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 Swim
Comments: The swim was literally hand-to-hand combat! I was punched and kicked in the head repeatedly. I am sure I returned the favor and I ended up swimming over a couple of folks! I thought to myself if I need to open up a can of whoop-ass so be it! I simply tried to maintain composure and breathing while I proceeded to battle through the "sea" of humanity! I think this was due to the size of our wave and the straight perpendicular to the beach out and back swim route. As I got further into the swim the contact eased up but then I began to run into swimmers from earlier waves. I remember running into a group of woman wearing the powder blue swim caps. They appeared to be simply floating in a group near the buoy line chatting calmly. I thought to myself this is a hell of a place for a group hug, this aint the Dr. Phil show it's a freakin race! I proceeded to "harsh their mellow" by bisecting the group vs swimming around them (yes, chivalry is dead!). I continued swimming until my hands touched the sand. The swim is usually my worst segment, so I am happy with the 9 out of 21 age group rank for this segment. What would you do differently?: I would probably start a little closer to the water and swim like hell to get away from the mayhem!  Transition 1
Comments: I suppose my T1 was actually pretty darn good as I was 3 out of 21 in my age group! I found my bike right away, peeled off my wetsuit, put on my sunglasses & helmet and began to run with my bike. It was what happened right after T1 where I choked (see beginning of bike segment)... What would you do differently?: Nothing.  Bike
Comments: After a ran past the mount line I jumped on my bike and tried to start pedaling with my feet on top of my clipped in bike shoes. I must have broke the rubber band on my right pedal prematurely and my shoe was spinning around. I simply could not get my right foot on top of my right shoe to start pedaling! My forward progress slowed to a crawl and I started veering back and forth. Then my stinking shoe fell off the pedal! I had to slowly circle back around on my bike. I hopped off almost dropping my bike. An official or a spectator noticed my dilemma and tried to help by running to grab my shoe off of the road. I really didn't want any help because I didn't want to be disqualified for receiving assistance but I thanked them anyway and grabbed the shoe. With one hand holding my bike I put my right shoe on my foot and then straddled the bike and with my right foot on the ground slipped my left foot into the clipped in pedal. All in all it was a fiasco! Eventually I started moving forward but boy, I must have been a sight to see! Between the long race and the short race their were close to 700 hundred competitors. The course was fairly congested and there were a heck of a lot of bikers hugging the left side of the course. I had to yell "on the left" over and over again as I passed folks. I wasn't the only one who had to do this. I cycled hard and stood up in my cranks a couple of times (as planned) to gain some speed. At one point I was riding on the right and saw a parked car door swing open as the driver exited the vehicle. I swerved to the left praying I wasn't going to run into another biker to narrowly avoid the car door. At another point a car pulled out of their driveway and began to slowly drive in the middle of the race as we surrounded and passed their car! I had to pass them on the right and could see that they were an elderly couple. I said prayer number two to avoid getting crushed should they decide to make a right hand turn. I was happy with the 9 out of 21 age group finish in the bike segment. I estimate that I may have been able to finish one or two spots faster if I didn't have the shoe problems. What would you do differently?: Not screw up the bike mount! Fix my aerobars and start using them. Transition 2
Comments: I had planned to slip my feet out of my bike shoes and pedal with my feet on top of them prior to T2. I chickened out because of my earlier shoe problem and simply unclipped my shoes from the pedals. This proved to be a mistake because it was a LONG run from the "bike in" on the south end of the transition area to my bike rack position. Running a couple of hundred yards in bike shoes was tough. To complicate matters, I located the general area where my transition bag & towel was supposed to be by using the stores behind as a landmark. I was thrown off by the fact that the racks were still pretty much empty! I had trouble finding my transition bag and had to walk back and forth for what seemed to be forever before I found my rack spot. Finally I slipped on my sneakers, grabbed my hat and race belt. I was 14 out of 21 for my T2 age group rank. What would you do differently?: Stick with the plan and not run in my bike shoes. Do a better job of remembering my bike rack position.  Run
Comments: I actually felt OK for most of the run. This was a GREAT improvement over my two prior tri's. I had no calf problems and my legs didn't feel like cinder blocks. There were several public bathrooms on the boardwalk and I decided to use one at about the two mile mark. I probably could have held off until after the race but as they say in the movie "The Bucket List": never pass up a bathroom and never trust a fart (there was a another quote that I can't mention in mixed company!). I was able to sprint to the finish the last several yards. There is still a lot of room for improvement on my running. What would you do differently?: Not drink so much before the race. Post race
Warm down: I just walked a little. We decided not to hang around for the awards ceremony so I could get back home and shower & get to church. What limited your ability to perform faster: Bike shoe problem and using the bathroom during the race. I figure without those two snafus I may have been able to place as high as 5th in my age group. Event comments: I enjoyed the race venue. The town of Long Branch is really working to improve the ocean front area. It was especially fun having the Today Show filming the race and Natalie & Hoda competing in the event. Natalie beat me by a little under 5 minutes (she is 10 years younger and a 3:30 marathoner!). At least I beat Hoda! Last updated: 2009-09-03 12:00 AM
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United States
Sandy Hookers
74F / 23C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 137/374
Age Group = 45-49
Age Group Rank = 7/21
Went to bed at 11 pm, woke up at 4:45 am, finally got some decent rest before a race! Ate an english muffin with peanut butter, one cup of coffee, sipped on a sports drink all of the way to the race. When we got to Long Branch it was still pretty much pitch black and a chilly 44 degrees. Had to harrass my youngest son Ben to wake up. He had worked late and only had an hour or two of sleep. Kept bellyaching about how tired he was and how cold he was and how hungry he was. What a wuss (but I really did appreciate his help)! Ben grabbed my bike out of the back of the minivan while I grabbed my bag and my wife continued to drive to parking.
I realized that Ben must have accidentally ripped my bike number off of my seat post so I sprinted after the van and gave my wife a scare pounding on the window to stop! I retrieved my torn bike number and walked back to Ben. We waited in a long line to get my bike & gear into transition and it was here where I received my chip and my body marking. The transition area was huge and was organized according to age group. Us old guys (and the relays) were at the very far end (north) area with the green swim caps marking the racks. I borrowed a competitors allen wrench and poked some new holes in my bike number to re-attach. I set up my transition area and clipped my bike shoes to the pedals and rubber banded them to my bike just like the last time. No clip-on aerobars this time due to a problem keeping one of them tight.
I ate one gel gu and washed it down with some water. I visited the port-o-john and put on my wetsuit up to my waist. I followed the crowd to the beach and began to stretch. There were TV cameras and microphones on the beach as Natalie Morales & Hoda Kotby from the Today Show were interviewed prior their first triathlon. The sun was coming up but it was still probably close to 50 degrees on the beach and I noticed many of the women shivering.
I zipped up my wetsuit and was only one of a few to go into the water. In retrospect this was a really smart thing to do because the water was much warmer (low 70's) than the air. I swam a little to get my heart rate up. I also used a tip from Saturday's packet pick up & pre-race clinic and I pulled my wetsuit away from my neck and arms to let water get between my skin and the suit. This really seemed to loosen up my wetsuit and allowed me to breathe more easily (a problem I experience the first time I used the wetsuit).
The long race (800/18/6.2) started several hundred yards south and I stayed in the water floating and occasionally swimming. The long race exited right where we were all waiting on the beach. I noticed that several swimmers stood up in waist high deep water and struggled to get on the beach. The ones that continued to swim all of the way to the beach had a much easier time of it.
The race director waited a couple of minutes after all of the long racers exited the water to start us. I was in the last of 8 waves, each wave went 2 to 3 minutes apart. I think there were about 60 men in my wave.