I was a last minute fill-in for the swim portion of a relay team in today's New York City Triathlon - and it will be the one and only time that I EVER race in it. I have never felt the desire to do the race in the first place, and after the swim this morning, I now know that this was a wise choice - I hated every minute of it.
Pre-Race
Because I was a last minute fill-in, I technically wasn't racing under my name so I never did go to the race briefing that was a requirement at packet pick-up. In fact, I never did even go to pick-up my packet - I left that up to the girl whose place I was taking. However, due to the early start, I did drive into Queens last night and stay in Astoria (thanks Jer!) so that I didn't have to drive in this morning. This is problem number one with this race - the logistics of getting there.Option A: Drive into Manhattan race-day morning.
While this seems like an easy thing to do, we are talking about Manhattan and nothing is ever easy when it comes to the words "Manhattan" and "driving". Another problem is just how early you have to get there. Transition closes at 5:15 - in the morning. That means that to feasible set up your transition spot in some kind of semi-decent order, you need to get there by at least 4:45. Considering that you will probably have to park somewhere in the Broadway and high-70s/low-80s, add on an additional 15 minute walking time. So now I am leaving my house by AT LEAST 3:30am. Which means I am up somewhere about 3:00am. That is just ridiculous. Also - see below about bike drop-off.
Option B: Stay with a friend in Manhattan/Queens
This is actually what I did, and had I been racing the full tri, it would have sucked immensely. You have to drop your bike off at transition on Saturday, which means that you either have to bring someone with you to the Expo so that they can watch your bike while you pick up your race packet, go through the briefing, etc. and then go up to transition which is NOWHERE NEAR THE EXPO! Or go into the city twice. Easy enough if you live there - not so easy if you don't. Then, on the race day, you still have to wake up at the ass-crack of dawn to get over to transition and I don't know about you, but the subway at 4:00am is not something I really want to experience - especially sober. And as a side note: Manhattan is actually quite a big place so just because someone "lives in Manhattan" doesn't mean they live anywhere close to where you need to be on race morning.
Option C: Stay in a hotel somewhere near the West Side
I am too cheap to even entertain this option, so I won't even bother discussing it.
Seeing as how I was only doing the swim, staying in Queens was only slightly bad, mostly because of how early I had to get up (3:20am). I had a nice relaxing dinner and polished off the two Shed beers (born and brewed in VT!) I brought with me and hit the pillow about 9.
Pre-race dinner!
The drive to the West Side in the morning was uneventful from a traffic standpoint but highly entertaining in other ways. Things I saw on the way: multiple people urinating on the sidewalk, one guy vomiting in Columbus Circle while his girlfriend rubbed his back consolingly, three possible "ladies of the night" (or they could have just been three regular ladies coming home from a night out, I can't really tell sometimes), one car accident and no less than five people out running (for exercise, not from the cops, well at least I don't think they were running from the cops). New York City truly is the city that never sleeps.
I found a parking spot and made my way to transition, met up with the other two members of the relay and got ready. It's go time.
Race Time
After my barefooted walk of no less than 1.25 miles from transition to swim start, I was getting excited. But I slowly realized I was going to have quite the wait. Seeing as how roughly the entire island of Manhattan was racing, there were two different sets of groups that went off: yellow and red. Lucky for me, we were in the yellow group, which went off first. Unlucky for me, the relays were the very last wave to go off in that group. So not only did I have to wait until 6:51 to start (remember, I have been up and going since 3:20 so this is about lunch time for me at this point) but I am also stuck swimming behind the 3,000 people that are not so great at swimming (not that I am an Olympian or anything, but avoiding slow swimmers is not exactly as easy as avoiding slow runners - also, Jennie Fitch, an ACTUAL Olympian, competed today!).
It's finally our waves' turn to go, so we line up on the starting barge and get ready for the whistle. NYC does a time trial start, so 15-20 people go off every 20 seconds - which is actually one of the only things I really liked about it. I dove in and immediately realized that this was it - my one and only swim in the Hudson River, so I might as well drink it in (but not literally because it's the Hudson River and that would be gross.)
It was awful. The Hudson is just as bad - if not more so - than everyone says it is. It smells. It's dirty. There is zero visibility. It tastes bad. There are no redeeming qualities about the Hudson River - except for the current (and the fact that it keeps New Jersey a safe distance away from New York - just kidding Danielle!). That thing rips and we were only about 25 yards off shore. I can only imagine what it's like in the middle of the river. The only things I kept thinking was, "The faster I swim, the faster I can get out of this awful, awful place," so I swam faster.
I hit the ramp somewhere in the 20:00 mark and then ran for transition - and kept running, and running, and running. Almost a full .4 of a mile, in fact. That is horrible. They should actually include that as part of the 10k because there should never be a reason to run that far from a swim exit to a transition area. I handed off the timing chip, changed into dry clothes and peaced the eff out. I hit the LIE by 8:15 and was home by 9:00am.
Post Race
Since I really didn't stay for long after my swim, I have nothing to write about the post-race festivities in Central Park. Usually I am all about the after-party (duh) but I had my car with me so there would be no post-race bevies for me - and there was also no beer sponsor at this race (another reason I have never found the desire to do it). However, if anyone has anything to offer about this then feel free to let me know. Apparently there is a VIP area that I could have gone to since I was "on the list", but never made it over there. Oh well,Wrap-Up
So all-in-all, based solely on the swim, I would rate the NYC Tri somewhere in the 4-5 range. The location is great - who doesn't love New York City? - but that is also what makes it so awful. Manhattan is just not an easy place to get around when you have to lug bikes and wetsuits and bags and helmets around. The Expo isn't conveniently located to the transition and getting from one to the other isn't easy. For the marathon, it will be amazing; for the triathlon, not so much. Lucky for me, I don't have the desire to ever race it, but for those that do, here is the link for next year's registration. It lottery opens November 1, but I have no idea when they draw the numbers.As a total side note: I also responded to a working fire this afternoon, which means I did a partial triathlon and then put out a fire all in one day. This is also my one day off all week. I am currently drinking my second Saranac Pale Ale and am ready to crack open a beer SJ brought home from England for me called Ginger Tosser. For those of you keeping score, I will not be going on my 12 mile run this evening. Instead, I am counting my barefoot walk and my run to transition as my running and enjoying the rest of the evening.
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