Red Bank Triathlon - Olympic Course - Aquabike

Positioned just off front center to start - I like contact. Surprised with the time - I've been swimming well, but didn't expect to be below 22. A little mosh pit action at the beginning, but then we all began to string out. I tried following feet and drafting, but felt like I was doing a little too much zig zag - once we rounded buoy at the turn back I switched to sighting for myself. Did a good job keeping breathing calm and focusing on form and streamlining. With so many peeps around me and catching me at the finish of the swim, I had expected to have a worse time.

Warm-up, otherwise nothing.

Blah - horrible T1. Wetsuit unzippers on the dock was a pleasant surprise!! Missed my bike coming in - luckily my wife had kept an eye on me and called me ack to it. I neglected to figure out where it was from the swim-in. Doh. Suit got horribly stuck on my legs - really need to figure out a better way to get it off and practice. Decided to go with socks and gloves due to temperature and wetness - socks went on ok, but I neglected to make sure my glove finger holes were all out and ready - took a long time getting that figured out. Put shoes on at my spot and ran in them - think I realized I'm better off doing that as I run about as fast in cleats as I do without them after the swim. Also worked well here - was strapped and clipped in as soon as I mounted - and ready for the short climb that starts immediately after the mount line.

1) locate bike from swim-in pre-swim.
2) make sure all accessories are ready for wear
3) practice the damn wetsuit removal!!

Was expecting better based on my bike times last year - guess the extra 20 pounds makes a difference! Not terrible, but never felt like the jets went on and never got into a great rhythm. Also got love tapped by a car somewhere around mile 8 - driver decided to squeeze between me and oncoming car and got a little too close. Fortunately he was going slow and no damage done to me or my bike - stayed up right and didn't miss a beat....except for the short time spent raising my fist and yelling at his rear view mirror... Dropped my chain up a hill around mile 12 - decided to be "smart" and go little ring, and the cycling gods smacked my chain off for not being man enough. Stayed in the big ring the rest of the time ;-) Got a little more fired up on the way back and fired off some good miles from 13-19. Caught up with the sprinters at that part and its always motivating blowing past slower peeps. Hit two gels - one at 25 and one at 52 min, but didn't get an appreciable boost from them.

Not be a total slug in the off-season and gain a ton of weight. Might need a little more intensity in my training. Stay in the big ring if its not a categorized climb.

Needed to warm-up! My teeth were chattering!


Fitness level, poor transition planning.


Considered going for 2 stars, but will give 3.

Pro's:
Great location - beautiful course, nice venue for the fam to do some non-race related things and lots of great restaurants in town - even some very good vegan places!
Volunteers and police on bike course - very well staffed!
Registration/pick-up - easy and no stress

Cons:
Communication - no athlete guide, although website did have all the info.d Was supposedly going to be an "aquavelo finish coordinator" but I found no such person and took my chip to timing tent after asking a volunteer where I should go.
Race start - no microphone/bullhorn - race director counted us down from shore, but could barely hear him. I almost didn't realize we were about to start
Finish - I happened to be there as first triathlete was finishing. No one else really was. Someone did eventually get him a medal, and gave me one, too.
Post race - website said awards would be at 12. I went back to hotel since I was freezing and came back at 10:30. Pretty much everyone was gone. Results for Oly tri were done, but sprint, Aquavelo and relays weren't done. We were told results would be posted that night - they weren't until the next morning. Timing system seemed old school compared to other races I've done the last few years.

Really nothing majorly bad about the above, but when you're paying for an experience and there are a lot of other good options (even this weekend - Black Bear, Columbia, Got the Nerve) you expect the race experience to be on par with what you could have had elsewhere. Weather may have had a reason to do with this - kinda cold and rainy, so no post-race show, but the timing and results was much slower and seemed quite disorganized compared to other races I've done. Still, good shot I'll go back - nice venue, nice course and now I have a title to defend ;-)