JWT - A (Long) Post-Mortem

After arriving home, yesterday, after the triathlon and post-triathlon celebration, I barely was able to keep my eyes open to watch the end of the Giants – Eagles football game and then put together my race report for the team.  I then slept for 15 out of the next 18 hours. Since I worked so hard yesterday, I am going to give myself a little break and use my race report as my post-race blog (albeit slightly edited).  I will follow up with another blog in a few days with a little post-race perspective.  However, before turning you all over to my race report, I will answer the one burning question that I know that you were wondering about… “To pee or not to pee… that is the question.”  Well, the answer is, I didn’t have to go over the entire course of the race.  I might have been slightly under-hydrated, though, as you will see in my race reports, I had some muscle cramps.

Wait, that wasn’t the questions?  Well, read on for more answers:

RACE REPORT:

Saturday Night: In bed at 8:00pm, in the bathroom at 8:45pm, back in bed with eyes closed after shooting out an email at 9:00pm.  Still in bed at 10:00pm, check weather report at 10:20pm and fall asleep sometime soon after.

Sunday Morning: Up on my own at 3:30am (?!?!), turn off my pre-set alarm at 3:45am, get ready, get ready some more, eat something, bathroom trips (x5), almost forget to take asthma meds, remember to take asthma meds, pump  bike tires, get everything to car, type memo re: last night and this morning (blogger’s disease is VERY dangerous), go to car, rack my bike on the back and get the music going.  It's race day.

There are almost no cars on the road and it is completely dark at 5:00am, but at the end of Playland Parkway there is an explosion of lights and people.  I arrive in the Rye Playland parking lot and see my teammates.  I head to Transition (the “T” as it is known), which is where we leave our bikes, sneakers and other race gear, and pick them up when we come out of the water after the swim and then return to after we complete the bike course.  I get my race number, 199, sharpied onto both arms, legs and thighs by a volunteer, and my age (34) on the back of my left calf.   I rack right next to Ronnie Ram and across from Nick, two of my Team In Training Teammates, who are both in my age group.  They have been great competitors, teammates and new-found friends over the past five months.  I put down my daughter's Tinkerbell towel (I grabbed the first two towels that were in the hall closet and ended up with a pretty, solid pink towel and Tinkerbell – ah, the life of living with girls!!!) and get myself all set up at the T.  I then head back to my car to meet other teammates to say morning prayers together.  When prayers are completed, I don my wetsuit, grab my swim gear and head towards the TNT tent for our team picture.

As I see the team gathered together for our team photo it really hits home how much of a team we are, having spent five months training together.  I run down to the beach and jump into the water to get a feel for the water and prepare for the swim.  It feels good, with the water being a nice temperature.  Leon Zemel, a teammate of mine who I have spent dozens, if not hundreds of hours training with and Shaun Meller, my TNT Mentor, who I have also spent tons of time training with, getting advice from and, not to mention getting 5:30am rides to swim to swim trainings up in Greenwich CT,  are in the water, too.  The national anthem is sung and we are all ready to line up, with Pros going out at 7:00am sharp. 

Wave 3 Red Caps (that’s my wave!) go out at 7:06am.  After the Pros launch themselves into the water, the Yellow Caps go out and Red Caps line up on the beach. 30 seconds, 10 seconds.... I set my watch's timer and go...  a few feet of funny running in the water and a dolphin dive/kick and I am away into the swim.

I am pretty sure I zigzagg through the swim, crashing into people left and right.  This is not my finest swimming performance.  My concern with bumping into people and attempt to avoid swallowing more water (blech!) makes the stitch in my side less of a focal point, so I guess that is good.  In short, my swim is sort of a mess.  However, I soon see the shore and stand up when the water is waist high and wade in to shore, slowly, spurning Coach Regan's dolphin dive and funny run advice.  Why do I spurn such sage advice?  Well, I am kind of dizzy and in no condition to run out of the water.  As I slowly wade out of the water, one of the race referees looks at me dead in the eye and asks, "do you have your sea-legs?"  "Yes," I lie.  Actually, I don’t say yes, because I am not thinking coherently enough to reply with a quick “yes”, so I give a thumbs-up.  I feel like I am drunk, stumble-walking up the beach, boardwalk and to the bike.  I feel like a mess, but I am out of the water in 31 minutes… then again, I may have hit the pad four minutes later. I have no idea. [I learn later that I crossed the swim-timing line at 32+ minutes].  

I drink some water and try to clear my head in the T.  The T is kind of a blur, but luckily I have everything laid out well, so I can't mess up my transition to my bike.  It seems like a really slow transition, but the bike, speed, air, water and some Goo (Goo is a complex carbohydrate gel) got to clearing my head pretty quickly.  Did I mention that a lovely puff of albuterol helps out with the breathing? [It actually was a slow-ish transition, around four minutes long, which isn’t bad, but not where I would have liked it to have been].

Man! What a pleasure it is to ride on a street with cops holding back traffic!  Can we set that up for every time that I go out on a bike ride?  I try to keep my head down in aero position and push through a little pain.  No need to wait for lights.  That keeps my momentum moving forward coupled with my intimate knowledge of the bike route, having traversed the course with TNT for the past six weeks.  I am completely prepared for every turn. 

I feel good throughout the course save for the big hill on Riversville.. [I guess I could have moved a little faster, but my time of 1:17 was a heck of a lot better than the 1:35 that I expected to bike in just two months ago].  Claire's Climb, another large hill, isn’t too bad, and not having to do a repeat is even better.  [When we practiced biking the triathlon course, as a team, we would always cycle up Claire’s Climb and then ride back down to the bottom, doing at least three “hill repeats” each time].  After the climb I am really ready to let ‘er rip and the remaining mostly-downhill course was fast moving from there.  As I head down the final stretch on Playland Parkway, I see my wife's car sitting in traffic and I yell, wave and give a thumbs up to them as I pass by. [I learned later that my six year-old daughter saw me as I passed by and yelled to my wife, “There’s Daddy!!!” much to my wife’s surprise, who then watched me as I moved down the road.]

I arrive back at the T, rack my bike, put on my sneakers and rush out... I quickly find that I have cramps in both my right and left quad, and my right hamstring.  What I don't have is my albuterol inhaler, which I left on my bike... not so good.  Leaving my inhaler isn't a “go-back to the T and get the inhaler dealbreaker", since I am already almost a mile in to the run, but I know that I have to manage my breathing and nurse my cramps more carefully.  The run is a slow-go, and I see Leon on my way back from the Rye Playland turnaround.  As I pass him, I yell at him that he needs to catch and pass me (Leon started in a wave 12 minutes behind me)... and he eventually did...

Just as I start to feel the cramps loosen up a bit (breathing is still rough), I hit Hill St.  Unfortunately, Hill Street is not an ironicly named road that is perfectly flat; it is, as promised, an upward ascent.  And the cramps return.  Let's see... the next couple of miles to the country club turnaround (there are a couple of country clubs lining a road that we run down and back) go something like this..."ow, ow, ow, why am I doing this? ... ow, ow, ow... can't I take a short walk-break? ... no, because I will not be able to start running – if what I am doing is considered running - again..."  Before I forget, it is SO nice to have water stations along the running route, and the kids handing out the water are awesome, but dear heavens, how do you run and drink at the same time?  I learn that I can only ask for water at these stations because I when I take Gatorade at the first station in end up a sticky mess, since I am able to pour only half of the cup in my mouth... and the rest ends up on my face and body.

At the country club tennis courts, Leon catches and passes me.  I look at my watch and see that I have a 2:35 race time at that point, and we have just under two miles to the finish line.  I know that Leon started 12 minutes behind me, meaning that he has a shot at finishing in under 2:40.  Just then, my quads loosen up and I get a kick, allowing me to catch up to Leon.  When I pull up along side Leon, we talk for a second about time and our chance to finish in times that we both would be thrilled with.  After a minute or two of running side by side, I realize that we are moving, but not fast enough.  I know that I am not going to hit a 2:45 or 2:50 race time, but Leon has a shot.

I remember something that Shaun Meller said (lovingly) when the three of us (Shaun, Leon and I) were out on an early morning swim in Connecticut, with one of our volunteer coaches, Coach Chris Kortland.  "You have a problem, Leon," Shaun said.  "You always have to be first, no matter what."  With a mile  or so to go, I look at Leon, knowing I have enough in me for at least a short sprint, and say, "Leon, you are going to have to catch me."  I sprint ahead and built a decent lead over Leon.  Sure enough, in a few moments, Leon picks up his pace, passes me, and like Forest Gump, "he just kept on running."

I never can catch up with Leon, even with Coach Dawn yelling me to catch him, as we turn into the final .2 mile stretch, “C’mon Avi!!! Catch Leon!!!”  I am thrilled to see Leon cross the finish line in 2:39 (holy smokes!) - he worked amazingly hard and deserves a strong showing and a fast time.  I cross the line a few seconds after Leon in a time of 2:51 (even though I was a few seconds behind Leon, I got a 12 minute head start because of when our respective waves left).  My wife and kids are at the finish line and see me finish, though it  does take a few minutes to finally connect after crossing the finish line – I walk to where I saw them standing and my wife goes to the finish area. I am really proud of my time and it is great to have my family there to share the moment with me (my mom, dad, sister, sister's boyfriend, mother-in-law and father-in-law arrive soon after).

Ronnie Ram (a.k.a. Frack, of TNT’s Frick & Frack), “General” Robert “E. Lee.” Friedman and others finish up soon after, followed by Rocco (a.k.a. Frick of TNT’s Frick & Frack) and Brad “I want to do a half-Ironman,now” Scher (sorry if I forgot anyone).  I make my way up to the corner of the park where Coach Dawn, Diandra & Jincy (from the LLS Westchester Office) and other TNT mentors are cheering TNT members on to the home stretch.  After yelling and cheering for a bit, I head back out on the course to run some team members in.  Shaun Meller, who took a spill on his bike, was gutting out a solid performance when I find him about .4 miles from the finish line and I have the honor of running him to the park, where the chute leading to the finish line begins.  Over the course of the triathlon bike ride, every now and then, cyclists will crash.  Taking a spill (in addition to Shaun, Rocco took a spill, too), pop back on your bike, keep riding and then run 6.2 miles is really rough.  Your body absorbs a serious impact caused by the speed of the bike, the weight of the cyclist and the fact that the fall is cushioned by concrete (yeah, nice and soft!).  Even if you think you are alright right after impact, the mental and physiological impact can take a while to set in.  Shaun was my triathlon mentor; he spent time preparing me physically and mentally for the triathlon and running him in to the chute, where hundreds of people were waiting and cheering on the finishers, after all that Shaun did for me, not to mention the courage he showed in the race, is an amazing honor.
I go back out on the course again, and after being refused by some true, solo-warriors (go David Blumenthal, soon to be a fantasy baseball league champion!) and running another person or two in, I find Beatriz Nivash.  You may not know this, but at the first TNT training, I ran 1.5 miles and thought I was done with my run for the day... until Beatriz yelled to me, "Are you done already?"  Apparently, I wasn’t; we ran together another 2+ miles (I didn't know Beatriz before then, though I knew of her).  Beatriz finished last year's triathlon in 5:45, and she didn't get to do a portion of the race that probably would have taken her up to another 15 minutes.  As a result of training for last year’s triathlon, Beatriz completely changed her lifestyle, making exercise a major part of her life.  About a mile away from the finish line, I meet up Beatriz...
"Would you like some company?" I ask.  "Sure!" she replies, so I join her.  After a few steps I ask her, "What is your goal time for this year?"  "Four hours," she says.  We figure out that she started six minutes behind me, and based on my stopwatch time, which I never stopped when I finished (luckily!) I figure out her current race time.  Now, I don't know if Beatriz means she wants to finish somewhere in the four hour time frame or in right around four hours, but we are actually at the tail end of three hours.  Beatriz has no idea what her time is, so I am excited to give her some good news.  Not thinking that Beatriz is up to a big push (I was totally not ready to do it...) I say, "I have great news!  You are looking good for a finish of 4:05, but if you push it, there is a shot that you come in just at four hours."  To my surprise, her response is, "Yeah?!?! Let's go!!!"  Beatriz hits a new gear and starts really moving, pushing me to move faster than I am actually prepared to, but I want Beatriz to meet her goal, but clearly not as much as she does!  As we chew up real estate (she had a little more than a mile to go when I met up with her), I keep looking down at my watch and what seems unlikely becomes more and more possible.  I cannot believe my watch or the extra gear that Beatriz has.  We fly down the side of the park and turn into the park with a minute and 30 second, or so, to traverse .2 miles.  Beatriz pushes and pushes to the last second.  I stop at the top of the chute and watch her run down into the crowed, yelling furiously, staring at my watch, trying to will time to move slower and give Beatriz an extra second or two to cross the finish line in a time that she didn’t dare dream of.  I have her crossing the line on my watch at 3:59:54.  [Her official time was 4:00:06.  I still contend that she finished in sub-four hour time.]  She is amazing and inspirational. 

I go back out on the course, again, and find Miriam Parness, a little more than a mile from the finish line.  She is walking when I meet her, because she slammed her toe while going from the beach to the transition are after her swim.  “I hurt my toe,” she tells me, “so I am walking.”  I didn't know (and clearly SHE didn't know) what her toe looked like at the time... and I know this because when we hit a bit of a downhill slope she says to me, "I can run here," and she does.  I am amazed by her spirit and fight, running the portions that she can, even though she is walking most of the way.  After the race, she showed me her toe – had I known, and had she known what it looked like, I would hope that one of us would have stopped her before she got on her bicycle.  From half way down her toenail on her big toe to the bottom of her toe is COMPLETELY purple and blue – a deep, deep purple and blue.  I am amazed by how tough Miriam is, as we run together... when I see her toe after the race, I think that she might just be bulletproof. [After the race, Miriam went to see a doctor.  She reported to us that not only did she have a broken big toe, she had also broken another toe a few weeks earlier, during training.  She didn't go to the doctor until after the race because she refused to be told that she could not compete.  Seriously.]

There were a few especially touching moments that I see involving family (this is in no particular  chronological order).  It was awesome seeing Rob Friedman and then Elana Minkove getting escorted in to the finish line by their young kids - very, very special.  Later on, a couple of TNT members and I are out on the course and find Ellie Chefitz a mile from the finish. After running with her less than half a block, we see her husband and one of her sons who came to meet her and run her in.   Her husband, Allen, had run the triathlon, himself, but has the honor of escorting his wife to the finish with his son.  Last but not least, I go out with Coach Chris Kortland and Skippy's Team Captain Rob Friedman to find our last TNT member, Doug.  We find him a little more than a mile out from the finish.  Doug looks great and is moving at a solid clip.  Rob and I comment to each other that our calves are making it a little tough to keep up with Doug’s pace (Doug moved through the course at a nice pace, but was in one of the last waves to go, thus he was the last TNT member out on the course).  We run him in to the .2 mile mark where we meet a ton of TNT members at the edge of the park.  Everyone runs Doug to the very edge of the chute and then we run alongside him on the outside of both sides of the chute, a purple wave, the color of LLS and TNT, moving towards the finish line, symbolically finishing the triathlon all together.  This amazing TNT tradition underscores the powerful bonds and friendships that we have built as a team and our team's unity and strength.  It is truly amazing the way TNT turns triathlon from an individual sport into a team sport.

That is the race report, from me.  The post race party was great, delicious and filling.  There is more that can be written, but I think this is more than enough.  Thank you for your indulgence, your support and your readership.  It has been an honor.

Thank you coaches, thank you TNT, thank you teammates, thank you Skippy's Team. This was amazing - every painful and arduous step of the way, all five months long...  Thank you all.