I finished my final open-water race of the summer with the 1.2-mile Point to Point Bay Swim in Avalon, New Jersey. After completing my first one-mile ocean swim at Barnegat Light, followed by races in Long Branch and Medford Lakes, Avalon ended up being my fastest open-water pace yet. I finished in 35:47, which worked out to a 29:50 pace per mile. I felt like I had executed the swim about as well as I could have, and when I crossed the finish and saw the time on the clock, I knew my instincts were right.

Check-In Near the Avalon Yacht Club

Before the race, swimmers checked in near the Avalon Yacht Club on 7th Street and picked up their swim cap and ankle timing chip, while some also received event hoodies and/or T-shirts depending on their registration. Participants were asked not to park on the yacht club grounds, and jitney shuttles transported swimmers from near the registration area to the starting dock on 23rd Street. For a point-to-point race, I thought the transportation setup worked well. The jitneys came about every 5 to 10 minutes, depending on how close it was to the start time, which made getting from the registration area to the 23rd Street starting dock easy.

Avalon Point to Point Bay Swim: What the 1.2-Mile Course Looks Like

The race organizers provided a helpful course map that made it easy to understand the route before getting in the water. We started at the 23rd Street Public Dock, swam under the 21st Street bridge, and continued south along the dock side of the bay before eventually turning toward the finish near the Avalon Yacht Club. I liked the point-to-point format because most of the race was simply about continuing in the same general direction toward the finish.

Why I Preferred the Time-Trial Start

Swimmers self-seeded based on their expected finish time, with faster swimmers moving toward the front and slower swimmers lining up farther back. We then entered the water two at a time instead of everyone starting together. That was a major improvement for me compared with my one-mile ocean swim in Long Branch, where the mass start made it difficult to settle into a rhythm. In Avalon, I could start swimming normally almost immediately instead of spending the opening minutes trying to work through a crowd.

What the Swim Felt Like

The water temperature was around 76°F, which felt almost perfect for the swim, and for the first time this season, my goggles did not fog. That was very different from my first one-mile lake swim at Medford Lakes, when my goggles fogged so badly that I nearly swam into a dock. Even with those better conditions, I occasionally lost momentum when I came up behind another swimmer, and during the final stretch I was not completely sure how far I still had to go before reaching the finish. Overall, though, this was my best-executed open-water race so far.

Best Viewing Spots for Friends and Family

The course also has several good places for spectators. The 21st Street bridge gives a view of swimmers approaching, passing underneath, and continuing away, while Moran’s Dockside Marina near 16th Street and the 8th Street dock provide additional viewing spots farther along the route. For the finish, spectators can watch swimmers cross the line from the bayfront area by the Avalon Yacht Club. Because the course stretches for more than a mile, bringing a bike can make it easier to move between viewing spots without having to drive and park each time.

My Result

I finished 112th out of 192 swimmers overall and eighth out of nine in the men’s 30–39 age group. Even with my fastest open-water pace yet, there is still plenty of room to improve relative to the field. I felt like I executed the race very well overall, but small things such as getting caught behind other swimmers and being unsure how far I had left near the finish still left some room to improve. On another day I could just as easily swim slower, but this result showed me that breaking 30 minutes for a pool mile and eventually going under 35 minutes for 1.2 miles in open water are realistic goals.