Annapolis Triathlon - TriathlonOlympic

At the horn I was in the middle/back of the pack and wanted to make a point of staying in the washing machine to get some practice doing that. It was pretty chaotic until the first turn, and even then didn't settle in as much as I would have liked.

I made a strong effort to swim freestyle as much as possible and did pretty well all things considered, about 85 - 90% or so. The breast stroke I did was mainly for sighting issues and to redirect myself whan I got off course or ran into people.

Because there were a lot of boats on the out part of the loop and the sea wall on the return it was a lot easier to stay on course without sighting a lot. But my issue was that I never got into any real rhythm. As soon as I got going well I'd run into someone (even though I was usually going pretty straight) and it would disrupt me so I'd go into breast stroke to get in the clear or back on course.

The return portion I primarily used the sea wall so I was able to stay a little more consistent, but was also starting to get a little tired. Got to the ramp, they yanked me out of the water and I shuffled to the transition.

My watch time was in the mid 31's, but the race timing had me just over 30 and my goal was to break 30. What that meant was that what I had for my T1 time was wrong compared to what I thought.

More open water swim practice, try to find someone to pratice drafting off of, gain more confidence in group swims. I tried to stay calm as much as possible and just go with the flow. This is not my strength sport at all so I just need to gain experience and get better over time.

Because of the longer run to my rack and the longish run from there to the mount line I decided to do shoes on the bike which I do about half the time, so that worked okay except getting up to speed that way going up Main Street (which is almost immediately a hill) was a challenge, so I lost a bit of time there - but that was factored into the bike time, not the T1. I was just dog azz slow here, no real excuse as to why other than I didn't run from the ramp to the bike, I walked .....

At Eagleman I watched the LOTR Fellowship of the Ring Extended Edition in T1, today I just watched the theatrical version. I'm taking way too long to get out of there .......

Out of transtion I heard a "That's got to be Rick Carter" and looked over and saw Glenn (wyecrab) who was also getting started (even though he started the swim 5 minutes after me). He was on the bike and up the road pretty fast. Knowing he is a great all-arounder I wanted to get up to him as quick as possible so he didn't totally kick my azz! ;-)

I had a little bit of an issues getting into the shoes and knowing that the first hill starts right as you go up Main Street and around the circles that I needed to get into them fast. Once I did that I used him as a marker and paced with him. Once we were up on the flat at Rowe I cut it loose and started my hammer session. Had a little bit of a time getting the HR under control, but finally did after about 3 miles or so.

This is my sport, and I make no bones about the fact that I'd rather go ballz out on the bike and ruin the run than do anything else. I love to ride and I love to go fast!! It is the road racer that was me in my previous excercise life. There is absolutely nothing as satisfying to me as flying by everyone on the course and feeling the legs pushing hard. I didn't care if it was someone in my AG or someone in another, they were all marked and used as slingshots to the next person.

Drinking was good, took a big shot of Gu about a 1/4 of the way into it and just kept the head down and tucked in. I was probably always in the 28 - 30 mph range on the flats and made sure to spin fast and in the small chainring on the few longer hills. I was in the big ring the majority of the time though and just let the legs do what they were best at.

I got passed by ONE person on the ride, and that was early and he was a West Pointer. Two of the top three overall amateurs were West Pointers so I'm pretty sure that was one of them. Later on in the ride another one went by me but we flipped-flopped the rest of the ride and I would have beaten him into the transition if I wasn't futzing with getting out of my shoes (going up the small rise in the parking lot going to T2).

Not much ..... maybe get into and out of my shoes better so I can maintain speed. Basically I rocked the bike, no bones about it. One of the top 2% times overall. I know the course well, so had no surprises.

Blackbird continues to prove her mettle and was worth every penny spent on her. And I don't care what people say .... the Zipps with tubulars are the bomb and the fastest wheelset out there!! I seriously doubt I could go faster with the Slowtwitch issued Disc/Tri spoke with clinchers. ;-P

Not blazing because I was having issues with the shoes. The lining at the bottom of the left shoe slid and bunched up so I had to take it off and reset it and put it back on and had to kneel to do it. I was trying to move at a decent pace knowing that my T1 sucked, but today was just not my transition day.

I didn't wear socks as that adds time, but in retrospect that might have helped with a later problem that I had as well as solve the insert sliding issue.

Well, what to say about the run. I was only passed by 3 people and none of them were in my AG. But I just wasn't that motivated to push the pace. I knew I was moving along at an okay rate because of passing people, but it felt sluggish. My HR was in the mid 170's while in a stand alone 10k I'm usually upper 180's. So I wasn't really working to my usual level, nor did I really want to.

The run was challenging with a bit of grass running to give it that x-country feel and wound and looped around the stadium and the adjacent roads. They changed the course within the last few days which made it a bit easier than I expected though. If they had gone the original route they planned it would have been even more hilly. As it was it was rolling for a bit, but nothing to really take all the speed out of you.

Both feet started getting "hot" on the outside of the arch. I figured it was because I was running sockless and had dumped a few waters down my back and that made my shoes squishy. I ended up with two long thin blisters, one on each foot in the same location. (After the race I realized that both shoes had rips in the same location along the outside edge. My skin was slipping through it which caused the blisters. Good thing I'd already ordered a replacement pair of the Saucony Fastwitch Speeds that I use for racing).

I did make a point of checking out the AG markings on the calves and making sure I got by everyone from my AG, but I really didn't care if I passed others or not. As we neared the stadium (the finish was on the 50 yard line of the field) two guys passed me, one Army dude who was 20 and another with nothing on his calf. So I asked him, "Before I sprint, what AG are you?" He was like, "Uh, 40." So I said, "That's good, no sprint then, have at it and cruise on in!"

Which is exactly what I did.

Not be complacent. I really didn't feel like pushing here like I should have. I should have had no problem going 2 or 3 minutes faster than this. Double check my shoes the night before ......

Walked around looking for my parents and Mir and the kids. Found my parents who were standing at the finishing chute but didn't really see me finish. That's too bad, but it is kind of my fault for not telling them what I was wearing! DOH!! ;-P

Mir got stuck in all the traffic so didn't get there until about 20 minutes after I finished. But we sat around with the kids and watched all the other finishes and just had a nice relaxing time.


My damn swim!!!! Falling asleep in transitions. Motivation to really push the run.


This was the inaugural for the event but because the Columbia Tri Assoc. was running it, it was exceptionally organized with tons of volunteers and was a fantastic race. I hope they get the approvals to continue doing it as I will definitely sign up again!

But racewise, here's the thing that kills me. I had the 2nd fastest bike split in my Age Group and even with a sub-par run I was 5th in the Age Group for that!! I lost 2-1/2 - 3 minutes in transitions to the top of the AG and around 4 minutes or so on the swim. And even with half of that time back and if my run had been up to my standard I would easily have broken 2:10 and been top 5 in the AG. So I am slightly disappointed overall even though I went under my realistic goal of 2:20.

But I killed the bike, which is where I have my fun!! ;-)