New York City Triathlon
Tuesday, July 20, 2010 at 12:16PM The New York City Triathlon was on Sunday, July 18th. The race had 3,400 entrants. The water temperature at 5 am was 76.5 degrees, so the 1.5 KM swim was barely wet suit legal. The swim has a reputation for a fast current that helps those of us who prefer land to water. This year the current helped, but for the early waves it was relatively weak in comparison to some years. A nice feature at the end of the swim was volunteers who pulled swimmers out of the water.
Given the number of competitors, there were two different transition areas. For my transition area, this met over a 400 meter run in the wet suit to transition. Out of transition, there was a short steep climb on a narrow bike path up to street level.
The 40 KM bike leg was an out and back course on the Henry Hudson and Mosholu Parkways. It was quite a feeling to bike through the toll booth on the Henry Hudson Parkway. There were some rough patches of road as is to be expected in NYC. The bike had some rolling hills, but they were not that tough given the hills we face on training rides.
The 10K run was mostly in Central Park. There were a number of fair sized hills that challenged tired legs. The support of spectators on the run course mitigated the heat of the sun.
Four Targetraining athletes competed. Ben Stout did the swim leg in 18:15 for a relay team. Lauren Carey competed for the second consecutive year. Finishing in 2:46, she improved her time by an impressive six minutes from last year. Marc McCoy finished in 2:42. This was my first Olympic; I finished in 2:45 which placed me in the top half of my age group: a goal I worked towards for two years. I was well prepared by Targetraining having received critical advice and encouragement from all of the coaches; I am particularly grateful to Max Veiga for his insight.
Next year, the NYC Tri is using a lottery system to determine entrants. If you are interested in a memorable Olympic distance race, I urge you to enter the lottery from November 1 to November 3, 2010.
David Burton
Corrected reference to Ben Stout 7/26/10.
