30 seconds clip of me crossing the finish line
Friday, 2 days before the race and I have to leave work at 11:30 to go to the meeting. I usually drink 6 cups of water before lunch and 6 after. I quickly downed the AM 6 and decided that since it's early and it's hot and because we should hydrate well to drink the next 6 as well. Basically, I drank 12 cups of water in a little over 2 hours and had about 1.5 hours to get it out. I was running to the mens room like crazy. Still, I went to the bathroom at 11:30 and headed out. I got to the hotel and hit the restroom. Meeting started at 12 and by 12:30 I was dying. Finally the meeting was over and I ran to mens room and then back to the line to get the rest of the stuff. Mens room again and then to catch a cab. Cab guy dropped me off at 1:35 at Penn station so I can try to catch the 1:35. Man, just made it.
Saturday, YMCA day and then I went with my mom to drop off the bike in Manhattan. Lot of traffic and commotion due to the frozen zone.
I wanted to go to sleep close to 8pm but Jessie was having issues so I went to sleep at 9:30pm. I set the alarm clock to 2am. I don't know why but at 12:10 am, I sat up and turned the alarm clock off. Thank god, Elizabeth heard me and asked me why I did that. I told her I have no idea. She told me to turn it back on. I did and then had a dream of again turning it off but this time, Mrs Chou from fighthouse told me to turn it back on from another room. Man, almost a repeat of last year. Got up at 2am, got my stuff ready and left at 4am. Actually found great parking 2 blocks away and off to transition.
Transition area only open from 4:30 - 5:45 which sucks. Walked over to swim start to see the pros. Right next to swim finish there was a dead 2 foot long fish floating. NICE!
Got in the water and held on to the rope only then remembering that I did not get my watch ready. Swim started and I was rocking. Caught on to the stragglers of the previous and the pre-previous wave.
Got out and ran hard to Transition. Got out and felt that dreaded wind that I have felt all that morning. Going out to the bronx was hard. Very windy and definitly limited me.
Some things on the bike: 1) I am riding coming back from the bronx going south and I see this guy riding north and then out of the blue, he leaned a little to the right, not sure why, almost like he was collapsing and BOOM!!! smashed his head against the rock wall. Later I saw 2 ambulances rushing his way. 2) I saw a stupid bike messenger kid who decided to join the bike ride and who rode some of the way. 3) Oh yeah, I also had a lot of luck. There were 6 cops talking to some guy next to the median and I got distracted and stared at them and went right into a pothole while in aero. Almost lost the bike but somehow recovered. Heart rate went real high on that one.
Finished the bike, peed and started the run.
The run this year I did differently. I was more focused. It's not a good run time for me by itself as a run but after the bike, I guess I am happy. This year, I decided to really have smaller goals in the run. Like, "run to the tree, then the light and so on". My goal was to run well and get to this guy ahead of me then to the next person etc. In fact, there was this 38 year old guy who I caught up with and we ran a little together. He was telling me about the course. Then he said goodbye and took off. I caught him. He was suprised. Talked about this hill coming up, ran through it and again he took off. Again I reeled him in. This happened 3 times. When we got to about 5.5 miles, I took off. You know me, once I smell that finish line...I took off really hard and he could not counter. I just started chasing people down. Everytime, I saw a guy in my age group, I really ran. I sprinted hard the last 1/2 mile I think I ran through 20+ people just in the last 1/4 mile. Felt good.
On the run, I saw this guy running without shoes. I asked him if he was one of those barefoot runners and he said to me that he forgot his shoes and decided if he went this far, he might as well finish. I wonder if he forgot to bring his shoes or accidently brought them to swim start.
When I was going back to transition to get my stuff, I saw this guy with tons of bloodstains on his face carrying his bike in a weird way. He had this expensive beutiful bike with zipp wheels etc. I then noticed his bike. The front fork was completly broken in 2 places! He must have gone over.