I hadn’t heard of many people taking part in the NYC Triathlon but from what I read online there are 2 things about this race. The effort that is required in order to get to the start line alone is nearly a mini triathlon in itself and out of a lot of the triathlons out there this is a must do race. Having completed this race and joined the class of 2014 I can safely say that if you get a chance you have got to do it.
Very early on after signing up to the race I knew I wanted to run it for charity. I chose 2, both of which have had some impact on me so I wanted to give back, CRY Ireland and The Alzheimer Society of Ireland.
Something I didn’t appreciate before flying over to NYC from Ireland is the logistics of sourcing equipment 24hrs before the race and being punctual for the official sign in, NYC is a massive city so I managed to get a bike and make it to registration before it closed.
Pre-Race, Sunday Having gone to bed at 11pm and not really slept I was up at 3am and out of the room by 4am, so as you can imagine I wasn’t feeling too fresh and geared up for the race. We made it by taxi to the transition area and I laid out my gear that I would use to complete the other disciplines throughout the race. It was a bit of a walk from the transition area to the swim start, I overheard someone say it was 1.5miles.
Swim I was one the last groups in the water which meant I didn’t get going to until 8:00am. After the race started I made sure I worked my way to the front of the corral (group) so I didn’t have to swim over all of those first-timers. It worked out great. The current was really strong, and it was in our favour. To my complete surprise, the Hudson River was absolutely pristine. The strong current made for an interesting swim. I wanted to use it as much as I could, so I didn’t push too hard. It was actually difficult to tell how much effort I was putting in because I was moving so quickly. In hindsight, I probably could have gone a little harder.
Bike I thought Manhattan was flat, I was wrong. As I started at the back there were a lot of riders ahead of me which gave me great confidence passing them out. I managed to find a good path and stayed clear of most riders for the best part of the bike. The hills weren’t really steep they just kept coming, and some seemed to go on for a while. I rode at a steady effort, as I didn’t want to burn too many calories. Although it is nice to be in the front end of a race, you can easily lose your sense of your effort.
Run
The transition areas are located in Riverside Park, a place I got to know very well as I made that walk to and from quite a bit throughout the duration of the pre / post race. The one thing I completely forgot about was the 15% grade hill leading out of the park, running when you get off a bike is hard enough, add a crazy hill climb and you’ll most certainly have jelly for legs.
The majority of the run is based in Central Park but when you finally make it up that hill and you get onto 72nd street, it was a great feeling, nothing like I’d experienced before, running in the streets of NYC. When I finally made it to Central park the sun began to warm up and I really began to feel the effects of the course.
I finished with a time of 2:37:41, which I was very happy about. 2 people who I forgot to mention are my girlfriend Sarah and one of my good friends Brettzer, who lives in NYC, Brettzer for putting both myself and Sarah up for a few nights, and Sarah for generally putting up with me throughout the race.
I am happy to say I raised a total of €1500 for my selected charities and I would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who donated, I know it means a lot to the charities and also to me.
If you would like to learn about CRY, find out more about our services or participate in a fundraising activity please contact lebbs@cry.ie or check our website.
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