Hello All
Well, firstly I very much want to reinforce our thanks for all your support. Kerry and Lexi (our inspiration for the charity) and the rest of the Denzel family thank you also. The Denzels and our family have been in contact since we agreed to join the push for Nephcure, including receiving some really great "care packs” led by the girls handmade painting and cards (and thanks mom and dad for vodka !!).
I want to thank Tracy Smith, my project coordinator for this and many other important initiatives. Her personal commitment to everything she does can never be underestimated. Big thanks to Coach Cliff who tracked down this great charity for me and convinced Catherine to accept me onto the Nephletes team.
I finished in 2h :35 mins, which considering the conditions on the day, was a pleasing result, but was slower than my best time of 2h :25 mins. (I think I actually peaked back in July when I did race preparing for this one)
1500 meter (0.95 miles) Swim was 19:35 min
40 km (25 miles) ride was 1h 15 min
10 km (6.1 miles) run was 53 min (always slow for me !!)
(transitions were a total of 7 mins)
Given I did not complete a personal best, I can’t use the ratio of $5 per second (remember my initial commitment for my match) , but I still want to contribute meaningfully. Thus I have decided to match one very generous friend and his firm’s donations who made up near 30% of our raise. That should result in us getting close to a full $7,000 and should ensure we remain at the top of the ladder of "Nephletes” competing, who as a group have raised a meaningful amount of money.
Report
Given this is my fifth year in a row for doing the NYC triathlon, I have a routine that I follow that starts checking into to the race Saturday afternoon, putting my bike in transition and checking into a city hotel.
Sunday, Race Day started at 4.00 am, and due to the massive volume of athletes plus some delays, I was not in the Hudson River till around 8.00 am (over an hour later than expected). This has the effect of missing the massive tidal current that is usually in our favor and thus swam slower than previous years (mainly due to less push from the current). Another factor was it was raining, thus let than perfect conditions to wait 2.5 hours. The race had a new start technique with 20 people into the Hudson River (off a barge) every 10 seconds for near 30 minutes, it actually worked out well. We swam from 95 street to 79 street boat basin.
Coming onto the bike, I felt good, but took near 6 miles for me to settles into the ride. With so much water on road, it was scary as at times we are doing 35 miles an hour down the hill after Henry Hudson bridge, while other riders are doing their first race.
As usual for me, I had to grind the run out from the 79 street boat basin, into the park and then a lap of Central Park. Nice to see Martha (too wet to bring boys) there to cheer me over the finish line.
The family took me out to a steak house (body was craving some protein + it was a birthday dinner, as my B’day is today). I was falling asleep in the end.
Thanks again, it was special to be able to combine an annual ritual with an important fund raising event.
