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I’m glad I didn’t
learn that crawling in a triathlon is illegal until the night before the
race…when it was too late to pull out.
After doing three marathons in just over a year, I felt like trying something
different this summer. Introduced to mini-triathlons last year by my friend
Felicia, I wanted to challenge myself and do a full Olympic triathlon,
which is double the distance.
How
hard could a triathlon be, I thought. If I can run 26.2 miles, I should
be able to do a .9-mile swim/25-mile bike/6.2-mile run, right?
It didn’t take long for me to learn how difficult training for an
Olympic triathlon is.
My
husband, Ed Purce, and I decided to do the Westchester Triathlon, which
takes place in late September. We signed up for The Leukemia & Lymphoma
Society’s Team in Training program, which trains people to complete
triathlons, marathons and century cycle rides. In exchange, participants
raise funds for the Society, which supports research and provides patient
services. I had trained for my three marathons with TNT – after
learning my college friend Dina was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma, a
blood cancer – so I knew how great the program was.
Training consisted of run practice on Tuesday nights, where we did loops
and hills in Central Park; swim practice on Wednesday nights, where we
learned to do the crawl with the two-beat kick in Riverbank State Park
in Harlem, and bike practice on Saturday mornings in Central Park. In
exchange, Eddie and I each had to raise $2,900.
Initially, I thought I had a chance to beat my husband. While I knew he
was faster than I was in every individual event, I thought I’d have
the endurance advantage since he’d never done a marathon or a triathlon.
Gearing up for the first practice in mid-May, I knew I had several hurdles
ahead of me. The biggest one was that I couldn’t really swim. I
knew how to do the breaststroke – which is how I made it through
the sprint tris – but I couldn’t master the crawl no matter
how hard I tried. Felicia, who was a TNT coach, always told me: “Don’t
do the breast-stroke unless you’re desperate because you’ll
tire your legs.” And I always answered: “Felicia, I’m
desperate.”
But I figured the coaches had four months to teach me the crawl…and
I could always fall back on the breaststroke if I was desperate.
The next challenge was buying a road bike. I knew I couldn’t do
an Olympic triathlon on my hybrid bike, with its fat tires and heavy frame.
For God’s sake, 70-year-olds were passing me in my previous triathlons
and biathlons so I needed all the help I could get. But I wanted the perfect
road bike…so I asked all the triathletes I knew about their bikes,
researched the different brands and models online, peppered sales people
at stores with questions and finally settled on the Specialized Dolce
Elite, a beautiful, sleek blue bike. I was a little wobbly on it at first,
not used to the forward biking position after years of sitting upright
on my hybrid. But I got the hang of it. Eddie bought himself a Trek road
bike soon after…he had resisted but was stunned at how he couldn’t
keep up with me on his old mountain bike.
Running would be the least of my problems…or so I thought. Since
I was training for the NY Road Runners’ half-marathon series, I
was doing more than enough running to complete a little 10K, the last
event in the triathlon.
Training started, and as I feared, swimming turned out to be a big problem.
I did just fine practicing my form holding onto a buoy, but six weeks
into training I could not swim across the 50-meter pool without stopping
and gasping for breath. I began to dread Wednesdays. Finally, after three
weeks of failing to reach my goal of making it one length without stopping,
I asked the coach for help. He took a few of us “remedial swimmers”
aside in mid-July and practiced breathing techniques for an hour. Amazingly
enough, I got the hang of it! Two days later, I was jetting across the
50-meter pool in Van Cortlandt Park with no problem. My husband, who knew
how to swim, stared at me the next time we swam together, asking “Where
did you learn to do that?”
The bike, unfortunately, also become problematic. In late June, I took
a bad spill in Central Park and ended up sliding across the pavement on
my left side. Thank god, my coach was nearby. Feeling bits of something
in my mouth, I started shouting at him “Do I still have my teeth?
Do I still have my teeth?” It turned out it was just dirt. Still,
I ended up in the emergency room, badly scraped on my arm, elbow, shoulder,
knee, knuckle and face. While those wounds healed after a while, I didn’t
realize how internally scarred I was. It took me more than two months
to feel comfortable on my bike, finally coming to terms with the accident
two weeks before the Westchester Tri.
Running, as I thought, turned out to be a breeze. We ran at most eight
miles during practice, which was no problem…until I strained my
back 10 days before the big event. I went to the doctor, who said I could
still do the tri but predicted that I’d be in pain during the 25-mile
super-hilly bike course. He turned out to be wrong.
On the morning of the big race on Sept. 25, I set up my transition area,
carefully laying out my towel, bike shoes and sneakers under my bike.
Donning my wetsuit, I stretched my back repeatedly. My husband and I walked
down to the beach at Rye Playland, where the swimmers were gathering.
Surprisingly,
I felt great when I got into the water. I concentrated on my form
and on looking at the buoys to make sure I was not going off course.
Though the water got a little choppy, I had no problem pushing through
the waves. Gliding in on them on my way back to shore, I rushed
back to the sand and looked at my watch. 27:51. How was that possible?
I didn’t think I could do it in less than 40 minutes. Confused,
I stood there while my coach shouted at me to start peeling off
my wetsuit and run to the transition area. Later, I learned that
the officials cut the swim to .65 miles because of the rough water. |
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Getting on the bike, I knew the hills of Rye and Greenwich lay ahead.
Eddie and I had done the course over Labor Day weekend to practice. Hoping
my back wouldn’t give out, I started pedaling. The first half was
tough and I struggled up the hills. But I felt better on the second half
and even passed a few people who had whizzed by me earlier. I wanted to
complete it in less than 1:45 and I did – by 14 seconds! That time,
however, included a five-minute stop to help a teammate fix a flat tire.
The best part was that my back didn’t really hurt.
Racking my bike and pulling on my sneakers, I headed out for the run.
That’s when it hit me. I felt my back with every step of the 6.2-mile
course. It slowed me down by at least a minute a mile, but I told myself
I was not going to walk under any circumstances. I brightened when we
passed the Coveleigh Club in Rye, where Eddie and I got married, informing
all my teammates nearby of the special location.
As I neared the finish line, Eddie was waiting for me and cheering. Oh
well, I didn’t really think I could beat him anyway. My coach ran
me up the little hill just before the end, encouraging me to give it my
all. Around the bend, I saw the finish line and my family and friends
cheering for me. I gathered up whatever I had left and “sprinted”
to the end…completing the run in 1:03:34 for a total time of 3:23:09.
Looking back, I never would have predicted that the swim would have been
my best event and the run my most painful. But as they say, you never
know what’s going to happen on race day. Let’s see what the
New York City Marathon holds on November 6th and the Ford NYC Triathlon
next July. Maybe I’ll even beat my husband.
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