One week to go before the Marine Corps Marathon, I decided to squeeze in another Triathlon. This was the longest yet with 1/2mile swim, 20 mile bike, and 5 mile run. It was the inaugural event for the Longboat Key Chamber and they did a fantastic job. No course glitches, plenty of pleasant volunteers and it was held at the resort. We ran most of the 5 miles on the golf course which is unheard of given the anti runner mentality of most golfers. I can say that having been a golfer and lived on a golf course but never anti runner. They were just skinny people having a good time killing themselves. Anyway, hats off to the race director. I guess the only bad thing that was not in there control was the tide and swim location.
Of course I worried about the water temperature the week before. Projected 76 to 78F. The morning of the race was a little warmer at 69F so it was not cold waiting around. The full moon over the bay was quite spectacular as we waited for the sun to come up and get started. I wished I had a picture. It was wetsuit legal but I followed coaches advise and girled up. No wetsuit which was fine. The bad part was the tide. You had to do a wade, jump, waddle for about 50yds or so to get deep enough to swim. Not in my training. So I floundered and jumped and got all out of breath before I ever put my head in the water. Then I was breathing so hard, I felt the need to breath every other stroke. Just could not settle down. When I made it to the first buoy it got a little better and a swam a good line along the next two. Then trouble started when we made the turn for shore and I swam way right. I had trouble seeing the shore flags and kept going right. Way right like 50 yds. So yes sighting needs work.
Transition to the bike was good. The course was great. Out 10 miles and back. I drank every 10 minutes. I thought I was crushing it into the wind and realized on the turn around that was not the wind direction. The way back was pretty gusty. I did manage to maintain my pace and finished the bike in an 1:00:51.
The run was mostly on the Longboat Key resort golf course and finished with the last 1.5 or so miles on the beach. Very pretty. Very well supported. I loosened up after the first quarter of a mile and was pretty comfortable the rest of the way. Given I will be running the marathon next week I did not push all out on the run.
Afterwards there was a great healthy feast under the big white tent. We enjoyed a great meal sitting out on the driving range. Well done.
Off to Washington, D.C. Friday.
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