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EnduraSport New York Triathlon (Harriman Half Iron) “Race” Report

Saturday morning was a perfect example of contrasts. Beautiful weather compared to absolutely dreadful weather last year. The cold, cold lake water compared the warm air outside. The satisfaction of biking (and swimming to some degree) stronger than expected compared to the sinking feeling when I got off the bike and handed my timing chip to one of the race organizers and said “I’m done.” Feeling like I could have challenged for an age group award and a potential top 15 finish compared to knowing that for the sake of the rest of my season I needed to drop out.

Now, on to the details:

The morning started well. I was up at 5am for my pre-race breakfast and a nice walk with Charlie. It had rained pretty hard most of Friday, but it was clear out and already in the low 50’s with blue skies. I loaded the car and was on the road at 6:30, right on schedule. About 45 minutes into my drive, I hit stopped traffic on the Palisades. Literally stopped. Like, people-getting-out-of-their-cars-to-walk-and-look-around stopped. I noticed that the guys in the van ahead of me had bikes in the back and a GPS on the dashboard. They were playing with the GPS. I assumed they were headed to Harriman, so I got out and talked to them and found out that even though they weren’t headed to Harriman, they were going close and had an alternate route. So, we pulled an illegal U over the grassy median and I followed them around and around. When they got to where they were turning off, they helpfully pulled over and showed me on their GPS where I should go. It wasn’t even 7:45, so I had well over an hour until race-time. Plenty of time. But somehow, I totally f-ed that up and ended up God-knows-where. By the time I asked directions and got on the right road, it was inching ever closer to race-time. I called Elizabeth and told her that I wasn’t going to make it. Dammit. Not only was I running late, I was stressed and pissed. I’m still not sure why traffic was stopped or whether it would have been better for me to have just waited it out. Either way, I got there – I pulled into the parking lot at 8:35. I did the absolute worst transition area set up (thank goodness I didn’t have to worry about the run), hit the porta-potty, got my wetsuit on and somehow got down to lake with enough time to quickly dive in before lining up at the start.

The water was cold – I think they said 54 degrees. It was also pretty choppy. But after the initial shock, I didn’t notice the cold that much. I swam hard, working harder than I’d planned. I struggled to find someone to draft off, which added to my effort. But I felt pretty strong, especially once the initial shock wore off and I was able to calm down a bit. The race is relatively small and there were three waves, so there wasn’t much bumping or contact, except at one of the buoys pretty early in the race. After about 1/3 of the way through the swim, the swimmers had spread out and I was mostly by myself.

When I finished the swim and looked at my watch I was surprised and a bit dismayed. My watch said 37:27, which I knew was about 9 minutes slower than last year. But I also knew that there weren’t that many people ahead of me. So, either the swim was long or the chop and cold got to everyone. I’ve since looked at the results and I would have been the 17th fastest swim, which is pretty damn good for me. I think that the long swim was probably a combination of last year’s swim being a little short (people were complaining about that last year), this year’s swim being a little long and the lake conditions.

I got from the water to the transition area pretty quickly, but then had a piss-poor transition. Partly because I hadn’t set up my area all that well, partly because I didn’t feel that huge sense of urgency I normally feel and partly because trying to get arm warmers (those little sleeves that cover just the arms so you can take them off easily if it gets too warm) on wet arms is a ridiculous challenge.

I got on the bike and started going. My plan was to take it at a moderate pace and try to either negative split (do the later laps faster than the earlier ones) or even split (do them all the same pace). I did not want to blow it out at the beginning, especially because I wasn’t super confident about my fitness. That plan worked for a couple miles, but once I got passed once or twice I started rolling. I still rode somewhat conservatively but not nearly as “moderately” as I’d planned. The roads were a little slick and dirty from the rain Friday night, but still, much, much better than riding in the 40 degrees and rain from last year. The big descent from about miles 10-12 of each loop was fun; I think my max speed was around 38 mph. The big 1.5 mile climb right after that descent, well, not so much. On the climb, I was doing 7-8mph and passing people. It sucked. On the other hand, though, and this is what I kept in mind, that hill is harder than anything at Lake Placid. In case you don’t remember from last year, here’s the elevation profile – and remember the course does this four times (the other thing is that the start of each loop is at about 11 miles on that profile – meaning that the climb is the very last thing you do each time around):

I finished the bike course in 3:10, which was about 7 minutes faster than last year’s time. I assumed that my decreased amount of training would balance out with the near perfect conditions and my time would be about the same as last year. So, I was happily surprised to improve by nearly 5%. I wonder if the fact that I knew I didn’t have to run after the bike subconsciously allowed me to push harder on the bike. I don’t think it did, because I don’t normally hold back too much on the bike leg (except in Ironman).

Anyway, I got off the bike and felt my body thinking “run”, but my brain saying “stop.” That sucked. It definitely made a good, strong ride somewhat less satisfying. I handed my timing chip to one of the race officials and told him I was done. I’m sure I looked fine and looked capable of continuing. Not that I need to explain myself to him – or that he even really cared – but it did make me feel a little small. I gave thought to sticking around to watching the half finishers, but realized that I still had quite a while until anyone would be coming in. So I left. I drove home. Thinking about what could have been and trying to keep the ultimate prize in mind.

Nine weeks to go. I’m confident I’ll get there and even feel like I’ll be capable of racing a satisfactory Ironman. One thing’s for certain though, if I make it there, I will do the run.

EnduraSport New York Triathlon (Harriman Half Iron)
Swim: 38:46 (would have been 17th overall among around 105 individuals)*
T1: 2:41 (26th)
Bike: 3:10:00 (19th)

(*My watch showed 37:27, the extra 1:20 are the run from the beach to the timing chip sensor which was at the entrance to the transition area)

Harriman Half Ironman – Swim and Bike only
Distance: 57.2 miles
Time: 3:51:28
Average heart rate: 136
Swim course average HR: 137
Bike course average HR: ~136 (first lap average was 137, second was 135, third was 134 and fourth was 138)
Course: Harriman
Conditions: Beautiful, started out in the mid-50’s, was in the low 70’s when I got off the bike, clear skies

Bike – May 18
Distance: 30.4 miles
Time: 1:45
Average heart rate: 122
Course: Brooklyn Bridge to Prospect Park (5 loops), back
Conditions: Some sun, a little wind, high 50’s = nice

Run – May 19
Distance: 4 miles
Time: 31 minutes
Average heart rate: 145
Course: West Side Highway
Conditions: 55 degrees, sunny, clear

Strength – May 19