Monterey Bay Challenge Tri pre-race report
SteveBlum
The Monterey Bay Challenge tri people may have been a little behind on the
paper work before, but it looks like they're all caught up now. I took a
drive up Highway 1 this morning (it turned out to be a little farther than
I had been told, but it's a pretty drive, so what the heck) to the
Seascape Resort in Seascape, just south of Aptos. I arrived about 11 am
and the race organizers were already beginning to set up the transition
area.
The swim is going to start on the beach just below the Seascape Inn. It's
be "T" shaped. The plan is to have us swim out a ways past the surf, turn
left and swim to a buoy, turn around and swim back past the point where we
turn the first time to a second buoy (thereby crossing the "T"), then back
to the original turn point (completing a narrow loop), turn left and head
back to the beach, hopefully to the point where we entered the water.
They said they may have us draw the "T" in the opposite direction, if the
current is running differently than expected. The idea is to have us swim
out against the current, and then back with it.
The water isn't bad. With a QR fullsuit on, I didn't feel the cold at
all, except on my face for the first couple of minutes (not even QR can
help my face). Then it was almost pleasant swimming back and forth along
the beach. Hardly drank any seawater at all, and there was very little
seaweed around. The beach is in a semi-cove of sorts, so you can always
see cliffs ahead while you swim, which should help with navigation. I do
the swim without glasses or contacts, which leaves me pretty myopic, so if
I can see the cliffs, just about anybody should be able to. The buoys
weren't out yet, so I don't know how easy it'll be to see them. The
swells were gentle, but high at times, so I think I'm going to rely on the
cliffs for navigation.
Coming out of the water is pretty easy. I'd suggest swimming as far as
you can toward the beach before standing up, as the waves and gently
sloping beach make traction something you can't take for granted. Once
out of the water, take off your wetsuit and get ready for a run. It's
about 400 meters or so from the water's edge, up a very sandy beach to a
concrete trail, then up a steep pass through the seaside cliff. Watch out
for poison oak along the trail, there's a lot of it ("leaflets three, let
it be; berries white, poisonous sight," as my old Boy Scout handbook used
to say). About two thirds of the way up, you turn off the concrete trail
onto a dirt trail and end up in the transition area which is in the
parking lot in front of the Seascape resort. I walked the route in bare
feet, and it wasn't too bad. The usual stray rock or twig, and that was
it.
The transition area features a couple of wading pools, presumably to wash
off your feet (I'd still recommend bringing your RST-approved wash basin
to rinse your feet, they'll be plenty dirty), and metal bike racks -- the
kind where you stick your wheel between two rails, not the kind where you
hang your bike by the brake levers.
On the bike, you go out of the transition area uphill through local
streets about a mile to San Andreas road and turn right. Then you ride
about 6 and a half miles out San Andreas to the turn around just before
Beach road and come back the same way. The so-called bike path is really
just a generally (but not always) adequate bike lane along San Andreas
road. About two miles (I can only claim one significant figure accuracy)
before the turn around, or in other words, about 5 and a half miles into
the ride, the bike lane disappears altogether and you're riding on a
fairly narrow road with a good bit of what seemed to be mostly tourist
traffic. Be careful out there.
The ride out on San Andreas is rolling hills, as advertised, but the
general trend is downhill. Which means that the ride back is generally
uphill. But just after you turn off San Andreas heading back along the
local streets toward the transition area, you crest the last hill, and
it's downhill the rest of the way -- for about three-quarters of a mile --
except for a small rise just prior to the transition area.
The run looks to be a kind of a double loop through local streets and a
park. I didn't try to trace it out, but if everything is working tomorrow
at the same high level of efficiency I saw today, I'd expect the run to be
well marked with plenty of volunteers. In other words, if I don't finish
the run, it won't be because I got lost.
Package pick up was a breeze. Everything was well laid out and organized
(this was at Cabrillo College today, I can't speak for tomorrow). The
goodie bag is about as well stocked as I've seen with two water bottles
(including a neat little collapsable one), a Clif bar, a visor, suncreen
(don't count on much sun, though), an age-group color coded swim cap, and
a really nice T-shirt.
Mandatory bike check at the Bicycle Inn was a breeze. As the guy check my
bike I asked him if he thought it would make it through the race. He
assured me the bike would, at least.
Good luck tomorrow, everyone!
Steve Blum (stev...@aol.com)
The Carmel Group
"Of course the game is rigged, but if you don't play you can't win."
R.A.H.