A bucket-list item checked off: I finished the NYC Triathlon.
I’ve done several shorter triathlons, but this was my first Olympic-distance event: 1.5 km swim, followed by a 40km bike ride, followed by a 10km run. In the NYC Triathlon, the swim is in the Hudson river, the bike ride is on the West Side Highway, and the run is partially on the 72nd street and partially in Central Park.
The race is all about New York — but a New York that is different from its commonplace day-to-day version.
This year we’ve decided to do something different for the New Years: a Central Park Midnight 4-miler, which is more of a party than a run, but the running of a 4-mile distance on New Year’s, at midnight, is involved.
The event goes like this. First, there is a two-hour party in Central Park around the bandshell, then, before midnight, we count down the seconds while being lined up for the run, and at midnight the Park’s fireworks start, and the crowd gets moving, beginning a four-miler. Fun! Somewhat crazy chilly fun. CNN covers this run in their New Years’ broadcast; we saw it a couple of years ago and thought those runners were crazy. And there we were, running it ourselves this year.
