Race Report - Long Branch Sprint

The sea was angry that day my friends, like an old man trying to return soup at a deli. --George from Seinfeld.

Today was my first race in the Long Branch sprint series which is 3 sprint triathlons over the summer and a final 'War at the Shore' finale at the end. I got to bed at midnight, got up at 4:45am, ate a bowl of oatmeal (Almond milk, not real milk), and was cycling to the race by 5:15am. It was just over 12 miles which took about 40 minutes. After I setup transition I went down to the ocean for a warm up swim. The waves were huge, one of them knocked me clean on my ass and filled my shorts with pebbles and baby mussels. Awesome! (the picture above was taken after the race and the tide had turned by then...those aren't the mutha waves we had at 7am)

I was doing the long course sprint which was a 600 yard swim, 20 mile bike, and 5 mile run. Extend the swim a bit and you almost have an olympic distance. We went off first at 7am, actually 7:15 or so since they were having trouble anchoring the buoys in the angry surf. It was a time trial start, not a wave start. This just means you enter the water 1 x 1 and cross the timing mat as you go. I ran into the surf and pierced a giant incoming wave, and then again, and I think a few more times. The course was a rectangle, swim out to a yellow buoy, bang a left, swim to the next yellow buoy, bang a left and swim to shore. It was choppy the whole way but fun. I took in a few mouthfuls of salt water out there which wasn't fun. I don't think I had a great swim time but I'm not sure since I don't know my splits yet.

I rocked the transition in a hurry, I can't wait to see how I ranked. The guy next to me looked like he was setting up a campsite with all the crap he had going on in his transition spot...freaking hoarders. The 20 mile course was a 2 loop course, very flat and very fast. Most of the time I was banging 20-24 mph. I think I finished the bike in under an hour, so I'll guess I averaged about 21 mph. My legs weren't useless but I felt like I was building up some lactic acid. On slightly pre-tired legs it was harder than it should have been to hold those speeds. Road etiquette at this race was a little worse than the normal crop of idiots you get at triathlons...morons not keeping to the right and even worse PASSING on the right. In the end it was a fun, fast ride..the kind I like.

After another kick ass transition I was onto the run and feeling pretty good. The 5 mile group ran north for 1 mile to a turn around and then joined the short course racers for their 3 mile out-n-back heading south down the boardwalk. It was getting a little warm and was very sunny. I was sweating a lot but the heat wasn't so bad to make a huge difference. I felt like I was holding a decent pace and my last watch split shows 40:10 so it would appear I might have rocked 8 minute miles. The run was as flat at the bike so that is entirely possible.

I checked last year's times before going to bed last night just to see how fast people were. From studying the times I thought if I could break 2 hours it would be a pretty respectable time. My watch says I finished in 1:51:27 !!! Whenever they post results we'll see how I ranked, I was quite surprised when I looked at my watch.

NJ rocks. Coming over the Sandy Hook Bridge on my bike at 5:45am, the sun was just above the ocean horizon. The ocean view runs as far as you can see from that bridge (unless you can see England) and the massiveness of it all always mesmerizes me.