It's official. Registered a few weeks back. Just started digging and got the maps and elevation maps. Looks daunting. Some serious climbs on the bike and on the run. Gonna be a suffer-fest. That's ok. Can't all be flat tho Beach2Battleship bike was very windy so it's sort of like it yet different. Whatever... Also, interesting this race will be early in the season. B2B was end of season and it had it's issues in terms of training (riding in the dark etc). Early season means training in winter. Should be interesting...
05/16/2012:
So, on May 5th, I went riding. There was a 20% chance of rain so that sounds pretty good. Did my usual loop. While climbing Lawrence, the right back of my seat drops. What?!? Finish the climb and pull it back up and it does. Cool. Fixed it. I then go climb snake when the whole back (right and left) both drop. Oi. Finish the climb and get off the bike to check. The back broke off. Unbelievable. It's still hanging on but can't put my butt on it. I'm willing to believe it's my big fat butt but can't be. And metal fatigue? Can't be...Annoyed and then the downpour started. Had enough. Called Lee. It was 9:15 am. Told her it's time to jump in the shower and get dressed. I was hoping I won't need a ride but had to prepare for the worse. Asked her to check on me every so often. Managed to limp home to Brickwell where I got a new seat. Lee called in a credit card. Upgraded big time to a better seat. Always hated my seat but this seat? No padding. Sitting on a freaking stick. Can't be comfortable but everyone loves it. Will see.
Left the store. I was already not warmed up anymore. Got out and it started raining again. Funny.
Rode it the next week and it actually seems fine. Cool.
06/04/2012:
It's done. I'm as ready as I can be. I think I might be a little undertrained but is anyone ever fully ready? And they do say that it's better to be undertrained versus overtrained. That being said, I think I am ready.
I have been doing 60's and 70's on the bike. I have done the hills. I have the run. I have done some 4K's in the pool as well as a 5K one night.
This past Thursday, I took the car to Honda and got on the bike. The bike computer kept going crazy causing me to pull over and tinker. Very annoying. At mile 64 I gave up and trusted to the math. Starting at Honda, doing my usual 68 mile route would have caused me to be 4 mile short for 64. I then went to Suny Old Westbury and did 4 loops (YUCK). I got 80 miles. I got all the hills except for Mills Hill. Nice.
Saturday I did nothing but Sunday, I met with Jim. He wanted to swim-bike-run but the beaches were closed Saturday due to high bacteria so we rode and ran. Hit Mills hill first. Tough but I did better than ever. Jim killed it a little by saying that we have fresh legs tho I don't know how fresh my legs were. This was followed by Moore's hill. After that we did the Tobay run of the Tri with another mile in the Arbotreum for 4 miles. Half up and half down.
This week will be Monday-Swim, Tuesday-Run and Wednesday-Swim.
Took the bike to Brickwell on Sunday for a tune up. Apparently I also need a new chain and a new cassette to go with it. He suggested a better cassette for climbing. I took his suggestion. On one hand that is very stupid of me - never change anything right before or during a race. On the other hand, I can use some help. I also asked them to change the tires. There is wear and tear on them and I want brand new kevlar tires. Less chance of a flat tho still possible.
Crazy week this week and crazy week the next. This week I have a school trip with Jessie (Wednesday) and I need to take Jeremy to Townshand HS on Thursday. Next week, Lee has a class Sunday-Thursday. Gonna rent a car for the whole week. Next week another trip with Jessie followed by Jeremy's graduation. Day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute.
06/18/2012:
Wow...A full 8 days passed and I still didn't write anything about it...
Gotta go slow through this. It has been such a whirlwind.
June 5th (Tuesday), spoke to my client after I came back from the YMCA after the run. Spoke from 9:40 to 10 pm. Then spent cooking up an emergency demo until 2am. Got less than 3 hours of sleep - not happy.
June 6th (Wednesday), went on a school trip with Jessie's English class. It was supposed to be at the Queens Farm which is about 1.5 miles away from our house. Seems funny, that I drove to school just to be driven all the way back home. We get there and am told that we need to go elsewhere. Before I know it, we are parked at Upper Alley. Nice. It was a pretty good trip. A cultural trip. We saw a Latin-American performance, A Native American performance, an African American performance and a Birds of Prey performance. The birds were of course the best. That night was a small swim (something like 2,500) and that was it. Officially a taper.
June 7th (Thursday), took Jeremy to Townshand HS for an assessment test, orientation and parent orientation. From there, we ate and picked up the bike.
Friday back to work. Got news of an immediate emergency project - another demo. Can't let the stress get to me. Gotta concentrate on the IM. Not happy at work. Created a list of what I need to take. Split it into bags.
Friday night/Saturday morning used the time to place things in the bags. Said goodbye to everyone and then Jim came over. He was 15 minutes late and had me worried. Not like him. Turns out Evelyn went shopping with car and then needed help to unload. It's ok. We had plenty of time. The on/off rain didn't help.
Bike dropoff was supposed to be between 3 and 4 and the meeting was called for 4. Got there about 3:30 and immediately hit the port-a-potties. Picked up our stuff, put a sticker on the bike and put it into transition. First thing that hit me was that the half-Ironmans were on 1 side and the full were on the other side. It was a nice transition area. You get a squared off box and a stool. On the other hand it hit me how many areas had names on it or lack there of.
There are approx 150 racers in the half and 27 in the full. Yes - I counted.
On to the meeting...Basically, the halfs do 1 loop of each while the full do 2. Also, the swim had a run on the beach between loops. I never did that before but always love it when we do it in the pool.
Jim was eyeing this Scott bike. Looked beautiful. It's the bike that Jim wants to get.
From there, to the motel after stopping at Grand Union for milk for my cereal. We were the only ones in the motel. Haven't stayed at a motel in years. Clean, nice and reminded me of all the horror movies.
From there to Selen's Diner so Jim can have dinner and I can some dessert (fruit). At transition, we met this guy named Jason Storm who is training for IMNY. He actually has been training on the course which is supposed to be very hilly and hard. Good for him. And who walks into Grand Union as we left? Jason. And who walks into Selena's Diner as we are finishing? Jason. Real pleasure talking to him - nice guy. Lives in the East Village.
Also at the meeting, I see one of Vinnie's friends. Met him at Beach 2 Battleship. He remembered me too. How cool is that?
Set up the alarm for 2am and also the iphone rooster for 2:05 am. Slept well. Got a text message from Kia at 1:50. Stayed in bed but stayed awake which was good. Not sure if the alarms actually were working. Not sure why either.
Stomach a little weird but doable. I knew Jim was awake because I heard the indoor plumbing go off.
Got to race site. Are we really doing this?
There is no changing tent. I don't really care about that but I kinda wish we had that. Usually there are people helping and I wonder if I'll need that. What the RD, Mike Wilson, told us was that there is a changeing hut/Bathroom thingie near by. You can either come out of the swim and head straight to transition or go there first. I don't need to change but right before the start I was wondering if I should have left shoes there. Lots of little rocks in transition.
Last visit to the bathroom - really no need to carry any extra weight on the bike or run. Hilly enough...
Run to the beach with about 10 minutes to go and who do I run into? Kamen. I met him at the Climb up 1 Penn Plaza. Dudes an Ultra-Marathoner and a fast one too. He and his daughter did the open distance tri the day before. He was supposed to race today on probably the half but hurt his shoulder and had shoulder surgery. Later I found out that he was biking and someone got in his way and he crashed right into them. Now shoulder surgery and who the hell knows. Sucks.
06/19/2012:
So, it's go time. Star-spangled banner through bag-pipes. Different. The swim starts and it's very shallow water start. People are swimming. I'm running. Why would I swim? Seems silly. Ran and eventually dove in. Water wasn't freezing but initially the cold definitly affected me. Heart rate jumped and I had trouble catching my breath. Had to stop for a second to breathe. Calmed down and got used to the water and started swimming.
The swim course was go out to the farthest buoy (call it buoy-A), left turn and around this little island, pass on the right, and continue to the next furthest buoy (call it buoy-B), hook another left and straight shot back to the shore. I came out, Mark the RD told me I was doing very well, ran down the shore and again run into the water and through the water and continued swimming. Everything fine at this point tho obviously a lot less people around. Started coughing up phlem as my new thing now which kinda alarmed the kayakers who asked me if I was ok. Gave them a thumbs up and continued both swimming and coughing. Nice. Still feeling good.
Came out of the water and Mark told me I was top 10. Told him I'm looking for bottom 3. It was nice to see that Mark was meeting us Fullers all along (so far).
Flashback to Saturday. Before we left transition, after the meeting, I looked through my bag and I realized my chip was a little broken. The connection to the strap was broken and it was hanging on barely. No good. Went back and spoke to Mark who told me to come early in the morning and it will be fixed. He then asked me my name too. Sunday, whenever he saw me (pre-race, pre-swim, post-swim and anytime later) he would refer to me by name as opposed to number. It's the little things that make you feel good and it did.
During the swim I decided that I would stop to pee before I started riding. Makes sense, no? The question was whether to go to the changing hut thingie which has more urinals/toilets or to go to transition where there are only 4 port-a-potties. Finally decided to go to transition. Can't be that many people still there, right? Good decision.
No problem taking off wetsuit, got ready and hit the port-a-pottie. Someones wife was watching me quite intently as I was getting ready and her husband too. No privacy not that I care but it was a little weird as I was putting anti-chafe on inside my shorts. There I am with my hand down my pants in front of her. Who cares tho...Gotta do what I gotta do and a chafe is NO GOOD!
Left with the bike and Kamen is there. Nice. Out of the park (uphill for 1.5 miles), 2 mile descent into Ohara which is a nasty but short climb, down Ohara and onto 23A. Suddenly, I hear a friendly honk and it's Kamen waving bye and screaming good luck. How cool is that?
So, 23A was for the most part pretty good. Usually a shoulder to ride on tho there were parts where there was no shoulder and I took the road. Initially you ride down through the town and eventually into nowhere. Averageing over 19 mostly. Nice. No wind, not too hot, just a good ride.
Rode past the motel and on. Every 10 miles or so a tiny aid station on the bike. Eventually around mile 23, there was a 8 % grade long uphill. Not fun. Actually sucked but I went up and up and felt for the most part good about it. This is doable even if I have to do it again.
A left turn into an area called Phoenicia was the guts of the ride as far as I am concerned. This signalled the real deal. The whole ride, it seems like we are riding toward a mountain, perhaps Hunter. Constantly looming in the background. Scary stuff. At mile 35, we started climbing. For the next 10 miles we were pretty much going up. There was a great descent at 1 point too but it was all uphill. We were on 214 and the road was ok except for a rough patch. Finally a right turn onto 23A and you know you only have 10 miles to go to transition.
This was tough. The wind suddenly picked up and was in my face. Yuck. Rolling course at this point but mainly climbing. Getting old now. Into town and it's up, flat, up, flat, up and up and up. Left turn into a climb up Ohara which wasn't that bad this way, down Ohara and a 2 mile climb to the park.
I was already seeing runners and a lot of them were walking. The bike took it's toll on everyone. It was during the climb that I saw Jim walking. He was cramping up and not happy. Asked him if he needed anything and he said "no and to just go". The climb sucked. Wouldn't end. Finally into the park and it was 1.5 mile into transition. Mostly down but also a little up but there were a lot of bumps there. Mark said that the town said they couldn't fix in time so he had a friend come with a truck and dumped asphalt on the bad places and all the cars have been tamping it down. Guess it was as good as it gets but it still sucked.
Got down there and there was Mark personally greeting me with "you're doing great Elik and I have your special needs bag here". Turns out I didn't need it and turned around and went out again. Phew.
Saw Jason on his run and he was suffering. Looked out for Jim to tell him that Jason is coming and to cheer him up but never saw him again. Hoped he was ok.
Into town and I am flying down. This large woman decides it's a perfect time to cross the street and the fact that I am doing 30+ MPH and can't stop on a dime should not deter her. I started screaming to her but she just looked at me and continued slowly across. Stupid. Didn't hit her tho thought of Vinnie crashing into a spectator during the Philly tri while he was on the bike and how much injury and damage he managed to do to himself. He flipped over and his foot didn't disengage and he had necrosis in the hip joint. It wasn't sure that he would ever walk again or crutches or cane or what. Avoided her so whatever.
Remember the wind that was in my face earlier? I was expecting it in my back now but it switched! In my face and there was no 19+ MPH. Closer to 16 at best. Sucks.
Decided to grab a bottle of water to refill my stores and missed a left turn. Turned and started talking to this guy. Eventually left him and started climbing the 8 % hill. Continued on and this guy and I would trade spaces constantly. I would actually make headway on the hills. Crazy. He actually said to me that I climb really well. Me???
Up till this point, I didn't notice the bike support at all. They were unmarked which sucks but this truck stops and waits for me and asks me and the other guy if we are ok. I asked if they were bike support and they said yes. I thanked them. It was nice that they were out there.
On a related/unrelated note, there were tons of motorcycles that were going back and forth. I don't know if they were just joy riding or if they were watching out for us. Kept seeing the same people.
By the way, Mark gave us his cell phone number if we get in trouble. I didn't bring it but what kind of RD does that?
On to Phonecia. I remember what it means. My choice right?
The 10 mile climb starting at 35 was bad. The wind kept changing and it seemed like it was always in our face. Going was slow.
Had to get off the bike every so often to stretch back. Felt good to get off. At one point my friend, dude came from Norway tho now living in Canada to do this race, said to me "now what the hell is this my friend? Get back on the bike already...". It was exactly what I needed. Got on and left him and got back to 23A. Said my final good bye to the cop that was manning that intersection. The wind was kind enough again to change direction and was in my face again for those hills.
Just wanted to get off the bike. Soon. Soon. I was on the shoulder and a car came out of nowhere and someone screamed. Scared the hell out of me. Woke me up. Later, I realize they were cheering me on but at the time... Lots of cars at this point were doing that. Honking and yelling cheers. Nice.
Up Ohara, down Ohara and again that 2 mile climb that seems to go on forever. Eventually finished it and the ball buster in to the park and onto transition. I made the cutoff. OK, fine, I made it with plenty of time but I am always worried.
Mark there of course to cheer me on personally.
I don't see Jim. His plan was to put up a tent and just chill with some beers. I don't see him and I don't see his bike in transition. I do see his bike on his car so he finished which is awesome but I don't know where he is. Maybe he put his tent near the finish in which case I won't see him? I don't know.
Went to pee again. Didn't need to but I'm not gonna run and worry about that. Managed to pee but the color is wrong of course. I guess I should talk about my nutrition at this point. Wasn't going well. Managed to eat a bar. Mistake. I should have eaten a bar when I got out of the swim but didn't feel like it. The bar on the bike didn't feel great either and I definitly didn't drink as much as I usually do. Everytime I drank or ate, I didn't feel great about it. I don't know if it was because I was in the aero position more or because of all the climbs but it was what it was. Didn't eat my pretzels either. So far, all I ate the whole day besides breakfast was 1 bar, half a bottle of gatorade, some water and gum.
06/20/2012:
Walk into transition and it feels G-O-O-D to get off the bike permanantly. It's the "I don't really wanna see my bike for a while kinda feeling". Volunteers there to help. Gotta start the run sometime. My Norweigien friend got in a little before me but no one is dying to go out there on the run. No shade, hot and we all know the hills.
As I am about to start, I hear Mark telling a guy the following: Here's the situation. The number 1 male just dropped out. You are number 1. Have a good run". Nice. This guy is starting his second loop and I am just putting my bike into transition.
I start and immediatly have to stop due to some small rocks in my shoe. I actually felt good. Started running. The #1 guy was walking some of the hills and I was catching him. The number 1 female was making her way to transition. She yells to him "don't let me catch you". Whew...The sight of him walking those hills had an effect on me and I walked too.
Just a tangent here but kinda important too: My issues about this race...
Transition area should have been swept of rocks
Aid station every mile on the run, not every 1.5 mile
Shirt should say date and what distance you did
The medal sucked
The reason I bring this up is because I feel like I would have done better if there were aid station every mile. The 1.5 was too much for me. I know...Sounds stupid and trivial but it isn't.
I walked the hills and tried to run elsewhere. My splits were crazy because of the aid stations. Still, the aid stations were great so no complaint.
The run was uneventful. Walked and ran and drank coke at the aid stations until I hit the town. I suddenly hear my name and it's Jim. He's on the other side of the street with his friend Declan. Apparently, Jim finished, went back to the motel, showered and then met up with his buddy. They then went to a bar to rest/eat/drink and it was on the bike course. Apparently, he was there when I rode through on the bike on my way to T2 but somehow missed me. He has been texting with Jeremy but was very worried because he didn't see me.
The bar was prety cool. They had a few tables out on a porch or veranda or something on the course and they put out a pitcher of ice water and plastic cups. Nice. He asked me if I wanted water and I replied with "COKE". HE ran in and came out with a cup for me. I told him that its stupid to drink water and he replied with "says the guy who is doing the full". Maybe he has something there...The next time I hit the bar, he wasn't there but I stopped anyway and asked some diners if I can borrow the salt shaker. The guy said no problem tho the girl was suprised. Felt good to take some salt in. Left with the guy explaining to her how you need to refill the salt you lost and ...
Continued on, pass the diner, pass the Grand Union to the Citgo gas station and on to the turn around. The turn around was up a hill too. Then retrace your steps. Jim wasn't there anymore so I just continued to T2. Ohara wasn't that bad. Cyclists still coming in...Woah...
When I first hit Ohara on the first loop, I spied an ice machine and 2 girls near it. I asked for some ice and one of them runs in and brings me a huge bag of ice. Nice. Put it under my cap and off I went. Later, I got a sponge at an aid station and used that underneath the ice. Eventually when there was no ice, I just kept dipping that sponge into cold water and back under the hat. When I hit the turnaround the first time, one of the volunteers put her hand on my arm to feel how hot I was. She was making sure I was ok. She was suprised that my skin was not boiling hot. That ice and later cold sponge water in my cap worked!
Before T2, there was Jim. Took some pictures and he ran with me giving me some encouragements. Nice.
Said hi to my new buddy Mark who wanted to give me my special needs bag but I was ok.
As I approached T2, about a 1/2 mile away, 2 guys took off and I was hoping to catch them. As I was about to leave a guy took off before me and I was determined to catch him. He was just starting his first loop! Jeez.
I caught him and we decided to run together. I can't remember his name but Jim will. Anyway, he was Indian I think but apparently he goes to Israel all the time and did the Jerusalem Marathon 2 marathons ago. Nice. He actually got back from there Monday morning, and that's when his stomach revolted. Stomach virus. Couldn't eat anything until Thursday morning. Bad...Guy lives in NJ and took the bus to get here. Talk about commitment.
Well, his stomach was still not fully ok and he couldn't eat anything now. He was able to drink ice water and that was it. Recipe for a disaster. I did a quick calculation and realized that unless he runs *very* fast, he wasn't gonna make it. Still, we ran together.
There was a guy on the first loop, Tim, who dogged me the whole way coming back to T2 eventually passing me. Tried to be my social self but he wasn't having it. Still, Tim was from the UK who lives in Manhattan. Well, guess he hung out at the end of the first loop since he came in back of us when we hit the turn around and left us. Good for him.
Well, my buddy and I got to the turn around and Haley is there. Cool. She gave us glowsticks and sent us on our way. She met us at the next aid station and asked if we want company. SURE! So, she ran with us. What?!? What other race does the RD take time to learn your name and pronouce it correctly AND gives out his personal cell phone number AND has one of his people just get out of her car so she can run with us? Unbelievable.
Started getting real dark. Yes, it was that kind of day. We get to Ohara and I sent her to run with a guy who just came off Ohara. We are ok. We climb Ohara and go down and there are 2 runners. I wanted to run with them so we caught up with them and left them. It was funny, because one of them yelled out that we are top ten. I said what?!? And he said that they were top ten and we just screwed them out of that. Thank God he said it with a smile. We laughed, wished them luck and took off. That 2 mile climb still sucked and it was pitch black too.
06/21/2012:
I had to leave my friend. It was time. I didn't mind walking up the hill but he was going slow. I made sure to tell them at all the aid stations that he wants cold ice water so they will have it ready for him but he was walking too slow and I didn't want those 2 guys catching up to us.
It was really dark. Not ashamed to say it was a little scary. I don't know what animals live there and can't say I wanted to find out. The glow stick came in handy. I used it to let approaching cars, from either direction, know I was coming. Literally waved it or made circles with it. Didn't want to get hit. At other times, I used it to see the road. The problem was that it was destroying my night vision until I realized what to do. I pulled my cap down over my eyes and walked/ran with the glowstick in my hand and my hand held high. I'm sure I looked crazy but it was the best I could do. A car came with brights on and I guess my body language regarding my eyes was very obvious. The driver not only turned his brights off but also lowered them to just his parking lights. Waved my thanks to him.
Finally made it to the last aid station, the one at the entrance to the park. Only 1.5 miles to go. Mostly down but some up too.
I mentioned to the guy there that they should really put lights out and he asked if I want a flashlight. I said YES! but that he would not get it back. He told me it's cool, it's from a sponsor. The light was great. Tiny but very powerful. The only thing that sucked was that you had to hold the button down. Kept having to switch from right hand to left hand because my thumb hurt. Of course every time I did that, I was blind for a minute but still...
I'm not if this happened with the flashlight or with the glowstick but at 1 point, I almost ran over a huge bullfrog or a toad. I jumped out of my skin, heart thumping like crazy.
Anyway, left him and started running. At this point a car comes up. I can't remember if it came from the front or back and it doesn't really matter. I flagged it down like the NYer that I am. I have no shame whatsoever...Asked him if he minded driving near me and lighting my way. He said no problem and proceeded to drive near me, lighting my way as his whole family was cheering me on. Unbelievable...Right?
I ran and ran and ran. The bumps sucked. Got to the uphill and couldn't stop as my cheering section was there. Continued running until I could tell the finish was almost there. I waved them off yelling my thanks and continued. There's Jim and Mark and WHO THE HELL IS THAT? I see Tim running in front of me and all I could do was just fixate on him. Started sprinting as I do. Ran right pass Jim and Mark who started screaming. Heard Mark going "look at him go!!!". Mark is encouraging me, telling me that Tim is right there and to go chase. Made the final right turn up the hill into the finish and I was just too late. Apparently, I came in 14 seconds behind him. If we only had a little more to run, I would have had him but that's ok. Got my medal and 2 hot chocolates and walked back to T2.
Said my byes and thanks to Mark. Jim at this point was kind enough to break down my entire transition area. All in car. Drove to a bar to get burgers for the room. Ate, showered and into the car. Jim closed his eyes for a second in the car while I was still out and slept for 2 hours.
The woman who threatened the top male not to let her catch him? She won the female division, came in 2nd overall and turns out it was her 7th consectutive HITS Female winner. Wow!
Good drive home. Left at 12:30 and at 1 point excused myself and took a 30 minute nap. After that it was all good. Flew home - not traffic.
Got home about 2:45 a.m and in bed by 3 a.m for a 5 a.m wake up. Took the kids to school and had the day off. Nice.
So, results....HITS does it a little different. They only do 1 year age groups which gives you points for the series. They report 5 year age groups to USAT. Weird. Also, they had me in the 39 year age group since I was 39 at the beginning of the year. Weird as well. The bottom line tho: I won the 39 year age group as well as coming in 2nd in the 40-44 age group. Since I didn't stay for the award, I had to mail out a check for 10 bucks. Oh well.
06/26/2012:
So, June 16th, I did the NYCSWIM Stars & Stripes Aquathlon (Saturday). The next day, I meet up with Gail and Jim to run. We run the water and are almost done. Just climbed up Marathon Parkway and about to go down toward Toys-R-Us when we see some cyclists. I wave as I usually do when I suddenly hear "EEEEELLLLLLLIIIIIKKKKK". Tammy Bryck...I run into her at the strangest time and place. Told her I just did HITS and she says "Oh, Mark Wilson". I take a step back. Turns out Mark is coaching Hillel (her husband) and they were just there on Wednesday at Hunter Mountain. Unbelievable...
