The Course

Hi. It's Laura.

As we get closer to the triathlon I am being asked more and more questions about it. I think I can answer them here.

Triathlon is an endurance event comprised of several events in a row. There may be other forms of triathlon (tri) but the most popular (and the one that I am doing) is swimming, biking and running.

There are varying lengths of triathlon as well.

Sprint distance -750 meter swim, 12 mile bike and a 3.1 mile run

Intermediate distance (or standard distance) also known as Olympic distance- 1.5K swim, 25 mile bike ride, 6.2 mile run (this is what I am doing)

The long course or half ironman- 1.9 k swim, 56 mile bike and a 13.1 mile run

Ultra distance or ironman- 2.4 mile swim, 110 mile bike and a full marathon (this one is only for crazy people and I am not that crazy)

The course for the race on July 8 is on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

Athletes will begin the swim at 99th Street and will swim down the Hudson River to 79th Street. Once the swim is complete the athletes will go to their designated transition area. I have no idea how they determine who goes into what transition area but my guess is age and speed. But there are two. One is red transition the other is yellow. I will be in yellow transition. The first transition is from swim to bike.

I will be wearing a wetsuit and will begin removing it the minute I get out of the water. Underneath the wetsuit I will already have on my tri clothing (the outfit that I will run and ride in). In effort to keep everyone’s clothes on and not break any laws on public nudity, most atheletes wear, underneath their wetsuit, whatever clothes they will be running the rest of the race in. So, once I remember where my bike is parked, I will finish removing my wetsuit, clean my feet, put on my sox/shoes/ sunglasses/sunscreen/bike helmet and walk out of transition to the start of the bike ride.

The bike ride is the longest portion of the ride and will go directly up the West Side Highway to Mosholu Parkway in the Bronx. Here we turn around and head back down the West Side Highway to 59th Street. Then we make a U-turn once again and head back into the same transition area that we were in the first time.

This time in the transition area I will rack the bike, change into running shoes, reapply sunscreen, change my bike helmet for my running hat and change sunglasses. Brick workouts have shown that and hour and half on the bike makes for messy sunglasses and it’s faster to change them out then to clean them up. I will the walk out of the transition area in Riverside Park and run across 72nd St into Central Park where we finish the last five miles of the race clockwise covering both big hills in the park and finish on the crossover at 72nd street near the band shell. At which point I will collapse and probably cry if not just fall over.

The sponsors of the race have provided complimentary pedi cabs for the athletes to go back to the transition area to pick up their bikes which must be out of that area by 2 P.M.

The elite and pros start the race off at 5:50 AM based on the information provided I am guessing my start time will be about 6:30 AM. The elites and pros go first and, once they are all started, the rest of us go in by groups. The order is designated by age and then they release 15 athletes every 20 seconds into the water. There is no diving into the water (the diving is for pros only). If you do dive in I believe you get disqualified.

I hope that answers some of your questions about what will be happening on race day. I hope to see you there!

Play hard!

Laura