Surf and Turf Race Report

Alarm went off at 3:45, snooze, 3:54, ok I'm up...
Hit the road at 4:55, arrived in Surf City at 6:55 after one pit stop. Got a good escape parking spot and unloaded the car. Went to check in, got marked and my chip then headed to transition. By the time everything was setup it was 7:30 so I didn't have time to do a bike warmup since I really wanted to do a short run so I could stretch out my legs after being in the car for 2 hours. After the 1/2 mile run, got my wetsuit on and started the long walk to the swim start. I figured I might as well do my swim warmup on the way and got in and swam against the current for a while, it really wasn't bad at all so I rode some waves in and headed to the start. The weather was perfect, mid 60's, hardly any wind and the ocean was flatter than anything I can remember.

The Swim: As mentioned above the ocean was mostly flat with a few waves rolling in every now and then. The first wave went out and although the announcer kept telling people to look how they were being pushed by the current, I knew better so I lined up close to the bouy so I could get a straight line to it. When the horn sounded, headed straight for the bouy and had no issues with current, made the left turn at and headed north. At the first bouy, my goggles fogged up and I no longer could see the next bouy, I tried to site off the people around me, but I couldn't shake the feeling I was going the wrong way so I let some ocean water into my goggles to clear the fog and I was right, I was off course, luckily, not much, now I had salt water in my goggles, but at least I was swimming straight again. Finally hit the last bouy and headed into shore, hit the beach and went over the mat around 13:40.

T1: transition area was a little crowded and I had to jump over a few boneheads who wanted to sit in the MIDDLE of the row taking off their wetsuit. No problems in transition, got my wetsuit off and helmet and glasses and started out for the bike, once again having to dodge people in the way.

Bike 1: The bike was about 3.7 miles and as soon as my legs started responding, it was time to get off and run. If you ever do this race I highly recommend the bike warmup as I never got into a groove on the bike since both were so short.

T2: Not much going on here, off the bike, rack the bike, helmet off, go run...

Run1: This was an out and back run, about .5 miles on pavement to the beach, then .5 or more miles out on the beach, then turn around and run back on the beach to the entry point. When we got to the beach I was starting to get my running legs, but then the sand arrived. the tide was in, so running in the soft sand was not fun, and after the turn around, my lower back started hurting and running back my right ankle was buggin me because of the slope of the beach. Finally after the beach ended my legs and back started feeling good again, but then the run was over. About .25 before the end of run one, the first guy in my category, Master Clydesdales, MC, passed me. I stayed with him until transition.

T3: Once again, not much going on, helmet on, get bike, head out. Passed the MC going out of transition woo hoo.

Bike 2: About 1 mile into the bike the MC guy blew by me, I was going to chase him, but since he flew by me, I decided to keep my pace and not chase. 1 mile more and I was catching him again. He later told me it was a mind game, but I guess that back fired on him. At the turn around for the bike I had caught him so after the U turn, I hit the accelerator and left him in the dust, but that's when I saw the other MC right on my tail, so the 2 miles back really hurt, but I wanted to pad some time for the run.

T4: After the bike dismount, the MC I saw at the turn around was right behind me, so no time to dawdle, but he ended up passing me as we left transition.

Run 2: This was only 1 mile, so it took me about 1/2 mile to get my legs back after the push on the bike, but at least this one was all pavement. I never saw the first MC again and the second MC passed me right at the turn around and finished probably 30 seconds ahead of me.

Finished in 1:05:2? I'll post the final results with whatever splits they post when the come out. Don't know how I did yet as I had to leave early to get back for my crazy girl's ballet recital, which was definitly worth the rush :-)