07/15/2024:

hat races to do with new constraints...? I don't know. I have somewhat restricted myself to localish races and to try not too spend too much money. July was never a good month for finding local races. I was just about to do the Long Beach Biathlon (again). I've done this race 3 times I believe. I like it. It's cheap. It's local. And then I found this race. It's short but with a long drive to and from so it actually feels like a going away race without the actual going away. Stupid I know... And then they brought back the Governors Island swim but too late. I signed up for this. Was hoping others might join but alas, it's only me.

What is it exactly? You run 800 meters on soft beach sand, you then swim 400 meters in the ocean and then you run 800 meters on soft beach sand again. That's the short version... Now, I'll go through the long version for those who are still actually interested.

Pickup is at the Gazebo. A little past the gazebo (to the ocean) and to the right is the actual finish line. The start is about a 1/4 mile away to the left. Non-descript. A lifeguard chair really. You start running toward the finish line, right near the vehicle (lifeguard vehicle) lane. This is extremly soft sand and hard to run on. Go past the finish line toward the second lifeguard chair. There's a pirate ship there. Make a left handed U-turn and head back on the hard-ish sand that's in the water. Go past the Jetty and you can enter the water whenever you want. Swim out to the yellow buoy. Make a left turn and head straight (parallel to shore) to the second yellow buoy. When you get there, make a left turn and head back in to shore. Get out and repeat the sand run again but this time after the U-turn, head toward the finish line. That's it. Easy, right?

The race was supposed to be on Saturday. Hurricane Beryl was doing something somewhere and the remnants were heading to us. An email comes along on Thursday. Apparently the Atlantic was gonna be grumpy on Saturday. They expected thunderstorms, riptides and a really unsettled ocean. They moved it to Sunday. My plan was to race on Saturday and then bike and run on Sunday. That got messed up. Jamey was doing a race on Saturday so it would have worked out well. Oh well. Saturday, I ran by myself at Alley Pond. I thought maybe I would miss the rain. Nope. Near my turn around, it started. Not too many people out there. Sucks to be me. Oh well.

Sunday schedule: Pickup was from 6am-7am. DO NOT BE LATE. If you get there at 7:01, too bad. I had a 1.5 hour drive and I was worried about getting there. I was worried, that I would need to stop to nap. I woke up at 1am and left the house at 3:45. I got there at 5:35 which was my plan. Parking was easy. Indoor plumbing was clean. All good. Scoped out the area. Walked a little too. Talked to people.

Spoke to the RD. Good guy. My one complaint about this race is that they had the females going out at 7:15 and the males at 7:45. Why not a mass start? Whatever...

Soon enough the females started. A lot of the lifeguards (LBOR - Long Branch Ocean Rescue) were participating. The kiddies (LGs) all started hard while the rest of the females pursued. I was at the start and soon enough, I saw the leading females jumping in the water. I was a little surprised tho. The Ocean was allgdly calm but it seemed like they had a hard time getting in. Their swim was slow too. Getting out seemed challenging. Things didn't make sense to me. We watched them all get out of the water and start the second run. We waited for the last female to emerge. We were told that we would start in 10 minutes. All in all, both races started 5 minutes or so late but that's ok.

We started. It was rough. The sand was super soft. We were all barefooted. Lungs and quads are on fire. We are all sprinting and yet, it seemed like we were barely moving. People fighting the sand. I tried to make sure to run, where the Gator drove through as it was harder and more packed sand where the tire marks were. Made the U-turn. Sand near the water was great. Past the Jetty...

Going in should NOT have been this hard but it seemed like everyone had issues. Still, made it in. Jumped a few waves and ducked underneath some too. Made the first buoy. Got kicked hard. Dude was nice enought to say sorry. I told him it was ok. Really, I didn't feel it too much and it's kinda expected. Sighting was terrible. We were swimming into the sun. I put the goggles on forehead at one point to find the buoy. Because of the sun and waves, it was hard to find but I saw it and headed to it.

Surprisingly enough, getting out wasn't that easy either. Weird. Seemed like I wasn't the only one fighting.

The water temperature was supposed to be 65. Felt way colder... My right ear was hurting which was odd. My right arm got so so cold, that it actually HURT! Still, short swim so suck it up.

Other interesting thing was that there was a dude doing backstroke every so often. Who does that??? Yet, I could NOT catch him... What?!?

The second run sucked again. Still, I was happy that I passed some people on the first run and definitly passed some people on the swim and especially on the getting out of the ocean.

I caught backstroke guy on the run and confirmed that it was him. Seriously, back stroke and I could not catch him on the swim... Seriously?!?

The run, second time, still sucked but now the sand was really really beat up and it made thing harder. Still, we chase... When I came out of the water, a kid came out with me. Later, I found out he was 12 yeards old. He outran me... I chased. I knew I did not have him. I had others though...

Before we started, the RD mentioned some things. He was racing too. Spoiler alert: He came in 2nd overall. Anyway, he jokingly mentioned that if anyone is really fast then they should make sure to go through the soft sand as much as possible on way to the finish line on your seconid run. Everyone laughed. I laughed but I also listened.

I ran. Past the finish line. Almost to the pirate ship. Made the U-turn. Hardish sand. And now it's a question of who is smarter or at least, who listened. We are on the hardish sand because of the water lapping the sand. I was behind a dude who was behind the 12 year old. They turned to the finish line. I stayed a little more on the hard sand. I made ground. BE SMART! I then turned in. I caught the dude and past him. I finished.

The 12 year old beat me by 3 seconds. A little more real estate and maybe I would have had him. I beat the other dude by 5 seconds...

Very hard race. No water at the finish. Finally headed to the Gazebo. I rinsed off and changed clothes and got water and snacks. No idea how I did except that I finished. Other small complaint: Race results do not have splits. We could easily have run through the finish line to get some splits but whatever.

When I signed up for this race, there were only 3 people in my ten year age group so as long as I finish, I'm ok right? But race day showed there were 8 people there. Oh well. They started doing the age groups but thankfully, sometimes it's awesome being old, they started top-down. They got to the 50-59 and there I am! I got 3rd place. Cool! Got my seashell and started heading home. Drive home was bad. I was so tired and got hit with traffic due to an accident on the Belt Parkway. Still, made it home. Laid down near the dogs on the floor. Elizabeth gave me grapefuit and some dark chocolate which both should have "woken" me yet, I crashed for an hour and apparently, it was hard to wake me up.

This was a real fun race and short but it was NOT wasy at all...

Stats for age group: Second for age beat me by a minute and 7 seconds. Wow. I beat 4th place by only 9 seconds... Yay!