Long Beach Triathlon NOOB!

OWS = Open Water Swim

There's not really much in the way of either waves or current on the course for Long Beach Tri.  The course is down by Shoreline Village.  The start is to the east of the marina.  You swim out about 100 yds or so, then west along the beach, then in (the course will be marked by big inflatable buoys).  The beach exit is near the breakwater for the marina, right by Alfredo's snack bar right on the bike path.  The transition area is in the parking lot behind Alfredo's.

If you're planning an OWS anyway, you might just go down and swim there.  I think that beach is usually lifeguarded on weekends.  Go about 3 lifeguard towers east from Alfredo's and swim along the line of permanent swim area  buoys and you'll approximate the race course.

Other than just getting comfortable swimming in open water, probably the most important thing to work on when you're practicing OWS is navigation.  There's no line on the bottom and no wall in front of you, and without those visual cues most people do not swim straight, so you need to work on sighting.  Practice looking up every few strokes to keep yourself heading in the right direction.  During the race the buoys are pretty conspicuous and you can spot on them, but in practice you'll want to spot on objects on shore.  As you practice this, you'll also get a feel for which direction you tend to drift, so you can start to overcorrect when you sight.

In general, your first tri swim can be intimidating, especially if you don't swim in the ocean a lot.  Best bet is to start toward the back and off to the side, because if you're in the middle of the pack there's quite a bit of thrashing going on and you just don't need that.  Just stay clear, relax and swim your swim.

Freestyle is fastest, but whatever gets you around the course is fine.  If you need to breaststroke or backstroke or something, that's fine.  You can also stop if you want, and you can hang onto a buoy (not recommended, you'll be in the way of others) or a lifeguard board to rest, as long as you don's use them to propel yourself forward.

I'd also recommend checking out the run & bike courses beforehand.  You can find maps of both on the Pacific Sports website.  You can walk, run or bike the run course along the bike path, and drive the bike course.  The expo/packet pickup will probably be on the Queen Mary on Saturday, so it's convenient to do this before or after you pick up your race packet.  Oh, and definitely attend one of the race briefing sessions that they offer during the expo.

Long Beach is a great first race, in my opinion.  It was my first in 2006, and I'll be going back for the 4th time this year.  There are a couple of other LB Tri threads going in this forum, so check those out and also do a search in Race Reports to see other peoples' past experience.  There are lots of LB Tri vets here who will be happy to share and answer your questions.

You should be going light this week anyway.  Relax & have fun, you'll be fine.