Being that it was my second race in six days, I wasn't exactly sure how this race would go down. I did well last year in it, so I wanted a repeat performance, but knew that my legs were a lot more tired this year than last year. Between training for the Nation's Tri and marathon training, I have put a lot of miles on these bad boys and coming off a hard race on Sunday I wasn't sure how well I would recover. However, I played college lacrosse
Let's get down to the recap.
Pre-Race/Race Day
Considering this was a Saturday race, that meant no happy hour for me on Friday night even though we hosted. I had my usual one beer the night before and hit my bed some time around 10ish. Because it's so close, our wake up time was 5:30, which is the same time I have to wake up for work anyway so this wasn't anything crazy. Except for the fact that it was Saturday and no one should have to wake up at 5:30 on a Saturday morning. Ideally, you should just be going to bed, but who am I kidding? I am old and probably couldn't stay up till 5:30am even if I tried my hardest.
It was one of those mornings where there was nothing in the house that I wanted to eat, which didn't bode well considering I had a race to compete in. Usually I have a bagel with peanut butter and that sets me up for the morning, but I just wasn't feeling it. I choke it down anyway but wasn't all too impressed with my caloric intake for the morning. I grabbed an extra GU for the bike leg and hoped I wouldn't bonk.
We pulled into Oyster Bay Town Hall and parked and I made it into the transition area around 6:30 with plenty of time to set everything up. I was able to snag a decent spot on the transition bike rack close to the front and laid out all of my gear. It seems really stupid, but this is a pretty important part of the race. Depending on the field, you can gain or lose an edge if your transition goes smoothly, so being able to have everything exactly how you want it is ideal.
I picked up my timing chip, hit the porta-potties (always crucial!) and went out to find SJ to wait for my wave to go off.
The Swim
The swim course has changed at least twice since I've started doing this triathlon, and this year was probably the worst. Oyster Bay is in-and-of-itself a horrible place to swim. It is basically a working harbor/marina and thus smells eerily of diesel fumes and has a lovely oil sheen on the top of the water. Our start point is at the edge of a boat ramp and every year I seem to gash open my foot on either a barnacle or a broken beer bottle or some kind of ick in the water. You would think that since none of the athletes are wearing shoes they would be able to find some kind of nicer starting point, but doesn't seem that way.
The finish this year was literally ten yards to the right of the starting point, but rather than being an easy out-and-back, the course was set up like some kind of maze. I think I had to make at least four right turns and at one point I swear I was swimming in exactly the same place I had just come from. If I had the ability to draw a map on here for your benefit I would, but just think of a rectangle drawn by a two year old, with four sides that juuuuuuuust don't quite work out, and that is the shape of this
swim course.
My wave went off at 7:42 and the water was pretty choppy. We rounded the first buoy and immediately the water got rough and the current was kicking against us. It was a slog to the second turn (or possibly third turn, I can't remember exactly how many yellow turn buoys there were as this course wasn't exactly a known "shape") and as we headed home I thought, Yes, now I can use the current. However, since nothing is ever easy, it still felt like we were fighting against it and this time we had the added benefit of heading straight into the rising sun so every time you tried to sight the exit ramp, you were blinded by the light.
Also, since there were no large banners or buoys signaling said exit ramp, it was tough to make out where exactly the ending ramp was. I basically just headed back towards the dock I came from and hoped I had it right. At this point, I had already caught up to the slower swimmers in the back of the waves ahead of me, so now I had to fight the current, the sun and the floaters. Awesome.
The Bike
After a better T1 than I had in West Point, I was off on the bike. It's still not as fast as I would like it to be, but there are a few tweaks I can make between now and the Nation's Tri that will hopefully correct that.
The bike course winds its' way through the back of the park and then goes out onto Cove Road for a big chunk of the race. It's rolling hills in the beginning before straightening out into a false flat until a slight left onto Moore's Hill. It's only .28 of a mile, but it's a tough climb. I don't know what the highest incline is, but I would imagine it's somewhere in the teens towards the top. There were quite a few people walking their bikes up by the time I got there and quite a few others doing the "weaving climb".
After two sharp rights the course takes you back out onto 25A, and seeing as how this is not a fully closed road course, that can be quite tricky. By switching the race from Sunday to Saturday, there was a significant difference in the number of cars on the road, which doesn't make it fun for bikers. It's bad enough having to train with Long Island drivers, it's quite the other to be racing with them as well.
The back end of the ride is all downhill and the course has reverted back to the "old" course through town and back to the park. Entering the park you have to go over the railroad tracks, so the race directors (wisely) but the bike dismount directly before them. I was able to get out of my shoes and off the bike without breaking stride and headed into T2.
The Run
After another quick T2, slowed down only by the fact that some people just don't know how to get out of the way, I was out the run chute and onto the course. One great part of this race is that everything is concentrated into one area: transition, swim to bike, bike to run and finishing lines are all really close together. As I was heading out for the run leg, the first guys were just crossing the finish line - in roughly 51:00. That is craziness.
The front part of the run is all uphill. I mean all of it. You basically climb for the first 1.75 miles and then head back down. The only good part about this is that you know you have an easy second half, but that doesn't quite make up for the extremely shitty first half. Before you can even get your running legs under you, you hit a small but steep climb and then it's pretty unrelenting from there.
I had no idea where I stood at this point and who was in front of me. Based on last year's time, I was running behind, but this could have been for any number of reasons: choppy swim, different bike course, longer run from swim to bike transition, etc. I got up the first set of hills and headed up towards Coe Hall and the turnaround. But wait, what's this? Why isn't the turn around cone where it's been the past three times I've done this race? Why has it been moved further back? I don't understand. This run course has literally been unchanged for twenty-some odd years. How'd they mess that sucker up?
Seeing as how I don't really rely on Alastair to give me accurate mileage right now (we are fighting over land, just like we were living back in the Middle Ages and everyone had to fight for their land rights) I was really just looking at my total run time. Figuring that the first part of the race was all uphill, I knew my pace would be higher than normal, but coming down the last part of the course, I really didn't think that I would be almost 1:00 slower than last year's time on the run course alone.
However, at this point I was having trouble seeing straight and just willing both of my legs to continue moving me in a forward motion at a relatively fast clip. It was all going on muscle memory at this point, friends, and these muscles were losing memory at a rate even doctors at an adult home would be awed at.
I finally crossed the finish line at 1:11:25. I wasn't happy with my run, but later found out from other runners that have much more reliable Garmins that the 5k was not, in fact, a 5k but rather a 3.4 miler. So that's where that extra minute came from. Or at least that's the story I'm sticking to.
Post-Race Party
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| This is really all you need to know about the post-race party. |
By far the best post-race party of any triathlon that I have participated in thus far in my
By the time the awards ceremony happened, I'm surprised I had the full use of both my legs and brain. We hung out for a good three hours after the race was finished - as long as Blue Point stuck around I wasn't going anywhere.
Wrap-Up
This race is always a good time and I don't know why I always say that I am going to skip it. I always end up here, and it's not just because of the awesome post-race party (although that helps, don't get me wrong). I know that I have done it three of the past four years (one year was canceled because of Hurricane Irene, so it wasn't even my fault), but it's a local race and it's sponsored by a lot of the places where I get my racing gear, so I like to throw my support behind them. Last year SJ even did it, and had an awesome time while kicking some butt. I think she placed top three in her division - she has a habit of bringing home the hardware at races.
I highly recommend this race for anyone of any racing level. There are relay teams that compete and tons of first time racers at the event, which makes for a great atmosphere. There are guys that finish in under an hour and some that take more than two - but everyone has an awesome time, which is the whole point in the grand scheme of things. While it didn't have the sentimental value of a race like West Point, it's got that whole "fun" thing down, and who doesn't like to have more of that in their life?
Here is the final breakdown:
Swim: 16:36
T1: 1:30ish
Bike: 29:28
T2: :40ish
Run: 23:04
*Total Time: 1:11:25
I placed fifth overall and in the end, the top 3-6 finished within :19 of each other, making it probably one of the closest TOBAY races in a long time. Last year I finished 9th overall, so I'm moving up in the world, friends.
*I don't have the official results so I don't know my official transition times, but when I get them I will add them in.
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| Good thing I didn't bring my beer up with me! |
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