Superfrog Triathlon... sounds strage to a German ear but it's been around for a while (it was created in 1978 by the Navy Seals as their preparation race for the Kona Ironman). And you don't mess with those guys because, not even over race names... well you know why!
My host here in San Diego – Flo – suggested doing the race when we talked me staying at his place for my Kona prep. Awsome, down to the roots, fair and challenging were some of the terms he used to describe the race. Well I thought, even if it’s the day after the day that I fly in to San Diego, I’ll give it a try. And it was worth it. Even if on the day before the race I was awake for a continuous 27 hours I still had a blast.
Race morning: Oh, overslept!
The day began with a shocker: Flo and I had agreed to get up at four o’clock in order to have some breakfast before heading out to Imperial Beach and the late check in from 5:15. Thanks to our neighbours here even I did not sleep well and, when I woke up for an umpteenth time that night thought… is it really only four o’clock? It was exactly five o’clock and that meant: Red Alert. With in 10 minutes we had packed our things I had grabbed two bagles and off we were. In the end we were fine because the Navy base the race is on doesn’t open before 5:15 an we arrived at 5:38 am. I grabbed my race number at the late check in and racked my bike. On the way to the bike I was introduced to race director Eric Rehberg and after a little chat he found out that I would have rather registered for the elite category but as that was named “PRO” in the online registration process had not dared to do so as I don’t own a German Pro License. Well, it took Eric five minutes to check with the timing people and off the bike rack I took my QR cd 0.1 and racked it with to Pros. Strange feeling that by the way. So now I had to deliver.
Whitewash!
he 7am swim start of the first wave saw some 7ft high waves at breaking about 150 meters off the shore. Had I mentioned that my last ocean swim dated back to last years Ironman Florida and that I am not familiar with how to dive through under those bastard waves. Well, I had my first lesson today – the hard way. Twice on the way out and before I had even reached the first buoy the whitewash crashed into me.
At roughly 65°F the water was not too warm and to be submerges for 3-4 seconds without being therefore prepared is nothing the I really liked. After the second time and exactly 1:47min into the race I seriously thought about quitting. I was hyperventilating and had a really hard time. Nonetheless what would Flo say if I called it quits no two minutes into the race. So I kept on trying and made it to the shore after lap one. Not though with out learning the had way that also on the way back to the shore you should at times look back to check if the next wave sucks you up or not.
This is how it looked from the shore. I am sure that this guy initially also wore swimming goggles.
In the end the swim time of 28min flat was not too bad but the course might have been a bit short. I didn’t mind though, today. To my astonishment there were even a few guys that exited the water after me so I did not embarrass myself too bad.
Where are those watts?
Once on my noble steed I let the real race begin – or so I thought. The adrenalin might be pumping in my veins but you just can’t wipe away the quite strenuous travel from Frankfurt to San Diego. So some numbers were low and some high. Regrettably it was the wattage that was low and the heart rate that was high. Nonetheless I kept overtaking people and made steady progress on the four lap course that is quite pancake flat. For a rouleur like me that’s usually ideal but after some 10km I was overtaken. That does not happen too often and in even rarer case I am not to keep up with those people at all. In the end the guy turned out to be the overall winner of the race, Josef Major from Hungary. So I continued on and saw the wattage get lower and lower but was in the and able to accept the fact that today was going to be just a hard training session with supplied nutrition. When I exited the loop to transition Flo told me that I was in fifth place and I was a bit surprised at that. But still a bike time of 2:10h for those 90km was not too bad in the end.
The sandbox!
They had told me before the race that about haft of the run course would be on the beach. Not the beach promenade but the beach itself. That meant running in part through deep sand an gradually make your way to the hardpack section that the water forms when it washed ashore. Still it’s a lot slower that concrete or even gravel tracks. And it was strenuous. Nonetheless that’s what I like: challenging courses and conditions. At the first turnaround I checked the distance to 4th and to 6th place respectively. 4th place was way out of reach an ran a lot faster than I did. 6th though was some five minutes back immediately followed by 7th place. So there might be a chance to make it to the finish without surrendering my spot. A first that would have been in 2011. But when the course went off the beach again and I had to cross the loose sand again and run uphill I really suffered. And at that point I made the decision to leave the race at that and to really continue it as a long brick session. So I ran about 4:40min/km on the gravel and paved sections from then on. When I hit the beach for the second time it was time take splits again and surprisingly 6th and 7th place were still more that two minutes back. Still they had made up more than three minutes on the first lap and I was expecting them to surely catch me before the finish line. But in the end money was only up for grabs for the top three finishers and I was in fifth place. What the heck did I care! What the hell did I care until I reached mile marker 12! At that point neither the Navy guy nor the fellow TCSD member had run past and I began to think the Top5 had a nice ring to it after all. So I accelerated to approximately six minute miles to perhaps make it after all. At the last aid station though I heard the staff cheering on somebody no ten seconds after they had stopped cheering me on. Still able to do a little math I suspected it to be one of my two followers. And as I could check at the last turn around about half a kilometre from the finish line I war right. The Tri Clubber who goes by the name Dave McMahon was no more than 10 seconds back. So it came down to sprint after all. I hit the pedal to the metal and went to sub six minute miles. A few frightened looks confirmed that Dave dropped back. So with a half marathon of around 1:38hrs I allegedly in 5th place I crossed the line. Total time something at 4:18hrs.
4th not 5th in the end!
It turned out a few minutes later that the first guy across the line was a runner from a relay team so I had actually finished in 4th place… grrrrr…. Once again no awards for me in the USA. The cowboy was a little frustrated. ;)
In a way that fits as finished 6th in my age group for three times already (IM 70.3 CA & Wildflower 2007 as well as at Ironman Florida last year.
Nonetheless I had a great day at a really great race. Honest course, though conditions, great people good food afterwards. Innovative trophies in the shape of a detonator (see pic) that regrettably did not get one of.
And as a quite wise guy I know once said: There is not much I demand off of a race: Correct distances, a fair and well policed the course and enough to eat & drink for everyone are really enough.. Today that was the case and I appreciated that very much. I can really only recommend this race to anyone searching (a) a race for their Kona perp in California and (b) those that want to experience something completely different than WTC races.
Thanx to you Navy guys!
Tim
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