Pre-race post

I picked up the bike without incident on Friday, had a good little test ride around Disney service roads and a very warm 2-mile run just to remind myself what it's like running in the heat - racked my bike in transition this morning under a very good shady tree and with a small white pony looking at me over the fence from the Tri-Circle D Ranch.

All packed up and ready to go now - the alarm is set for 3:45am...

This race last year was the first triathlon I ever did (here was my report). I was undertrained last year, and the same goes for this year, as far as biking in particular and long workouts more generally are concerned - I think I did more trainer hours last year, but on the other hand I feel mildly more calm about cycling this year and certainly life these days is considerably less anxious for me than it was this time last year. Run fitness as such is perhaps slightly worse, but I've got another year of swimming under my belt, and have now done a few triathlons and a couple marathons - so I think it should not be worse than last year, barring unforeseen calamity...

I am frustrated to find myself still so resolutely back of the pack at this distance - my only goal last year was to finish (my time in the end was 8+ hours - I walked the whole run, though it is really my strongest discipline of the three, because it was in the mid-90s and blazingly sunny and humid and I had used up all my fortitude on the bike. I'm toying with the idea of an October half-iron-distance race where I might actually be able to have a time goal - if I can jog 12-minute miles tomorrow rather than walking 15+ ones, I could actually take a good chunk off my time and finish in a number of hours starting with a seven rather than an eight, so that is what I will try and do in the meantime, but I will undoubtedly be one of the slowest finishers.

My goal for the New York City Triathlon, which was my second triathlon ever and which I'm doing again this year, is to finish around the 50th percentile in my age group (I think this past year I was something like 90/140, which is not terrible) - though as Brent points out, "middle of the pack" might be construed as the whole middle third!

Today was mostly pretty quiet, but we have been having very good Disneyan interludes amidst bike pickup, race registration, etc. (including eating delicious chocolates out of the chocolate canoe that we found in our room when we arrived!), and hope to see some local tri-bloggers once the race is over...

(You may be able to track me here - my swim wave leaves at 7:03, so with luck I will be finishing around 3! I think my bike time will be very similar, unless some mechanical difficulty slows me down; my swim might be a hair faster [I never got into the groove last year - it was very crowded and chaotic, and I felt inexperienced]; the 'run' time was 3:19:46 (15:15/mile), so if I can jog instead of walking, I might well be able to lower my time by more than half an hour. We will see.)