Please only swim in-between the yellow buoys
Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about the set-up, check-in, management, execution and completion of one of the nation’s largest triathlons.
So this was a huge triathlon weekend for Race with Purpose athletes with new Ironmen being crowned at Lake Placid, Coach Michelle taking third in her age group in the Vineman Half Ironman in only her second Half Iron distance race and a crew of NYC team members rock’n the streets of the Big Apple, riding the Westside Highway without an EZ Pass and swimming in the clean Hudson river as illustrated above. Yes, that is indeed a swim buoy mixed in with the Dorito wrappers.
See, it must be clean, otherwise why would this goose be able to hold his breath so long? At least he is able to keep his hips and legs high in the water. Okay, seriously on Sunday morning, they sent a skimmer boat around and picked up all of the foul refuse that keeps this river warm and insulated.
Not training for any particular race myself right now, I spent this race finding answers to all of the questions I’ve received from triathletes over the past few years. To start with I went out and interviewed the set-up crew on Friday before the race. I recorded the pre-race briefing, I hung out as they tied buckets of concrete to buoys before dumping them into the Hudson, (I’ve always thought they only did that to people who didn’t pay their markers in New Jersey) and then the fun really began.
On race day, I filmed as much of the race as possible taking both video and stills from above, on and under the water, while riding on my bike and while running in Central Park. This first installment will include only the still photographs that I took and then with any luck, I’ll post both audio and some video for you guys as we go along (and I have time to edit.) If you have editing skills and extra time and want to help create this NYC Triathlonamentary, let me know. My good friend and teammate Eugene took additional film during the race without being encumbered by the task of trying to run or handle a bike.
I will tell you that the highlight of my day was floating the swim, yes, I said FLOATING the swim. I laid out, and didn’t move until the next wave of swimmers came up to overtake me. Then I floated vertically for the remaining distance while shooting both stills and videos and STILL completed the mile swim in 36 minutes. Take that Endless Pool!
I’ll also post a link to a race report for your enjoyment later. By the way, the picture of the foot in my earlier post below is essentially what my own foot looked like after running 600 meters barefoot to T1 coming out of the swim on the hot asphalt. Brett, I need serious help with this barefoot running thing.
