Nautica NYC Triathlon

My second year doing the race, I was much more prepared than last year and felt fairly confident going in.

Pre-race

Woke up very early Sunday morning so I could get to transition before it closed at 5:45, had trouble finding a place to park. Luckily, Regina had already parked Rico's car and she offered to park mine so I could go set up. I picker her up by Rico's car and drove back toward the transition area, she took my car and I went in, she was a savior. As I got into transition I pumped my tires, re-racked my bike and started to get everything else ready when I realized that I had left my bike shoes in the trunk of the car. It was now about 5:40, transition was closing in 5 minutes. I left my phone in the car as well. I ran over to where Rico's bike was and asked if had a phone, he called Regina for me, turns out she wasn't far from where we were, I begged the staff to let me back in as I had forgotten my shoes and needed to get them, they said no OK. I ran out to where she was, grabbed my shoes and ran back. There was my morning warm up. I managed to get everything sorted and met Regina to walk up to the swim start. Right as I was leaving transition, the pro swimmers were coming out of the water. They are done with their swim and I don't start for another 90 minutes, they will almost be done with the race before I start.

The Race

The swim started well, I got into a rhythm very early, and I had a fairly easy go of it. I felt like I was moving pretty good, but only beat last years time by half a minute or so. Contact wasn't too bad until the end of the swim, I wound up behind a guy that was karate kicking the surface of the water, I took one of those kicks to the side of my head, tried to go around him, he seemed to keep moving in front of me. I eventually had to sprint a bit just to get by him, but this was only 200 meters or so from the finish. Swim, uneventful (which is good).

T1 was good, I jogged the 400 yards or so, made a quick turnaround and was off to start the bike.

The bike was good, I started nice and easy but was still moving at a good pace. The legs felt good, and I wasn't trying to recover from the swim. I pushed pretty hard the whole way around, but being in aero and pushing is not conducive to drinking, so I didn't take in enough fluids. I wound up averaging 20 mph and shaved about 9 minutes off of last years time.

Got back to transition, threw on some socks (which takes a few seconds) and my sneakers, grabbed my fuelbelt and I was off. I knew immediately that my legs were not in good shape. I left too much on the bike. I had done enough bricks to know that if I just pushed through the first two miles or so I should be ok. About 1.5 miles in my quad and hammy on my right leg started cramping at the same time. I had to stop an stretch for a minute, then walk until the leg loosened up which it eventually did. However my lack of fluid intake on the bike was detrimental as the heat was now getting to me and I knew I just didn't have it. I pushed as best I could with short spurts of walking in between and finished at 1:04:56 for the 10k. I had just done a 10k the week before and under 53 minutes so this was a little disappointing.

All told I am pretty happy with the race, I think I could have gone maybe 5 or 6 minutes faster, but that's all. I learned my lesson on the bike and have ordered a bottle I can drink from in the aero position. Also I will dial it back a little on the next one so I have fresh legs. I think I will be faster overall if I do this.

The NYC tri is a cool event but logistically a pain in the ass, and very expensive. Next year they are going to a lottery system, and I don't think I will be signing up.

The result
Swim 23:27
T1 4:31
Bike 1:14:32
T2 2:04
Run 1:04:56

Total 2:49:28