Busy Month!

Eeek, I've had a busy month of running and multisporting, but I haven't been updating my blog.  So here's a quick rundown of what I've been doing since my last post.

1. PRIDE RUN (June 25th)

The 30th Annual Front Runners New York Lesbian & Gay Pride Run was on June 25. This, of course, is my running club's premier event of the year.  It was made even more special this year because it was held the day after (in fact, less than 12 hours after) the New York State Legislature approved same-sex marriage. It was a huge time for celebration, among Front Runners, among New York's LGBT community, and among everyone who ran the Pride Run.

As is our club's annual custom, the night before the Pride Run, we gathered at the Stonewall Inn for an informal happy hour.  Except this year, all of New York City also came to Stonewall.  Christopher Street was lined with news trucks, and several Front Runners were interviewed on NY1 about their thoughts on the historic vote.  Mikey and John MacConnell's picture made the front page of the Daily News. Thousands had descended upon Christopher Street to celebrate gay marriage.

Needless to say, I had a bit to drink that night (and by "bit" I mean "lot"), and was not in tip-top shape to run a five-miler.  But, I powered through it, and managed to run a 32:08, or 6:26 pace.  I think, technically, that counts as a PR.  But that has more to do with the lack of 5-milers in my race history than with how good that race was.  Since I have a 10k PR of 39:41 (6:24 pace at the 2007 Joe Kleinerman 10k), I feel like I can't have a real 5 Mile PR until it's at least at a 6:23 pace.  But, considering I was drinking and celebrating till the wee hours the night before, I was very, very pleased with my time.  Also, the course included Harlem Hill, so I think I would have done much better if it was just the normal NYRR 5-mile course.  Anyways, it was a great race, not just because of my time, but I got to run it with my club and in celebration of a historic event.

2.  FOURTH OF JULY MULTISPORTAPALOOZA

Over July 4th weekend, Mikey and Rachel and I headed down to the Jersey Shore for another crazy weekend full of multisporting fun.

On Friday, we all ducked out of work early and took the Seastreak Ferry to the Jersey Highlands, and then  biked the 7-8 miles down to the Long Branch Beach.

Once there, we joined up with the Sandy Hookers, who have a weekly Friday night swim in the ocean.  It's not a workout or a clinic, as I had originally thought, but a chance to just swim in the water for and hour or so with a lifeguard watching you.  I really enjoyed it. It was a good chance to swim in the ocean without the stress, crowding and competition of a race, but still be able to get in a good swim.  Hopefully I'll be able to make it out to some other ocean "fun" swims later in the summer.

Then on Saturday, Mike, Rachel, Alison, Tom, Cindy and I went to Bradley Beach to do the Jack Wright Ocean Mile swim.  I finished in about 33 minutes, which I was really happy about especially since I wasn't wearing a wetsuit. It was Cindy's very first ocean mile swim, and Rachel got an age group award.  So a good day was had by all!

Later that day, Mike, Rachel, Cindy and I joined up with Mike and Dave and George to go on a bike ride.  George took us on a nice (but hilly!) ride around the Navesink River.  Then I led the group up to the Henry Hudson Bike Path where we rode along the bayshore.  After that, we rode up to the tip of Sandy Hook, and I headed back down to Asbury, making for about 50 miles of riding for the day.  Then, of course, I had to go on a run, so I did eight miles to the end of Belmar, NJ on the boardwalk and back.  So, 1 mile swim, 50 miles bike and 8 miles run.  Not bad.

Sunday saw some torrential rains down on the shore, so my original plan to go on a 70-mile bike ride with Mike and Dave was thwarthed.  But instead, I went on an 18-mile run to look for a bike path that I knew to be in the area but hadn't yet discovered.  After getting a little lost, I did manage to find the Edgar Felix Bike Path, a 5.4-mile stretch from Manasquan, NJ to Allaire State Park.  I didn't get a chance to run very much of it, but I made a note to check it out the next time I was able to bike.

So, sure enough, the next day, Rachel and I checked it out.  And I really liked it!  It's about 8 miles south of Asbury, about a mile inland, so the ride there is mostly along Ocean Ave. Once you get on the bike path, you feel completely removed from the hustle and bustle of the Jersey Shore.  It's so tranquil and quiet.  A lot of the path is through farmlands. We even saw a couple of deer! My favorite part, though, is this rickety little wooden bridge that you go over. It's farms all around you, and then all of a sudden, as you're crossing this bridge, you're directly on top of the Garden State Parkway, with its many lanes of highway zooming underneath you. Really cool. It was a great bike ride, a really fun way to cap off a wonderful weekend of multisporting. Thanks to Rachel for joining me!

3.  JERSEY PRIDE TRIATHLON MULTISPORTING WEEKEND

The following weekend, it was back down to the Jersey Shore for some more Front Runner multisport fun.

Saturday was the first ever Jersey Pride Triathlon.  It was organized by Doug and Moira of the Sandy Hookers Triathlon Club, and FRNY made it a targeted quarterly out-of-town race.  About 45 Front Runners participated in the race, which was a 300m swim, a 10 mile bike and a 3 mile run.

It was a good race for me! The swim was so short, it was over before I knew it.  I had a really fast bike ride for me, with an average 19.4 mph, and my run was 6th overall!  And, to my surprise, I ended up getting third in my age group!  Wooohoooo!  My first award in a triathlon!  (And yes, there were more than three people.)  So excited!!

Here are my splits:

Swim Rank  38
Swim Time  8:32.9
T1 Rank    26
T1 Time    1:17.8
Bike Rank  17
Bike Time  30:50.2
T2 Rank    37
T2 Time    50.2
Run Rank   6
Run Time   19:34.2

Total Time 1:01:05
O'all Rank 11/140
Age Rank   3/13 [although something seems sketchy about the guy who finished 1st in my age group (4th overall). Did he really do a 3 mile run in about 8 minutes?]

After the race (well, actually after breakfast which included a couple of complimentary beers at the Brickwall Tavern in Asbury Park), Rachel, AJ, Matt, Dave and I went on a 70-mile bike ride.

This was the ride that I had wanted to do the previous week with Mike and Dave.  It took us down the shore to Sea Girt, then West to Manasquan, through the Edgar Felix Bike Path to Allaire State Park, on a country road (Route 524) then a busy highway (Route 537, ugh, will have to avoid that next time), to the Henry Hudson Bike Path in Freehold, which we stayed on for 27 miles until we hit the Atlantic coast again, and then 12 more miles back to Asbury.  It was a great ride, except for that part on 537, and a great way to see some of the interesting scenery in Jersey.

My favorite part of the ride happened around mile 15. As we were going through New Jersey farm country, I turned to Rachel and said, "Oh, we should stop if we see some blueberries."  Not 10 seconds later, she saw a little farmstand on the side of the road selling fresh blueberries! We all immediately pulled over. Not only did they have fresh blueberries, but peaches and nectarines and corn too! The corn was so sweet and fresh we were able to eat it raw!  We got some more to take with us for the rest of the trip. MUCH better fuel than Clif Bars!

But then we had a minor catastrophe.  Matt got a flat tire.  And he didn't have any spares with him.  And he was riding a hybrid bike so none of our spare tubes could fit his bike.  And we were about 28 miles away from Asbury. It was Saturday, at about 5:30 pm, and we had no idea where we were.  We were kind of kind of screwed. But fortunately, I was able to pull up a bike store on my phone, about three miles away, that was open until 6pm. So I made the trip and picked up a couple of tubes for Matt. Crises averted, and I think Matt learned a very important lesson that day.

Sunday, after the tri, Dave, Alison, Rachel, Mike, Holly, Cindy and I did the Avon Ocean Mile.  I think I did about 33 minutes again.  It's all kind of starting to blur together now. It was Holly's first ocean mile swim.  Woohoo!

4.  TETERBORO 5K AND LONG BRANCH SPRINT TRI (JULY 16-17)

I had missed signing up for the Run for Central Park 4-miler on July 16, so instead, I decided to do a 5k at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey with Michael O, Mikey B, Michael S and Steve.  It's a flat and fast race, on the runway of Teterboro Airport, but the temperature that day was HOT. Over 80 degrees, and a cloudless sky. Add to that the fact that there were no trees to provide shade on the runway, and I wasn't thinking it would be a particularly good race.  Plus, I had gone on a 10-mile run the day before with Jillian, so my legs weren't super fresh.

One thing I didn't like about the race was that there were no starting corrals, or even any signs to designate where people of a certain pace should stand.  So even though I was way up near the front, there were people all around me who clearly weren't going to be running very fast.  One guy, in this race with over 800 runners, stood ten feet from the front of the starting group with a baby stroller! Seriously?!?! That guy was an idiot. Both he and his kid would have gotten crushed and seriously injured had a race official not pulled him out about 30 seconds before the starting horn went off.

So, anyways, the start went off, and I spent about the first quarter mile or so trying to get settled in and work my way around all the slower people who were in front of me. Finally I did. The course is an out-and-back with one main turn near the start and a sharp turnaround at the halfway point. At mile 1, I saw that my time was 6:15. Ugh. I felt like Was running much faster. When I got to the turnaround, people started slowing down, drastically. I was picking people off one by one, all these people who just started going out way too fast. My split for the second mile was 5:45. REALLY? Holy crap, this meant that I has averaging a 6 minute pace! If I could just maintain the 5:45 for the next 1.1 mile, it would be a huge PR!

Needless to say, the mile markers were quite a bit off. But I did finish in 18:57.47 or 6:06 pace. A NEW PR and an all-time AG% high of 69.15!!! Wooohooo! The last time I PR'd in the 5k was in February 2009, with a 19:17, or 6:13 pace. And not only that, I ended up getting 3rd in my age group too (out of 50)!! And I got to score some nice bling.  :-)  Sanderson got 1st in his age (17:48), and Steve got 3rd as well (18:10). The two other Mikes also ran great races. So it was a super successful race by all!

Later that afternoon, Steve and I took the ferry down to the Atlantic Highlands again, and rode down to Asbury for the second installment of the Long Branch Sprint Tri series. It was to be Steve's first triathlon. And he was pretty nervous about the swim. So Saturday afternoon we hit the beach in Asbury and went for a quick swim in the ocean.  We went out as far as we could before the lifeguards started whistling at us to come back. I think it helped both of us... it's always good to play in the open water for a bit to get comfortable before a race.

I don't remember a whole lot about the tri.  The swim was pretty uneventful. I think I did pretty well on the bike, although I don't have my splits because (1) I messed up my stopwatch, (2) my bike computer died on me mid-race, and (3) the timing mat at the transition area for some reason wasn't turned on. Arrgh. Another annoyance is that I had to take a pee break after the bike ride, so I lost precious seconds then. And that must have been the exact moment when Steve came biking in because when I hit mile 1 of the run, I saw that he was only 45 seconds or so behind me.

I tried to hold him off for the next three miles, but he finally caught up to me in the last mile. I was able to stick with him, though, and in the end we both had the exact same finishing time of 1:50:58. It's kind of nice that we had the same time, though, considering our different strengths. I think we were able to work off of each other and push ourselves a little more knowing that the other was right there. So I was pretty pleased with that race.    Plus, I beat my time from June by almost 3 minutes.  :-)

After the race, an interesting thing happened on the way to ferry from Asbury. It's about a 14 mile bike ride, and Steve and I realized that we didn't really leave ourselves enough time to make it. But we had to get back to the city in order to make Rachel and Derek's birthday party, so we didn't really have a choice. So Steve and I started flying on our bikes, he was in front, and I was drafting off of him. For most of the ride, I was less than a foot away from his back tire. It was kind of scary to be going that fast and that close to him, but it really did make me feel like I was being sucked into his vortex of speed. It was pretty cool. We had two miles that were faster than 24 mph! The ride to the ferry was probably faster than my bike in the triathlon. Wow.

5.  SUNSET & SUDS 5K (JULY 21)

The following Thursday, a bunch of Front Runners showed up to Riverside Park to run the Sunset & Suds 5K, organized by Urban Athletics. I was pretty much just interested in the free beer afterwards. It was humid and gross. I stopped at the water station four times to pour water on myself. And I was about 50 seconds off of my 5k time from just five days earlier. Ugh. Not a great race.  But all things considering, I'll take my 19:48 and 11th overall (still 9 seconds faster than my time in Coogan's).

6.  SAN FRANCISCO MARATHON (JULY 31)

OK, so this past weekend, I went to California with a bunch of other Front Runners to run the San Francisco Marathon. This was definitely not a targeted race for me. In fact, I felt completely unprepared for it. Up until about a month ago, I was planning on doing the Half. But I figured it was silly to go to the other side of the country just to run a half. So I switched my registration and kind of just went for it. 

Because of all of the triathlons I've been doing, I think my marathon training has suffered a bit. So I kind of viewed the marathon as a way to jump-start my training for the Mohawk Hudson Marathon, on October 9. I had a goal of finishing somewhere between 3:20-3:30. Secretly, of course, I wanted to do a sub-3:20 and negative split. That, of course, did not happen.

I blame Jeff and Daniel. Friday night, we went out to town. We hit three gaybars (Badlands, The Cafe, and Trigger). I had way too many beers, and then vodkas. It was not good. Then Saturday, Jeff and I went on a three mile run with the San Francisco Frontrunners, and we did a lot of walking around town and standing on our feet. 

By Sunday morning, I was already worn out from the weekend. The race started at 5:30 am, so we had to wake up at 4:00, and walk the 1.8 miles to the start. We should have just taken a cab. By the time we got to the start, I had only about 10 minutes to spare, and I was running around looking for the bag check and getting stressed out with the disorganization of the race. 

So I made it into my corral with about two minutes to spare. I decided to run with the 3:20 pace group. From the very start, it seemed like it was a little fast for me. The group was doing 7:37 miles, but it felt just a bit more challenging than I thought it should have felt. But I hung in there. Pretty soon after the start, I saw Manja, who was also running with the 3:20 group, so we hung together for a while.

The first couple of miles were pretty flat. It surprised me but I don't think the roads were closed. There were a couple of people just, like, out for a jog in the middle of the marathon course and a random guy on a bike. So that was weird.

Mile 2.5 was the first big hill, at Fort Mason. I've run up this hill a number of times before when I've come to San Francisco to visit my brother, and it's a steep hill! Luckily it wasn't too long. And it was followed by a downhill too. That's when I figured out that the pacers were running even splits, since I fell way back going up the hill but caught up with them on the downhill.

Around Mile 4 I could see the Golden Gate Bridge, and it was really high up there. I was dreading climbing the big hill to reach the foot of the bridge. Miles 5-6.5 were just up, up, up.  First up to the foot of the bridge, and then uphill on the bridge. Ugh. As I going down the other side, though, I got to see the leaders. And in about 5th place, I saw Brad from FRNY. That was pretty cool to see him way up front. I shouted out to him and then felt very cool for knowing someone so fast.

So there was a turnaround at the end of the bridge, and I got to run uphill again. At this point, I was already getting sick of the hills. Not good at mile 8 of a notoriously hilly race. The run back was made a little easier as I got to see many other Front Runners coming in from the opposite direction. Cenk, Richard, Alex, Tomer, and then Jeff, Daniel and Anthony were all running together (they cheered pretty loudly for me, someone commented that I had a fan club).

So then we're off the Golden Gate Bridge, and going through the Presidio, and guess what... ANOTHER FRIGGIN HILL. This one was so long and so steep. I was starting to feel really discouraged. Thankfully, I made it over it and out of the park. But then miles 11-12.5 was another hill leading into Golden Gate Park. And then one you're int that park, it's really hilly inside, and and you have to run like all these loops in different directions and we're in there for seven long ass miles. Oh my god, I couldn't wait to get out of that damn park.  I started losing the 3:20 pace group around mile 16 or 17. And then at Mile 18 Manja flew past me, like he had this awesome shot of energy or something, and just left me in his dust. So, yeah, that was kind of discouraging.

By the time I exited the park at Mile 19, I had practically lost sight of Manja. And so I decided to take a bathroom break and try to refocus myself. Mile 20 was down Haight Street. It was really steep but downhill so it was pretty scary running on it. A ton of people were flying past me because I was to scared to run fast on it. You can see all the way down into Lower Haight and I couldn't stop thinking that if I tripped and fell, I would roll all the way down to the bottom. So I was treading lightly.

And then, at around Mile 22, came the most wonderful moment of the race. I was feeling like crap at this point. Running like 20-30 seconds off of my target pace. And all of a sudden I hear, "DAAAAVVEE LIIIINNNN!!!!" And there was Audra, in her Front Runners jersey, screaming her head off for me. And she was surrounded by people in clown wigs! And I was just completely overcome with emotion. It was really great to see her, and she came at the perfect time in the race for me. Thank you, thank you, thank you Audra, for being there!

After that point, the last four miles were brutal, but I powered through. At around Mile 24, I set my goal to finish in under 3:25. So I pushed really hard those last two miles. To be honest, I think I wanted to run faster just so I could finish and stop running sooner. I was so miserable. And then finally I saw the finish line, and I gave everything I had to get there, and I finished in 3:24:12. 

Oh my god. That was hard, it was so hard. And I was so glad it was over. My body felt destroyed, but I was so happy I finished. And even though the time wasn't my "A" goal, it was in the range of what I wanted, so I was pleased.

Afterwards, the boys and I celebrated our victories with my favorite post-marathon treat: a nice, juicy cheeseburger and a beer. It was definitely well deserved.

Month of Multisporting Madness

I haven't updated this blog in ages. But during that time, I've been super busy with my multisporting adventures, I have so much to write about.  To spare all of you from having to read a million pages worth of me being on a bike and in the water, I will do my best to keep this short, heavy on the pictures, and light on the text.

Over Memorial Day Weekend, Mike, Rachel, Jeff, Joe, Aneesh and I did a repeat of last year's crazy bike ride from Newark to Asbury Park.  We took a slightly different route this year, but still, the 55-mile trip took us about 7 1/2 hours.  The route we took this year seemed a lot more rideable than the one last year, except for a 2-mile stretch in South Amboy on a busy road with no shoulder.  

Also, I did not get any flat tires this year (compared to three flats last year).  Jeff, however, did manage to get two flats on the way down.  And I had the privilege of teaching him how to change his very first flat tire.

You might recall that last year, Rachel, Mike and I were led astray by a by a friendly motorist; we were told to veer off of the Henry Hudson Bike Path onto Route 36, a scary, shoulderless, busy highway, with no streetlights in the middle of the night.  This year, we stayed on the bike path through the Highlands, and I was so happy that we did!  We were rewarded with a gorgeous and tranquil bike ride along Sandy Hook Bay, where we took the picture below:

A funny thing happened when we took that picture.  Well, actually, about 20 minutes after we took it.  As we were riding up biggest hill of the whole ride (Miller Street in the Highlands), after we were all struggling for about five hours of biking, just dying to get to the finish, Aneesh realized that he left his backpack at the scenic spot where we took the picture. Inside it was everything he needed for the weekend, his wallet, his phone, his non-biking shoes...  Meanwhile, Jeff and Joe seemed like they were miserable from all the riding, and I felt bad for dragging everyone on this disastrous trip.

Long story short, Mike biked back down to the spot where we took the picture, didn't find the bag, and kept biking, until he saw a guy literally walking away with the bag over his shoulder.  He got the bag back (minus the cash that was in the wallet), and met up with me and Aneesh somewhere in Long Branch (Rachel, Jeff and Joe had pulled ahead).

Anyways, we finally made it to Old Man Rafferty's in Asbury Park after 7 1/2 loooong hours of biking, where I rewarded myself with a nice big steak and some beers.  Yum.

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The next morning saw part two of our weekend of multisporting fun, as we all went to Rumson, NJ for the Nav-e-Sink-or-Swim in the Navesink River.  The swim was a 1.2-mile or 2.4-mile swim.  Mike, Rachel and I did the 2.4 (joined by Alison and Tom Malcolm), and Jeff and Aneesh did the 1.2, and we were cheered on by Joe and George.  I was a little nervous, since 2.4 miles is longer than I've ever swum in the open water before.  But the way the course was set up actually made it pretty easy.  The 2.4 mile swim was two 1.2 mile loops, and between each loop, you had to run a few yards on the beach (where I posed for the picture below).

Also, the turnaround point for the 1.2 mile loop was on a little sand bar, so you could actually stand up as you went around the buoy.  So the race almost felt like four 0.6-mile swims rather than a 2.4 miler.  Anyways, it wasn't too bad, and I ended up finishing in 1:20:40, which I was pretty happy with (even though I was in the bottom 15% of men.  Whatever.).

After the swim, George treated us to a lovely brunch at his home in Little Silver.  It was a great day.

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And the the next day, the five of us boys (Rachel had to leave early) took a nice 17-mile bike ride up to the northernmost point of Sandy Hook, where we took the Seastreak Ferry back into Manhattan.  That ferry ride (which only took 45 minutes) sure beat having to spend 4-5 hours biking through Newark and surrounding areas. I think I found my favorite way to get to and from Asbury!

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The following weekend, I had some more crazy sporting antics.  On Saturday, I joined some of the FRNY ladies (plus Aneesh and Giordano) to do the Spartan Race.  It was a three mile adventure race with military-style obstacles mixed in with running. We had to climb rope ladders, go across monkey bars, haul loads of rocks, scale walls, crawl through mud pits and under barbed wire, and jump through rings of fire.  The one challenge I hated the most was where we had to fill a 5-gallon bucket 3/4 of the way with gravel, and then haul it like a quarter mile up the ski mountain, and then bring it back down again.  It weighed like 100 pounds, it was hot and scary.  It was honestly pretty miserable.  But I ended up having a ton of fun hanging out with the gang (our team name was "FRNY Outdoor Carpet Munchers"...  I think the other teams might have been a little confused by our name...).  And when we finished, we all rewarded ourselves with lots of beer.  So worth it!

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And then the next day, I ran the NYRR Celebrate Israel Run.  I had really wanted to get a good time on this race.  You might remember that I had skipped the Brooklyn Half in May in order to do Reach the Beach. Although I had loved being on the RTB Team, and I wouldn't have traded it for anything, I was disappointed that I didn't get a chance to post a fast time in the Brooklyn Half at a point when I felt I was in pretty good shape.  So I saw the Israel Run as possibly my last chance to run a fast race before the summer came and the heat slowed me down .

Anyways, I ended up having a great race.  Splits were 6:13, 6:19, 6:30, 6:10, for a total of 25:12 (6:18 pace).  Not quite a PR, but only 3 seconds off of it (and that PR was from over three years ago!).  I was really happy!  After a long year of being injured, and even though I'm three years older, I'm just about as fast as I was back in 2008.  The only thing I was annoyed about was Anthony C. passing me in mile 3. That was a tough mile. I tried and tried but just couldn't keep up with him, and he ended up finishing 6 seconds ahead of me.  FRNY was the second fastest men's team in the city for that race. But, alas, I was 6 seconds short of being in the top five, so no medal for me.  :-(

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And then the next weekend, Aneesh and I went back to Asbury to the the Asbury Park Triathlon (formerly the Metroman Triathlon).  I now, officially, hate this f-cking race.

Two years ago, I did it and it was a disaster.  I was the second to last swimmer. I got lost, got scared, freaked out, everything. It was my first ocean swim ever, and it was pretty much a failure.

And then last week happened, which was even worse.  I completely choked.  I don't know what happened, I just couldn't get into the water.

They had changed the course so that it was no longer an Olympic distance.  Whereas before, the swim was a mile long, this year it was only supposed to be 750 meters.  But then on the morning of the race, they shortened it again, to about 300 meters, because the current was too rough and they didn't want swimmers to be pushed into a jetty.  So the whole swim course just involved swimming out to a buoy and turning around back.  Only about 300 meters; barely even enough to get warmed up.

But as soon as they sounded the starting horn, it seemed like the waves became huge.  I tried to get into the water, but with the waves getting bigger and bigger, I found myself unable to get out past them.  I kept trying, but then this huge wave came in and it just seemed like it was gonna crush me, so I freaked out, and went back to shore.  I saw a group of maybe 15 other guys there, standing there, also trying to get into the water.  And then this guy next to me seemed like he was becoming delirious, yelling that he lost his goggles in the wave, but they were just hanging around his neck.

I thought about keeping at it, waiting for the waves to die down a little, but they weren't letting up.  Before I knew it, people were starting to come back in from the swim.  Everyone was finishing, and there I was, still standing on the friggin beach.  That's when I decided to just screw it. It wasn't worth it. The ocean will always be there, but if I'm not in a place where I felt comfortable swimming in it, it wasn't meant to be.

I went on to do the bike course, and then the run.  When I got to the finish line, I walked around the timing mat and handed in my chip. In my five and a half years of doing races, this would be the first time that I would not finish what I had set out to do. It was disappointing, and I was embarrassed.  But, my inability to do this one swim gave me the determination to conquer ocean swimming. I knew I was going to be back, and I was going to kick some ocean butt next time.

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So, this past week, I returned to the Jersey Shore, this time to do the Long Branch Sprint Triathlon.  It was a 600 yard ocean swim, 20 mile bike, and 5 mile run.  And, I'm happy to report, I finished the swim!!! 

Swim 600y: 10:53

Bike 20M:  1:05:03 (18.4 mph pace!)

Run 5M:  34:10 (6:50 pace...including a pee break)

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And...  since a tri with a 20-mile bike ride wasn't enough for AJ, Rachel and me, not only did we bike to and from the race from Asbury Park (12 miles round trip), but then later that day we embarked on a 70-mile bike ride down the Jersey shore.

It was a very nice ride. We basically just went as far south as we could go. It was fun going through all of the beach towns along the way. From Ocean Grove with its Victorian houses; to Spring Lake with its big stately mansions; to Point Pleasant, home of the Jenkinson's Boardwalk/Amusement Park; to Mantoloking, where we rode along the Barnegat Bay; and Seaside Heights of Jersey Shore fame.  At the end was Island Beach State Park, where we had nine miles of nice riding. There were some trafficky/scary parts, like the bridge from Brielle to Point Pleasant, and Point Pleasant itself.  And the entire stretch on Route 35 was on a shoulder that really, really needed to be repaved.

But in the end we were rewarded with a nice big beach and a great view of the Barnegat Lighthouse across the inlet on Long Beach Island.

Well...actually we couldn't find the lighthouse.  I had promised Rachel and AJ a great view of the lighthouse the whole weekend, and it was nowhere in sight.  Apparently, it was about a mile further down the beach, where you can't ride your bikes to. So we didn't get to see the lighthouse. That was a bit anti-climactic.  Next time I do this ride I'm gonna bring a cable to lock up my bike so I can see that damn lighthouse.

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So my big news of the month is that I decided to register for the 2012 Ironman NYC.  Eeek! 2.4 miles of swimming, 112 miles of biking, and then 26.2 miles of running.  All under 17 hours, next August.  I'm a little bit terrified....  But I don't think I've yet fully registered how much of a huge commitment this is going to be. For the moment, I'm trying not to think about too much.  But I'm going to have to do a loootttttttt of training next year....

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PS: Tomorrow is my favorite race of the year, the 30th Annual FRNY Lesbian and Gay Pride Run, with my favorite people in the world, Front Runners New York. It's going to be a great day, and I'm really excited. HAPPY PRIDE!!!

Jersey to Ptown to Jersey

It's been a busy few weeks!

Three weekends ago, some Front Runner friends and I went to New Jersey for the New Jersey Marathon and Long Branch Half Marathon. I just did the half. It was supposed to be an easy run for me. It's my third year doing this race (read last year's race report here), but I've never really raced it since it's always right after a marathon. This year, of course, it was two weeks after Boston, and I wasn't fully recovered yet.  So it was just going to be fun.

So I made myself not think about time. In fact, Daniel and Jonathan almost convinced me to run without my watch, but I wasn't quite able to do that.  Still, my primary goal when I was in the starting corral was just to finish and have fun. And when the starting horn sounded, that's exactly what I did, starting out at an easy pace. About two minutes into the race, I realized that I should have peed one last time beforehand, because I kind of had to go. As luck would have it, there was a porta-potty about 3/4 of a mile into it. I decided, in keeping with my goal of just doing a fun run, I would use the porta-potty and then I really wouldn't care about my time.

When I came out, I saw the 1:30 pace group was couple hundred yards ahead of me. And then, just like that, what started out as a fun run quickly turned into a run with the 1:30 pace group. It just pulled me in. I didn't want to do it, but I felt compelled to join them. Well, the rest is history.  I ran with them for the next 10 miles or so, until I realized that they were at least a minute, maybe 90 seconds, behind pace. And then miles 11-13 I started to speed up.

I dropped the pace group. Once I left them, it actually started to feel like a race. The field was very thin (out of 6,000 runners, there were less than 100 in front of me). I started to pick people off, one by one and try to pass them. I also knew that I had to run some really fast final miles if I wanted to make up for the deficit I was in. But my legs were tired by this point, and I couldn't push as hard as I wanted. My final time: 1:30:04.  Ughh! To miss by a mere 4 seconds! If only I didn't make that bathroom break. If only the pace group had been more on pace. Argh, so frustrating.  But after a few moments of being annoyed, in the end, I was very happy. My second fastest half marathon time ever, and I wasn't even trying that hard to race it. I was pleased, and excited about the chance to really race my next half marathon, in Brooklyn, three weeks later.

That race wouldn't have been possible without the yummy carby dinner we made the night before.  Farfalle with chicken, broccoi rabe, tomatoes and mushrooms. It was so easy and so yummy. The perfect meal before a big race.

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The following weekend, seven Front Runner friends and I went up to Massachusetts to run the 2nd annual Cape Relay, a 184-mile run from outside Boston to the tip of Cape Cod. It was a great experience, so much fun! I ended up running about 27 miles with some of my best friends, and I'll never forget what a great time we had. All this, despite the fact that the race itself was extremely unorganized and poorly managed, and I definitely will not be doing it again.

The weekend started out with a nice carby chicken parm and pasta dinner at the Post Road Diner in Norwalk, CT, where we met up with the other FRNY relay team.

And after a night at the Mansfield, Mass. Red Roof Inn, the FRNY Ultragays had breakfast at the charming Cafe on the Common, where we enjoyed what would be our last proper meal for the next 24 hours.

The relay started in Borderland State Park in Massachusetts, about 30 miles south of Boston, and headed almost the entire length of Cape Cod, to end in Truro, Mass, about eight miles shy of Provincetown. Our team was seeded to start the relay at 12 noon, in the very last wave. I was to run a total of 27.6 miles over six legs, and my legs ranged in length from 2.9 to 6.7 miles. My goal was to average around a 6:45-7:00 pace for the entire course.

At the start, we met some of the other teams who were seeded with us. There was another gay Ultra team, the "Fanny Packs," from Boston. And there were two college Ultra teams, the Dartmouth Endurance Racing Team, and "We Is Fast" from Northeastern University--they looked like they were going to be our toughest competition.

Jonathan was the first runner on our team. The first leg was run on trails that sounded pretty technical, which is Jonathan's expertise. When we met him at the transition area six miles later, he was several minutes ahead of every other team. After that point, we pretty much never saw any of the other teams who started with us again.

Jonathan was followed by Josh, Mike, Drew, Me and Kelsey. Peter and John were our drivers. My first leg was 4.68 miles, mostly flat. It was not too memorable. I ended up passing two or three people. But I was running a little faster than I planned on running, mostly because I didn't want to be the one on my team that let one of the other teams pass us. So every few hundred yards, I looked back to see if anyone was behind me. But sure 'nuff, there was no one.

My second leg was 6.35 miles, again mostly flat. It wasn't quite dark yet, but I wore my reflective vest. This time I passed at least a dozen or so runners. Each time I passed someone, I would say to them, "Good job, keep it up." But it would actually give me a little energy boost. I finished in 42:23, or 6:40 pace.

So with two sets of legs done (or one-third of the race), the FRNY Ultragays were well in first place. None of the teams we started with were anywhere near us. And that's when the race started to fall apart. We noticed on our third set of legs that we weren't passing any runners anymore. That seemed a little odd. Could it be that we were in first place? Apparently we were! We had somehow passed every single other team in the first third of the relay, and were already leading all of the other racers! That seemed really cool--for a moment, until we realized that the race organizers were just not prepared for us.

We started arriving at transition areas before they were set up. At one transition, the porta-potties were still all tied shut. The volunteers didn't know what to do with us. And then we learned, the awful, awful news. Transition 18 was not ready to open. It would not be opening until 11:45pm. But we were on pace to get there an hour earlier. So what would that mean...? Apparently our team would be held, for an hour, until the race organizers got their sh-t together. Meanwhile, all of the other teams would catch up to us, and there would be a mass start of all of the teams at 11:45. And would they deduct the HOUR we would have to wait? According to the race official, "This isn't a Boston Qualifier; we're not serious about times here."

Are you F-cking kidding me?! I was ripsh-t. Why the f-ck would you organize a RACE if you're not going to give a sh-t about people's times?!?! Don't tell people it's a race, and charge a thousand dollars a team if you're going to f-cking SCREW OVER the fastest teams. WTF are they thinking?!?!  I was so pissed off and felt completely deflated and used. Basically, the 11 miles that I had run at 6:35-6:40 pace were completely wasted. I could have run 10 minute miles and been in the exact same situation. What a f-cking joke.

So the experience of running my third leg was pretty much ruined. It would have been a wonderful run--2.73 miles across the Sagamore Bridge onto Cape Cod. Finally reaching the Cape after about 100 miles of running. It would be quite a dramatic moment. But I wasn't racing. There was no point to running fast, since we would just be stopped after reaching Transition 18. So Peter joined me, and we jogged the leg together--in 21:31, or 7:52 pace. By this time, the race had just about lost its excitement for me.

As if to make up for the fact that we'd have to wait at Transition 18 for an hour, the race officials kept promoting the "pasta dinner" there. We'd get delicious hot food, blah blah blah. And here's the difference between the organizers of the Cape Relay and the organizers of a quality race like Reach the Beach. Whereas RTB invited members of the community to sell food and raise money for community groups (the Girl Scouts, little league teams, schools...  remember my picture of Transition 13 here?) the Cape Relay charges you for sh-tty food so they can continue to profit off of runners' exhaustion and lack of choice. The whole thing just made me feel like some corporate race organizer was getting rich by cheating the runners out of a quality (or even just passable) race experience. I've never before participated in a race where I felt completely duped, until now.

11:45 came, and the race officials said they still weren't ready for us. Then midnight came, and they said 15 more minutes. Finally, at 12:15, the race officials said that the first 5 teams that had come in could start, and then they would let the other teams go, 5 at a time, in 5 minute intervals. Of course, another team that had just come into the transition at 12:14 also left with us at 12:15, so by this point it was pretty much a sh-tshow.  Whatever.

We were told they would maybe hold us at Transition 24 too. So frankly, I didn't know how fast to run. If I ran it fast, the effort could be wasted again, if we were all going to just have another mass start later. I asked Peter to run with me again, since it was dark and it was my longest run--6.72 miles at around 3:00 in the morning. This was the leg where I discovered another huge difference between the Cape Relay and Reach the Beach. When you are running at RTB, there are signs--reflective signs--that tell you, the runner, where to go, and that tell DRIVERS to be careful of runners on the road. At the Cape Relay, there was completely inadequate signage for runners, and the few that they did have were NON-REFLECTIVE, save for a little two-inch piece of tape that was stuck on them. Even worse, there was NOTHING to tell oncoming traffic that there was a race going on. Trust me, you don't want to be the runner leading a race at 3:00 in the morning  when oncoming traffic has no idea anyone is there. Just another example of how the race organizers had no regard for safety, let alone the runners' enjoyment of the race. Miraculously, Peter and I ended up not getting hit by a car and finishing the 6.72 mile leg in 46:09, or 6:52 pace.

By my 5th and 6th legs, we were so far ahead of the other teams that there was pretty much no reason to run fast anymore. We got to most of the transitions before even the volunteers checking in the runners arrived. At this point, I decided to just have fun with it. There was no point killing myself when we were going to win anyway and the time was going to be wrong anyway.

Thank goodness, though, that my last two legs were both under 4 miles. My very last leg had about a quarter mile start in the sand dunes, which was not fun. But I enjoyed the scenery, and tried to take in the sights.

While it was nice not having to run that fast for my last two legs, to be honest, I wish it was more of a race. I remember that my last leg at Reach the Beach last year was one of my faster legs, because I was neck-and-neck with another runner. It would have been fun to push myself a little more and see how fast I could go.

But in the end, I did have fun. Some of the best fun I've ever had while running. Despite a poorly organized race, the eight of us had an amazing time together. I got to spend the weekend with some of my best friends in the world, and we were all doing what we loved to do. That's the real reason why I run these relays, not for the competition or the medal or even the bragging rights, but to have fun with a wonderful group of people. And the Cape Relay organizers, no matter how bad a job they did, could not take that away from me.

After the race, the eight of us celebrated our victory and recovered our bodies with a night in Provincetown. For dinner, we went to the Lobster Pot. Of course, I couldn't resist the lobster clambake. After all, we ran nearly 200 miles!

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Finally, this past weekend, I kicked off Triathlon Season with a sprint triathlon and an Olympic tri relay.

On Saturday, Timmy and I went to Toms River, NJ for the Jersey Shore Kickoff Tri. You may recall that we both did it last year. Since this was just a little Sprint Tri, I didn't really give it much thought before the race. However, Friday evening, as we were driving down to Jersey, I realized for the first time that I had never actually ridden my brand new tri bike outdoors before. The bike that I got in December, I've only used in Computrainer sessions. So I had no idea how to use the aerobars. And I had no idea whether the bike would fall apart if it hit a bump. Uh oh...  I called Rachel, hoping she would reassure me by telling me that aerobars were easy to use and I had nothing to worry about. But she made me feel like I was nuts to even consider riding the bike for the first time in a race. I didn't really have any choice, though; we were on our way to Jersey and I had no other bike to use...

So at 6:50am Saturday morning, we started the race. The swim wasn't particularly eventful. It was just 400 meters, and seemed to be over almost as soon as it started. One thing I remember was that it was a bit of a zoo at the start. I guess because the swim was so short, people were fighting more than normal to get a good start. So pretty much the first half of the swim felt like people were kicking and clawing all over me.

The bike is where I got nervous. And once again, I forget to set my bike computer so during the whole race, I was fidgeting with it. The aerobars, however, didn't pose a problem for me. I pretty quickly got the hang of them, and I actually felt quite comfortable in the aero position. And switching from the aerobars to the outer handlebars to brake and turn, while a little scary at first, turned out not to be that big of a deal. 

There was, however, one problem. When I got my bike in the mail in December, it came in a few pieces, and I had to screw everything together and tighten the bolts. Well, apparently I didn't tighten the bolt to the handlebar setup enough, because every time I went over a bump, the whole front assembly would shift downward, and I had to pull it back up. Not by a huge amount, but just enough to make it annoying. I'm glad it wasn't any worse, because otherwise the aerobars could have come completely unattached. Oyyy, that would have been bad. Note to self: tighten all screws on my bike.

Finally, the run came. Since the bike was so short, my legs felt strong. I must have passed 20-30 people on my run, and it was a great feeling. The only issue was that for some reason I thought the run was a 5k (that's what it was last year, and that's what it usually is for a sprint tri), but it was 3.55 miles. So I was not really prepared for that last little bit. (I am, however, a little skeptical that it was really a full 3.55 miles; it didn't feel like I was running a 6:25 pace. Maybe more like 6:45 or so...).

In the end, I finished in 1:12:46, or 11th out of 18 in my age group. OK, I guess, for my first tri of the season. But I'd like to finally get to be in the top half of my age group at some point. I guess that means I have to work on my biking. And swimming. Ugh...

Place.......48/131  [11/18 AG]

Name........David Lin

Bib.........78

Sex.........M

Age.........35

Swim Rank...58  [13/18 AG]

Swim Time...12:49.1

Swim Rate...1.87

T1 Time.....2:21.4

Bike Rank...72  [14/18 AG]

Bike Time...33:57.0

Bike Rate...17.7

T2 Time.....0:53.7

Run Rank....16  [5/18 AG]

Run Time....22:45.2

Run Rate....6:25

Total Time..1:12:46.4

Dinner Saturday night was dumplings with homemade dough for the wrappers, sauteed broccoli rabe, and scallion pancakes made with the leftover dumpling dough. It took a bit of effort to make the dough from scratch, but it was worth it. And we got plenty of carbs for the next day...

Sunday morning, we did it all over again. This time, Daniel, Paul and I did the tri as a relay, and Timmy was our cheerleader.  I did the 1.5k swim, Daniel biked 40k, and Paul ran 10k.

I think my swim went really well. I was pretty much in a zone the whole time and able to just focus on my stroke. My one problem was that I forgot to look at the course beforehand and count the buoys and figure out the difference between the yellow and orange buoys that I saw. So, when I was in the water, I had no idea how far I had gone until I was almost at the finish. I'm sure I'll remember the next time I do an open water swim to look at the course beforehand....

The official time for my swim was 27:32. I didn't wear a watch, but based on the race pictures, I suspect that time was 5 minutes off. I think they gave me the wrong color swim cap so I started 5 minutes earlier. So, with a time of 32:32, I would have placed 134th out of 238 swimmers, somewhere in the middle. Daniel finished the bike in 1:19:46, and Paul ran in 45:12, so we came in 2nd place in the relay division (even with 5 minutes added on). Pretty good for team FRNY!

I enjoyed the race, but I do have one big complaint. The race directors made a point of telling us in email communications that there were going to be "ample porta-potties." Well, there were FOUR of them. Four porta-potties for about 300 athletes. I ended up waiting in line for about 40 minutes, and that's why I didn't have a chance to look at the swim course beforehand. Hopefully next year they'll plan it better, because it was a good race otherwise.

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My whirlwind month of racing craziness is not yet over.  I was planning on running the Brooklyn Half this coming weekend, and finally getting a sub-1:30 time for an NYRR half marathon. But Monday, I got word that a runner on one of the Spring Reach the Beach teams is injured and can't run. So I was asked to fill in. I feel so honored to have been asked, especially since the rest of the team is, like, much much MUCH faster than me. I'm pretty nervous, since I really don't want to let them down. But I'm also excited. I've been running really well recently, and this is my chance to help out my friends who need a last minute replacement. Also, I didn't really get to run as hard as I wanted to at the Cape Relay, so here's my chance to push myself a little harder in a relay race that's a bit more amenable to faster runners. The team is me, Kelsey, John, Josh, Gabe, and John's friend Tyler. Rich will be our driver. This is gonna be fun!!!