{"id":30,"date":"2008-04-03T19:26:15","date_gmt":"2008-04-04T00:26:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/?p=30"},"modified":"2008-04-04T23:32:13","modified_gmt":"2008-04-05T04:32:13","slug":"the-march-madness-biathlon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/?p=30","title":{"rendered":"The March Madness Biathlon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I raced in the March Madness Biathlon in Central Park this past Sunday, March 31<sup>st<\/sup>, in <st1:place w:st=\"on\">Central Park<\/st1:place>.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>It was advertised as a 2 mile run, a 12 mile bike, and another 2 mile run.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>Of course, I need to know exact measurements so I determined that it was a 2.25 mile run course and a 12.2 mile bike.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>Those distances notwithstanding, I had no illusions of being particularly fast since my emphasis this training season has been on long course endurance.<o:p>\u00a0<\/o:p>What made this day special was that it was Deborah\u2019s first time seeing me race.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>I would have loved for this to be a day where she sees me get a personal record (a PR in our vernacular) but with a time of one hour and 10 minutes last year, and with the aforementioned different focus this year, there was no chance.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>Deborah of course scoffed at my pre-race apologies for not being fast; I knew that she wouldn\u2019t understand the pride and emotional spectrum that I have for racing but in time she will.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>In any event, she said she\u2019d bring her camera equipment for the race which was kind of exciting too.In 2004, the first year following my separation, I decided to do as many races as I could to both take my mind off of the obvious personal challenges but to also get experience and finally get rid of the pre-race jitters that made me perennially sick.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>I wound up doing 14 triathlons alone along with another dozen other races that year and thanks to that, I am calm as can be before races now.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>Sunday was no different.<o:p>\u00a0<\/o:p>As we got into the starting corral, I looked everywhere for Deborah but couldn\u2019t find her.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>Finally she found me and the final component of feeling good about the morning was there for me.When the starting gun went off, I was happy to not get caught up into the typical crazy rush out of the gate.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>Starting up the hill by the <st1:place w:st=\"on\"><st1:placename w:st=\"on\">Metropolitan<\/st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st=\"on\">Museum<\/st1:placetype><\/st1:place> has a way of tapering any such starting bursts!<span>\u00a0 <\/span>I made it to the halfway point feeling good and warm, and in the return trip, I noticed the pace picking up.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>It was almost as if I wasn\u2019t even in control and the body was dictating things.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>I motored back down the hill with what I think was about a 7:15 pace or so and got through transition very quickly.<o:p>\u00a0<\/o:p>On the bike, I was aggressive but not in the typical GG fashion which would typically create a massive build-up of lactic acid.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>I focused less on who was around me and instead got into as good a rhythm as I could find.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>Before long, I found myself passing a lot of people, sometimes in groups of 4 or 5.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>That\u2019s good but also suggests that if they were in front of me, my running wasn\u2019t very impressive after all.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>As I completed the first loop, I wasn\u2019t sure where Deborah was and while I wanted to smile to her, I was working hard and in the zone\u2026 and I wanted to climb the hill by the Met well.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>The finish of the bike session was very strong for me but the transition (T2) wasn\u2019t nearly as fast as it typically is for me.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>My friends tease me about my boasts of being the fastest T2 guy out there, but with the frigidity of the weather, I had no feeling past the balls of my feet nor in the tips of my fingers which made things tough.<o:p>\u00a0<\/o:p>On the second run, as I started up the hill, I saw Deborah up on the cliffs by the statue of the cat (thus the name, Cat Hill) snapping away.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>I managed to get a smile to her which she captured on camera.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>I knew that the second run wouldn\u2019t be as fast (that\u2019s a relative word) as the first run, but for me, the focus was rhythm.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>I needed to focus on technique, good breathing, and keep my mind thinking positive.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>It\u2019s so easy to become negative and say to yourself, \u201cThis is too hard; I\u2019m so slow; Why do I stink so bad?\u201d, etc.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>I wound up counting the number of guys passing me on their return trip to the finish line.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>I saw a few buddies and while I wanted to cheer them on, I found that my pace was increasing to the point where that wasn\u2019t possible.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>I passed a few people who had been ahead of me which is always a treat\u00a0since I\u2019m not that\u00a0prolific a runner and at the halfway point, thought that I was in 65<sup>th<\/sup> place.<o:p>\u00a0<\/o:p>I was pretty locked into that position for a good 4 or 5 minutes and just after passing someone to move into 64<sup>th<\/sup>, I got passed by two people\u2026 putting me in 66<sup>th<\/sup>.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>Dammit!<span>\u00a0 <\/span>At that point, I had finished the straightaway section on the east side of the park which meant that the finish line was about \u00be of a mile away.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>I realize now that that\u2019s where I should have \u201cput down the hammer\u201d and gotten the pace up to the fastest I could muster.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>Instead, I waited for another 3 minutes or so.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>I saw two people in front of me and it was then that I decided to become the predator and catch them; in retrospect, thinking about how I felt after I finished, I know that I shouldn\u2019t have relied on an object (in this case, a person) to start the afterburners\u2026 but that\u2019s why I love that there\u2019s always something to learn in this sport.<o:p>\u00a0<\/o:p>Just after passing those two guys, and with the finish line about 200 yards away, I felt as if I needed to protect my new position because the gents I had just passed would likely put up a fight.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>I really pushed hard and from Deborah\u2019s photos, I can see full leg extensions that support the perceived effort level.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>My time was one hour and 13 minutes, 3 minutes slower than last year, but faster than what I had predicted for myself before the race.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>Naturally, I was very pleased.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>And, to be quite honest, it felt good to finish the race and get a congratulatory hug from my girl!<o:p>\u00a0<\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Next race is the Bronx Biathlon on April 27<sup>th<\/sup>.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>It\u2019s a 3 mile run, an 18 mile bike, and another 3 mile run.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>Again, I suspect that the advertised distances aren\u2019t accurate, so we\u2019ll see what shakes up on race day.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>Deborah\u2019s Dad will be attendance that day, so I\u2019m sure to invent some form of pressure on myself that I need to put on a good show for him and his daughter.<span>\u00a0 <\/span>It seems like lunacy to most people, but it\u2019s just the way it is, good or bad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I raced in the March Madness Biathlon in Central Park this past Sunday, March 31st, in Central Park.\u00a0 It was advertised as a 2 mile run, a 12 mile bike, and another 2 mile run.\u00a0 Of course, I need to know exact measurements so I determined that it was a 2.25 mile run course and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-training"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30","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=30"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}