Official TriRock Annapolis Race Report - Swim/Bike/Run/Transitions

Part 2 of the official race report

Bike

It was still misty raining. The road was wet and definitely dangerous. I hadn’t ridden in the rain before, so that was new to me. No potholes really, but the metal gratings on the bridge were NOT safe in the rain. The course was too tight in some areas, roomy enough in others. It was a 2-loop course. The turn-around point to do the second loop or to go back to the transition area wasn’t safe. People were all over the place. There were no food/water stops since it was a 12 mile course. The shot blocks I had in transition helped to keep me going.

I need to get out on my bike and ride more often. I’m not incredibly comfortable in close quarters and in dangerous situations. That’ll all come with time, I’m sure.

Run

Coming out of T2, I felt better than I thought I would. I’d only done about 3 short bricks before the race, so I wasn’t sure how I’d do. I’d say by the time I got around the first corner (maybe .2 miles into the run) my legs felt back to normal. I didn’t wear a hat/visor, which was fine since it was just starting to not rain anymore (YEA!). I also didn’t bring any gels with me given that it was a short run and I had the shot blocks after the swim. I think that was plenty. There were a couple of aid stations and one water station. That was definitely enough for the 5k. There wasn’t a lot of crowd support, but a few of the volunteers were AWESOME. There was one band along the way, which was cool. For being TriRock, they definitely didn’t have the number of bands I thought they would (aka: the number that were stated in the original sign up information). There were a good number of hills, but I felt great doing them. No problems on the run.

One of the volunteers added .4 miles onto the run for everyone by sending us back up this one hill. Since it’s the racer’s responsibility to know the course but also to follow directions on the course, we all did the extra .4 miles. Ah well… I did meet Meredith and Mark along the run and they were great company.

Next time, I’ll definitely bring my Garmin. I had no idea what my pace was and that was really screwing me up.

Transitions

When I got to T1, I was happy that I had gone back a couple of times to readjust everything. My final setup was just what I needed. In T1, I grabbed 3 shot blocks and some water.

For T2, I took too long thinking about changing socks. I should’ve just gone without even thinking about it. My feet were wet and would stay wet no matter what I did. I realized halfway out of the transition area that I left my Garmin watch behind. Since it was race time, I decided not to worry about it and just get onto the run course as fast as possible.

Next race, I need to make sure my watch is somewhere I remember to put it on. Also, if there’s rain in the forecast, I need to throw a garbage bag into my transition bag to cover everything so that my shoes don’t get wet.

Part 3: Official TriRock Annapolis Race Report - Post Race/Summary/Lessons Learned.