Well, after a month and a half since my first race it was time for my next. I learned a lot from the first and worked on my weak part (swimming). My goal for this race was to beat 2 hours, and I beat that handily. Swimming still needs work as does my running, but at least they were better than last time.

Story starts on Saturday when I'm heading out to Long Island from Jersey. I figured there'd be traffic so I guessed at maybe 2 hours to get to my buddy's house in Babylon. 3 hours of traffic for no apparent reason later, I call him up and let him know it'll only be a little bit longer. Lunch turns to dinner and we decide to hit a movie. Coming out of the theater, it was an absolute downpour with lightning right overhead. Just what I need for the race, maybe I should keep the wetsuit on for the bike and run too...

4:30 AM the next morning the storm's gone, but all the humidity is still there. I stop for gas on the way there and while I'm trying to figure out the directions I hear this splashing sound. Since it was like a hurricane the night before, that's not out of the ordinary; the gas station attendant going "Ahhh!! No!!" is. The automatic shutoff decided to sleep in and there was gas shooting out the filler. Not a great start to my day, but no harm done. At least I'll get record distance out of this tank.

Wind my way through Long Island to Port Washington's North Hempstead Beach, which has signs on the entrance saying "CLOSED FOR RENOVATIONS, DO NOT ENTER." It's always something. The sun is up by this point ~6:am, but it's hiding behind a thick layer of clouds and there's a pretty good fog over the area. At least I won't have to worry about sun burns today.

Check in, rack the bike, and I realize there's space for about 1,000 people in those racks. My last race had 350 people tops. Oh boy... (783 start) Walked around a bit, talked to some people, checked out the water. The storm blew away one of the buoys, but although it was the same distance as my last race (.5 miles) it looked a lot shorter. Not bad. Into the wetsuit and hop in the water to get used to it. It was supposed to be low 60's, but it felt a lot warmer. Wetsuit + salt water = easy swimming :-)

Well, on to the race itself:
RD states the current pulls to the right so adjust accordingly and off my wave goes. I pass a few people at the start and I'm feeling good about this. Last time I nearly drowned 5 seconds in, so already things are looking up. Which is something I should have done more. I have a natural tendency to swim to the right... and the current was pulling right... so by the time I look up, I'm halfway to the first buoy, but about 200 yards off course. I end up back stroking my way back into the fray, around the buoy and doing the freestyle to the next. Lots of other people to judge off of helped keep me going straight. Around the next buoy and I'm heading to shore. But the guy I'm sighting off of to my right seems to have the same tendencies that I do, so we're about 100 yards off course. Backstroke back on course and freestyle it in to the beach. Quick walk/shuffle/jog to T1.

Swim - .5(?) miles @ 19:19 PR!

T1 is nice and easy, I'm not looking to win. Person next to me never showed so I got a nice wetsuit hanging spot :-) Quick foot dry, socks and shoes on, helmet on, shot GU (blech), shot of gatorade to kill the GU taste and I'm off.

T1 - 3:44

The bike was pretty darn flat, 2 loops, but had a couple really sharp turn arounds on each loop. Like slow down to almost a stop turn arounds, with one right at the beginning. So couldn't get a groove going, which was fine because I'm usually a little dizzy out of the water anyway. Lots of MTBs and cruizers in this race so I decided that if I saw 'em, I had to pass 'em. That kept my pace pretty good, but all the turn off the main road where coned too tight so you might get 2 people around a corner maybe. Once you got around them, though, it opened up and you could spin up again. One stretch of the course had to have at least a dozen bright yellow sponges on it (I'm guessing from aerodrink bottles?) that was fun swerving to avoid. Lap once, back around and I'm through a little slower than it could have been on that course.

Bike - 12 miles @ 40:20 (19.3 MPH) PR!

T2 was a little slow because I had issues not only with the velcro on my bike shoes but I couldn't seem to tie the laces on my running shoes either. Couple shots from my water bottle and I'm off on the run.

T2 - 3:33

The run was also 2 loops, but I got side stitches right out of the gate and had to stop to stretch it out. After that I was good, but couldn't keep my breath for anything. I kept a run/walk pattern to keep up with one guy picked out at random. The run course started in wide open pavement and then out next to the road, but apparently not in the road as we were told to stay on the sidewalk, which was barely wide enough for one person, so all passing was in the grass next to the chain link fence. There was a lot of bunching and some more aggressive than was really necessary passing going on on those parts. If the road was already blocked off, why couldn't we use it instead of the tiny @$$ sidewalk? But whatever. Around once, around twice and I'm done.

Run - 3.1 miles @ 30:46 (9:55 min/mile) PR! (only 'cuz the last one was so bad)

Totally did better than the last race, but still not quite what I had in mind. The course setup was really stupid in a few areas, but otherwise I thought it was well run. I came in 607 out of 774 finishers with a time of 1:37:43, way ahead of my goal. 5 minutes staying on the swim course would have put me 100 places up, but I'll take it ;-)

Next race is out b/c I need to move my grandmother, but next up is Asbury Park.