30 July 2009

NYC Triathlon 2009

I will attempt to keep this race report short...as it wasn't my finest experience!

First, I want to thank everyone who donated to Team PVA and helping us raise money for paralyzed Veterans. It is sincerely appreciated, and I am constantly reminded just how lucky I am that I can participate in races and have so far been kept safe during my military career. Thank you so much for your support!


All summer has been mild in the Mid-Atlantic region; the day before the race was mild, sunny, and perfect. Then race day came. Race morning I awoke at 3:30am to find the weather 80 degrees, humid, and raining buckets.


Having been lured into a false sense of security about the temperatures, I made a fatal strategic error; I left the thermolyte tablets in my hotel room.


It rained on and off until racetime. The one nice thing was that there were no jellyfish in the Hudson this year! My swim went off without a hitch; I was hoping for a 20min swim, thanks to the current, and came out right on track with a 20:14 swim.

I had about a 3/4 mile T:1 run to transition, noticed that there still alot of bikes racked, and then hopped on my bike.


I felt really good on the bike, believing that I had come out of the water so fast based on the number of bikes in transition...turns out it's just that the "end of the alphabet" girls are the slow swimmers....About midway through the bike, I got a pretty bad headache, but chalked it up to exertion, as I was pushing hard on the bike, and had decided that I would "leave nothing on the course" for this race, because it was the last of the season. I came in off the bike, and again noted that all the spots around me were bare, and I really thought I had a chance of making Top 10 for the race.....and I grabbed my hat and took off for the final leg, the hilly Central Park 10k run.

I felt fantastic running across 72nd Street towards Central Park. The crowds were big, and cheerful, and my legs were turning over great. There was one girl that I kept leap-frogging with on the hills....she'd pass me going downhill and I'd beat her on the way up. We did this until somewhere after the Mile 3 marker, when I slowed to get some sport drink from the drink station. As I took a sip, I fell into the volunteer standing there. Excusing myself, I started walking away from him, and fell into the next volunteer in line. Again excusing myself, I went to step left away from the volunteer and fell into the third person in line! What the heck?!

At this point I noticed that I was fairly light-headed, and that I could not walk a straight line to save my life. I was like a drunk person trying to walk the line. I decided, for the first time in my racing career, that I'd sit down and rest for a minute. No volunteers came to my aid, but 3 or 4 runners stopped to make sure I was ok; of which I said I was fine.

I got back up, tried to walk the white line, and realized I no longer had motor control over my body. I did this walk/limp/straddle thing for nearly 2 miles, then at mile 5 decided I needed to run it in so I could get to medical faster.

Right after I started running again, my friends Michael and Maria were waiting for me, cheering and so excited. It gave me an initial boost of energy, but I could barely wave my hand and shout "I'm a little dizzy, will be in medical at the finish". And then they saw me swerve, and Michael started running after me to catch me....luckily I never fell down.

I put my best gameface on for the final finish shoot, and fell into the arms of a volunteer after crossing the finish line under my own power.

I was immediately ushered to a cot, had ice poured over me, and when I didn't feel better after 20 minutes, they decided to transport me via ambulance to the hospital.


I'll spare you all those fun details, but suffice it to say, 4 hours later, I was finally administered 1 bag of saline IV and sent on my way. And I want to thank the rest of my teammates, especially Brian Goldberg, for hanging out with me at the ER and being so kind as to pack my things, and get my gear from the race. You guys rock!


So, all in all, even with the 23 minute delay from the time I sat down to rest, I ended up only 7 minutes slower than last year's race. Which means that I most definitely did not leave anything on the course and was well on my way to a course PR and quite possibly that Top 10 finish after all. Last year's time would have put me in 13th place--coincidentally the same place I finished last year!

Final stats:

Swim: 20:14
T1: 6:10
Bike: 1:21:44
T2: 1:25
Run: 58:02
Final: 2:47:25

30th out of 189 Female 35-39
180th out of 1071 Females



Of course, the best part, is always, the Underwear run in Central Park with the Naked Cowboy. The hospital visit was just the cherry on top.