Race Report: NYC Tri Volunteer Perspective

I should be in Spain.....le sigh.  Instead, I find myself here, stateside, with and no race to run.  I knew this was going to be the case for a while, so with that in mind, I decided to volunteer for my favorite race, the New York City Triathlon.  Why is it my favorite?  For starters, it is 8 blocks from my apartment, I can walk to transition and there is nothing like running a race in your home town especially when it is NYC.  

My weekend started with a night of camping in Central Park.  Who does that?  I do!  There was a lottery held for that special privilege.  I decided to play the NY State lottery last night. I figured I have had good luck with them so far this year: the NYC Marathon, the camping thing.  Still have to check my numbers, fingers crossed.  I took my son camping with me since he had been asking to go.   I'll do a separate post on that little adventure (because I know you want to see a whole post dedicated to that), but I can tell you this, I did not sleep AT ALL.  Not an auspicious beginning to a very long weekend.  Especially with a 2:25 run on deck for the following morning.  My son?  Slept like a rock.  Figures.

When I signed up to volunteer I made the decision to be a Volunteer Captain (VTC).  This meant being put in charge of a group of volunteers in a specific area on the course.  I chose the Bike In/Out.  Our responsibility was to make sure the cyclists were corralled in the right direction onto the course, made aware of the sharp turn and hill at the entrance to the course, keep them from crashing in to the swimmers coming in the opposite direction and then making sure to point them in the right direction toward their transition area when they returned (there were two transition areas: yellow and red).

Let's make this part into a 'long story, short':

Friday: 

Camp out (no sleep....NO. SLEEP.)

Saturday: 

6 AM wake up (who needs to wake up when you never went to sleep?) and pack up.

8 AM long run scheduled (so not happening)
8AM  1.5 hours of sleep.

11:30 AM meet volunteer group  and go over our jobs.
1-4 PM Nap Fail (why, oh why?)

8:30 PM bedtime (finally, sleep.....Son wakes with croup in the night)

Sunday: 

3:45 AM wake up and head to transition.

4:30-5:30 AM we are doing lots of body marking in the rain.  Not an easy task.  People! No lotion of sunscreen before body marking!

5:30 AM get volunteers in place.

5:50 AM Race start, Pros!

Ok, that didn't happen.  Apparently there was a very bad accident on the highway in the wee hours (as in "we" are all up at this crazy hour?) that was on the bike course.  This had to be cleared before the race could start.  It was delayed until 6:20 or so.  Let's see....Saturday night, driving north, headed to Jersey....I'm guessing alcohol related crash? 

Finally things got underway.  I never get to see the pros for obvious reasons when I am racing.  They are damn fast.  When they came out of the water they were booking!  Holy crap.  Both the men and the women.  That was pretty cool to see.   And their bodies?  Holy hello goodness. They don't bother with the showers (to get the icky Hudson River off) or wetsuits, for that matter.  Did I mention that there was a fire at the water treatment plant a few weeks ago which spewed 200 million gallons of raw sewage into the Hudson?  No?  Never mind then.  (yes, they checked the water every day and there was a river race last weekend and well, no one asked you to swim in it, I'm just glad I was 'spectating' this year)

Shortly after the pros and elites came through all the women AGers, Ahtenas and men 55+ came in droves (all yellow transition).  It was somewhere in the middle of this swarm that the unthinkable happened.  Two people were pulled out of the water in cardiac arrest.  I was standing right where they were tending to them and we had to stop the flow of bikes and swimmers to let the EMTs through with both of them.  I have never in my life seen chest compressions being performed on a lifeless body; it was chilling, and disconcerting to see.  I hope never to see that again.  Sadly, the 64 year old man did not survive and the 40 year old woman is in critical condition.  Only once before has there been a death at this race.  You don't think about that as part of the risk of racing.  I am sad for their families and my thoughts are with them.

It is my understanding from a friend of mine who did the race, that the chop was pretty bad and a lot of people were hanging on kayaks and using noodles (I have NEVER seen that in this race) and the lifeguards were really busy.  My friend is an retired EMT, swimming with the first responders wave.  He said at first it seemed comical to see, but then it was quickly obvious that there were too many people in there having a hard time. 

After all the yellow transition people finished going through there was a 20 minute break and then the red transition started their race: paratriathletes, first responders, Clydesdale and the men AGers.  Meanwhile the pros started coming back in for the run.  Everyone was concerned about the folks we saw carried away, but no one knew their status at that time.  I think we all said a silent prayer for them.

It was really interesting to see the various people who came out to do this race.  I saw some of my friends go through, which was cool.  There were some awesome bikes, some not so awesome bikes (saw someone finish the course on a Dahon with clipless peddles,  I somehow admire that), great attitudes and not so great attitudes.  We got a lot of 'thank yous', which was nice.  My group of volunteers was fantastic!  Everyone was excited to be there and willing to do what was needed.

After everyone was out on the course, most of my volunteers were released,  but a few of us stuck around until the last rider was off the course.  I headed to the Yellow Bike-In chute.  It's a lonely stretch  with no one around.  I stood in the middle and cheered my ass off for the last of the yellow people coming off the course.  I managed to get a lot of smiles, some "I'm so glad to see you!", and "I finally made it!".  Of course there were some sour faces, but I think they were just in a place of hurt.  I then headed over to the Red Bike-In and stayed until their last guy came off the course. Even he had a smile on his face, nice!

I have volunteered at other races before, but it was nice to see my favorite race from the outside looking in.  I learned a lot about how it is run, met some great folks and had a great time.   A nice bonus it that by volunteering, I earned a guaranteed entry into the race next year.  Like the NYC marathon, this race has become a lottery event.  I am exhausted, but happily so.  Congrats to everyone who participated today and thanks to all the volunteers!!

**Sadly, I just found out the woman who was pulled from the water also died this morning.