Swim, Bike, Run, Repeat! : Wait, I have to what?

Over the last few years, at least once a year, my father has mentioned the race where you jump off the back of the Cape May/Lewis Ferry. The first time I looked it up, it did have a great deal of appeal to me; not only was it given high ratings by athletes who participated, but it was on home soil. Once I had made the decision to move back to New Jersey, I signed up for this race. How cool to start a race by jumping off the back of a ferry; right? One small detail slipped my mind at the time, I am afraid of heights and this was a 12 foot drop. Oh crap! I have fought this fear my entire life. Back in my surfing days, I would struggle with dropping in on big surf, especially when the tide was out and you could see the bottom and know there may only be a foot or two of water if you wipe out. There were times I would back out, but most of the time I would just close my eyes and go. When I worked at

the Fantasy Island Amusement Park in High School, I would ride the Sea Dragon and sit on the end where I could see the ocean. Dying a little each time when my end went high in the air. So all this to say, as the race got closer my anxiety about jumping was going through the roof!

The week before the race, while talking to my parents, my mom decided to take their trailer to a campsite in Cape may, which turned out to be a great idea. It is a place they have been going to for years and is only three miles from the ferry. This would turn out to be a great decision as I had to be onsite by 4:30 in the morning, and had we not done this I would of had over an hour drive to the race. Also, the campground was awesome: very clean, great food and surprisingly quite by 9:30 at night. I highly recommend the SeaShore Campground if you are looking for a site in Cape May.

I drove down on Saturday morning and headed to packet pick up. Once I had everything, I headed over to the campsite to get my bike ready. The initial plan was to go for a practice swim, a quick bike ride, run and then call it a day. Once I got everything ready I just decided to ride my bike back to the race site and run back, instead of driving over and completing my workouts from there. I also decided since I did an open water swim on Friday, not doing that and running a little longer wouldn’t be a bad idea. Once the bike was all secure in transition for the night, I started to run back. Running on Route 9 was not a pleasant experience, so I decided to take another route to get back. Of course I choose the wrong road and got lost. LOL This added an extra 2 miles to my run but, oh well. After I got back, I ate dinner and drank a beer to help me relax, then headed to bed.

The next morning, I was awake at 3:45 and arrived to the parking site to get the shuttle by 4:30. Once on site, I set up transition, pumped tires up and spent the rest of the time trying to fight off the anxiety about the jump. A friend, Mike D’Ambrosio, from back home was also racing. As 6 A.M. approached, he and I walked over and stood in line to board the ferry. Once on board, I was excited to find Porta Johns on the lower level. Seriously people, you can NEVER have enough of these at a race. Once that was taken care of, we went upstairs and found a booth inside and relaxed. Thank you Mike, you really helped me keep my nerves in check!

Leaving the dock

That is not me but the first guy off

Once the boat started moving, I got my Xterra Vortex wetsuit on and made my way outside and downstairs. The plan was to try to move close to the front of the group and just get the jump over with, LOL!

As I waited, the DJ (yes there was a DJ), started to play Thunderstruck by AC/DC and it was really getting me pumped. The race director counted down and the horn of the boat sounded. The first guy flipped himself off the deck and then the entire crowd moved forward; things became tight. At this point, I just focused on the music and kept working my way forward. It took maybe two minutes for me to work my way to edge. As I walked forward, the guy stopped me, told me where to jump (aim for THOSE bubbles, thanks man!) and I just stepped off. The fall felt like it took forever and my heart was feeling like it would beat out of my chest. Then I was in the water and the first thought that hit me was “It’s time to get to work”.

I took off hard and settled into a nice rhythm. After a few minutes, I think the adrenaline must have worn down because my breathing became erratic. Every time I would put my face in the water it felt as if pressure was forcing water up my nose. I tried breathing every stroke; that was not helping, I even stopped for a second and swam the breaststroke. Still nothing was working. It also felt as if no matter how hard I was swimming, I was not moving forward. So I actually stopped, took a deep breath and cleared my mind. It took another few minutes, but things started to click. Next thing I knew, I was at the yellow buoys that I had to swim between and I was heading for shore.

As soon as I stood up I started to take my wetsuit down to my waist and I heard my dad yell my name. I looked over and right away saw my parents, my girlfriend Lori and her friend Brooke. All the bad thoughts about the swim vanished and I just could not wait to get onto the bike.

With it all said and done, I had one of my fastest swims ever for a 1 mile distance.

Swim 20:42

I hit the beach, then the path, then the grass, then the pavement….how fricking long is it to transition, damn! I turns out it was just over a quarter mile. I reached my bike, pulled the left leg out of the wetsuit, but the right heel got stuck. Finally pulling my foot out, I put on my helmet, took some Base Electrolyte Salt and headed out.

T1 3:26

The bike was a two loop course, with a lot of turns. The longest stretch of straight road was just over 1 ½ miles. All the other segments were just under a mile before having to slow for a turn. Knowing this going in, my plan was to take it relatively moderate over the first loop and hit it hard on the second. For the most part I did exactly that. As I came back towards the ferry on the first loop, I saw my support crew on one of the corners. As always, it immediately picked me up. I made the turn for the out and back portion of the course, which is along the beach, and decided now was as good a time as any to eat a Clif Bloks and take some more Base Electrolyte salt. I kept the watts down over the stretch to give the legs a break. As I came back out onto Route 9, I saw the support crew again and decided it was time to drop the hammer, well somewhat. I really started to fly on the second loop, and as the ride went on, the stronger I felt. As I came back down from the out and back along the beach, the support crew changed sides of the street and my Dad was yelling for me to “slow down”, that the turn back to transition is a tight curve. I am so glad I listened. After that, I popped up a gear and spun the legs out.

Bike 59:58

The second transition was over in a blink. The only holdup was moving other racers crap from my spot. I put on my Salming Race 5 on, grabbed my hat and race belt and headed for the run out sign.

T2 1:16

Going into the race I knew I would have to run on the beach four times for about a block. I was not sure what to expect, so I kept the pace easier for the first mile. Almost right away, after leaving transition, was the first beach leg. As I ran down the dune, there was the support crew! I waved and headed down the water line hoping the sand would be more compact and easier to run on. The guy behind me yelled up to take short strides. By doing so, you make less contact with the sand and don’t dig in as much. That worked great! Once I was back on the road, I made sure to keep the pace dialed back. My plan was to negative split the out and back part of the run. Especially since running on the beach really dropped the pace, so trying to gauge by mile was not going to work. After mile two, was the second beach leg and it went the same as the first. On this leg, I noticed people running up by the dunes. As I ran back onto the road, I was running next to a women who played a little tag with me on the bike course. She told me she was running on the broken reeds and it was much easier. A short time later we hit the turnaround point. This was as good a time as any to switch gears and perform the Otstot hat turn.

I picked up the pace and was really happy how I was feeling and the pace I was holding. I tried running up along the dunes, and damn it if didn’t work. Not only did it make for a shorter distance, it was much easier. The only downside was running up the dunes really sucked! I cruised along the rest of the way and was so happy to see the turn to the finish line. I knew this had been a good race and could not wait to see my times.

Run 38:46

Overall 2:04:07, 13th overall, 1st in my age group and a new PR (personal record).

This turned out to be a great day! It was so great to have so much support on course today and after. This was the first time my parents were able to see me make it onto the podium after a race. I met some new faces from the Snapple Tri Club, Mike had a good day as well. I later enjoyed a few nice, cold Cape May Brewery IPAs and enjoyed some food.

I would like to thank Base Performance and Salming for all their support, the Snapple Tri club and all of their amazing sponsors for helping to keep me training and racing and Coach Otstot who had me ready to race and in top form. A big congrats to him as well, he was 7th at Ironman 70.3 Raleigh. A huge thanks to Dr. Phil Crane for helping keep my body functioning.

I can never thank my parents enough for all their support and showing Lori the ropes of being a sherpa. Lori and Brooke, were at a concert the night before, which they returned home late from, woke up earlier and were still on site by 6 A.M. (with over an hour drive to get there). Thank you for everything, the great company, laughs at lunch and for my first two beers!