Spring Couples Relay

On Saturday, my ex-roommate and I did the Spring Couples Relay in Central Park. It consisted of a 2 mile run/12 mile bike (2 loops of central park) and an approximately 1/2 mile 'row' in the lake in Central Park. The plan was for me to run, him to bike, and do whatever we could not to fall into the lake during the rowing.


I did an easy jog from home over to the race transition area, and wasn't sure what to expect. Low-key races like this in NYC tend to draw fun crowds, but still the serious folks as well. When I got to transition, I saw multiple disk wheels and some aero helmets- I laughed out loud. The race is divided into 'combined' age groups, we fall in the 50-59 group. After eying our competition, I told my partner we had a shot at our age group. He has just started to get back into cycling shape and his doing his first triathlon with me in about a month- I told him that he better be winded when he was done with the bike :)

We lined up, and I told my partner that if I was back in 15 minutes, I would be happy. That is the pace I am hoping to hold next weekend in the 10k. I knew there was some serious runners in the race, but I lined up with them front and center and decided my plan was to run as fast as I could, try to hold on to the person in front of me, and not puke. I settled in the first mile with one woman in front of me (who I knew had just run 3:10ish in Boston). At the first mile (6:48), another woman passed me. However, we were not yet close to the turnaround for the 2 mile 'out and back' course- meaning the run was clearly going to be more than 2 miles, and I had just run the fastest mile I can ever remember running. I almost started to freak out and back off, but tried to stay with the woman who had just passed. That didn't happen, but I was still feeling OK and thinking about using my arms and keeping my legs moving. I was passed by another women after about 1.5 miles, hit mile 2 at 6:58, and felt great. The run ended up being 2.31 miles and I finished with my first ever sub-7 pace.

As I entered the transition, my partner was chatting it up with the people around him, and was clearly not expecting me so soon :) I yelled at him to 'Go, go' and he was off. I came in when I told him to expect me(15:53), but he later told me he didn't expect me to 'beat all the boys' :) I had come into transition 7th overall, with 3 men and 3 women ahead of us. Unfortunately for my partner, this meant that many of the serious cyclists would be hunting him down. He finished up his two loops, and promptly told me to be proud because "only 4 non-fancy super serious bikers" had passed him...I was very proud! And we were also safely ahead in our age group.

The rowing portion was hysterical. What I thought would be a quick, 5 minute little out and back row, was in reality a real 'course' with buoys and turns and took probably 15-20 minutes. I tried to do my part and took the oars while my partner recovered from his ride, but I was the only female rowing and we were not going anywhere (except in circles). We ended up in a fun little race with another boat, played some bumper boats, ran into a few rocks, but ended up winning our age group, soaking wet, and with smiles on our faces.

The race was really fun and we plan on not only defending next year, but now my partner tells me our new goal is to win the costume contest as well. There was some stiff competition this year, but we have a year to prepare :)