Long Branch Sprint Tri 8-14-2010

After doing the Lake T triathlon Thursday night, I went down to New Jersey for the weekend where my younger brother was planning to do his first triathlon. I was uncertain whether to race with him or just cheerlead, but I felt well enough to bring my bike down, and then decided the night before to give it a try. Having done, Niantic, this would make three triathlons in a week – quite a lot for me.

In Long Branch on the Jersey Shore, they have a tri training series.

Long Branch Tri Series

Three times a summer, they offer six events, a long course tri (600 yard swim, 20 mile bike, and 5 Mile run), a short course tri (300 yard swim, 10 mile bike, and 3 mile run) , a long and short duathlon (2-10-5, 2-20-5), and a long and short aquathon (600-20, 300-10).

They had at least 700 participants this past Saturday. My brother and I entered the short course tri. I was a little disappointed to see the swim was only 300 yards – an out and back course. They lined everyone up in a long single file line, and the race was done time-time trial style. I gather this is not their norm, but was done this way due to the surf. That’s right the surf – I hadn’t thought about the fact the triathlon was on the Atlantic Ocean and not in the Sound where I have done most of my tris. With the time-trial style, you told the man with the clipboard your race number when you reached the front of the line, and then you ran across a matt and toward the sea. My brother and I were chatting with some friends of his who were also entering their first tris and not really paying attention to what was going on until we neared the front of the line. I noticed then that many of those running out into the waves were being cast back to shore. Some weren’t even entering the water – they were like sandpipers starting toward the water, then running back as the waves came in. Quite a scene.

I love the surf and am an excellent body surfer due to my six-eight torso being similar to that of a long surf board. I body surf in pre-hurricane conditions when only the wet-suited surfers are out. It is one of my special prides.

I gave the man my number, and charged into the Atlantic. All at once it looked much rougher than from higher on the beach. I had to drive my shoulder into the first two waves to break through them, and then dove under the next several – they were far too high to jump over. I finally started swimming. I would swim up through a wave, and then descend down its backside. I looked up at one wave and noticed it was filled with struggling swimmers. Looking to the horizon I half expected to see the bow of the Lusitania sliding into the sea there were so many bobbing shipwrecked people in the water. I thought to myself, dam, they let people try to swim in this. I also thought this was great fun to be out in.

I put my head down and swam on. Out near the last buoy, it was like Baywatch – a blur of jet skis, red bathing suits and life lines being tossed around. One moment the buoy was below me, the next it was above me. The way in was like a D-Day movie without the bullets, as the remaining swimmers stormed the beach. I caught a giant wave that me rode me so far into shore, that when the water receded, I was on sand. A life guard ran over to me shouting “Are you okay?” “I’m good,” I said, popping up out of my outstretched form, and started up toward the boardwalk and transition on the other side of the street. Admittedly I didn’t run at first, I felt a little beaten up and deserved to walk for a few, ten, twenty yards.

I saw Jim then standing on the beach -- he told me he had been flattened by two waves on the way out and had taken himself out of the swim, along with a large group of others. They were going to let them head up to the bikes when the last person was out of the water. It turned out later that many of the people who didn’t do the swim, headed straight to the bikes instead of waiting.

If I had been thinking straight, I should have offered to swim it again with jim, as i am sure he would have made it once he got beyond the inital waves and I could have helped him with that.

The bike was flat and the roads were largely protected from traffic. While I topped 16 mph average for a race for the first time9at least on my odometer -- the final results have me at 15.4 -- i think because it was more than 10 miles, the speed came down), I later learned Jim's time was 5 seconds faster riding his hybrid than I’d done on my road bike.

The run was out and back along the boardwalk. There was nice breeze and no humidity, and two water stations. I ran easy and sprinted the last fifty yards. Looking at the times later, I can say the run was short of three miles, as it clocked me at a 9:13 minute a mile pace, and I know I was running closer to 10 minutes a mile.

They had a nice spread at the end. We also got tee-shirts and water bottles. Those who preregistered received a technical shirt. It was a great event, particularly for newer triathletes. I will probably go down and do it again next year. It also made me interested in signing up for one of the mile ocean swims they routinely hold down there as well, although a slightly calmer day would be preferred for that distance.

Here are the results:

RESULTS

Here are my times:

300 Yard Man versus Ocean 8:15
10 Mile Bike 38:52
3 Mile Run 27:38
Total Race Time: 1:18:06

Again, I don't trust the mileage. My odometer had the bike at almost 10 and a half. The run had to be less than 3 as I was not running that fast.





More photos at:

tri series # 3 Photos