As of last week, the city had been buried under 57.1" of snow this winter. This makes it the seventh snowiest winter in NYC history (the record was set in 1995/1996, with 76 inches). There was supposed to be another storm midweek but it bypassed New York and it was just super cold instead.
If we had got just 4 inches, it would've be the fourth snowiest ever, 8 inches would have been the second snowiest!
After all that suspense the clocks sprang forward here and the weather immediately picked up from hovering around zero to at least 8 degrees and by Saturday it was supposed to hit 11! I only went and stepped back in time and entered a duathlon; 5K run, 14M bike, 5K run in Prospect Park.
So I finally got my road bike out from long-term storage in the back of the bike shop at work. Bit of lube, installed the tri-bars, two test drives in the park, a sore arse, but good to go.
Due to construction the race start/finish was moved to the Centre Drive instead, so the initial 5K run distance ended up being 3.75M which we just found out a few days before. No biggie, just the times couldn't be compared to any of my regular 5K races there.
Due to the recent bad weather our soccer games had been cancelled about 5 weeks in a row so they introduced some double header games. I hadn't planned to play Friday but I couldn't let the team down and we only had one sub so my pre-race prep ended up being a solid hour of sprinting and 20 minutes in goal. Then supper around 10pm followed by a couple of hours of trying to get to sleep!
Up just before 6am and at the park just before 7am to collect my number. The downside was they didn't seem to have more than a couple of people doing the entries so after I picked mine up the line started to grow. The Classic distance I was in for was supposed to start at 8am but ended up not starting until 8.40am! Not great for timing your pre-race gel, warm-up, etc but didn't make too much difference I guess. They had an International distance, Classic, Sprint AND 5K & 10K runs but only about 400 total athletes across the entire events.
79 in the Classic distance but other than the first mile or so I had no idea who was in what event. Everyone melted into one big field, by 9am the park was filling with regular runners and a few bikers to go with the race runners and bikers. So I spent the rest of the run and the whole bike course just doing my own thing. At least rather than being on your own with nobody around there are plenty people to avoid hitting!
The transition area was on the somewhat muddy grass but it brought back memories to lay out your towel, position your shoes, helmet, etc and scope out the transition in's and out's. Plus the usual high end bikes on show.
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I spent about 99% of the bike course on the tri-bars. Again due to the nature of Prospect Park I was doing just under 30mph down one side, 20mph along the top and bottom and slowing to 13mph up the hill. Of course, my neck is sore from the position I'm not used to. The Classic was 4 laps of the park, the International was 8 laps, god, that sounds terrible.
The second run felt sooooooo slow but finally I spotted a guy from my race so I picked up my pace from the rutt I was stuck in. I felt strong enough at the finish, was 2mins slower on the second run compared to the first.
One hour 36mins and 19th out of the 79 and 4th 40-49'er.
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The post-race food was a cinnamon-raisin bagel with strawberry cram cheese. I'm just getting used to the taste of that on my bagels, well I've had it twice now.
Two errors I made was remembering I needed bike gloves, grabbing the fingerless ones and the full fingered then in transition before the race getting out the fingerless ones to find they were both left handed gloves, ha ha.
Then as I excited transition for the final run I took off my gloves and arm warmers and threw them to the side. Of course, I forgot about them and got home, stretched, was literally just about to shower then remembered so had to put back on some clothes and cycle the mile back to get them, doh.
So after the soccer and that, my whole body aches but it's a good ache, isn't it?
If we had got just 4 inches, it would've be the fourth snowiest ever, 8 inches would have been the second snowiest!
After all that suspense the clocks sprang forward here and the weather immediately picked up from hovering around zero to at least 8 degrees and by Saturday it was supposed to hit 11! I only went and stepped back in time and entered a duathlon; 5K run, 14M bike, 5K run in Prospect Park.
So I finally got my road bike out from long-term storage in the back of the bike shop at work. Bit of lube, installed the tri-bars, two test drives in the park, a sore arse, but good to go.
Due to construction the race start/finish was moved to the Centre Drive instead, so the initial 5K run distance ended up being 3.75M which we just found out a few days before. No biggie, just the times couldn't be compared to any of my regular 5K races there.
Due to the recent bad weather our soccer games had been cancelled about 5 weeks in a row so they introduced some double header games. I hadn't planned to play Friday but I couldn't let the team down and we only had one sub so my pre-race prep ended up being a solid hour of sprinting and 20 minutes in goal. Then supper around 10pm followed by a couple of hours of trying to get to sleep!
Up just before 6am and at the park just before 7am to collect my number. The downside was they didn't seem to have more than a couple of people doing the entries so after I picked mine up the line started to grow. The Classic distance I was in for was supposed to start at 8am but ended up not starting until 8.40am! Not great for timing your pre-race gel, warm-up, etc but didn't make too much difference I guess. They had an International distance, Classic, Sprint AND 5K & 10K runs but only about 400 total athletes across the entire events.
79 in the Classic distance but other than the first mile or so I had no idea who was in what event. Everyone melted into one big field, by 9am the park was filling with regular runners and a few bikers to go with the race runners and bikers. So I spent the rest of the run and the whole bike course just doing my own thing. At least rather than being on your own with nobody around there are plenty people to avoid hitting!
The transition area was on the somewhat muddy grass but it brought back memories to lay out your towel, position your shoes, helmet, etc and scope out the transition in's and out's. Plus the usual high end bikes on show.
I spent about 99% of the bike course on the tri-bars. Again due to the nature of Prospect Park I was doing just under 30mph down one side, 20mph along the top and bottom and slowing to 13mph up the hill. Of course, my neck is sore from the position I'm not used to. The Classic was 4 laps of the park, the International was 8 laps, god, that sounds terrible.
The second run felt sooooooo slow but finally I spotted a guy from my race so I picked up my pace from the rutt I was stuck in. I felt strong enough at the finish, was 2mins slower on the second run compared to the first.
One hour 36mins and 19th out of the 79 and 4th 40-49'er.
The post-race food was a cinnamon-raisin bagel with strawberry cram cheese. I'm just getting used to the taste of that on my bagels, well I've had it twice now.
Two errors I made was remembering I needed bike gloves, grabbing the fingerless ones and the full fingered then in transition before the race getting out the fingerless ones to find they were both left handed gloves, ha ha.
Then as I excited transition for the final run I took off my gloves and arm warmers and threw them to the side. Of course, I forgot about them and got home, stretched, was literally just about to shower then remembered so had to put back on some clothes and cycle the mile back to get them, doh.
So after the soccer and that, my whole body aches but it's a good ache, isn't it?
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