March Madness Biathlon Race Report - 1st of the Year

Ever since I've started racing back in 2007 (am I already in my 3rd year?), I've always participated in the March Madness Biathlon (or Central Park Biathlon as its called during the fall).  I used this race as a good indicator of what my fitness looks like and how I've progressed over the years.  The event is basically a 2 mile run, followed by a 12 mile bike (2 loops around Central Park), and finally another 2 mile run.  My results over the past few years are as follows:

2007 Central Park Biathlon

Time - 1:21:46

Overall Place - 147th out of 253

Age Group Place - 8th out 12

2008 March Madness Biathlon

Time - 1:21:08

Overall Place - 150th out of 346

Age Group Place - 10th out 16

2009 March Madness Biathlon

Time - 1:11:40

Placing at the end

The good news as you can see from the times is that I made a dramatic improvement over the past two races.   My overall time decreased by about 10 minutes, which is mostly due to my running improvement.  In 2007 and 2008, I only wished to hold a pace under 9:00 min/mile, but in 2009, I'm extremely disappointed if I'm not at least holding a 7:30 min/mile pace.  My expectations of my own abilities have grown significantly, and as you can imagine, I had high hopes of coming out of the gate strong in 2009.  In the weeks prior to the race, I checked times from past years and knew I would finally be competitive.  My goal for this race was to get my first set of hardware by at least placing in my age group.  I knew I had it in me until....

In the week prior to the race, I managed to injure my knee which is probably a product of running too hard too soon.  I've been racing hard at the NYRR races this year and it probably gave me a case of Runner's Knee (pending a diagnosis from my Sports Medicine Doc this week).  It took me out of commission for a few days and I had to basically rest which was frustrating after getting into a really good groove with training.  It felt OK the morning of the race, but still not race ready.

I also followed the weather obsessively in the week prior because the forecast was for heavy rain on race day.  I HATE the rain.  Unfortunately, the prospects of a nice weather never got any better even though I thought if I refreshed my iPhone Weather Channel app enough, it would finally tell me that it wouldn't rain.  In anticipation of the rainy weather, I bought this cool, but expensive, jacket specifically to keep me warm.  I expected to keep it on throughout the race, especially on the bike, since it could get really cold when its about 40 degrees and raining.

On race morning, I woke up from a 6 hour slumber at around 5AM.  I literally laid in bed for the next half hour debating on whether or not I should do the race.  I obviously peeled myself off my bed and woke up my wonderful sister who offered to stand in the rain and cheer me on just in case I did end up placing in my age group for the first time.  We eventually made the drive over to Central Park in the downpour and I still kept on second guessing whether or not to do the race.  A few thoughts ran through my head:

"Maybe no one will show up and my chances at placing will be better"

"All triathletes are generally crazy, so its not like rain will stop them now"

"My competitors, present or future, aren't doing this right now"

My sister and I finally arrived at the race site and I picked up my race number, set up my transition, and warmed up, all in the dreadful rain.  Before I knew it, the race was about to start and I toed the line with a surprisingly large amount of athletes.  Fortunately the rain had let up and the race began...

Run 1 - 2 miles

Goal time - 0:14:30

Actual time - 0:15:57

I went into this run starting out very strong as I strided up a slight hill.  I took at my watch real quick to check on my heart rate and noticed that it was way too high.  I was close to 197 which is just under my max heart rate.  I put out too much effort too early, but stayed strong and managed to negative split the first run.  I wore that rain jacket that I bought the night before, but overheated because I had too many layers on so that contributed to my crazy heart rate. My knee felt OK, but it was when I came down the last hill towards transition that I noticed it wasn't 100%.  I saw the clock from about a 100 yards out and saw I was already over my 14.5 min goal time.  I was pretty disappointed as I ran into transition, but I heard my sister yell, "Don't worry!  You'll make it up on the bike!"  I thought the exact same thoughts and it was time to test my new bike in a race situation.

T1

Actual Time - 0:01:01

It was an uneventful transition where I just jumped on my bike quickly and sped away.  I ripped off my rain jacket to help with the overheating and just put my head down ready to mash the pedals.

Bike - 12 miles

Goal Time - 0:33:30

Actual Time - 0:35:59

I was excited to ride my new bike because it was the first time I was on a true triathlon bike.  Not too mention, my bike was probably 1 to 2 pounds lighter, so it would be helpful on a lot of the climbs.  I immediately started pushing a big gear up the first hill and it was business as usual.  The bike is my strength so I just started reeling people in.  I eventually got to the first downhill and was surprised at how nervous I was, so I uncharacteristically squeezed the brakes.  The rain had certainly made the roads slippery and I just haven't been the same descender after I crashed during a race last year going close to 40 mph down a hill.  That killed me because I got pulled back in by all the people I passed leading up to the first downhill because I was basically scared.   I got to the north side of Central Park which is the hilliest part.  I knew that was my opportunity to get back into the race, so I mashed the pedals and climbed past a few more competitors.  Overall the basic story of the ride was that I pushed up the hills, was just as fast or even faster than anyone else on the flats, but scared to descend.  By the second lap, I knew I was close to potentially placing because I figured with all the people I pulled in on the bike, there couldn't be too many people left in my age group in front of me.  The rain and the cold finally got to me on the bike though and I was basically freezing by the end...

T2

Actual - 0:01:02

The nice thing about having spectators is that you are forced to make your transitions look pretty slick since its the only time they will ever see you during the race.  As I entered the transition and ran on the wet road barefoot, I racked my bike, and took a 2nd pair of dry sneakers out of my bag (first time every racing in 2 different shoes, but needed to keep dry).  My sister was yelling "Go! Go! Go! Hurry up! What the hell are you doing!?"  My toes were so frozen from the bike ride that I couldn't manage to put my shoes on.   It was the furthest thing from graceful, but I finally got them on.  Regardless, I exited transition with another woman and I heard a volunteer say to her, "You're the first overall woman! Go!"  I figured if I could stay with the first overall woman, I'd be in pretty good shape to place in my age group.

Run 2 - 2 miles

Goal Time - 0:15:00

Actual Time - 0:17:40

I tried to keep stride with the first overall woman and ran pretty hard; however, within a quarter mile, I felt my legs start to cramp.  After about a half mile, I couldn't keep up with her.  Just before the turnaround, I saw a bunch of the top male athletes running back, so I figured I was at least 8 minutes back, which I was OK with, but I was hurting from the cramps.  I pushed through the first mile of cramps and gave it all I had for the final mile.  My knee wasn't too happy about the pickup in speed so I didn't feel as stable, but as I looked around me, I noticed that I passed a few lagging runners and to my surprise, no one was around me, so there was no threat to my age group placing.  I just wanted to finish as fast as possible so I strolled in and saw the clock and knew I had my work cut out for me as I finished in an overall time over 1:10:00 which is not where I wanted to be at all.

I walked up to my sister a little disappointed and she said that she didn't see too many young guys in front of me.  I realized that this shouldn't be my race mindset at all, but I couldn't help but beat myself up.  I know should be more concerned about leaving everything out on the course and not leaving success up to chance like this.  After waiting for about a half hour, it was awards time.  Luckily since I'm in the younger age groups, they announce my age group placing early and my sister and I were getting sick of freezing in the cold and rain.  First the overall men were announced and luckily one of the guys that won my age group in this same race last year (and who is also coached by my coach) placed third overall, so he was no threat.  I joked that he actually helped me out by being that much faster this year.  Then the announcement was made for the 18 to 24 males.  It was so quick that I barely absorbed it all, but unfortunately, my name wasn't called.  My sister immediately said "Don't worry! You did great!" and I nodded but felt disappointed.  As the day progressed I became more and more obsessed with the fact that I didn't place and eagerly awaited the official results to be posted online.  When they were finally posted, just as I expected, I was in 4th place in my age group, missing the 3rd place spot by 3 minutes.  My competitors just ran faster and that was the difference.

2009 March Madness Biathlon

Overall Place - 47th out of 283

Age Group Place - 4th out 13

Maybe its important that this happened to me so early in the season, because it just left a bad taste in my mouth.  I know that I'm racing for age group podiums now so I need to definitely step it up.  It was a big kick in the ass, so I have a lot to work on.  I realized that I can't just rely on my bike strength to pull me through, so I need to be faster.

I have some major changes coming down the road that will change a lot of things for the better so that I can continue to fight against cancer and pursue my own triathlon goals.  My overall goal is to still fight against cancer, but I've developed a drive to just annihilate my competitors and crush their dreams.  For the moment, let's just say I'm frustrated with how things are being done, so its about time for a change.  More on that later...

Before I finish, special thanks goes out to my sister for toughing it out in the rain.  I probably wouldn't have been as close to placing as I was if you weren't there screaming louder than anyone else.

As usual, thanks for reading and please stayed tuned for more...