Sunday, June 14, 2009

Redondo Beach Triathlon 2009


After making an appearance at the 2007 Redondo Beach Triathlon I got another chance at it in 2009. Once again I teamed up with Scott Webb as a relay. He did the whole bike, run thing while I just swam. I don't do triathlons myself because the biking thing involves too much equipment that I don't want to deal with. The swim was 1/2 mile along the beach south of King Harbor in Redondo. The weather was great for the race, the sun even came out early for a typical June morning. The water temperature was also very comfortable after swimming in Huntington Beach with no wetsuit. I kicked off the swim with a nice 6 minute lead and Scott finished it up with a strong win in the relay group.

I like triathlon swims because the crowd just kind of meanders into the water. It isn't the elbow flying fight to the death to get to the first buoy that is open water swimming. Plus it is the only time I can legally wear a wetsuit for a race. Although, if I was a pro triathlete that comfort would go away.

I was a bit surprised with my swim being the second day of competing in one weekend for the first time since shoulder surgery. During my warm up the shoulder was feeling rather tired, but the water temperature and the wetsuit kept me warm and comfortable. The shoulder loosened right up by halfway through the swim. The shoulder still has some time to go to get strong again, but my speed is still there. I just pay for it with a lot of soreness later.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

hi, anyone know if there are any results posted anywhere yet? was my first ever triathlon. painful and agonizing at the end but sure was fun.

Merritt Johnson Morris said...

I thought the results might get posted on Active.com, but it looks like it hasn't in the past. The Redondo Beach Triathlon website has the results for previous years, but it looks like 2009 isn't posted yet. It might take them up to a week or more to get it up.

Anonymous said...

Great tip! I went to active and they now have the results posted.
Thanks!!! I'm back to training preparing for a 2nd Triathlon. Just came home from a swim in the Los Alamitos Bay in Long Beach. A little disapointed with my swim ranking 26 of 34 in my division.

Merritt Johnson Morris said...

I also swim a lot in Los Alamitos Bay. I meet up with a group by 2nd St. and Bayshore on Friday evenings at 6 PM and Saturdays about 12:30 PM. We run and swim through a path all the way around Naples Island.

Also if you ever want to swim with a group with all ranges of abilities you can come over to Cal State Long Beach pool any weekday at 5:30 AM or 6:30 PM for Masters Swimming.

Anonymous said...

Thank you very, very much for the information. I may like to try the Cal State Long Beach pool swim in the mornings. I work at Boeing which is close to that location. The group swim sounds like alot of fun but i have a feeling i may embarrass myself trying to keep up with a swim group. I'll stick to my individual 4:00pm swims for now. Hopefully i'll improve my swimming to a level where i can join in !