Race Report - NYC Aquaphor Triathlon

Yesterday I finished my first olympic distance triathlon!  The distances are a 1500m swim in the Hudson, a 40 km bike up the West side of Manhattan and back, then a 10k run in and around Central Park.

The more I compete in these races, the more I'm able to anticipate pre-race nerves, and even though they never seem to go away, at least I can tell myself in the back of my head that nerves are usual and, once I get going, I'll probably be fine.

For this event, the swim was again my biggest challenge.   I only progressed from a doggy paddle about 4 years ago, and had only done 2 open water swims in a wetsuit before this race.   My previous longest swim was 800 metres, so I'd be nearly doubling that, but I knew I just had to overcome the initial nerves about being in the water, find my stride, not panic, and I'd be OK.

I also don't do well in hot weather, and, as if ordered by the merciless Weather Gods, along comes a great heatwave affecting half of the country.  Even though I could do nothing about it, this didn't stop me from checking weather.com every 20 minutes or so in my waking hours in the couple of days leading up to the race.  I had disaster-scenario visions about sweltering and then passing out in my wetsuit in the river, or even worse - being told the river was too warm to wear a wetsuit, which helps my buoyancy.    Also, the hardest run I've ever done was the Chicago marathon in 2010, when it got up to about 88 deg F, so I was really hoping for a let up in the heat.  As it happened, the hottest day of the weekend was Saturday, when it reached about 100, but race day on Sunday was forecast to peak at 90.  My start time was 7.00 am, so as long as I didn't dawdle, I should be done before it started getting really hot.

Waiting for swim - with Stephanie, Eliza, and Kat

I was up at 4.30 am to take a taxi down to the transition area on 72nd street.  I'd taken my bike down, and packed all my stuff (swim cap, noseclip, goggles, wetsuit, goos, biking shoe, biking leg, running shoe, running leg, glasses, gloves, water bottles, energy bars - checked at least 4 times) the day before, so all I had to do was a quick bike check, and then make my way towards the swim start, a mile away from transition.

Quick pre-race interview!

As Rachel (kindly helping me as my 'handler' -handlers are assigned to help 'challenged' athletes - for the day) and I walked down along the side of the river, we saw the elite swimmers had already started, powering down the river, leading the approx. 3500 other athletes in the race.  We could also see the strong tide helping them.  The fastest swim on this course is only 9 minutes!    An encouraging sight was that the river was completely flat, unlike last year's choppy conditions (and maybe not by coincidence, where two people had heart attacks).

As we neared the start, my anxiety started to build up a bit, but I was also excited, and looking forward to getting going.  I also made it onto live TV!  I was collared by a Fox TV crew, along with Sarah Reinertsen, a well renowned ironman amputee, for a 2 minute chat about how we got into triathlons.

Then it was time to zip up the old wetsuit, and along with the rest of the approx. 30 para-athletes, hop on to the barge to wait for the horn announcing we could jump into the water.  Ignoring the sight of the odd dead fish floating around the barge (didn't want to think about how they died!), you could sense the energy and anticipation.  I was talking to a wheelchair competitor from England,  Liz McTernan, impressed that someone who can't even walk can throw themselves into the water (as it turns out, she did the swim 11 minutes quicker than me).

The Hudson

Before we knew it, time for the countdown.  First to go would be the TRI1 athletes (wheelchair users), then a 20 second pause, then TRI2 (above knee amputees, my category), and so on for the 6 para categories.  The organizer with a bullhorn announced the 5 minute warning.  3 minutes.  2..1 minute..30 seconds..and then the TRI 1 athletes were off, dropping themselves about 2 feet off the barge with a big splash.  I felt calm as my wave came next, and lowered myself as best as I could into the water as the klaxon went off.

As I went in, I was glad I'd practiced in the Hudson a couple of weeks before.  It must be alarming to go from swimming pool to the Hudson, which is completely murky, and where you can't see more than an inch in front of your face.  I felt fine and started to get some rhythm in my stroke.  I could see the signs on the river wall as I progressed, slowly but surely, first for 500 m, then 800, then 1000.  I knew I was going pretty slowly, but was also excited that I was going to make it, and the hardest part of the event - swim start - was over.

Eventually I could see the swim exit getting bigger and bigger, and I'd made it!  I was grabbed from behind, and up out of the water, and then had my wetsuit stripped from me by two volunteers, while Rachel waited with my leg.  From there I could run back to transition.  My final swim time:  28 mins 23 secs.

After changing into my biking leg, I was away and out of transition.  I was feeling exhilarated by the swim, and felt I had a lot of energy to take me over the finish line.   Going uptown, there was a slight headwind, but going back down south with the wind on my back felt really good.  My final bike time was 1 hr 26 mins, about 18 mph average.

Transition

Back to transition; by this time it was starting to get hot.  After changing into my running leg and stocking up on energy gels, I ran up a steep path out of transition, and onto 72nd Street, which would take me about a mile into Central Park.  The crowd support for this portion was great; there were alot of people clapping and cheering, and the buildings also provided a good amount of shade.

Then it was into the park, and around mile 3 as I started running up the hills on the West side, I started to get some cramps, and stopped for a minute or so to recover.  I knew I wasn't running to break any records or win any prizes, but just to finish, so I was Ok with giving myself with a little breather and not pushing myself too hard.  For the next three miles or so,  I ran for 10 minutes or so, stopped and have some water, and then went on my way.  Around 90 St and 5th Avenue, there was an Achilles cheering team, including Lisa, Soo, Wendy, and Tiffany, who gave me a very welcome cup of ice, and then it was on the home stretch, down Cat Hill, and to the 72nd Street transverse where the finish line waited for me.

Nearing finish line

For the last mile or so I would have loved to have stopped, but there were so many people around, including some familiar faces (Amanda, who I ran my half marathon with in March, and Junko, another inspiring athlete I met through Achilles), that my pride simply wouldn't let me, so I pushed through, knowing I was very nearly there.  I was as excited as I was to finish any marathon, and crossed the line after a run of 1.06.  My overall time: 3 hrs 13 mins.

I think I'm slowly but surely getting addicted to triathlons.  I was a long way behind the winner of my category (Mohamed Lahna, who did it in 2.46), but if I work on my swim more I could shave a lot off my total time.

The rest of the day was spent with the rest of the para-athletes, friends, guides, and handlers, first in one of the hospitality tents past the finish line, and then for beer and burgers on the Upper West Side, generously sponsored by the race organizer, John Korff.  There, as we talked about our race day experiences, my mind started wandering to what the next challenge should be.  Maybe not a full ironman, but I'm pretty should I could do a half...

Team Achilles!

A swim to the other side

It is a fair comment to say I've been a late developer in the swimming department, only learning properly when I was, ooh, I'd say about 34.  Before that, all I could do was a kind of panicky doggy paddle before starting to sink after about 2 metres.

This all changed when I met Heidi Chadwick around 2009, who encouraged me to join the Achilles Triathlon team.  As Heidi had completed Ironmans I was confident that she knew a thing or two about swimming, and would be in capable hands learning with her, so I agreed to join their weekly swim workout sessions.

I was basically starting from scratch.  Up to that point, I had considered myself a reasonably well co-ordinated person, but this all seemed to change whenever I slipped into a pair of speedos.   So much to think about all at the same time - kicking the leg, making a stroke with the arms, relaxing the hands, going in the right direction, keeping your composure, as well as the trifling matter of actually remembering to breathe.

Being part of the Achilles triathlon team though provided me with an endless source of inspiration.  If a blind person could get into a swimming pool, or someone with cerebral palsy, or someone left wheel-chair bound by polio, then there was no reason why I could not.

Slowly but surely it did start to come together, and I completed my first sprint triathlon in Flushing Meadows, Queens, in summer 2009.  The 400 metre swim took me about 27 minutes, but I was ecstatic just to get out of the pool.  Last year I completed the swim in the same event in 20 minutes, and I'm hoping to shave a few more minutes off my time when I do it again in a couple of weeks time.

Last week-end, Heidi invited me and mutual friend Nina up to her beautiful lakeside cottage up in the hills of New Jersey.   I tried on a wetsuit for the first time and was amazed by how buoyant they make you.  A highlight of the day was swimming to the other side of the lake and back, with Nina, Heidi, and her husband Don in a kayak for support.  It made me realise how I far my swimming has come in the space of a couple of years - I'm swimming distances I never thought possible - and started me dreaming of completing the NYC Olympic distance triathlon one day, which involves a 1500 metre swim in the Hudson (just don't drink the water!).

Delgado and Phelps

I consider overcoming my fear of swimming a real personal achievement.  It has been an empowering experience, giving me a confidence that likely spills over into other areas of my life; if I can learn to swim, anything else is possible; by tackling obstacles head on, the sky is the limit.   But as well as taking great satisfaction in my swimming accomplishments, more than any thing I feel gratitude that I've been touched by organisations like Achilles, and people like Heidi, who have helped me achieve what I once thought was never possible.