15th overall, but was 5th (really 4th in my age group).\u00a0 Jesus.\u00a0 There seems to nearly always be a disproportionate distribution of folks in my age group in this, a tiny event that represents my only true chance at a podium spot.\u00a0 It’s not like it’s the same dudes, save for one or two guys.\u00a0 Some guys age up and others are newbies to the event.\u00a0 No matter what, I keep falling short.\u00a0 I’m so frustrated and have a hard time with putting this in the right mental place.\u00a0 I will within a short while but as I initially wrote this, a mere few hours after coming home from the event, I was still moaning, “Why me?\u00a0 Why me?”… as if someone did this to me.<\/p>\n

Official splits aren’t yet available but based on my numbers, I had a very strong bike and I think that I negative split the course.\u00a0 For those who don’t know, that means that I was faster in the second half of the bike course than in the first.\u00a0 I really laid it all out and passed about 10 people.\u00a0 I had an average swim, so my guess is that I was 22nd or something coming out of T1.\u00a0 I’m generally happy with the effort but obviously set myself up to start the run with tired legs.\u00a0 I figured I’d be tired no matter what as I climbed Harlem Hill, so I might as well do so after a hard bike rather than hold back.<\/p>\n

I did an easy training run yesterday and I purposefully ran part of the course to remember some specific times from this point to that, and from this other point to that other point, etc.\u00a0 Today, though I was in race pace, I was slower but not by much.\u00a0 Once I got up the hill, I found some good legs and ran decently.\u00a0 After counting the folks who had made it to the turn-around and were heading back, I saw that I was in 11th place.\u00a0 I passed two people but was passed by three including the overall female winner.\u00a0 I also managed to negative split the run by nearly a minute, but I wonder if that was because hills were easier on the return.\u00a0 Perhaps, but no matter what, I felt good with my effort and from what I can tell provisionally from my watch time (not the official one mind you), it was a personal record.\u00a0 Might have also been close to it for the bike too, but we’ll see once the official results are posted.<\/p>\n

My overall time was my second fastest ever, and while I’m generally happy (read the 2nd previous post about the “Thank-You Trio”), I’m still annoyed that I could finish with the 15th best time and still not get onto the podium.\u00a0 For those who are counting, there were four waves of swimmers, so three guys from latter waves had better overall times than me.\u00a0 Guys who were slower than me in both older and younger age groups got awards but not me.\u00a0 This is getting ridiculous.<\/p>\n

It’s not like I do these events for hardware, but it’s always emotionally meaningful to get a plaque.\u00a0 But, I’ll call it a success nonetheless.\u00a0 This was triathlon #67 in my nine year “career”.\u00a0 It looks like I’ll be doing nine tris next year including two half-Ironman events, so I’ll get up to 76.\u00a0 That leaves only 24 more to get to the number I really want:\u00a0 100 triathlons!\u00a0 I’ll make that 100th event something special complete with a celebration of appropriate proportions.\u00a0 “Hey guys, salt tablets and electrolytes on me!”\u00a0 Actually, I’m thinking something epic like a Tuscan holiday.<\/p>\n

As a postscript, good friends Phil and Mario cheered me on today and noticed that my race number, 15, corresponded to my finishing place.\u00a0 Gotta remember to mention something to the race director for the 2010 event!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is getting ridiculous. I wasn’t nervous for this race.\u00a0 I don’t really get nervous anymore.\u00a0 That’s what experience gets you.\u00a0 I have a very matter-of-fact approach to racing.\u00a0 I think that doing the Ironman changes a person; that which seems daunting in life always seems to pale in comparison to what a person faces […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-training"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=193"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":203,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193\/revisions\/203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}