Just getting to the starting line of the New York World Cup Triathlon on August 10, was quite a challenge for me. Two weeks before the race, I was doing a group ride and my front tire flatted as I was rounding a corner. I went down hard – fracturing my wrist and bruising both hips. I also had some pretty bad road rash. I was very fortunate in that my wrist seemed to start healing quickly. I had to miss a lot of swim and bike workouts at first, but after a week I was able to start swimming and riding again. Swimming hurt my wrist the most, but I was still confident that I would be able to get through the swim portion of the New York World Cup Triathlon. I decided to go ahead with my plans to compete in the race.

I had no sooner made the decision to race, then I realized that the road rash on my right hip had become very infected. This was a problem, not only because of the infection, but because I was going to have to swim in the Hudson River during the race. I was not very excited about going into a river known for its high pollution levels (among other things) with an infected, open wound. I made a visit to my Doctor and he immediately put me on some strong antibiotics. The antibiotics pretty much wiped me out physically for the next two days, but I still really wanted to compete. I convinced myself that I would not feel the affects of the antibiotics during the race, and that I would actually be much better off swimming in the Hudson River than all the other athletes because I was already on antibiotics. I decided once again to go ahead with my plans to race.

I arrived in New York two days before the race only to find out that the race had been changed to a Duathlon. Apparently, the bacteria levels were way too high to allow us to swim. The race organizers were also concerned about all the debris in the water from the heavy rains that had been in the area all summer.

Since I have never competed in a Duathlon before, I was not sure if I was happy about the change or not. However, I decided that in this one case, I was better off with the Duathlon because of both my wrist and my infected hip. I also figured that since I like the swim and run portions of my Triathlons the best, I would still be getting to do one of my stronger events.

With the swim out of the picture, the entire race took place in Central Park. We first had to run a 10k on a fairly flat 4 loop course. Then we did the 40k bike followed by a 5k run. The race started right on time at 8:00am. It felt so strange starting out with a run. I actually felt pretty strong on the first run. While I was not with the lead group of girls, I ran a good 10k split and felt like I was in great position. There were some strong cyclists with me and behind me. I just assumed that I would have some girls to work with to catch the lead pack.

Things did not go according to plan, however, as I was slow getting on my bike, and I missed heading out with the two girls that I had finished the first run with. I tried to bike hard on my own, but I felt awful. A group of girls behind me caught me after the first loop, so I started to work with them. Unfortunately, I was not a huge help to them because of how bad I was feeling. We lost time to the lead group, so as we came in for the run, I just tried to tell myself that I needed to run well enough to make sure I was still within 8% of the winner’s time. If I could do that, I would still get some points.

I felt even worse on the 5k than I had on the bike. I just did not have anything to give. Fortunately, I made it to the finish within the 8% cutoff thus earning points. While I certainly was not pleased with my race, I was happy that I stayed in the race and tried to make the best of a bad situation. I do think the infection and the antibiotics took a lot out of me, so hopefully I will never have to race with either again. However, at least I know that I can get through it if I ever find myself in the same situation.

While I would have preferred to do a Triathlon, I am glad that I had the opportunity to try a Duathlon. I probably would not have signed up for one on my own, but now that I have completed one, I would like to try another Duathlon sometime. I feel that they are definitely harder on the body than Triathlons, but they are still fun. The New York World Cup "Duathlon" provided me with another unusual racing experience. This season certainly has not been boring!