Race Report - 2017 Long Beach Triathlon

2nd Place!

On Sunday, September 17, 2017 I competed in the Long Beach Triathlon. There were 3 distances this year, and I chose to compete in the standard sprint race.

DISCLAIMER - I last did this race in 2015, in which they had major problems on the run (read my report for details) which made me think twice about doing events by this promoter (Pacific Sports, LLC). However, timing was perfect, so I decided last minute to sign up. Literally, the day after I registered, the news breaks that the same promoter lost their permit for the swim portion of the Newport Beach Triathlon, and therefore tried to turn the race into a "T1 Transition/Bike/Run" triathlon. No joke. And as of a couple of days ago, they apparently lost ALL permits because of falsely labeling the event as a triathlon. So, despite the fact that I did this race again, I feel bad for supporting Pacific Sports, LLC and do not recommend people do their races. I think this was my last event with them, even though this year's Long Beach Triathlon was run extremely well and I really enjoyed it.

Quick Race Summary:

For those uninterested in the details, here is a quick summary by the numbers...

Swim (800 yards in 11:14)
T1 (4:00 - this includes the run up the beach into transition)
Bike (11.5 miles in 31:43)
T2 (1:56)
Run (3.1 miles in 23:14)

Total Time: 1:13:11 (12th place overall, 2nd place AG)

Pre-Race:

I love races where you sleep in your own bed the night before. I was up at 4:15am, and my pre-race 'meal' consisted of a dose of lyposhperic vitamin C, a super dose of liquid vitamin B12, followed by an apple pie flavored BonkBreaker Bar, and a cup of coffee. I also sipped on a 24oz water bottle full of Infinit Jet Fuel right up until I departed for the swim start. We were packed up and in the car at 4:50am, and I was racking my bike at 5:40am. I found a spot on the far inside of a rack that had curb/median access, which allows a ton of space for my gear with zero chance of anybody accidentally (or intentionally) messing with it. Once I had everything laid out, I grabbed my swim gear and left transition. I had to pee, but I opted to skip the porta-potty lines and instead walked toward the swim start, which has public bathrooms nearby. To my dismay, they were locked this year! I had no time to run back to the porta-pottys. Also, I refuse to be one of those people who pees in their wetsuit, or (even worse) pees all over themselves on the bike or run. I figured I would have to hold it and possibly use a porta-potty in T1 or something. To make matters worse, as soon as I stepped foot into the water, the race director told everyone to exit the water in prep for the start. So, I had no warm up whatsoever. So far, things were not going my way. But, things can change!

SWIM:

This race uses the 'swim stream' technique to space everyone out as we enter the water. Last time I did it, I had no problems getting into the first wave. But this year, people were really crowding the front, and the organizers had to take steps to spread us all out. As such, I wound up in the 5th wave and was concerned that I would be stuck in a lot of slow swim traffic. As we ran toward the surf (very small waves, can hardly call it surf) I had my goggles in my right hand, pre-wiped with my own spit, so I could dunk them in the water real quick before putting them on (this helps me prevent fogging), then I dove in and took off. The water felt colder than I was anticipating, but I didn't let that bother me. I made the first right turn at the buoy, and promptly took a huge gulp of sea water and started gagging/dry heaving, so badly, that I had to stop swimming for about 15 seconds to regain my composure. After that, I had a bad feeling that my swim was going to suck, but I decided to just keep rolling and do my best anyway. My stroke felt very smooth, and I noticed I was passing all sorts of people, and nobody was passing me. It was only a few minutes until I was making the next right turn to head toward shore. Finally, my hand scooped sand, and I stood up to exit onto the beach. I was stunned to look down and see my Garmin reading 11:09! I wiped it off to make sure I was not misreading it (I seriously thought maybe 13 minutes would be a good result) and I hit the lap button at 11:14 to start measuring my T2 (there is a 1/4 mile run, slightly uphill, in the sand before you get back to transition, and they count that toward your swim time, which I think is lame. I tack that run time onto my T1 time instead). At any rate, even with the run added in, which gave me a 13:32, I ended up with the fastest swim split in my age group! I've never done that before.

T1:

My transition to the bike was very smooth. The only slow part was wrestling my wetsuit over my calves, as usual. I was on the far side of transition from the bike exit, so had a bit of a jog. I chose to do a flying mount, and I pulled it off nicely. All in all, not a bad T1. In fact, i had completely forgotten about needing to pee! I went the entire race without having to go. One funny note: some guy in the rack across from me didn't realize you had to exit T1 and mount your bike there. He immediately hopped onto his bike and rode it to the T1 exit. It was awesome.

Bike:

Me with the Long Beach Aquarium in the background. Although there are some bad pavement stretches, the bike course is actually really fun.

My cycling has been going very well lately, and I have been getting some great sessions in going all the way back to early June, so I knew I had the potential to tear it up here. However, I changed my tactics and decided to be very conservative. My goal was to get off the bike in T2 prepared to run on a very fresh pair of legs. I executed this perfectly. Even so, I still managed to beat my best time on this course by a few seconds, but I kept my power and HR much lower than in previous years. I was passed by two people on the bike, and they were the elites who ended up in 1st and 2nd place. The 2nd place guy even chatted with me as he passed, saying I was doing some 'nice hammering' and that it took him awhile to find a chance to pass. That was nice to hear. I maintained my fast/but relaxed effort all the way to T2, and did a perfect flying dismount. And, like my swim, I ended up with the fastest bike split in my age group!

T2:

There was nothing remarkable about my T2. It seemed to go very smoothly. The only issue was that the person next to me in the rack was there at the same time (I was surprised to see that she had just finished the swim, as I was about to start the run!). I quickly got my bib number and my running shoes on, and headed out. The weather was still overcast, so I didn't wear a visor or sunglasses.

RUN:

In the home stretch! I had perhaps my best triathlon run in this race.

The first couple of minutes usually feels very awkward after biking, but today I felt very normal. My HR was where I was hoping, and my back and hamstrings felt loose. I eased into my pace, and started picking a few people off. The course is a double out-and-back on the strand. Anytime I passed someone (or during the rare occasion where I was passed) I was looking for people in my age group, but didn't see a single one. I was happy to see volunteers and an aid station exactly where the turnaround is supposed to be, but I did notice they had no timing mat there. It wouldn't be difficult for someone to decide they wanted to cut the course a bit short on the second lap. I continued to gradually increase my pace. Each time I hit a mile marker, I was happy to see that I was running progressively faster each mile. In fact, my 3rd mile was about 38 seconds faster than the first. Also, I noticed that I was passing quite a few people, but with multiple laps, it was hard to tell if they were already behind you or not. I finally reached the end of the second lap, and made the hard left turn onto the finish chute (pictured above). As it turns out, I had the 2nd fastest run split in my age group. Now this is something that never happens. I was extremely happy with this effort. Easily the best triathlon run performance that I have done. I know its just a 5k, but still, I was very pleased.

Details:

Some notes about my nutrition, gear, etc.

Nutrition/Fuel:

This was just a sprint, so I actually didn't carry any nutrition or fuel with me. I had a few ounces of water in my Torhans BTA system in case I wanted a drink to deal with dry mouth or anything on the bike, but I never used it. I also had a bottle in transition that I took one swig from to wash the sea water taste out after the swim.

Gear:

-Swim: I wore my Roka Maverick Elite wetsuit (long sleeved), and used my Roka X1 goggles (mirrored amber lenses). The water felt cold at first, but was actually OK (never did get the water temps). The sun was to our backs, so any goggle that wasn't too dark would have worked fine. For a sprint, perhaps I should use my sleeveless Roka Maverick Pro since it does come off a bit faster in T1.

-Bike: I rode my CENTRIC Prolog, with carbon clincher wheels. I do have brand new 23mm Conti 4000SII tires with Vittoria latex tubes in them, pumped to 90psi. I have no idea whether or not the latex saves me any watts, but I clearly notice the edge they take away from the bumps and rough pavement. I definitely like them. Gearing was my normal 53/39 oval chain rings with an 11 speed 11x25 cassette. I have also been wearing a new aero helmet (Giro Aerohead) which I absolutely love.

-Run: I ran in my Hoka One One Claytons, with no socks. As usual, the shoes were great. No blisters or anything, being sockless and all. My kit was a Champion Systems top and bottom (sleeveless). Its not the PTC kit, this one is for the Army Ranger team that I am also a part of. No issues with the kit, though I noticed on the bike that the top flaps in the wind a bit, definitely not super aerodynamic.

Conclusion:

I was very happy with this race performance. Things started off shaky in the swim, but I kept a positive attitude and stuck to my plan, winding up with a big PR (4 minutes faster than in 2015) and a 2nd place AG finish. I am going to go into my next race (The Legends Tri in San Dimas) planning to execute a similar strategy at the olympic distance. My biggest takeaway from this race is that I should leverage my bike fitness by relaxing and ensuring I am ready to have a great run. It is quite possible that I have been over-biking in my other races. I noticed a huge difference here by NOT pushing the big watts and speeds that I am capable of. And even when relaxing, my bike split is still up there.