Cape Henlopen Swim and Bike

The Bike Course for the Cape Henlopen Triathlon which Dan Bieber will do on September 28th.

What started out as a late-going (noon departure), overcast day turned into a brilliant day at the beach in Cape Henlopen State Park for Dan Bieber and me. We weren't on the beach a minute when we had a heavily pierced lady ask us about our form fitting tri shorts. She thought them to be some sort of warmth protection. She couldn't understand why we were wearing them under our wetsuits. I explained that we wear them for an entire triathlon, and normally wouldn't wear anything under our wetsuits, but because of the 100's of people on the beach we had to be decent. She seemed satisfied with the explaination. I think she just wanted to talk to Dan.

Donned in our wetsuits and wading through the throngs of beach families (my bad for not having a photo of us at this point) we entered the water and swam south along the shore, just outside of the break. Dan tended to pull right, taking him into the break at times, but that didn't matter for him as his speed and comfort-level has greatly increased since his Tri-debut last year.

Dan is training to "rock" this year's Cape Henlopen Sprint Triathlon, and this was our chance to help him get familiarized with the course and attain a certain level of comfort in the water, especially the ocean. The park is on a sand dune at the confluence of the Atlantic Ocean and Delaware Bay. Riddled with asphalt trails, pines, World War II embattlements, bunkers, and towers, the park spanned several hundred acres and seemed to be a popular peaceful destination for vacationers, cyclists, and runners. The ocean was calmish, but the water was pretty cool. Our wetsuits proved to be perfect for the conditions.

Wild dolphin, like the ones who were trying to attack me yesterday. Bad, Flipper, bad.

On our last round (we did 3 southerly laps of about 1/4 mile each) I unitentionally swam out to sea too far. When I looked for Dan, he was standing on the beach. So, I headed for shore. As I exited the water and turned around to look, there we about 50 dolphin swimming out near where I had just been. That could have been my closest dolphin encounter in the wild for both of us, man and beast. They stayed for a long time, sometimes jumping high out of the water, but mostly rolling as they were feeding on the evening baitfish.

Dan and I did the longest transition ever into our bike garb, then first hit the bike trails at the park, then out into to wilds of Lewes following the 15 mile race course Dan will do in 4 weeks. Dan's got good legs for the bike and hopes to improve his placement in the overall standings by 20 spots. He feels greatly more prepared than last year and a good bit faster on the bike and in the water.

After clean up and a change we hit town and had dinner (it was 6pm by now) and ice cream, got gas, and turned Dan's Jeep toward home. It was a great day, great adventuring, and great gains in training.