20th Annual March Madness Biathlon

I did my second duathlon on Sunday, April 2nd. Check-in time started at 6:15am, but since we had to spring ahead on the clocks, I really needed to be at the Central Park boathouse at what felt like 5:15am. Driving to NYC takes about a half hour. I needed about a half hour to shower and about 15 minutes to load my bicycle onto the car. So I got up at 4:30am. I tried to get to bed by 8pm, but I was still getting my stuff together at 9:00pm. I got to bed around 9:30pm and about 20 minutes later my mom decides to call me to tell me about a Geico commercial. :-) A really old Geico commercial. I don't get much sleep normally anyway.

You ever wake up really early and for some reason, you GI system is awake yet? You go shower and everything and then when you're all nice and fresh, then you've gotta go. What's up with that? So I got up real early and headed into the city. I had to go real bad, so I stopped at a Starbucks and sullied their facilities.

My friend, Natalie, was doing the race with her Fat Tire bike (I was racing Narrow Tire) and she had overslept. I don't know why I was getting nervous about her not making it, but it was giving me a stomach ache.

Anyway, I decided to park on the west side of the park and ride my bicycle to the boathouse. (a trick Yaniv taught me) I found a nice spot around 72nd Street and Central Park West in front of an apartment building. I'm not the best parallel parker, so the doorman came out to direct me. Put my bike rack and my pricey bike into the equation and I'm basically inept. He kept telling me I had like 3 feet and then a second later he'd yell STOP! Finally, I decided to take my bike off the rack and collapse the rack so I'd be less distracted. I got parked, put on my bicycle shoes and rode through the park. I didn't really know where I was going, but I saw some other dudes with aerobars on their bikes riding from behind me so I turned around and they're like "Uh Oh! We were following you." We rode a little more and found a mass of bicycles and people in tights, so we knew we were in the right spot.

I should probably back up and mention that I got clipless pedals for my bike. I'm pretty comfortable with them now, but I was unsure of them at first. I was warned that I would probably wipe out with them, but I was pretty determined not to let that happen. I went riding around my neighborhood and had no problems. You want to stop, you just twist your foot out of the pedal before you lose balance and put your foot down.


SpeedPlay X/5 Chrome-Moly Pedal

Well, the first time I went for a real ride with them, I got to an intersection on a slight incline and just couldn't get my foot out in time and down I went. It was kinda weird because it seemed to happen in slow motion. I was so determined not to scratch my bike that I ended up rolling over onto my back in the middle of the road and I swung my bike up into the air above me. The thing is so light that it was easy to keep it off the ground. I also have these fancy shoes with the "Boa System" instead of laces. You just slip them on and spin the wheel to tighten the shoes. This is good for duathlons or triathlons because you don't want to waste a lot of time changing your shoes.


Specialized 2005 BG S-Works Road Shoe

The shoes are really rigid and they have a "cleat" on the bottom that locks into the pedal, so you can't really run in them.

I also recently added "clip-on" aerobars to my bike. These are supposed to make you more aerodynamic. You basically grab the front of the bar and rest your elbows on the pads and just by the way you're positioned, you're pretty much as aerodynamic as you can possibly be on a bike. I really wanted them because I thought that resting my elbows would be less fatiguing than leaning all my upper body weight on the space between my thumb and my index finger. I was told that I should practice using these too as I would, once again, probably wipe out with them. I guess people have trouble steering with all their body centered on the handlebars.


Profile Design Air Stryke

I got these and put them on the bike myself. I'm not really very confident with bicycle maintenance, but I did a decent job putting these on. I may try to improve my bicycle mechanic skills in the future.

Anyway, back to the race. My back has been hurting me for about a month before this race, so I had no intention of pushing myself. I ran a leisurely 2 miles out and it was much easier than I remember last year. When I got back to the transition area, I ran in, took a Clif Shot (Cola flavor with Caffeine), drank some water, put on my cycling shoes and ran my bike out to the road. Clif Shot and all Clif Bar products are the greatest. They really give you the boost of energy you need.



Yeah, so, I got on my bike and pushed pretty hard, but I definitely am not in the same shape I was in November. Ultimately I was 5 minutes slower on the 12 mile ride. I was pretty happy though. Nothing hurt, and I passed a bunch of people. There was one guy who was on a really fancy bike and he was screaming "Come on people MOVE LEFT! MOVE LEFT!" We get it! You're physically superior to us and we're in your way. Shut up! This race is so important that you need to act like an ass? A simple "on your right" would suffice. I wish I was in that guy's way. What a jerkoff.

When I was done with the cycling, I pulled into the transition area and the bikes were all haphazardly thrown onto the racks. I had to lift my bike over my head to get to my rack. I put my bike on my rack and there was a dude across from me just taking his time. The girl next to me asked him why he was taking his time and he told us he was done. Yikes. I took another Clif Shot, available all finer retailers everywhere, put on my running shoes and ran out the back of the transition area.

This is the part of a duathlon called "the brick." At least that's what Yaniv calls it. It's the Bike-Run transition, and it totally fucks with your calves. Your calves are so used to doing bicycle motion that when you switch it up to running, they flip out. I got about a 10th of a mile out and I had to stop and stretch my legs. I finished up the run with a fairly strong 1/2 mile.

I got my bagel and oranges and waited for Natalie who wasn't very far behind me. Hey, I'm happy when everyone is doing well physically, but I was hoping to wait a lot longer for her.

We hung around for a long time waiting to see if she won something because there were only a handful of people in her category, but unfortunately for her, a plaque was not forthcoming. After the race, we consumed away our progress at Chipotle Mexican Grill, which was very good, but still takes second place to Qdoba. By the way, fine folks at Qdoba, I still haven't heard from Clif Bar on my request to be sponsored. I'm probably more physically a Qdoba runner, than a Clif Bar runner. I've still got room on my shirt for a Qdoba logo. Act fast, I know sponsorships are going to be coming soon.

Well, that's about it. Not my best performance, but again, my back is still bothering me. I see big improvements this spring. Look for progress right here, my friends.

My time was 1:31:44.8.

NY Triathlon's 20th March Madness Biathlon - Bib # 385
Narrow Tire Division
Central Park - NYC
April 1, 2006

First Run: 20:09.5 (Place: 306)
Bike (Including both transitions): 50:26.6 (Place: 299)
Second Run: 21:08.6 (Place 319)

For comparison, my first biathlon:
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Time: 1:23:51.9
First Run: 18:58.8 (Place: 178)
Bike (Including both transitions): 45:12.3 (Place: 125)
Second Run: 19:40.7 (Place: 171)
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Overall Place: 314/378
Age Place: 55/62
Gender Place: 254/285

Complete Results

...and I'm Just Getting Started.