So I'm safely secunded in our beach house in Stone Harbor, NJ. Drove down early this evening. All set for the race tomorrow.
This will be the 4th time that I've done the "International" distance version of this race. The last time I did this race was back in 2008 when there were 280 starters. This year, alas, there looks to be about 110 for the International. The director is also running a concurrent sprint and half all from the same site. I expect it to be a real zoo. The RD is a nice enough guy and I've done 8 of his races in total through the years. However, he is certainly not at the same level as Steve DelMonte, Midge Kerr, Chuck Sellers, and Neil Semmel--who, in my view, define the state of the art for RDs in New Jersey.
One of the reasons I chose to do this race was that it would give me a good opportunity to compare to how I was racing back in 2005-2008. Alas, with all of these races going on at the same time, the RD has, just this week, announced that the course was changed and in-fact the race distance was changed from a 0.5/29/4.1 to a 0.6/29.9/5.1 mile distance course. The added swim and bike are of-course minor, but I'm not that excited about the added run length. Oh well.
It will be interesting to see as the bike course used to be just one, pretty straight-forward loop and it has now been changed for a loop of the sprint course and then a loop of the half-IM course. This has cluster-f written all over it! The run course is also changed somewhat. It used to be a very confusing run in the woods and now it will be more complicated than that. So who knows? The City Tri races remain the only triathlons that I have ever gone off course on....
Normally the heavy bike weighting does two things competitively. First, it attracts a fairly large contingent of young strong bikers, so my OA bike %-tile tends to be low (85.0, 94.0, 93.6 vs. my long-term average of around 97). As it turns out, there are only 2 guys who are older than I entered in this race. Second, it gives me a distinct competitive advantage in my AG--indeed I have won all three times I've raced this race. I have 8 guys entered in my AG--two I have raced before--each 7 times. Senff, I am 4 and 3 against and Magilone, I am 7 and 0 against. My guess is that these two gentlemen will be my main competition.
It's supposed to be quite cold again tomorrow morning with a race start temp projected at 38 degrees. The water temp was 61 degrees a couple of a days ago but I would not be surprised to see it be a bit cooler. Its very cold and windy in Stone Harbor right now but I suspect the wind will be a bit more mellow in the morning. I am surprised by how much cooler it is here than in Wilmington. I might be a bit underdressed tomorrow.
The big area of interest for me tomorrow is that I am racing my new BMC TM01 for the first time. I raised the front-end so that my drop in now around 5 1/4 inches. It still seems quite aggressive in comparison to my old BMC TT01, and with only 60 miles or so on it, I'm a long way from comfortable driving it. The course tomorrow is pretty straight-forward so I should be fine, but I do wonder how comfortable it will feel during 30 miles of racing. We'll find out! I'm treating this race as a "C" race and really did not taper for it (although my volume was less this week with trips to Washington and Boston). Should be a day of discovery!
This will be the 4th time that I've done the "International" distance version of this race. The last time I did this race was back in 2008 when there were 280 starters. This year, alas, there looks to be about 110 for the International. The director is also running a concurrent sprint and half all from the same site. I expect it to be a real zoo. The RD is a nice enough guy and I've done 8 of his races in total through the years. However, he is certainly not at the same level as Steve DelMonte, Midge Kerr, Chuck Sellers, and Neil Semmel--who, in my view, define the state of the art for RDs in New Jersey.
One of the reasons I chose to do this race was that it would give me a good opportunity to compare to how I was racing back in 2005-2008. Alas, with all of these races going on at the same time, the RD has, just this week, announced that the course was changed and in-fact the race distance was changed from a 0.5/29/4.1 to a 0.6/29.9/5.1 mile distance course. The added swim and bike are of-course minor, but I'm not that excited about the added run length. Oh well.
It will be interesting to see as the bike course used to be just one, pretty straight-forward loop and it has now been changed for a loop of the sprint course and then a loop of the half-IM course. This has cluster-f written all over it! The run course is also changed somewhat. It used to be a very confusing run in the woods and now it will be more complicated than that. So who knows? The City Tri races remain the only triathlons that I have ever gone off course on....
Normally the heavy bike weighting does two things competitively. First, it attracts a fairly large contingent of young strong bikers, so my OA bike %-tile tends to be low (85.0, 94.0, 93.6 vs. my long-term average of around 97). As it turns out, there are only 2 guys who are older than I entered in this race. Second, it gives me a distinct competitive advantage in my AG--indeed I have won all three times I've raced this race. I have 8 guys entered in my AG--two I have raced before--each 7 times. Senff, I am 4 and 3 against and Magilone, I am 7 and 0 against. My guess is that these two gentlemen will be my main competition.
It's supposed to be quite cold again tomorrow morning with a race start temp projected at 38 degrees. The water temp was 61 degrees a couple of a days ago but I would not be surprised to see it be a bit cooler. Its very cold and windy in Stone Harbor right now but I suspect the wind will be a bit more mellow in the morning. I am surprised by how much cooler it is here than in Wilmington. I might be a bit underdressed tomorrow.
The big area of interest for me tomorrow is that I am racing my new BMC TM01 for the first time. I raised the front-end so that my drop in now around 5 1/4 inches. It still seems quite aggressive in comparison to my old BMC TT01, and with only 60 miles or so on it, I'm a long way from comfortable driving it. The course tomorrow is pretty straight-forward so I should be fine, but I do wonder how comfortable it will feel during 30 miles of racing. We'll find out! I'm treating this race as a "C" race and really did not taper for it (although my volume was less this week with trips to Washington and Boston). Should be a day of discovery!
1 comment:
Agreed, the RD charges a pretty penny for some mediocre events. Good luck.
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