Surf Monkey Race Report

Pre-Race and Run

This past Saturday, I found myself in Oceanside, Ca for the 4th annual Surf Monkey. This is not a very old event, but they have lots of support from both sponsors and the community. So the day is like this- 5k run at 7am, 1 mile ocean swim at 8am, 6 mile paddleboard (prone and SUP) at about 8:45am. You can enter one event or, if you enter run + swim it is the Top Banana, or if you enter run+swim+paddleboard it is the King Surf Monkey. I was entered in the Top Banana competition NON wetsuit division. More on that later. Just as I arrived in Oceanside, the sky started to lighten, it was really overcast with a heavy mist in the air, but not cold. I'm in the parking lot with twiggy little runners, broad shoudered paddleboarders, fat, overdressed fishermen, hey they don't belong, and a van load of Navy Seals. Fit, fit folks everywhere. I check my bag at the bike/bag check. There were some multisport athletes that chose to ride their bikes to the event. This was a secure area where one could store a big or bag. I was changing into my running togs when I see a gal roll in a beautiful custom Felt TT bike. Hot damn, that's Michele Jones, legend in womens triathlon. Freak, thats big name to be racing with. She gets herself ready to run. Ok, i was kinda star struck seeing Ms Jones at a race I was doing. That didn't compare to who I saw line up next to me at the run start. The one, and only, Mr Scott Tinley. Tinley is a legend in Ironman Triathlon. Back in the 80's he even won a couple I think. He was the reason I tried my first tri back when I was in jr high school. This is so cool. Ok race time. Announcer gets on the horn, I shake my legs a bit, and there goes the horn. We are off. It's only 3 miles. I still am infamous for taking things out way to fast. I try to hold back, but when you're running shoulder to shoulder with Scott Tinely you go with it. What the hell. I stayed with him for about 1.5 and he surged a bit. Still only beat me by about 20 seconds. There were some fast folks running this thing. I think the winning time was 15:30 something like that. I was happy I finished in 20:24. I was tired but not pooped. I have exactly 40 mins to recover before the swim.

Swim

Prior to race day, I had been at the beach the week before for a little training and recon. That weekend the water was cold, like 64 degrees cold. If you don't know, that's cold. I did get in and splash around a little bit, but that was all. I hoped that it would at least mentally prepare me for race day. The entire week before the race I was worried about cold water. Did I mention it was 64 degrees? I looked at surf forecasts, projected water temps, the whole enchilada. Conditions looked good, water temp did not look good. I wasn't wearing a wet suit either. Its old school for me, purist. Maybe idiotic. Anyway, I'm changed into my suit and I head over to the swim start. I hear a blood curdling scream. WTH? It was the previously mentioned tri starlette Michelli Jones. She was heading into the surf to warm up for the swim and stepped on a sting ray. It impaled her knee and was stuck there. Lifeguards hurried out and picked her up, the stingray released or the guards pulled it out, one of the two. She was in some pain and had blood streaming from her knee. It turned out to be pretty minor as I saw her mounting her bike for her ride home to Del Mar, her day ended there. I walk into the water and it is still damn cold. I'm getting mad respect from my fellow competitors for going sans wetsuit. There are about 30-40 of us with no wetsuits, males and females, of about 120-130 doing the swim. Not gonna lie, I was nervous. 3-4 foot sets rolling in at 15-20 secs. Outside the surf zone, it was relatively calm. While standing with my big toe in the water, I notice Mr Tinley off my left shoulder. So I go and introduce myself to him and we have a little chit chat and we are called to the start corral. Just a bundle of nerves while in the start corral. We get a quick current update from the head guard and then the 1 min call. Bam! We are off. I normally have a great shore start. Being tall, I can hurdle small waves on the way out and I can get a lot of push when I need to dolphin through the shorebreak. I was a little more cautions this morning letting a few folks get ahead of me to shuffle any remaining stingrays away. Once I got waist deep, I had to hit it. Under the first wave. Shit that's cold!! Now I can't get my breath and I got another wave to get under. Seriously, the cold water left me unable to get a breath. I make it under 2 additional waves with barely a mouthful of air let alone 2 lungs full of air. At this point I'm almost out of the shorebreak, but I think to myself, no way, I cant swim a mile if I can't catch my breath. Just then, I cleared my last big wave. Wheeew! Ok, now can I relax? I need to relax, my hr is about 200, no need for a monitor to tell me that. There isn't any chop to the water but rolling swells instead. These are tough to navigate when the only swimming I do is in a pool. Big disadvantage. No worries, I was sighting the bouys well. I managed to relax and settle into a pretty descent stroke count. I was passing people. What? Passing people? Cool. That helped the mental part of this thing big time. Rounded the first bouy with what was turning out to be the front pack. Nearing the second bouy I could feel a temp change, and it wasn't warmer. I was lucky when I put on an extra cap before the start. It does help. Ok, now the turn for home. There was a pretty consistant ssw current. I navigated the current on the run in really well. Sighted the finish flags, got lucky on a few waves and bodysurfed them a ways. Hit the beach and thundered up to the finish and the timing mats. I was wiped out for sure. I survived it though. That's what I came to do.

During the race, there were volunteers everywhere. Doing the announcing and awards were veteran triathletes Paula Newby- Fraser and Chris "Macca" Mckormick. This was one of the best, well run, events I have ever been a part of. Now the best of all. I finished the 5k in 20:24 good for 61st place out of almost 300. 1 mile swim was 25:05 good for 8th overall, non-wetsuit. Overall for the combined Top Banana, swim/run combo. I won the whole shootin' match. Numero Uno!! Hup Hup!! As I look at the photo here, I can hear Liam Nesson from Clash of the Titans yelling, " Release the Kracken!!!"

Next up is Sep 11, Amica Lake LV Tri. Things 'bout to get critical here.