Well it's been a couple years since I turned in one of "those" races. To sum it up I was looking down at my brakes about halfway through the bike and thinking they must be rubbing on the rim because I can't possibly feel this bad. It's disappointing to come all the way to New York City and DNF a race I've won in the past. But that's racing.
I'm not sure how to write a race report for a DNF, especially without making too many excuses. Athletes need to be accountable for their results and unless I can prove my brakes were rubbing, which they weren't, my off day just happened. I suspect I just never really recovered from last week's effort and that left me with no gas (gas = power) from the very start. I knew something was up right away as I just felt like I was stuck in neutral from the start of the swim. Even the jellyfish stings couldn't kick me into gear!!!! I think I was lucky the current was roaring (and Andy Potts decided to swim along the wall ..... where there is no current). I exited the swim in 4th or 5th but even struggled to keep up on the long run to the bikes (a 300-metre-plus barefoot run). It was immediately apparent that I was going to hurt (capital H!) on the bike and although I was able to ride myself into contact with the leaders (Greg Bennett, Stu Hayes, Paul Tichelaar and Brent McMahon) it was taking way too much effort. Andy Potts came by and established himself at the front as I struggled to maintain contact. What happened next was a little unexplainable as Andy's bottle popped off his frame and the marshal drove up beside him and gave him a 1-minute stand-down penalty ..... to be honest, it was a bizarre penalty. I understand that athletes can't be littering the road with gear but when an athlete's bottle flies off because the road is bumpy and it doesn't impede anyone's progress then maybe we can just keep racing and no penalties need to be given out.
Once Andy was gone Benno hit the turbo and I was outta there (lost contact). Brent rode extremely well to stay in contact as Paul, Colin and I simply had no response and lost a substantial amount of time. Paul eventually dropped me when Jordan Rapp and Andy came past (Andy screaming "did you see that, what the hell?"), I was relegated to riding part time on my brake hoods and fidgeting around trying to find something, anything that would get me going. It wasn't meant to be as I just wound down and started hoping I flatted or got hit by a car..... I made it to transition looking and feeling like a car that just ran out of gas and coasted into the station.
After a slow transition I ran about 1.5 miles very slowly. By this time I was just looking about and thinking "I can't believe I'm running around on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in my swim trunks at 7:30 in the morning". I eventually made it to Central Park and cut across the park to the finish area simply because I didn't know what else to do - do you just hangout on the Upper West Side in your swimmers looking for Robert DeNiro? (Does he live here?) I eventually made it back to the finish area to watch Benno win and Brent McMahon do something extraordinary/scary. Brent was in second place until about 20 metres to go when he started to wobble, struck the barrier, fell heavily against the barrier then hit the deck. Medical staff rushed to him but I think Brent waved them off, lay there for a bit then started the crawl to the finish (about 10 metres). Stu Hayes, Andy Potts and Paul Tichelaar went past Brent (I'm not sure they would have even seen him) in the finish chute before he crawled across the line in 5th. What an amazing effort, it was scary to watch but the NYC paramedics were straight onto him and did a great job. It was really disappointing for Brent as he was in 2nd and was having a great race.
No crawling for me today.
No nothing. No gas. Just one of those days. But we move on, the important thing is training and racing is definitely where we want it to be and with some recovery days coming up and some play time with Pippa I will be refreshed, recovered and recharged (moral) by the end of next week.
S
