Tag: NYRR

NYRR Coogan’s Race Report

Posted on by Anthony

Washington Heights has always been a place I would frequently pass by on my training rides towards the GWB and north up the 9W. This is also the home of Coogan’s 5km. Ever since I first ran this race back in ’11, I always seem to forget the rolling hills on Fort Washington Avenue – and this year was no different.

Coogan’s 5km 2013 – photo by Ben K.
For the past two years, I have found street parking near the race. This year, I decided to suck it up and just park at the Hospital parking garage. No reason to waste the liquid gold in my tank. Race number pickup was efficient, as with all NYRR races.
A proper warmup was necessary, especially because of sub-freezing temps (NYRR recorded 29 degrees with 10mph winds). 15 minutes of jogging was all I needed, plus some stretching in the Armory, followed by a chilly jog to the start. I would later find out that I probably underdressed just a bit.
I wanted to run this race completely by how I felt. Mile 1 split was 5:37. At that point, the cold air did not bother me. However, after making the turnaround at Fort Tyron Park and back up the hill onto Fort Washington Ave, my nose was really hurting – to a point where I could not breathe properly through them. Then came Mile 2, 5:52. That was a huge deficit from the first mile. Mile 3 wasn’t pretty either with a 5:42. From 8 minutes into the race, until the end, the effort level and feeling was complete suffering. And although a 17:52 (Garmin data) was not what I had planned, it was still a 40 sec & 120 sec improvement from 2012 and 2011, respectively. Hopefully from now on I will remember the feeling of racing in the Heights!

NYRR Sprint Triathlon Race Report (July 23, 2011)

Posted on by Anthony

First of all, thanks to all those who woke up before dawn and cheered me on during the race.
Second, special thanks to emotionphoto for amazing race day pictures! You can find more of his work here!

The past couple of days prior to the race were plagued with record breaking temperatures – NYRR sent out numerous emails and warnings about training/racing in the heat. But on early Saturday morning, the heat and humidity that our trusty weathermen had earlier promised was not there!!All the triathletes got their bodies marked when entering the transition area. I bumped into Keri just before entering. I set up my little area and hung out for a bit.

At 6:45am, all the athletes were briefed by the regular NYRR crew.
Since the swim was an 8 lap zig-zag of 50 meters, all of the swimmers self seeded themselves from fastest to slowest.
The swim part of the race was tough. I no longer had the luxury of pushing off the wall every 25 meters. Fanny (our ex-Whippet) started her swim right behind me and passed me after 150meters! Woah!


After the 400 meter swim, I managed to jog down the steps (without whipping out) that led back into the transition area. I clocked in at just over 9 minutes. The transition took me a while…a whole 3 minutes (I need to work on this for the next Tri).

The bike course was simple; two circuits of the outer loop inside the park. This was my best opportunity to pass other cyclists. And after 36 or 37 minutes, the 13 mile bike course was completed.

Transition 2 was much simpler than Transition 1. I placed the bike on the rack, took off my helmet and bike shoes, slipped into the racers and ran out as fast as I could. This was the part of the race that really hit me. I could feel the pain rip through the upper parts of my leg – the pain went away after three quarters of a mile.

About 2.5 miles into the run, 3 others and I made a wrong turn on the run course. Instead of making a right, we all went straight (with no sign of volunteers). Once I had realized the situation, I immediately pulled a sharp right turn. This is where the race resembled cross country as I ran through dirt, grass and gravel to get back onto the course. I had wasted about 1-2 minutes, but hey, it could’ve been worse.

The rest of the run was simple; run around the unisphere and finish at the fountain. I gave all that I had left in the tank and finished!

Here’s a snapshot of my results! (is it blurry?)

And of course,
DASHING WHIPPETS!!!

Official Results:
Overall Place – 28
Race Number – 5
Swim – 9:03 (91st)
T1 – 3:01 (198th)
Bike – 36:57 (14th!)
T2 – 1:48 (146th)
Run – 20:50 (28th)Total Time – 1:11:38

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