Iron Man Maryland: A Crabby Race Report (9/24/24)

If you were to ask me, “Faith, you’ve experienced several Iron Man courses over the past several years.  So tell me, what would you say is your ideal IM course?”

I would likely say something along the lines of:

“Excellent question. Thank you for asking. I enjoy lake swims with no real possibility of contact with animals that sting.  I prefer bike courses with lots of climbing and gear-shifting and stunning scenery.  My ideal run course is as few loops as possible with as much new scenery as possible and no standing water.”

Not only does Iron Man Maryland NOT check any of those boxes, it actually actively fights against all of them.

IM Maryland looks at my list of ideal conditions and says, “No, opposite of that - go to Lake Placid!”

So, how did I wind up registered for IM Maryland 2024?  Well, after lots of Iron Man travel in the past few years, my partner Dave and I both needed a break from destination races.  I felt like I had momentum after last season and wanted to do another full, but I didn’t want to travel to do it.  If you look at a map, that leaves exactly one race: IM Maryland. So last spring I gritted my teeth, pulled out my credit card, and registered for the race I said I would never (like EVER…no really, I mean it) do.  

I also wanted to try to break 11 hours, which wasn't ever going to happen at Placid.

In the end, a very serious and hard family emergency led to a sudden trip to upstate New York the Tuesday before the Saturday race, so if Cambridge weren’t 2 hours from home I probably wouldn’t have raced.

Pre-Race

I read the athlete guide (I really did), but I *may* have skipped over a few things that I just assumed would be the same as Eagleman (the half Iron Man in Cambridge in June). With the trip to New York, I got to Cambridge late on Thursday afternoon and wanted to get to registration before it closed at 5 so I could get my wrist band and participate in the practice swim the next morning.  Turns out, Athlete’s Village is not in Gerry Boyle Park (as it was for Eagleman) but is in Long Wharf Park, about a mile away. As I was walking towards Gerry Boyle Park, and noticed very little activity, I asked a poor unsuspecting gentleman wearing an Iron Man hat where registration was. When he said it was at a different park a mile away I yelled a bad word and immediately started running. I kind of feel bad about that interaction, but I think he was also a triathlete 2 days before race day so he probably understood.

With about 10 minutes left until registration ended, I was running down the road in my flip flops, when a woman in a Jeep pulled up and asked if I needed a ride to athlete’s village. I watch a lot of Dateline and I shouldn’t have gotten into a stranger’s car, but then she asked another frazzled looking man if he needed a ride and he got in too….plus she had an Iron Man sticker on her car, so she must be cool.

Anyway, in the quick ride she explained that she did the race 10 years ago and then moved to Cambridge during the pandemic.  As we approached the village, I noticed that the road was a little bit flooded. I said I hoped it wasn’t like that for the race.  She said it wouldn’t be.  

We will come back to that later.  

Having made it to registration on time, I got everything I needed. Phew, I would make the practice swim.

Except (and again, I DID read the athlete guide but made some bad assumptions) to participate in the practice swim you have to wear your timing chip, not your wrist band.  So, the next morning when I confidently put on my wetsuit and walked toward the swim area, a nice man guarding the swim entrance demanded to see my chip, which I did not have. I showed him my wrist band, but he didn't care.  I was still able to swim in the “at your own risk” swimming area, which was on the other side of the park and did not have a clear view of the swim course. 

We will come back to that later. 

I wanted to get in a 40 minute ride before turning my bike in, so I did a quick port-a-potty change and headed out on the course.  You know how you aren’t supposed to do anything new on race day?  Well, how about 2 rides before race day?  I noticed last season that very few people (and no pros) had the in-frame hydration system I had on my bike.  If the pros don’t use it, there must be something wrong with it, right?  Maybe it’s not aero enough?  So, in the month before the race I got a new (between the aero bars) hydration system.  With the new system, I didn’t have a computer mount, so I ordered something that I thought might work.  It did (kind of) work for 2 practice rides in Nokesville, but the Maryland roads must have been a little rougher and 10 minutes into the practice ride it was clear the mount was not going to hold.  I bought some duct tape at the hardware store down the street, said a little prayer, and headed to bike check-in.

We will come back to that later

Race Day

I started race day with oatmeal and the panic of not being able to find my car keys.

This also happened not all that long ago, so fortunately Dave had gifted me with an air tag to put on my key ring so they would make a cute dinging noise when I lost them.

I had thrown them out with the Olive Garden remains the night before, so they were in the trash can and smelled like Italian food…naturally.

Swim

The swim portion is two laps in the Choptank River.  

Remember how I didn’t have my chip and didn’t get to do the practice swim and actually see the course?  I mean...I had seen a picture of the swim course…I knew the shape of the swim course…so that should be fine, right?  In the crowd waiting to start, I heard a girl talking about an arch we had to swim through between the first and second lap to register we were on course.  The girl kind of pointed to an area that we couldn’t see and said she thought it was out there somewhere.  Got it, I'd probably see it.

While Maryland has a reputation for conditions forcing the swim to be shortened or cancelled, our race day was amazing.  While I was waiting in line to start I was every bit my anxious pre-race self, but when I entered that water a calm came over me like I have never felt in a triathlon swim.  Everyone was spaced really well and the water was just so peaceful. It was actually a really lovely 2 laps (with no jelly fish, also typically an IM MD characteristic).

Shout out to Team Zer Katie Cleasby and the other on-the-water volunteers, as I never didn’t see somebody in a kayak or on a paddle board, and they all did an amazing job of keeping us from drifting. I’m actually not sure I’ve ever done  a race where I felt quite so guided and protected.

As I was starting the second lap, turning at the red buoy like everyone before me, I suddenly remembered the arch.  Where was the arch? There was no arch!  OMG did I miss the arch?  I stopped swimming to do a quick scan of the river for an arch – nothing, so I kept swimming. 

Before I knew it, the swim was over and I was being helped out of the water by an amazing group of volunteers (including Team Zer Dipa Patel - thank you Dipa!).

T1

Fast transitions were a goal for this race, but upon bike check-in I couldn’t help but notice that my bike was almost (except for a few bikes one rack over) the actual furthest bike from the bike out arch.  I was going to have to run *in my bike shoes* and *with my bike* further than almost everyone else in the race. Ugh. I considered coming out of the changing tent without my bike shoes on to make the running less awkward but decided against it because I didn’t want my socks to get wet.  As it turns out, there was standing water on the path to get our bikes out, so my socks (and shoes) got drenched anyway. Even with such hardship 😊, my transition time was 5 minutes, which is definitely a record for me.

Bike

Not gonna lie, I was incredibly distracted the entire first loop of the bike trying to remember an arch and trying to figure out if I somehow shorted the swim.  I mean, would I even know if I was disqualified until I finished the race?  Should I stop and ask somebody?  Would it be on the app? If I’m disqualified I kind of want to know now so I can stop biking. I could still register for Cozumel or Florida.  Let's think:  If my bike computer says I’m at 20 minutes on the bike, and my watch says my total race time is 2 hours and 30 minutes, and I allow 6 minutes for transition, that would make it a 1 hr 4 minute swim, which is a fairly typical swim time for me, right? So I couldn’t have cut the course…but what if I did...what if I did?

Before I knew it, I was 2 hours into the bike and finally talking myself into the fact that I probably, most likely didn’t cut the swim course and should definitely keep going.

It was around that time that I hit a bump and one of the 2 plastic covers for my cool new hydration system went flying.  I knew the other one wasn’t going to stay without its friend, so I tucked it in the little opening on the hydration system for Gu and food.  Other than getting sloshed in the face with berry Mortal from time to time, it was mostly ok.  An hour later, the second plastic cover was gone too. Between the duct tape and the escaping covers, I was rethinking the importance of looking cool.

                              

In terms of actual racing, I took the bike too hard.  We were lucky to have very little wind and an overcast day.   I got excited by the speeds I was seeing and assumed it was just the magic of taper and racing on a flat course, rather than intentionally slowing down to a pace I knew I could realistically sustain.  I definitely should have taken advantage of being so close to Cambridge and done more training rides on the course.  Even a few training rides that didn’t require shifting (I didn’t shift once…not once the entire race) would have given me a better idea of my power and speed numbers. Preparation, preparation, preparation.

T2

As I biked into transition I saw the smiling faces of Dipa and Saravanan!  Even better, Saravanan was a bike catcher and took my bike for me…I didn’t have to run it ALL the way back to my rack – seriously made my day.

Another 5 minute transition. Yay!  I did take a second to deconstruct the arch situation (Archgate) with the poor volunteer who got stuck with me in the changing tent.  Surprisingly, she actually knew a little bit about the arch and said they had been having trouble with it and it might not have been there. I had been blessed with the exact volunteer that I needed at that moment.

Run

I usually love the run. The run is usually my happy place.  This run was not happy.

The course itself just isn’t my ideal situation – you basically, run back and forth on the same 4 mile stretch of road the entire time.  I like to see scenery twice at most, and the repetition made me a little bit crazy.  Plus, as stated previously, I took the bike too hard and was having a hard time figuring out my pace without my normal level of energy.  

Also, I’m not blaming the Mortal, but if they are going to continue as the on-course drink I definitely need to run more with it before my next Iron Man branded race. I had some, um, *issues* that I normally don't have.

A bright spot of the run was seeing people on the course.  Coach Ken Mierke and Laura, Dave, former Zers Holly and Marci and at one moment when I was feeling especially rough I heard my name and looked up to see former Zer Val, who was there cheering on  a friend – such a great surprise! Deb Ryan was zipping around on her scooter keeping me positive and keeping me updated as to where I was in my age group standings.  At first she was telling me what I needed to do to catch first place, but as the run went on I was far more concerned about how close third was getting (she got pretty damn close).

As I was coming back into the transition area on my last lap and heading toward the finish line, I turned the corner to find the course covered in water, lots of high water.  What in the world?  It wasn't like that when I was in this exact spot 2 miles ago!  In my general unhappiness had I managed to miss an epic rainstorm?  The woman in front of me started to take off her shoes, but I just trudged through. I was lucky that I only experienced it at that level and on my last lap, as it only got worse as the night went on. (The Choptank is a major tributary to the Chesapeake Bay and apparently the flooding had to do with tides and the full moon.)

I was really happy to run into Long Wharf Park and cross my 8th Iron Man finish line.

Final thoughts

-The warmth in Cambridge was pretty amazing.  There is always excitement from other competitors and supporters, but in a lot of towns it feels like the people who actually live there aren’t that into the whole thing (and maybe even dread a gazillion triathletes invading their town and making it hard to get anywhere).  Every restaurant, store, business I went to people asked if I was there for the race and wished me luck. It was just really nice. Plus, at check-in every participant received an encouraging note from a local elementary schooler.

-A full moon seriously messes with tides and IM courses.

-There was no arch and my swim was legit (I swear...it’s on Strava).

-The duct tape held.

-Third place didn’t catch me, but if the race had been one more mile…

-Read the athlete guide - no assumptions!

-The pros obviously don’t know anything about hydration systems.

-Thanks, yet again, to Resurgent Sports Rehab for helping me get through an achilles issue  that popped up 2 weeks before the race.

-This race was dedicated to Deanne Peters, who was very, very loved and will be missed more than words can say.