Race Report: Baltimore Triathlon
Opening up this year's triathlon season (and closing out said season) was the Baltimore Triathlon. Due to my move, some health issues, and loads of other factors, I focused mainly on cycling and base building this year. No time for triathlon...until now. As they say, better late than never.
This is my second time participating in this race. Last time, I easily won my age group in the Olympic division, mostly due to my ability to adapt to pouring rain, floating driftwood, and cold temperatures. I always perform better in adverse conditions. That year it was an inaugural event and I was just off of an Ironman training cycle. This time would be different, but I felt confident that I could put in a good race. I only needed to get through the swim, which is nearly absent from my training this year.
And so began my first and last triathlon of the season.
Race Week
Race week was pretty chill as I didn't have to prepare much for the race. I needed a small taper, which coach provided. Coming off of the massive GFNS Maryland ride and not really recovering afterward, I was feeling a bit fatigued. I needed some light and fluffy training this week to perform best. I also started my ritual clean(er) eating and hydration just because I needed to feel like I was going into a big race. Since the race is close to home, no travel logistics needed.
Race Day
I got up at the ungodly hour and drove to the race venue (about an hour away). The park is very nice and athlete parking is right next to transition. Since I got there super early, I was able to take a short nap in my car before having to set up transition. I waited until sunrise to set up my gear. They use the T-Block system here (invented by our friend Marcus Robinson....well really Kim's friend) and they are really neat for transition. I set up a sparse transition and then went to warm up for the race.
Swim (13:23)
Cold. Very Cold. The swim course was a little rectangle at Hammerman beach totaling about 750m. Water temps were around 66 degrees per the race officials. That's very different than the 87 degree OWS I did a few weeks ago in Clearwater or the 74 at Sandy Point just last week. I had intended on forgoing the wetsuit but for this cold water weenie, anything under 70 warrants the wetsuit. I made quite a fashion statement with my sleeves/sleeveless suit combination. It did not call for the full wetsuit. I like my arms too much. This was a time trial start, which allowed a handful at a time to enter the water.
After the first 100m or so, I started to get in a rhythm and find some open water. The water was a bit warmer out further into the Gunpowder River. The swim was a simple rectangle. There were no real surprises as I just settled in and swam buoy to buoy. I found a few feet to draft until ether they dropped me or I passed them. It is hard to tell swim speed when you self seed. Near the end, we picked up some sort of net-like bay weed which made it hard to pull through the stroke. Eventually I just stood up and ran.
T1 (2:31)
This was a lot longer than I wanted. Not having done much swim-bike transition, I felt a little out of sorts on this. I had trouble unzipping my wetsuit while running and then just felt like molasses in January trying to get my shoes on. Not a terrible transition, given the long run out from swim, but I'm still not thrilled.
Bike (41:28)
The bike course loops around the neighborhood of Chase, MD and then out Eastern Boulevard before looping back through some back roads and then to the park. It has a few small elevation changes but mostly flat. This year most of the pavement was redone and there were a lot of sections of very smooth turf. I really do enjoy this bike course.
After navigating some car traffic in the first three miles, I settled into trying to keep my watts high (over 200) so that it was difficult but also allow me to run later. The time trial start had spread us out a bit. I passed a few people but mostly was doing my own thing. I tried to spend as much time in aero as I could. This was made difficult by the fact that I hadn't really used the TT bike since my duathlon in July. I typically don't like being folded over like a taco. This is just my normal gripe about riding in TT. I sailed down the slight hill toward transition and reentered the park.
Going around the last u-turn, I must have moved oddly as my right calf seized up and I had to stop pedaling for a few seconds to let it settle back. It didn't take long but I had to make up a few seconds there. It was strange for it to cramp up all of a sudden. Nonetheless, I made it back to T2 all well.
T2 (1:09)
Again, I just felt very sluggish. On paper it looks good but I'm not convinced.
Run (21:48)
As I was coming out of transition, I wanted to bust out the run, but I also needed to make sure I didn't kill it for the first half mile and then die. I settled in and would do my plan of negative split each mile. About halfway through, I latched onto the person in front of me. I couldn't see the age number on his calf but it was either 34, 37, or 39. Not taking the chance, I tracked him the whole way. About a quarter mile from the finish, I saw it was 37 so not in my race. The run is just around all of the parking lots and roads of the beach area. It's nothing spectacular but it's generally flat. I spilled a whole cup of Gatorade on me at the water stop so that was fun. This was a nice run, overall.
Overall (1:20:21)
This was a good race. I am happy with the time and the result. I didn't win this time. However, I ended up on the podium. I was 3rd in my age group, missing second place by one second and less than 45 to the winner. In the overall rank, I was 24th. Not a bad showing. I will take what I can get and move on to the off season.
This is my second time participating in this race. Last time, I easily won my age group in the Olympic division, mostly due to my ability to adapt to pouring rain, floating driftwood, and cold temperatures. I always perform better in adverse conditions. That year it was an inaugural event and I was just off of an Ironman training cycle. This time would be different, but I felt confident that I could put in a good race. I only needed to get through the swim, which is nearly absent from my training this year.
And so began my first and last triathlon of the season.
Race Week
Race week was pretty chill as I didn't have to prepare much for the race. I needed a small taper, which coach provided. Coming off of the massive GFNS Maryland ride and not really recovering afterward, I was feeling a bit fatigued. I needed some light and fluffy training this week to perform best. I also started my ritual clean(er) eating and hydration just because I needed to feel like I was going into a big race. Since the race is close to home, no travel logistics needed.
Race Day
I got up at the ungodly hour and drove to the race venue (about an hour away). The park is very nice and athlete parking is right next to transition. Since I got there super early, I was able to take a short nap in my car before having to set up transition. I waited until sunrise to set up my gear. They use the T-Block system here (invented by our friend Marcus Robinson....well really Kim's friend) and they are really neat for transition. I set up a sparse transition and then went to warm up for the race.
Swim (13:23)
Cold. Very Cold. The swim course was a little rectangle at Hammerman beach totaling about 750m. Water temps were around 66 degrees per the race officials. That's very different than the 87 degree OWS I did a few weeks ago in Clearwater or the 74 at Sandy Point just last week. I had intended on forgoing the wetsuit but for this cold water weenie, anything under 70 warrants the wetsuit. I made quite a fashion statement with my sleeves/sleeveless suit combination. It did not call for the full wetsuit. I like my arms too much. This was a time trial start, which allowed a handful at a time to enter the water.
After the first 100m or so, I started to get in a rhythm and find some open water. The water was a bit warmer out further into the Gunpowder River. The swim was a simple rectangle. There were no real surprises as I just settled in and swam buoy to buoy. I found a few feet to draft until ether they dropped me or I passed them. It is hard to tell swim speed when you self seed. Near the end, we picked up some sort of net-like bay weed which made it hard to pull through the stroke. Eventually I just stood up and ran.
Look at my swim finish face.
T1 (2:31)
This was a lot longer than I wanted. Not having done much swim-bike transition, I felt a little out of sorts on this. I had trouble unzipping my wetsuit while running and then just felt like molasses in January trying to get my shoes on. Not a terrible transition, given the long run out from swim, but I'm still not thrilled.
Bike (41:28)
The bike course loops around the neighborhood of Chase, MD and then out Eastern Boulevard before looping back through some back roads and then to the park. It has a few small elevation changes but mostly flat. This year most of the pavement was redone and there were a lot of sections of very smooth turf. I really do enjoy this bike course.
After navigating some car traffic in the first three miles, I settled into trying to keep my watts high (over 200) so that it was difficult but also allow me to run later. The time trial start had spread us out a bit. I passed a few people but mostly was doing my own thing. I tried to spend as much time in aero as I could. This was made difficult by the fact that I hadn't really used the TT bike since my duathlon in July. I typically don't like being folded over like a taco. This is just my normal gripe about riding in TT. I sailed down the slight hill toward transition and reentered the park.
Going around the last u-turn, I must have moved oddly as my right calf seized up and I had to stop pedaling for a few seconds to let it settle back. It didn't take long but I had to make up a few seconds there. It was strange for it to cramp up all of a sudden. Nonetheless, I made it back to T2 all well.
T2 (1:09)
Again, I just felt very sluggish. On paper it looks good but I'm not convinced.
Run (21:48)
As I was coming out of transition, I wanted to bust out the run, but I also needed to make sure I didn't kill it for the first half mile and then die. I settled in and would do my plan of negative split each mile. About halfway through, I latched onto the person in front of me. I couldn't see the age number on his calf but it was either 34, 37, or 39. Not taking the chance, I tracked him the whole way. About a quarter mile from the finish, I saw it was 37 so not in my race. The run is just around all of the parking lots and roads of the beach area. It's nothing spectacular but it's generally flat. I spilled a whole cup of Gatorade on me at the water stop so that was fun. This was a nice run, overall.
Overall (1:20:21)
This was a good race. I am happy with the time and the result. I didn't win this time. However, I ended up on the podium. I was 3rd in my age group, missing second place by one second and less than 45 to the winner. In the overall rank, I was 24th. Not a bad showing. I will take what I can get and move on to the off season.
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