Ironman New York City Race Report
I have been excited for this race since they announced it in June of 2011. It would be my first Ironman and in the great city of New York, I knew it would be challenging but fun. Our team grew since the June announcement and we now had a few members from the area. Of course the founder of Team Firefighter, Brendan Corcoran, lived just north of the start and would also be competing. Soon after I was registered I learned that one of our active Jersey members Keith Elisberg, would be the volunteer captain. It was great to have people on the team racing and supporting all the athletes on race day. So the pre-race tally was going to be three members racing and a number of members and supporters volunteering at our Aid Station on the run. I flew in on Wednesday afternoon and my plan was to get to the hotel then head over to registration before the thursday rush. Unfortunately, the traffic through NY was crazy. Laura had to close her eyes it was making her so nervous. We got to the hotel too late to make the ferry over to NY so we decided to just get some dinner. It turned out to be a great decision. We walked down the waterline to the Chart House (our favorite restaurant in Tahoe). We had a great meal with a beautiful view of NYC.
On Thursday I woke up early and had a cup of coffee and watched the news. They were leading with a story about a sewage leak in the Hudson. They advised that there is a swim advisory and you should stay out of the water until Sunday. I immediately started freaking out! What do you mean no swim! My worst fear going into this race was that they would cancel some portion of the race and I would not complete a full Ironman. Jen and I were up early and rode up to transition. As we were riding on the first 14 miles of the run course I noticed that it was hilly but it really didn't seem too bad. I was feeling so good. My training had gone great and my taper had me ready to go! We headed over to the expo and got checked in. I love WTC events, everything seems to go so smoothly. I was in and out very fast. I had been stressing about the swim and heard many rumors about what they might do. My consistent training partner Eric was racing also and he was disappointed about the prospect of a short race but he wasn't very excited about swimming in shit either. He asked me, "would you still race if you had a 50/50 chance of getting really sick?" I replied, "I will race if I have a 100% chance?" It was not bravado, I really did not want to train so hard for so long at such a cost to my family just to have the day be cut short. Eric also knew that I had planned to get a tattoo the day after the race so he immediately started teasing me. He said, "well, you could get a cool duathalon tattoo!" After the expo Laura and I walked around Manhattan. She had never been to NYC before and I still owe her a proper trip. We went down to ground zero, battery park, up to wall street then over to times square. We were planning on meeting some friends for dinner at Carmine's in Midtown. We ended up getting there and hour and a half early so we just decided to have a couple of drinks and watch the Olympics gold medal match in women's soccer. It turned out to be the highlight of the day. I love hanging out with my wife! She really was a saint on this trip. For you non-triathlete's, when you're tapering you can be prone to being a pain in the ass. I take it to the extreme. Combine the taper with the threat of not actually doing an Ironman was causing me to be straight up bipolar. I would say out loud, "You know Laura, I don't have any control over it, no sense in worrying." Then ten minutes later, "They better not cancel this thing?" I could tell she was getting frustrated but the lemon drop seem to make it bearable. After dinner we walked over to the expo to watch the athlete briefing. They announced that they are going to test the water tomorrow and make a decision at 4pm.
Friday Laura headed into the city by herself and I met up with Eric to drop off our gear. Then I headed back to the hotel to relax before dinner. While waiting to head up to Ft. Lee I saw on facebook that the swim was on! I was so relieved! Then I got very nervous! I realized that while worrying about the decision since hearing the news of the leak I stopped thinking about doing the race and only focused on if there would be a race. I saw Laura walk into the hotel and I think she was more relieved than I was. She knew that I would be pretty grumpy if the decision had gone the other way. I know thank you's usually come at the end of a race report but I have to thank Keith Elisberg. He was great at organizing everything not only for a great aide station on the run but also made us all dinner the night before at his fire station in Ft. Lee. It was great to get together and chat. I got to meet in person Larry Durland from PA, Jim Street from Il, Michael Cronin from NY, and Jackie Elisberg (Keith's better half). We had a good time chatting but the 4 of us racing wanted to get back to the hotel as soon as possible. We had a 0400 ferry with our name on it.
RACEDAY
I woke up at 2:50 AM. The plan was to meet up with my friend Jason Panzer at his room at 3:20. I quickly got dressed and had a couple ensures and some coffee. I was surprisingly not nervous at all. Jason and I met up and got on the ferry. It was awesome heading up the river to transition. The beautiful NYC skyline. It was surreal. We got up to transition and found our bikes. We set everything up and then met up at Eric's bike. Our plan was to be the last ones out of transition. This would put us on the last ferry which should give us favorable tide conditions. The line was very long to get on the ferry's and not moving fast so we just relaxed. We finally got in line and boarded the last ferry. It was fun heading up to the swim start together. We got to hang out and just shoot the shit like any other day. We go up to the swim start barge and I really started to get excited. The race was awesome! We were in the Hudson. Views of Washington Heights, the Henry Hudson Bridge, The Pallisades. There were numerous FDNY Boats, coast guard and NYPD boats cruising around. A couple of big yacht's full of spectators were there also. We could see the pro's start and they seemed fast! We shuffle off the ferry, high five each other and then jump in and start our day.
The swim was great! The water was disgusting. As I write this my head is hurting from a nasty sinus infection I got on raceday. My doctor is convinced it was from the water quality. But I swam 2.4 miles in 48 minutes. The pain feels so good! Unlike other ironman swim starts that can be hectic this was very relaxed. I only ran into a couple of people the whole swim. It seemed to fly by and when I got out of the water and saw my time I thought that maybe my watch had broken!
T1 was uneventful and I was quickly on my bike ready to start the day. Going into this race I knew that a huge hurdle for me would be slowing down on the first 20 miles of the bike. I spun up the first hill and got started on the rollers. I felt like I could ride to the sun! Everything felt great. As I passed the 10 mile mark my watch auto lapped and I saw my first 10 mile stats; heart rate average was 125 and power average was 210. 210! I thought my power meter broke in transit. No way could I maintain 210 with such a low heart rate. This turned out to be the first bad decision of the day. My power meter was working fine I was just seeing how a well trained, well tapered body responds to a highly anticipated day. Around mile 30 I rolled up on a crash. It appeared to be a female with some bleeding. I stopped and offered assistance. The individuals that were attending her advised that they were medical professionals and that they had it covered. The rest of the bike was fun. It was not a challenging course but it was fun with some decent rollers. The last lap back to transition the wind kicked up. Couple that with the heat and my foolish decision to ignore my power meter in the beginning of the bike lead to me having a slow last 25 miles. As we approached Ft. Lee the crowd support got much bigger and I got excited to get off my bike and start the last leg.
I had a clean T2 and after some sunscreen application I was off and running. I actually felt really good starting the run. I had planned to walk up the first big hill and I stuck to the plan on this one. When I got to the top of the hill I saw my wife Laura and all of my teammates. It was awesome seeing her and getting cheers from my Team Firefighter friends. I turned the corner and headed downhill. My consistent training partner is my friend, Eric. We constantly share race strategies and course information. He works occasionally in NY so he had the opportunity to train on this run course a few times. He told me many times before the race, "just don't walk Kyle!" So, as I was jogging down the second hill I was surprised to see my friend walking up the other side. It was a relief at first ten it scared the crap out of me. Eric is a much better runner than I am so if he was walking what would I need to do to get through this marathon? My ego made me attempt jogging up Dyckman hill. I got about 25% up it when I realized that walking would be just as fast but a lot less effort. The first 16 miles of the run were pretty brutal. It was very hot and humid and the hills were steep. The support was awesome and most of the fellow racers were friendly. It was a relief to get out of the park and head up and over the GW bridge. Running over that bridge was really cool. We dropped into manhattan and headed south through Riverside park. The first few miles in the park were really cool. It was a Saturday evening and the park was busy with friends and family enjoying the summer evening. Most were not expecting the parade of hobbling triathletes. It was fun to see their faces as we ran by.
Around mile twenty I was caught by one of my team firefighter teammates, Baron Ballester. Although we had talked over the internet for over a year we had only first met in person that morning in transition. He picked up my mood and we decided to jog/walk at 90/30 second intervals. We spent the last 10k together and it was great.
At a half a mile from the finish line I saw Laura. She handed me a US flag with all the names of the lives lost on 9/11, including the 343 firefighters lost. I started running with the flag unfurled. It was amazing seeing the crowd respond to the flag. I immediately felt rejuvenated, or maybe just relieved to see the finish line. After a year of training and preparing I was finished and it felt great. I found Laura and gave her a huge hug! I really couldn't have done any of it without her. I met up with some friends at the finish line and shared our congratulations. I was starving and so we decided to head over to the boat basin and get some beer and food.
No comments:
Post a Comment