Race Report - Challenge Atlantic City, June 2014

Geezer and the Girl

This was the inaugural running of this 2.4 mi swim, 112 mi bike, 26.2 mi run = 140.6 mi race in Atlantic City, NJ.  This course was announced after I had my big races for 2014 scheduled, but when they opened up a relay option, I convinced my Dad to sign up with me.  Local to me, this was going to offer me an excellent long swim-bike workout opportunity as I build for my A-race 5 weeks later.  And since my Dad's motto for running is "will go far for flat", it was a neat way for him to be a part of triathlon for a day.  (That makes more sense when you understand he lives in Georgia.)

-- Race organization/details.  In the big scheme of things, this was like the other long/ultra/ironman courses I've done and was run equally as well.  A couple of differences included: a slightly lower price tag (for those registered as individual competitors); an easier and less time-consuming race check-in procedure; longer hours available to do race check in and bike check in; a venue that is not going to sell out of rooms; rooms with no minimum stay requirements; and without the registration-will-sell-out-in-a-day frenzy of some other races, you've got time to contemplate your life and ability to fit this event in without such a gamble as a 12-14 month ahead-of-time sign-up.  Also important to many people, the Challenge Family welcomes the athlete to cross the finish line with their family members.  WTC, who runs the Ironman-branded races, does not allow this.  I also want to point out the superb customer service presented by the event directors.  No question went unanswered without enthusiasm.

-- Course overview.  Topographically, this was a different course for me.  I like hills.  I like the variety of positioning on the bike they provide.  I like the landscape they frequently possess.  I may be Southern Californian by birth, but I'm not a fan of the beach - give me mountains.  From this point of view, I don't particularly find this course impressive.  It certainly has its attractive sections, but I would personally not travel a far distance for this scenery.  However, for those people who want a flat course, I have to think this one provides a nice alternative to IM Florida.  (But I don't claim to actually know what I'm talking about, having never seen that course.)  With a beautiful beach adjacent to the run and some amusement park rides up the boardwalk a bit, it certainly does offer your family something to do while you are off biking for hours and hours. 

-- Pre-race pump up.  The parachute drop by the Navy Seals was extremely cool.  But I'm not going to lie, Mt Tremblant also had an impressive air display and an overall much more amped environment, and still sits as the most dramatic race start I've been a part of.

Black arrows show current.
Black circle shows swim start/exit.

-- The swim course was a single-loop Y-shape run in the counter-clockwise direction in the back bays of AC.  I'll get straight to the point - this was extremely difficult.  The current pouring in from the ocean under the AC Expressway bridge made this the single most difficult swim I've ever done.  I train with plenty of open-water 1.2, 2.4, 3.0 mi swims in lakes, bays, and rivers; this was freaking hard.  The water was reported as 80 degrees but the race directors opted to allow a wetsuit wave which many people joined.  There were reports of difficult sighting due to the sun, but I had no problem sighting off the shoreline which the course followed.  Others complained of dirty water but they may not realize that just about all swims in NJ (that I've done) are silty like that.  The swim started at low tide and the course was shallow in places; some people opted to aqua-jog rather than swim.  I failed to lubricate properly for a non-wetsuit salt water swim and was chaffed well before the half-way point.

-- The swim exit & T1.  The bay is not a normal swim venue.  Floating docks were put in place with small floating ramps you had to swim up to get out.  This was strange.  I was so spent getting out of the water, and the dock was bouncing, that I was afraid of standing up for fear of falling over.  So I walked my transition to land (grassy field) instead of running it.  And I pouted all the way to the tent, stopping for awhile to shower off under the firetruck-supplied fresh water.  While I recognized the unusual difficulty of the swim and was in fact proud of myself for completing it without a wetsuit, I was mortified by my time: my worst finish by 9 minutes and 30 min slower than I expected.  My T1 was also terribly slow.  It's like I aimed to punish the bad swim by having an equally bad transition.  This was dumb.  But I was so exasperated trying to put my arm covers on over damp skin (sun protection) that I just hung my head in my towel for awhile and tried to calm down.  Ultimately, I did not do an adequate job reapplying sunscreen and would later find my back badly burned. 

Nice personalized bike rack spot.

-- The bike course was great (for a flat course).  Well-marked, well-supported with aid, and police at almost all intersections.  Mix of surperb expressway pavement, tree-shaded roads, and business and farm roads.  We rolled twice through the little downtown of Hammonton which was set up beautifully like a professional ride was coming through.  We biked by a scenic lake and several blueberry fields (which are not quite as pretty as they sound).  As feared, the wind direction was such that the last 28-30 mi were directly into a head wind (11-17 mph) which was a tough pill to swallow.  I remember hitting mile 106 in Wisconsin and crossing over from this-is-ok to I'm-so-over-this like the flip of a switch.  I was pleased to have held this emotion off until mile 107 this time.  I entered transition happy that I felt good from a nutrition point of view, but as a sobbing mess from the fatigue of biking through the wind.

Just over 30 miles of the course used the shoulder of the AC Expressway.

-- T2.  I approached the fenced off "relay pen" to meet my Dad.  I was apparently in the minority of people who showed up when expected based on a predicted arrival time the tracking ap calculated off my 82.5 mi bike split.  I even split the last two bike segments to two decimal places.  I may have been slow, but damn was I consistent.  My Dad took off running while I took my sweet ol' time wiping off, changing clothes, and packing up my bike and gear bags before moving my car back to Bally's and catching up with friends to watch the run.  

-- The run course.  I can't comment too much here as I didn't run it.  The course left Bader field and headed over to the Boardwalk, where 3 laps of various lengths were run before hitting the finishing chute.  I don't think the Atlantic City beach goers had any idea what was going on.  They are used to milling about where ever they please and had trouble grasping that a race was taking place and that they should stay clear of the path.  One guy approached us ranting something about the US going straight to the crapper due to stupid events like this race, which backed up traffic and delayed his travel.  He suggested that we as taxpayers should all be outraged.  All of this will undoubtedly get better in the future as improved event advertising occurs, the general population comes to understand what a long-course triathlon is, and people plan their approaches accordingly.

The course went to the left, southern most end only on the first lap.
The other two laps turned at the middle circle.
The course went to the left, northern most end twice (I think).

-- The finish line.  I'm glad the tracking ap worked well for my Dad who was waiting for me in the hot sun to come in from the bike.  But I wish it also worked for me.  I was watching it, refreshing constantly, awaiting the update that he'd crossed mi 23.5.  Unfortunately I completely missed the "estimated finish" feature and I arrived at the finish line to hear my team name called.  He crossed without me and I was devastated.  We were able to re-enter the back end of the finish area so I could get a participation medal and we asked the photographer to take the picture below. 

Results
S, 2:01:58, pace 3:09/100m
T1, 11:47 
B, 6:50:40, 16.4 mph 
T2, 2:51 
Run, 5:03:32, 11:35 min/mi 
Finish, 14:10:48 (relay place 102/138).

My attitude... I owe almost everyone who interacted with me Sunday some degree of apology.  I forgot what my goals really were for this race and at each moment I thought I didn't meet them, I ran further down the rabbit hole of disappointment in myself and was a poor sport.  My goal for this event was to put in a long training day while demonstrating good nutrition - mission accomplished.  I also wanted that memory of crossing the finish line with my Dad, but catching up with him immediately afterward really was almost just as good.  I needed to remember that I never had the goal of doing well in this race, or at Quassy, or at American Zofingen.  I chose to do these events despite their difficulty b/c I thought those efforts would prepare me well for IM Boulder.  I have 5 weeks to go and my peak training volume weeks are still in front of me.  I will be so much better off for having this great long ride under my belt ahead of race day.  These races were not poor results; they were strategic steps in a larger plan.