| Swim | Map | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Bike | Map 1 | Map 2 | Elevation Map |
| Run | Map 1 | Map 2 | Elevation Map |
A few weeks ago, I was doing the Challenge Atlantic City Triathlon 140.6 race. I really don't want to get into it, but I had an Act of God DNF or a mechanical debacle. Call it whatever you want, it left me very upset. I have never DNFed before and in truth I didn't. My bike did. Ultimatly tho, the DNF has my name on it and it's hard for me to let it go.
Bottom line tho is that it really bothered me. I looked up other races and found this one 2 weeks after. I wasn't sure how I felt about "jumping right back on the (bike) saddle" but I brought it up with Elizabeth. I mean I was trained for one and my mental status was clearly messed up. She initially said no and I don't blame her nor was I mad. The rule is to try to do no more than 1 race a month and I already have a July race so I understood. As is, I really wasn't sure I wanted to race again. Hell, I knew I needed to get back on the bike but didn't realy want to either. I knew I would get back on the bike but just wasn't sure when.
Well, I guess she realized how the DNF affected me and she told me that she changed her mind. At this point, I still wasn't fully sure either. The bike was still broken too. I took the following Tuesday off to be with the family as the kids both had dental appointments and other stuff. During the drive, I spoke to Andrew from Brickwell and long story short, I brought the bike in. During the weekend, we went to BJ's and I bought triathlon food just in case. Like what you ask? Pretzels with peanut butter in them and of course nosh for the driving. Finally I decided to do it and signed up.
Differences between the 2 races:
| Challenge AC | HITS | |
| Swim | 2 loops | 4 loops |
| Bike | 1 Long very windy loop | 1 long very hilly loop |
| Run | Flat Boardwalk | 4 loops of Climb up then descend down |
As you can see, the (very) big difference here are the bike course and run course specifically hills and climbing those hills. The tri at AC did have that nasty headwind which can simulate it but hills are still different. On the other hand, I just biked 99 headwind miles so I kinda figured it would be ok. The run I wasn't worried about.
So now that we are all caught up, what to do with the week before the race. I made sure to get back in the pool. Monday night swim, I wanted to go intermediate long as in 5,500. I got in and the water was warmish and I was beat up from Krav Maga and well, I decided to shorten it to 4,100. Never did that before but that's ok. Still, 2.4 miles is something like 4200 yards or such so 4,100 is just fine especially considering that I will probably be wearing a wetsuit anyway. Can't count on that but let's face it, the race officials usually measure temperature in the most optimal (coldest) place to ensure wetsuit legal.
The bike was only ready Wednesday evening and well, Thursday was a rain day so I never got a chance to get on it but again, I did bike 99 miles.
Running I truly wasn't worried about. With the running streak thing, I have been running everyday anyway so who cares.
This is getting real...
Rented a car for Elizabeth and Jessie. Jeremy was at his grandparents house in NJ so he didn't need it. Not 100% sure, the girls needed it either but whatever.
Initially traffic moving well. Unfortunatly, there was a parade for the womans soccer team in Manhattan and construction on 2 bridges and the getting to the George Washington Bridge took a long time. Once I crossed over, things got better and the drive was uneventful. Drove straight to the packet pickup/meeting. Got there with 10-15 minutes to spare.
Picked up my things and asked someone about logistics. There are 2 transition areas and it wasn't clear what we should do. A very nice volunteer explained it to me and I was able to repeat it back 3 times so that made me happy. I thanked her profusly and went to hit the restroom. When I got out, she was there looking for me. She got it wrong and wanted to make sure I got it right. Ok... Glad she looked out for me. She explained it and I got it.
Packet pickup was at the finish line. After the meeting, I was going to T1 to drop off the bike. Tomorrow morning (race day), I would park at the finish line, give them my T2 bag which they would set up for me and then board a shuttle to T1 and swim start. Sounds simple but that's the simplified version.
Before the meeting started, I saw Mark Wilson who used to be their RD. Real good guy. Real nice guy. When I did Hunter Mountain 140.6 with them, he made sure to memorize every athlete's name. Who does that?!? I thought it was just my name but from reading all the race reports, he memorized everyones name! That's 5 races worth of names. Anyway, quite recently his wife died and he was hurting. I never met her but I did go over to say sorry for your loss and he thanked me. He stepped down from being RD as his wife was too integral part of HITS and it was hard for him. The other cool thing about him was that at Hunter, he made us take our cell phones out and save his number. Told us if we have an issue on the bike to call him. Might take a little bit but someone would get there. Awesome.
This year they had a "Beat Mark Wilson Challenge" which was anyone who beat him would get a free registration for next year. Hm... And to boot, he accidentaly sliced his knee with a chain saw a few weeks ago so could't train properly. Ha!!!
Anyway, spoke to him a little and then couldn't resist and asked if he still remembered my name. He said he thinks so but it's been a while and with Rosa's death his mind is not there so he asked for the first letter. Immediatly he came up with Elik. WOW!!!
Anyway, the meeting was kind of a disaster. Really not organized well. People kept interrupting the RD. Couldn't hear him well either and certainly not the questions he was answering.
During the meeting, I spoke to another athlete who assured me that the course wasn't that bad. Basically lots of climbing but mainly it was a 1 % grade so you barely felt it. Then a BIG climb, some rollers, turn around, Climb BIG again and then all downhill. Hm... He also helped me put my wristband on and it was a terrible job. It was completly loose and I was very worried later about dropping it.
Bike: One big loop. Some hills. Hard course. 2 BIG climbs.
Run: This one I really didn't understand from the description and then I thought I understood it after the meeting but turns out I still didn't. The description was 4 double out-n-back loops. Doesn't that mean 8 loops? In reality, it meant you climb up then go back down to transition. You pass transition for a little bit, turn around and back to transition. That's 1 loop. In other words, out-n-back in both directions done 4 times.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention my race number... Lucky 13. Lucky that my people think that's a lucky number ;)
Anyway, after the meeting, I went to the transition area to see what's up. Everyone except for Full Ironman was allowed to drop their stuff off or to set up. We weren't. Weird... Got there any my number isn't there. Actually none of the fulls were there. Weird...
Drove to T1 and dropped off bike. Not a lot to see or do except to notice no port-a-potties. Just 2 indoor plumbing areas. Hm... Not good. Asked about it and was promised someone will find out. Ok. Not much more to do.
Heard that the Coast Guard let them make a change to the swim course. Instead of 4 out and backs it will be 2 out and backs. Less boring I guess.
Left toward the motel, and the GPS puts me on this big hill.. Thank goodness we don't need to go on that.
I check-in and start going through my stuff while I am eating dinner and trying to relax. Early bed time. I set up the laptop which I use to charge my cellphone and it doesn't want to charge my cellphone. Not good. Phone down to 15 % and I use it as an alarm clock. Call the front desk for a wake up call and it just rings and rings. Not cool. Managed to wiggle the cable and phone is charging. Hoping it's gonna work. Fell asleep.
Little tangent here: Premonitions and Karma - Don't believe in them.
Alarm goes off and I start getting ready. Shut of the alarm and the backup alarm too. Eat my breakfast and venture out to get hot water for my green tea. Turns out that their phone system is down and that's why the front desk didn't pick up. Awesome. I'm suprisingly especially after the debacle calm. I put the TV on and Sharkweek is on which I find humerous as I am about to do an Open Water Swim (OWS).
Almost time...Lots to carry to car. Start getting things to car. Everything loaded. Check out of room.
Drive over to the finish line. Not too many people on the road. Park the car and take my T2 bag to transition. I hand it over. It will be set up for me when I need it. I get all the rest of my stuff and get on the shuttle. Other people are there and we talk. I meet a guy named Joon. Lives in NJ and works in Manhattan. He apparently drove the course. Tells me there are numerous hills. Not this 1 % grade hills. Wonderful. Right before we get to T1, we see this wonderful huge hill. I drove on it the day before to get to the hotel. They tell me that that is the first hill. One percent hill grade, right?!?
Small note: I did figure out why we didn't have a spot at T2. They had limited space and they wanted the Sprint Athletes to finish and leave so we can have their spots. Ha...
Can't worry about the hills now. Go to my bike and set things up. Set up the water and gatorade and my food. Set up my entire area. Head to the indoor plumbing. There are 2 indoor plumbing and 2 porta potties and the porta potties are set up in transition. Transition is so tight that the porta-potties are right next to people's areas. Yuck. Eventually the line grows for both. I go again to indoor plumbing. People waiing for porta-potties on top of people setting up their stuff.
Swim Changes: It's confirmed. Two loops. OK - no real big change for me. There are 6 buoys in total. Number 3 is a yellow to be used as a turn around for the Olympic Distance Triathlon.
I guess this is a good a time as any to talk about that. HITS believes in "A distance for everyone" so they have 5 races going on at the same time. They are:
| Open | 12:30 pm Start |
| Sprint | 07:03 am Start |
| Olympic | 07:48 am Start |
| Half | 07:00 am Start |
| Full | 07:00 am Start |
They really try to be beginner friendly as you can see. Do it all without interfering with others.
At some point, the transition boss comes around with a warning: He and his sons spent an hour the day before sweeping the beach area that we will use when we are coming out of the water. There are these water chestnut things that are dangerous. They will give you a flat tire and God only imagine what they would do to a barefoot running hard. Bottom line is keep your eyes open. Now, I'm thinking this guy is just exagerating. I assumed he meant those spiny things we have. I put my crocs on, just in case, and went to the beach to see for myself.
Maybe, just maybe, you can fully understand what I mean about these things. These things are DANGEROUS. You can see things like this in ninja movies where they are used to disable cars by giving them flat tires. These things are very very similar. No joke.
I'm very grateful that I paid attention to the current. Joon also noticed it before we started and mentioned it. The fact that I was on the outside of the pack helped as the current pushed us toward the buoys. Anyone who was on the inside had to fight back. Second loop was now of physical intelligence as opposed to observed intelligent. I (hopefully) was smarter.
I turn around and head back. The halfers have a 1:10 time limit and I glance at my watch. I pass a few of them and in my head say a silent prayer for them. I have a feeling that HITS will not DQ them anyway but in reality, I don't think they will officially make the cutoff.
When I did my final turn around and headed home, a woman was right behind me and passed me. I tried to draft and was only partly successful. Eventually she pulled away. That's cool. Almost at the swim finish now. She's out of the water. There's a guy ahead of me. I don't put my feet down yet. I don't want to test the depth and lose my forward momentum. I see his feet go down and I do the same.
Most people have a hard time transitioning from the swim (horizontal or flat) to a run (vertical) to T1. I don't. For a second, I thought my calf was going to cramp but it settled down and I quickly overtook him and ran into transition. Pass the mats and I see that most of the (full) bikes are still there. I didn't know it at the time but that woman was 3rd overall out of the water which made me 4th. Awesome.
Mark finished and I said hi. He left T1 before me. I was about ready to leave when another athlete mentioned that he's gonna pee now. The porta-potties were right there so... Lost a little time there too.
Anyway, we ride. Part of the way is on the highway with a 55 MPH speed limit. Thankfully, it's a cycling town so cars don't seem to really care. Law enforcement is pretty good here at keeping us safe and directing us but after seeing them at AC, I feel like HITS could/should have spent more $$ here. I like to constantly know that I am heading in the right direction. That is NOT the philosophy here. They only have signs or cops at bad intersections. Stressing a little but I'm ok.
A cyclist comes up behind me at one point and asks if this is the way for the full. I assure him yes. Turns out, he took a wrong turn and went either the Sprint or Olympic way. How did he realize his mistake? He realized it when he got back to T2 (Bike Finish). OOPS!!! Then he had to climb back out of T2 and re-join us. Yes - he's fast.
We are finally on non-highway roads and mostly climbing. It wasn't horrible but a definite elevation. Some small stuff and some medium stuff too. I was trying to remember the Strava elevation map and where approximatly was the BIG hill. Couldn't remember. All I see is us climbing and climbing with the wind in our face. Can't catch a break. While cursing this course, I was very happy that my normal bike route is all hills.
A cyclist comes up behind me. He's either Scottish or Irish or something like that. I can't tell that kind of accent. Sorry. He's got a bottle of Coke in the water cage behind the seat. I'm jealous. I was thinking of putting one in my special needs bag. Should have. Didn't. Oh well. Very Jealous. He leaves me but I catch up to him at the next water station. He stops to pee. I fill up my water and grab an orange slice. Later, I realized that it wasn't water that I took but rather heed and now my water tastes horrible.
Guess, I should take a minute to talk about food. At T1, I ate a protein bar. On the bike with me, I have a bottle of Gatorade and between the handle bars I have a water container. This now got contaminated with Heed. At every water station, I grabbed water and refilled. After my contamination, I was hoping to flush out the Heed but it never happened. Besides all that, I had 2 bars and bags of pretzel nuggets filled with peanut butter.
A cyclist comes heading back and I yell out asking if this was the big hill and he screams back "YES!" and that I'm good for that direction. Thank God. The hill sucked and I was happy to be done with it. Couldn't imagine climbing something worse.
Not sure when but I did see Mark, all smiles, heading back.
A female cyclist overtakes me now. I try to stay with her but it's a no go. We approach the downhill. She takes off. Awesome. The road isn't that smooth but I take off too. The female cyclist is going balls to the wall. She is flying. At almost 40 MPH, I stop being aero. I sit tall, inflate the chest and eventually start feathering the brakes. Soon as we hit the bottom, of course, we climb again but not as bad as the big one. Rollers, rollers and rollers. Always climbing it seems. I see other cyclists coming back and I ask how far to the turn around. Not far. Can't exactly hear the mileage but everyone seems to be happy so I guess, they turned not that far ahead.
I see the turn around. An Orange cone in the middle of the street manned by a State Trooper. There's an aid station there too and a port-a-pottie. Our special needs bag is there. I get my stuff.
A woman rushes over to another cyclist and gives him a big hug and kiss. Before I can shut it, my mouth opens up and I crack a joke. Here's how it went:
Me:
Him: It makes me go faster
Me (again): Well, if that's the case, maybe she should give me some
Oh boy... Luckily, they both laughed since the dude was huge and by that I mean all fit like and muscley. Later, I realized what I could have said with my big mouth and I was pretty happy that I only said what I said. Phew...
Anyway, back to rollers, rollers and rollers. Still, my mood is so much better now. With all the previous climbing, we gotta be heading down, right?
By the way, at the aid station, an older asian female came through and didn't even stop. I decided to chase her down. Caught her and passed. I don't remember her name but she is important to my story.
Remember Newton's Laws? Remember the long lost corrolary of what goes down must go up? In other words, remember the almost 40MPH downhill? Well, now it's an uphill and I climb. It sucked but in reality it wasn't as bad as the out bound uphill. Speaking of that one tho...Going back down that uphill was terrific and again I had to feather the brakes near 40MPH.
In general, it seemed that the first 30 miles of the return trip were fast. We were still climbing and climbing (what the hell is going on here???) but I was hitting 20+ MPH constantly. It helped my AVG MPH which for me is very important as I am not that fast. Still, "why are we climbing?" constantly came to mind.
My Older Asian Female (OAF) friend was constantly behind me. I got of the bike at 1 point to stretch and she zoomed by me. Caught her again. Stopped at an aid station and again she flew by me. Every time she passed me, it took me about 5-10 minutes to catch up. Sheesh. How much spinach did Ms. Popeye eat anyway?
Complaint time: OK, I gotta say this here. Besides all the climbing, and that sucks if you are not a great cyclist and sucks even if you are, they had 2 thing that really annoyed me. I already touched on the first one, I know.
At about mile 82, we turned off the road we came from. We diverged from the out and back model. As soon as we turned right, there was an aid station. I took the opportunity to get off the bike and pee at a port-a-pottie. I realized that it was around 2pm and I haven't peed since about 8:15 even though I was drinking lots of gatorade and water. Good news (TMI), I was able to pee. Color wasn't great but it came out. Good. I grabbed a new water and the water was cold. I, of course, mentioned it to the woman manning the aid station. The conversation went like this:
Me: Hey! This water is COLD! That's awesome. I'm not complaining but why is your water COLD while all the other water was warm?
Her: Why? Because I bitched and moaned about it and to shut me up, they brought me a single bag of ice.
Me: I LOVE YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
Her: Hey, I'm a nurse and I know what over heating means. Trust me you don't want to go there.
Me: I LOVE YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! BYEeeeee.
My OAF stopped to get water and was off immediatly. Of course... I chased again. At one point, she disappeared on me. Oh man... A car with a male and a female were there. I wonder... Then my OAF reappeared on my tail. She took a wrong turn. The car that I saw, came from behind us and passed us cheering. Yup - friends of OAF. At this point, we were talking. We weren't drafting but either close enough to yell to each other or riding 2 abreast but far from each other. Turns out she is doing the relay which is why she could afford to go all out. The woman in the car was her swimmer. The man already finished the Olympic. Nice. They leap frog us constantly.
Another aid station and again I stop. Initially, I was doing the grab the bottle on the run. Now, I was taking the opportunity to get of the bike for a minute. My butt rather enjoyed that.
She, of course, zoomed by but her friends stopped at an aid station. OAF told them that I would love a coke. While I was there, they asked if I was the Iron Cowboy and I asked them if I looked like a cowboy to which they laughed. I then left screaming YeeHaw to which they and the aid station dude started laughing about.
Iron Cowboy: Guess I gotta mention him too. Dude is doing 50 Ironmans in 50 days in 50 states. Gotta give him props for that. Still, I haven't seen him at all. How fast is he anyway?
Again I catch up to my OAF. We are riding. I'm annoyed that we are still climbing. On the flats and downhill, I can take her. On the uphills, not so much. I realize there are 2 reasons for this: 1) As usual, I suck and 2) I'm on a Tri-Bike and she is on a road bike and therefore has an extra cog in the front. Makes a difference tho I still suck.
We are back on the highway and there's a lot more traffic now. People are pretty much pretty good about us. Out of the Thousands of cars, only 2 get pissed off at me and curse me out. That's cool.
My bike computer says 99 and I want to see the 100 mile marker. No, I'm not superstitious but after the debacle, I "need" to see it. I don't. I catch up to my OAF and she says she saw it. OK, oh well. Off the highway finally. She disappears. She dropped me that bad?!? Few minutes later she appears from behind me. Took a wrong turn, went down a hill, hit a dead end. Sucks. Climbed back and found her mistake. She still rocks and passes me. Again, on a highway but it's short. Off the highway and on a major road and I need to make a left?!? How the hell should I do that? Major road...Then the cop sees me and stops traffic in both direction, waving me on. I'm a superstar. Awesome. I yell thanks and get the hell out of there. Back on the highway for the last time.
Off the highway and do I really need to say this? Can you figure it out? No? Fine... Climbing. Ha! It's a 2 block hill but I recognize the area. At the top, we need to make a left to go down the hill to T2. Cop sees me and again traffic is stopped. I got right of way. I thank him and he tells me to make sure to stay on the right. I yell to him that I just want to get off the damn bike because I had it with the hills. He finds that very funny and laughs. Actually there were 4 of them there and they all started cracking up. Abusing the visitors... ;)
Flying down the hill and I don't stay on the right. I ride right down the middle of the road. I cannot afford someone opening their door or pulling out with their car as I am flying down this hill. Bottom of hill, hard left and T2 is there. Ride to the end of it and dismount. YAY!!!
My OAF is there. Her runner already left. I actually saw her runner as I rode. A volunteer takes my bike and I walk in.
By now, I realize the guy is the RD and I tell him about my complaint about the cold water. He makes note. Cool. I ask him about headlamps and he says we should really have it in our special needs bag and that they have lights. I tell him I prefer mine and he takes mine and promises it will be in my bag. Cool.
I leave T2 nursing on my coke. Walking and getting my bearing. I feel good.
I see Mark Wilson walking and I run to him. He doesn't look good. His head is all sweaty and he tells me that he thinks he had heat stroke. He had just vomitted. Sucks. Still, a thought comes to mind. Can I beat him? I don't really care in the sense that I won't be back the next year anyway but it's a goal to shoot for.
It's obvious I didn't understand the run course. It's sort of like a figure 8 or lolli-pop or twizzler or whatever. After you leave T2, you run out. Aid station right there immediatly. Cool. You continue running near the water for a block. Right turn to a small hill. A left at the light, "Thank you officer", and you continue on a slight roller. At the end, there's another aid station. Make a right and another right and you climb. Little down too if I remember correctly but then again you climb. At the top there's another aid station. Fill up, and head right back. Two aid stations later you continue past T2 into a yucky industrial section. Go out for 3 blocks I think, turn around a cone and head back. That's 1 loop. Do that 4 times.
My first loop is exploratory. I just didn't realize that the first section of the loop is so much longer than the second and I have no feel for the course. I finally turn around and head home. I must say that the athletes are pretty good in following the directions and staying to the right of the cones. I don't. I grab shade wherever I can find it. If that means, run on the left, then I do. I also try to run on grass if possible. Again, that violates the rules but I don't care.
Pass T2, where the volunteer is cheering like crazy, and continue to that ugly industrial area. Turn around an orange cone and head back. One loop is done.
Made up a lot of time on Mark but he is running again and looks good. His face is no longer bathed in sweat.
People are very friendly and I mean the athletes as well as at the aid stations. I talk to one guy who was at the industrial section about to finish the race. We talked for a minute about the bike and I asked him how long it took him. He told me it took him 6:15 but he screwed up and did an extra 8 miles so really it was 6:15 for 120 miles. Well, I do have a big mouth and I just couldn't contain myself and I yelled out "Dude F... you!!! That is awesome. You rock!". Seriously, that was great time. Congratulate him and leave.
Somewhere on loop 3, I caught up with Paul and Fred. I don't remember anymore which is which but one of them was the one who got kissed by his wife and the other one I asked his wife for the time. Doesn't matter now. I will figure it out tho. Started with one, I think Fred, then the other. We joined forces and all was good.
We were finishing the 3rd loop when we ran into Mark. He looked terrible. He was doing some version of a zombie walk. I thought he was just joking around with someone but then something looked wrong and I ran to him. He was all cramped up and could barely walk. One of the guys, I think Paul, gave him a salt tablet and all we could do was hope and pray for him.
We were almost done with the 3rd loop when the Iron Cowboy silliness avalanche came at us. I better explain...
I already explained who he is and what he is doing but I found more info. Apparently, while he was doing the IM today, he did NOT do our course. While I respect him for what he is doing, not biking our bike course changes things. Perhaps he chose an easier course? While he might have done a 140.6, he definitly did NOT do our race and then on the run, he's got groupies. For all I know, he had outside help on the bike too but whatever. In any case, he started with his usual 2 groupies. Two guys wearing bikini bottom and skins or chaps or whatever they are called. Soon, more and more people joined him. People not doing the race joined him as well as athletes. His pack grew and grew and eventually swallowed athletes.
Well, we were almost at the end of the 3rd loop and I saw his pack behind us. They looked like 30 strong and I couldn't take it anymore. I WAS NOT GONNA GET SWALLOWED!!! I don't remember if I apologized but I did say that I wasn't gonna get swallowed and I took off. My buddies did. I did not. Straight by T2, through the industrial and out for the 4th.
I grabbed a light fromthe aid station and continueed on. My target was to get away but it would have been nice to catch and run with Mark. I knew that the closer he is to the far turn around, the better my chances are. I finally did see him but the salt helped him and he was BACK! Awesome. I had no chance and that was cool.
Initially I was ahead of 2nd female but she eventually passe me and while I was chasing her, I couldn't bridge to her and stay with her. I would catch her but she would then take off. Good for her...!
I said my last good bye to the best aid station, the one before the right and right up the hill. Her husband was on the course and I told her that he needs to kick it up. He was finishing up his second lap and had 3 hours. Iffy at best. Joon was at the same situation. Oi...
I didn't know where the Iron Cowboy was as he took a different run route too sharing only some of the run with us so that was a factor. I ran. Past T2, last industrial section and HARD to the finish.
DONE!
I got my finishers medal and a water and some woman ran to me and gave me a plaque. I looked at it with uncomprehending eyes. What does she want from me? It said that I won 1st for age in 40-44 age group which made no sense. The conversation went something like this:
Her: Here you go...
Me: What?
Her: This is yours.
Me: What?
Her: You won your age group!
Me: What?!?
Her: You won your age group!
Me: (At this point, I was just staring at her like she was a Martian)
Her: You won your age group! And there were more than 3 people in it!
Me: I'm just gonna take this and run away before you realize you made a mistake and change your mind...
Her: No mistake! You won it!
I walk away and sit at a table with 2 other athletes that already finished. One of them also won his age group, the 50-54 age group.
To say I was shocked is a huge understatement...
My buddies finish and I congratulate them. I then start heading to T2 to get my car keys and to start loading the car. I also call Elizabeth and let the family know status.
I, also try to console, a DNF athlete. He rode with his bike that had an issue and betweek that, and the hills and the heat, it took its toll. I knew exactly how he felt.
Once loaded I leave and I need food. I didn't feel like going into the bar near the race so I left. I saw a Burger King and went in. I would have preferred a Wendy's spicy Chicken sandwich but beggars can't be choosers and I needed protein and carbs, pronto. It was after 10 and only the drive through window was open but there was a long line and they let me in. The whopper and fries both sucked but I needed to eat. Soon I was on my way. I was tired and later bought a McDonalds hot Chocolate which I love. It didn't exactly sit well later but it stayed.
The drive was uneventful. I talked to the GPS, sang with the music and luckily talked to Donald for about 30-40 minutes.
The problem arose when I passed over the Throgs Neck Bridge and onto the Cross Island Parkway. I was 10-15 minutes away from home and could NOT keep my eyes open. I pulled over on the highway and went out of the car. I walked around. I did jumping jacks. Nothing. I was done. Not good.
I texted my buddy Binesh to see if he was awake. It was almost 1am and I figured he would not be going to sleep until 10am anyway. He was up. I drove and we talked and I got home safely.
I did not completly off load but as I came in with the bike, I hear steps and Elizabeth came down the stairs. She thought I was already home and didn't understand why I wasn't in bed. This was my goal. To be in my own bed near my wife was the reason why I didn't just sleep there.
She went back up and I went to brush my teeth. I was filthy but I was scheduled to run 8 hilly miles with my crew at 7am. I wanted to try to maximize the little sleep I had, so I opted to sleep on the floor in the bedroom. I figured my stomach wouldn't be ok on the run anyway so why wake up really early anyway. Somehow I calculated almost 4 hours of sleep. I fell asleep but woke up 2 hours later and couldn't go back to sleep. There was no point. I went downstairs to eat and to try to go to the bathroom. I then hit the shower and got ready. Jim picked me up after he picked up Heidi and the crew ran 8 miles. I was all ok.
Got home, showered and loaded the car with the dog to go to NJ. There was no point in me trying to drive. I let Elizabeth drive while I took a pillow with me and I slept/napped near the dog. Elizabeth's mom made Filet Mignon and I had 8 steaks, 1 burger, sauted Potatoes, sauted Cabbage and Hummus. Watermellon too of course. I then went with my father in law to get a new sofa and then we drove home. Actually, Lee drove again and I napped on/off.
When we got home, we quickly changed and Elizabeth and I went to Krav Maga where we did sprints and other stuff. Yay...
Other stuff: I made sure to send update texts to Elizabeth through strangers. A picture from T1 before the swim, Mile 82 on bike, finished bike and updates on the run. She and Jessie were with the Balsans celebrating Ekat's 12 birthday and it was funny because at one point Jim said, "Hm... He should be finishing the bike now" and BOOM! a text comes in that I finished the bike. Awesome.
