The best part about this race is the camaraderie.\u00a0 The event is designed to be for male-female duos where one runs 2.2 miles, the other bikes 12.2 miles, and both get into a row boat in the middle of Central Park and row the periphery of the pond which is said to be about 3\/4 of a mile.\u00a0 Relying on a partner is rarely evident in this triathlon sport of ours, neither on the bike given the prohibition of drafting, nor on the run given the prohibition of outside assistance or pacing.\u00a0 The exception of course is the relay team concept and while the above prohibitions are still in force in relays, teamwork is still paramount.\u00a0 It brings a new element of competition into the fold and if one has a lighthearted-enough and supportive attitude, the end result has to be a positive experience.<\/p>\n
That was the case this past Sunday.\u00a0 There, in the parking lot of the boathouse within Central Park, between 60 and 80 couples gathered in misty, damp conditions to race each other.\u00a0 Some folks showed up with beat-up mountain bikes, while others sported decked-out tri bikes with disc wheels, aero helmets, etc.\u00a0 Having done so many events in my “career”, it’s easy to spot concern and nerves in the eyes of newcomers when seeing these fancy rigs.\u00a0 I recall having more than my fair share of pre-race freak-out moments myself, and what seems to be the best way for me to get by is to chat with friends, make jokes, and generally socialize right up until the starting gun goes off.\u00a0 Knowing so many people at this event made that easy this morning.<\/p>\n
My partner was supposed to be Elizabeth, but she had a last-minute trip to Binghamton.\u00a0 I had already called the race director to request Elizabeth as my partner earlier that week in place of an ex-girlfriend who had previously been listed, so to call again might have been perceived as asking too much.\u00a0 Instead, I asked my football teammate Karen\u00a0to join me and “be Elizabeth”.\u00a0 I was told that she was a high school and collegiate athlete, but I didn’t need word-of-mouth to convince me that she’s be a great partner:\u00a0 we play in the most competitive football division in our league and she is awesome both athletically and mentally.\u00a0 It was a no-brainer of a selection and thankfully, she accepted.<\/p>\n
I woke up around 5 a.m. to the sound of thunder, lightning, and heavy rain.\u00a0 When I did the March Madness Biathlon, it was just as bad but much colder, so I figured I’d only have to persevere the rain this time.\u00a0 Thankfully, by the time I left my apartment, the rain generally stopped but it was still very wet out.\u00a0 Ultimately, that made bike conditions a little tougher.\u00a0 Karen joked that she was almost relieved when she also awoke to bad weather, thinking that perhaps the race would be canceled and therefore, she’d be relieved of the pressure of having to run fast.\u00a0 I kinda felt bad about hearing that frankly since I didn’t want her to feel pressured, but at the same time, I was kinda excited too figuring that she had the type of personality to permit such pressure to push her to perform well.\u00a0 I really never calculated how fast she’d run or how that would affect our collective overall performance, but I had this sense of confidence that we’d do well.<\/p>\n
Sure enough, Karen was awesome!\u00a0 She ran super hard and came in 20th on the run.\u00a0 She quickly tagged me in transition following her fast run, and I ran to the “mount” line for the bike before hopping on.\u00a0 I recall getting to a good gear right away and charging up Cat Hill.\u00a0 Immediately, I passed some of the slower cyclists and focused intently on every other cyclist in front of me.\u00a0 It was early in the morning and there weren’t many non-participants cycling in the park,\u00a0so I found myself working hard to identify who was a competitor and who wasn’t; naturally, when I saw someone in the race, I found myself working harder to make contact and pass.<\/p>\n
Except for the NE portion of the Central Park drive, near Lasker Pool where there exists a sharp curve (featuring wet leaves and the like), I put forth red-zone effort.\u00a0 At the end of the first loop, my watch said 16:34.\u00a0 I was hoping for anything under 17:00 and while pleased, I didn’t think I’d be able to maintain that pace in the second loop.\u00a0 I was right but not far off.\u00a0 The second loop was 16:42.\u00a0 Not a big difference obviously, so I am pleased with that.<\/p>\n
I purposefully didn’t wear socks so that the “flying dismount” wouldn’t results in wet socks.\u00a0 I remember killing that second transition as I sprinted with my bike to where Karen was standing.\u00a0 Unfortunately, my zeal took me past her and onto another bike rack.\u00a0 Oops!\u00a0 I quickly re-racked the bike and began to slip on my sneakers.\u00a0 I told Karen to start running and I quickly joined her as we ran to the boat launch.\u00a0 Once in the boat, it was tough to get oriented correctly, but it happened and we began our journey.<\/p>\n
I was sure that I passed a bunch of people on the bike but I failed to count them.\u00a0 I now know that there were 10 passes, so given Karen’s 20th place in the run, we were in 10th place while in the boat.\u00a0 By the first buoy, we made our first of two passes.\u00a0 Seems as if the other boat just initiated their turn too late and therefore went wide, thus allowing us to make an inside pass.\u00a0 I’m not a natural rower and with very little experience, but thanks to Karen’s micro-directions to keep us on the right line, we eventually passed another boat.\u00a0 Having two sets of friends following us closely behind, or so I perceived, made me work very hard.\u00a0 The grunts and grimaces on my face were evidence of that!<\/p>\n
My good friends Helene and Jon, and Chris and Kim, were right behind us and Helene was sure to make it known that they were coming after us.\u00a0 I recall cursing how in the world they could be so close, but Karen was sure to make me focus on just rowing and staying on course.\u00a0 I might have hurled an epithet or two at one point, but unless anyone can produce an audio tape, it never happened!\u00a0 Once we rounded one of the furthest buoys, I knew that our position was solidified.\u00a0 To be sure of it, I still put in the work and sure enough, we finished strong.\u00a0 Nearly a minute later, Helene and Jon came through the finish line.\u00a0\u00a0 Shortly thereafter, Chris and Kim followed.\u00a0 It’s hard to explain the sense of relief that both guys’ expressions revealed; I’m sure I looked exactly the same way!<\/p>\n
Some time later, the awards ceremony began and to my great pleasure, Karen and I were awarded third place plaques for our age group.\u00a0 Helene and Jon got second in their age category, and in that same category, Chris and Kim got third.\u00a0 I later found out that Karen and I were 8th overall and that of the top 8 finishing couples, 4 were in our age group.\u00a0 That unequal distribution of top finishes within age categories was unfortunate for us in terms of which podium spot we could have gotten, but c’est la vie.\u00a0 An award itself is an honor and I was especially pleased that Karen got to take home a plaque for her great effort.<\/p>\n
After everything, our aforementioned friends, as well as friends Marlene and Carlos, and two couples who are friends with Chris and Kim, all joined together along with Karen and me at the 79th Street Boat Basin for brunch.\u00a0 Instantly, new friends became good friends and we all shared stories about the race that morning and other races in the past.\u00a0 We know that we weren’t doing the Ironman in Kona, but we worked hard and did well against the folks who showed up that morning.\u00a0\u00a0It was a good race and my ham-and-brie sandwich was ridiculously amazing, but ultimately, the best part about this race is the camaraderie.<\/p>\n
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Next up is the Columbia Triathlon in Cambridge, MD.\u00a0 Fernando and I will be head-to-head again and given the 20 second victory he had in the shortened St. Anthony’s Triathlon a few weeks ago, I’m hungry to avenge things.\u00a0 It’s going to be a super-intense and busy weekend.<\/p>\n
First, on Friday night, Elizabeth and I have a great night planned for her birthday which is Saturday.\u00a0 Then, on Saturday, one of my football teams has a playoff game at 1 p.m.\u00a0 If we win, we play again at 2 p.m.\u00a0 I’m the QB of this team, so if things go well, we’ll play until 3 p.m.\u00a0 As soon as the game is over, I have to drive 3.5 hours to Maryland to get to the race packet pick-up event.\u00a0 Timing will be super tight and since I’ll have both my bike and Fernando’s, it’s critical that I get there quickly (but hopefully without any speeding tickets!!!) so that I can check our bikes as is required with this event.<\/p>\n
We’re staying at Fern’s bro-in-law’s place in Bethesda, a 20 minute drive from the race site, so we’ll be comfortable and somewhat close on Sunday morning.\u00a0 I’m feeling great and strong going into this event, and I’m particularly interested in avenging a terrible performance from 2004 where I eventually wound up in the medical tent following the finish thanks to hyponatremia.\u00a0 It was 95 degrees and 100 percent humidity that day, and with the weather forecast currently predicting cool temps and possibly rain, at least the heat element won’t be prevalent this time.\u00a0 Following that race in 2004, I had to drive quickly back to NYC for a playoff game for my primary football team, Sacks In The City.\u00a0 The same scenario will be in place this time; our playoff game is set for 5 p.m. (with another game at 6 if we win), so as soon as I finish the race and\u00a0exchange pleasantries with the gang, I’ll be driving north at Mach 2 (again without any speeding tickets!!!) to help my team chase the crown.<\/p>\n
So, that’ll be 2 or 4 football games, an Olympic distance triathlon, and about 400 miles of driving in a span of 30 hours.\u00a0 Seems like par for the course.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The best part about this race is the camaraderie.\u00a0 The event is designed to be for male-female duos where one runs 2.2 miles, the other bikes 12.2 miles, and both get into a row boat in the middle of Central Park and row the periphery of the pond which is said to be about 3\/4 […]<\/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-89","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-training"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89","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=89"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89\/revisions\/93"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=89"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=89"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gregghgordon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=89"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}