Long Beach Triathlon

Okay, so it's been a while since my last post. I've been busy working...pretty much everyday during the school year as a substitute, then for 6 weeks during summer school. It took some time to really get back in the swing of training. My first race after Oceanside was Redondo Beach, a nice small, short local race that I did with a few of my friends. This was the second time doing this race. I like it because it has a long swim (for a sprint) of 0.5 miles, and a short run (2 miles). I ended up also working a swim meet that day, so didn't get to enjoy the post-race festivities with my friends.

So back to Long Beach, I signed up to do the Southern California Sprint Triathlon series put on my Pacific Sports. The series included LB, LA, & Newport Beach Triathlons. Three local races for $350, quite a deal, I thought. I had a few friends that had signed up for the race, so I decided to join them. For two of my friends (Jeff 1 & Jeff 2) it was their first ever triathlon.

Pre-race--
The usual breakfast, and I am off to the race site, parking near the LB convention center. Convention center does not come up on my GPS and I have no address, so I just go my usual route to the area That is, until I run into the closure of 2nd St. the best way I know how to get where I'm going, end up figuring out how to get around and back to where I want to go. Go park, get to transition, wait in long line to get into transition. I didn't arrive as early as I wanted to, so didn't get my usual end spot. Parked my bike and went to look to see if I could find any of my friends. Found the friends, kind of spread out in different waves, though Jeff 1 & Jeff 3 were in the same wave (racing Clydes). We all got set up and headed out to the water.

The swim-- 0.5 miles, with about 200 m sand run to transition area
The water was perfectly smooth. Had to watch for stingrays though, a guy next to me brushed one, and Jeff 3 got tagged during warm up (he still raced and finished with a faster time than his wife). Swim was wonderful, felt really fast, was breathing every 2 with the occasional 3rd stroke breath. Passed quite a few women from the wave or 2 in front of me, but a lot of them passed me back on the run up the beach. My calves were mooing at me for days, as they usually do after a sand run.

T1- uneventful, got the wetsuit off, shoes on and headed for the mount line.

The bike-- 14 miles, 2 loop T-shaped course, going over the Queensway bridge twice (each direction)

Me on the bike (thanks Lori)

I remembered pre-race (courtesy of Jeff 1) to change to the appropriate gear to go up the hill out of transition. So that hill was easy, as was much of the course. Felt amazing to be riding on a portion of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach Course. The roads were mostly completely closed to traffic, the only exception was one way on the bridge, there was a lane of traffic, an empty lane, then our lanes to race. I was able to stay in my aero bars for much of the ride.

T2- sprayed water on my feet, tried to wipe off the sand before putting my socks and shoes on. Yes, I run with socks on, but don't ride with them, hoping the sand will get knocked off my feet during the ride and I'm ready for the run, but this didn't quite work as planned. Got passed by Jeff 1 (he was in the wave after me) on my way out, but passed him back up as we started the run.

The run- 3 mile, 2 loop out and back on the beach path.

Me on the run (thanks again Lori)

This was a very crowded run, especially the first lap, it was on a bike/pedestrian path, so not very wide for the number of runners on it at the time.  Did my usual run-walk and ended up averaging my fastest ever per mile for a 5K/3mi course. Crowd support was great, though Lori & Andy (our race supporters/photographers) seemed to miss me when I "ran" by them, only able to catch my backside in pictures. I crossed the finish line just ahead of Jeff 1.

Ahh, finally finished

Overall-- Hit the finish line, there were fruit and other snacks, though the Jeffs were disappointed by the lack of beer at the finish line. A great time was had by all.

Jeffs 1 & 2 wondering where's the beer?

Tri-Zone crew at the finish (missing Dr. Sean)
Jeff2, Me, Jeff1, Jeff3, Jeff3s wife Dawn

 Now on to the freak out about LA Triathlon, my first complete point-to-point race, where the transitions are more than a mile apart. EEEK!!