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I tried to just relax Saturday after Team Championships but… instead I met my brother, sister-in-law, and friends Stephan and Amanda (Abs was there too of course) for drinks and dinner.

On a positive, more intelligent note I made us go to an italian restaurant for dinner. I had a lovely pasta with grilled scallops!

I was in bed by 10:30PM or so, pretty late for those people actually planning on going to transition before their triathlon the next day.

RACE DAY

I woke up per usual at 6, 15 minutes after transition had closed. This was planned by the way. One of the problems with the NYC Tri is that with all of the wave starts you need to be in transition from like 415AM to 5:45 AM… LAME! My solution? Leave all your sh%t in transition the day before when you drop off your bike. I’ve done it a few times and it has never failed me. I even got to watch the start of the race on the local news!

After having a cup of coffee and watching the news I decided I had better get over to the swim start. I jumped in a cab at 7AM and was putting on my wetsuit by 7:10. Did I mention that it was raining?

Something I often talk about with fellow triathletes is the concept of ‘experience’ as training. Today it was playing a huge role. I have swam the mighty Hudson river 10 or more times and rough open water swims even more. I was in no way nervous like a lot of the guys surrounding me were. I tried to calm them with jokes and silly one liners but they seemed to think I was BSing them. My point is, new triathletes, get out in the ocean or a lake for your training swims.

Into the soup we went. The current was moving really fast as it usually does. Now, some people argue that this is unfair. My argument is that everyone gets the fast current, equalizing the race.  The Pros were swimming some obscene times and so were the rookies!

The water on a scale of 1-to-Gross was like an 8 today. I tried my best to just keep it out of my mouth. My swim overall was pretty great. I may not be the fastest, but my confidence and sighting abilities keep me competitive. I even passed a few people in my heat!

As I hit T1 I was happy to see everything just as I had left it!

I popped on my ride and hit the Henry Hudson Parkway making my way north in the rain.

The bike course on a sunny day is treacherous with its harsh pavement conditions and tight lane configurations, throw in a steady rain and it becomes really harrowing! In the beginning I just slowly increased my pace and shook out the ol legs. I had some EFS that I was taking in every so often as well.

I think 8 to 10 miles in the rain let up a bit. I was starting to feel very good and very aggressive so I began to crank it, passing many people.

Once we hit the turn around point up in the Bronx I really turned up the heat. In my head I basically said, “This is a race, lets blast it! The run will get done one way or another.” And just like that I was having the time of my life. I was riding a space ship where the controls were set to light speed. No one passed me from this point forward.

Towards mile 20 I passed Joe who yelled to me. I replied, “Jooooe! How you feeling brother?” To which he replied, “I feel great!” I threw up a fist and carried on. I later passed my friend Digangi too who was also crushing it on the bike!

Cruising through T2 I hit 72nd Street to begin the run. My legs were heavy but not dead. ‘Give it 1 mile.’ I thought. I heard my name being screamed something fierce out on 72nd and realized i was Claire, TG and Abbe! Then, I passed my teammate Suzette and finally Elizabeth before heading into my backyard… aka The Central Park.

As I hit aid station one Matt6 was in his usual spot. “Baker!” We gave each other an elbow bump before I moved onward. Soon after I saw my friend David running in opposite directions cheering me on. I hit mile one in 7:01. Not bad.

Then, mile two at 6:48… whaaaaat? I was actually speeding up, strange indeed.

Mile three (6:26) came pretty fast too. My legs didn’t hurt, my heart felt good, wild. Carry on.

At mile five I passed a 75 year old man running barefoot. I saluted him. I want to be him in 40 years.

I decided to pick up for the last mile, especially knowing that there was just one slight hill at the end. I pushed it to a 6:16 pace, now things were burning.

As I finished up I saw my friend Juan working an aid station. He cheered like crazy, which helped to push me to the finish line. I had a 2 minute PR with a finish of 2:15:31!

I found Abbe, Neil and Amy (also PR’d)  after who all had fantastic races. We tried to find Joe (who had a 15 minute PR, whaaaaaat) but he had already left.

It was a hell of a day and an even bigger weekend for me. I love racing so much and to get to do it 2 weekend days in a row is so satisfying! Congrats to all my friends and athletes who raced and killed it.

The tricky part about being both a runner and a triathlete is that sometimes races line up back-to-back. This weekend was both the NYRR Team Championships AND the NYC Triathlon (one of my favorite races of all time).

Friday night we had Bojana and Brian over for some pre race carbo loading. Abs made some pasta with calamari, shrimp and white beans. It was perfection.

RACE DAY

I awoke at 6AM (my usual wake up time) to a gloomy, rainy Saturday morning. Josh wanted us to meet at 7:30AM for team pictures and to hand out bibs. SIDENOTE: the men’s race starts at 9:30AM, Josh you owe me 2 hours of sleep!

I love our team, so I was not concerned at all with the rain. In fact, I love running n the rain. I even said to everyone, “At least it’s raining today and not tomorrow during the triathlon, that would suck!” JINX. JINX. JINX.

The men went to cheer on East 97th Street while the women teed up the Start line.

20-25 minutes later there they were flying past us! Our women’s team is pretty sick. They can rock some serious paces and are not to be trifled with.

By now the rain had let up and it was getting nice and humid. My hair was a mess.

Us men did a warm up, hit the porto johns and then jumped into our corrals.

As I stood there in my corral I pondered the race and the triathlon. I originally decided to ‘take it easy’ and save my legs for the next day but that idea was starting to sound lame. A race is a race.

The gun went off and the pack went flying. Remember, this is Team Champs so everyone is a pretty serious runner. My legs felt absolutely fantastic and Abbe’s pasta from the night before was sitting pretty in the fuel cells.

We hit mile one at 6:03 or something. I was okay with that considering we still had 4 miles to go. I wondered if I could hang on.

Evan, one of my friends and teammates passed me right around this point. He was looking good and crushing.

Miles two and three came by quickly and I think I was still on the 6 minute per mile pace. I had no watch on so I was going by feeling.

There was a crazy headwind at mile 4 four but it acted more like a coolant than something that hindered.

I look a bit weathered here.

At the fifth mile my legs and engine (although kicking) still felt fine. I ramped it up a bit at this point, knowing the end was near. With 500 meters go to I passed our cheer squad and gave them a wave.

I finished in 29:58 which at the time I didn’t think was that great, but it is actually a 33 second PR! Who knew?!

I waited for everyone to finish then we found the gals and rolled over to Fetch for some post race food! It was a great morning and so fun to both cheer on the team AND race. Go Gotham City Runners! (San Dimas High School Football Rules!)

The Guys of Gotham

Last night was the perfect evening to take the water taxi. We took it from Midtown over to Brooklyn to the ‘A Love Shared’ fundraiser for ALS awareness. A few of Chef Gerry Hayden’s (owner and executive chef of North Fork Table & Inn – Southold, NY) culinary buddies were gathering to support him and his fight with ALS.

ALS is a serious disease. In my ‘triathlete’ world it took down a true Ironman, Jon ‘Blazeman’ Blais. Please donate to help find a cure here.

We arrived just after the doors had opened and it was already jumping! We walked the garden sampling various ‘BBQ themed’ foods made by some of my favorite chefs.

Bryan Voltaggio was serving up this amazing grilled quail.

Next, I sampled some BBQ Pork Belly, which I thought was going to be the winner of the evening. (There was no official contest, I was just ranking the entrees.)

Did I mention the signature watermelon mojitos? They were amazing.

After spending some time in the garden we decided to investigate the less crowded garden terrace. Of course as soon as we walk in we see our friend Will waving at us! He was helping out chef David Burke. We walked over and said hi to both of them, then sampled some of David’s Smoked Salmon Pastrami, delicious of course.

I honestly don’t know how any of these chefs remember anyone’s names! So many people come around introducing themselves.

While there I went over and chatted with Chef Marc Forgione and tried some of his BBQ Beef Shortribs. I would go back later  to get more, quietly telling him that he had the number 1 dish of the night. Seriously, it was superb.

Hurricane Sandy took it’s toll on both The River Cafe and The Water Club. Owner Buzzy O’Keefe put a lot of hard work into restoring them back to their glory. Abbe and I were curious as to what the rest of the place looked like after the restoration. Just then Executive Chef Brad Steelman walks by and our friend Bev grabs him (they know each other) and asked if we could have a tour. “Of course!” replied Brad.

The main dining room had a man playing tunes on a baby grand as people dined away to not only amazing food, but an stunning view of mighty Manhattan.

Thank you Brad, we will be back!

Feeling full and happy, we made our way to the cab line out front. While there we ran into Bryan Voltaggio (also attempting to get a cab). I suggested he use a car service based on the lack of cabs. He then told me we should come to the after party at Charlie’s place.

Off we went to Charlie Palmer’s new spot on 3rd Avenue and 54th Street in the Lipstick Building. What a fantastic job he has done with the space. It has a ‘rustic’ meets ‘modern’ architectural vibe. Who shows up after awhile? Our friend Will (along with a lot of the other chefs.)

It was a great night and an honor being surrounded by some of the most creative chefs in the industry.

The War at the Shore was a triathlon I was particularly looking forward to as two of my athletes were also racing. They have been crushing their training and I had really good feelings about what was to happen.

I rode up to Amy’s apartment to hitch a ride with her. I forgot that riding a bike at 3PM in street clothes and a giant transition bag is super challenging! After packing up our bikes we were off, zipping down the turnpike. We were headed to Amy’s Mom’s place, our lovely host for the evening due to the close proximity of the course. Joe (also racing) was going to head down later that night to meet us.

One negative comment I need to make about packet pick-up is that they need to explain parking better. We were driving around for 30 minutes trying to figure out where to park. It was crowded because it was the beach midday on a gorgeous weekend. We eventually just double parked illegally and ran to get the goods.

Amy’s Mom rocks. She made us some killer veggie pasta for carbo loading! We all slipped off to bed just after 10PM with alarms set for 5AM, not terrible.

RACE DAY

We were all up right on time. Joe was even already outside loading bikes onto the rack! It was a simply beautiful morning.

Within in 20 minutes we were in transition setting up. The big talk leading up to this race was wetsuit, or no wetsuit? Amy, a ridiculous swimmer, doesn’t even own a wetsuit and isn’t concerned with them. Joe had a speedsuit on. We had thought the water temps were going to be low 70’s and so I was getting ready to swim with just my trishorts. It was only 600M so we weren’t going to be in the soup for that long anyway.

Then, this old salty dog of a triathlete strolls in talking about how nice the water was at 68 degrees. Game changer. My wetsuit was getting put on 2 minutes later, a decision that I am glad I made.

We all made our way down to the shoreline to await gun time. We tested out the water and yes, it was nippy. I think,based on reading some other reports, that it was closer to 63 degrees.

The Sprint distance females set up for their start. We bid Ames god luck! As Joe and I stood watching them start I said, “Amy is going to win her Age Group today.” I secretly knew Joe was going to do some damage too, but I kept that to myself.

10 minutes after the Sprint Joe and I lined up with all the other ‘Intermediate’ distance racers. The gun went off and we headed for the mighty Atlantic! It was cold as shit.

I can always gauge a cold swim from when my face hits the water. This was cold and I even, for just a second, wondered if I should keep going. Such a silly brain I have. After doing this for awhile now I tend to love the chaos of the swim now. I mean, like the crazier it is the more fun. This one was great. Aside from us all being really packed tight together, the sea was rolling us around. Because there was so much action it was very bubbly, like a feeding frenzy. I was also getting my legs grabbed a lot, but in turn I was able to hang on and draft a few faster swimmers. I almost got BLASTED in the face by some guys heel too but a looked left just quick enough to avoid it.

5 minutes or so into the swim things spread out a bit. The buoys started coming faster. As we finished though, we were definitely in a rip current. It felt like we weren’t even moving and yet, so close to shore.

Joe was just up ahead of me as we were running into transition.

The bike was an 11 mile two loop course. I felt great heading into it and then a mile or two in I noticed t was pretty windy. Like, the kind of wind you curse at, coming right at us from the south. This was going to be a challenging ride.

At mile 3 I hit a bump and there goes my only water bottle! Quick decision was made that I didn’t need it and especially didn’t need to stop my momentum. I was feeling good and pushing just hard enough so as to not trash myself.

At the turnaround point (mile 5 or 6) a wonderful thing happened, were had that wind at our backs! I put my head down and dug in taking advantage. I was passing a lot of people but also leapfrogging with a number of other riders.

Heading back out onto the course a second time was pretty humiliating. We had the wind at our faces again and it felt like I was going nowhere fast. Knowing I just had to make it to the turnaround point I just hung on. I saw Joe at one point and we did a shout out!

In T2 as I was getting ready to run out I heard some guy talking to his pal who was getting his run gear on, “So how was the wind out there?” I ran by, smiled and yelled, “The wind sucked!”

Mile 1 we ran north, wind at our backs to a turnaround at the 1 mile mark. Legs were feeling good but the heat was wearing on me.

At Mile 2 as I was coming back onto the boardwalk and towards transition the wind was blasting us head on. It was pretty rough. I did my best to just keep my legs moving, knowing that I only had 3 miles left. I passed a few people, but was still not in my running zone.

I saw Joe a few times and he looked like he was having a good race.

As we hit the turnaround, with like just over 1.5 miles left, this guy up ahead made the mistake of looking back. For whatever reason, it fired up my engines. Wind at my back I threw it into run ’em down mode. My legs hurt really bad and the sun was blazing. I had no idea what my pace was because I was running naked, but it felt fast. I passed a good 10-15 people on that home stretch. I don’t know what came over me, mentally I was in some other world.

I saw Amy taking pics as I cruised into the finish chute. She was standing there with her 1st Place AG trophy!

We waited and watch for Joe to come through. He finished looking good and then we went and found him. We had just found out that I had won 3rd Place AG. As Joe was getting some snacks we went and checked his times. As he walked back up I just said “Three!” He was quite confused and then figured out I was talking about 3rd Place. All three of us were going home with trophies! What a day!

Big ups to Amy and Joe who showed that hard work and dedication produce results.

What are you doing? Where are you going? What have you done?

I find that I occasionally lose touch with what makes me, ‘me.’

I grew up an artist. I went to art school. I painted, drew, sculpted, and hung out with people who on the outside might seem odd but inside were secretly creative geniuses. It was not until later in life I discovered athletics.

Sometimes, as we drift through life, we forget or lose touch with those things that fill us up with the good stuff.

Something I miss is gallery hopping. For those of you living in NYC that have not gallery hopped, you need to do it. Every Thursday night from 6PM to 9PM galleries all over, but more concentrated in Chelsea, have openings. You walk in, grab a free drink (everything from vodka tonic to champagne) and look at art. You finish your drink and continue on to the next gallery. Get it? It’s free booze and art!

Here is my my problem. I belong to a crazy cool running and triathlon team, the Gotham City Runners, who happen to meet at the track on Thursdays from 6:30-8PM, prime gallery time. Quite a dilemma.

Last night we rocked a set of 5, 1,000s. That’s two and a half laps around the track, quite a mindfuck. The first 3 we ran in 3:27, 3:29 and 3:33. After that my pace drifted off to 3:44 and 3:40. We were all sweaty humans with trashed legs. I couldn’t be happier.

As we ran back I received a call from an old friend from art school, Pete (Rock) who was in town! I met him and 2 other friends Dave and Abe in the Chinatown area. They were gallery hopping!

The first spot we hit had some amazing photo transfer style paintings, which I liked as my new body of work is created in a similar process. (A few of my pieces are below.) We then hit up this art meets hip-hop show off of Delancey. Very cool.

Of course no night is complete without tacos. For that we went to the new and popular Tacombi. We had found a discarded Citibike and so Dave used that to ride ahead and get us on the waiting list. While there, another college friend (Delvecs) who was in town popped in to join the party!

The night continued on in proper fashion until we all decided it was getting late. What a night!

Running, art, old friends and tacos? Does it get any better?

Life is too short to lose track of what really makes us happy.

Swimming in a pool is boring. Swimming in the ocean is fun and adventurous! Pools don’t have sharks.

Doug and I set off on the subway around 10AM putting us on Brighton Beach at 11. Slightly later than we wanted but we had a late start as Abbe made us (the best) scrambled eggs.

The beach was full of  ‘beach-goers’ sunning themselves and doing normal ‘beachy’ things. We had numerous people openly staring at us when we donned our sleeveless wetsuits. Personally, I think when triathletes are in wetsuits they look kind of like superheros, so I just imagined we had to go fight some crime out on the open water. Have no fear civilians!

Wetsuits were definitely needed on this day. I would say the water was in the mid 60s. Even so, one can always find some crazy ass kid, half purple, sloshing around loving life.

Due to the massive jetties along the shore, we had to swim straight out a good 200 meters. Once there, bobbing around, Doug and I made a plan of regrouping as we passed each jetty.

And so… we swam.

My form was spot on and I was having a blast. I had zero fear which is a nice feeling, especially remembering my fear of open water not so many years ago. As we got to the first jetty we noted how the chop was picking up. “Yo Bakes, I feel like I’m in a washing machine out here!” No doubt, but it was a nice challenge.

We pressed on, this time getting huge waves in our face. It was awesome! Every time we hit  a jetty we popped up and had a conference. After the 4th one we decided to turn back. It had taken us 22 minutes to get out there, but I knew that the return trip would not be so easy.

We were getting beat up real bad going back! I was getting smashed in the face every other stroke by big swells and we were hardly making progress. There were even a few moments when Doug (swimming to my left on the inside) was about 6 feet below me!

My form quickly fell apart and I tried to keep my mental strength in check. Doug was slightly ahead of me now and at times I couldn’t even see him due to the swells. We did regroup every 10 or 15 minutes though just to make sure we were good.

Finally, we got back to our starting point. It had taken us 44 minutes to return! Double the time! We high fived and made our way to our gear. What a swim workout. Even though it was challenging, I would take that over a pool any day. What better way to train for a triathlon?!

We (of course) found a cool Russian bar to grab a few beers, watch World Cup, and feast on food that we needed.

THAT is training!

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Big ups to a lot of the Gotham City Runners too. We had a killer track workout Thursday that seemed to propel a lot of them to PR’s during this weekends race!