Swimrun Maryland Race Recap

What have we gotten ourselves into?

Why:

After Casco Bay turned into a non-event, we were looking for something to add to the schedule to test us. My lifelong bro Jeremy and his wonderful wife Sarah live very near Greenbriar State Park and with Southwest's hub in Maryland, it made it a no brainer both financially and selfishly to check this race of the list! We knew it wouldn't suit us as its very technical, hilly, and has very little swim, but it was a great opportunity to test ourselves and also get some humility.

Weather:

Boy did it rain. Of the 4 races we started this year, 3 of them had weather factors. Lake James (Thunderstorm prior and rain throughout), Casco (Fog canceled), and now Maryland was being hit with a tropical storm. Fortunately it was just a lot of rain and while it rained throughout for a muddy difficult journey, it really wasn't that bad as you are in the forest 80% of the time.

Tropical Storm with race dead center in its path

Matt trying to pretend he's enjoying himself

The Course:

Contained in Greenbrair State Park, you just did concentric "circles" around the park trails and back to the same swim. The course is VERY technical with ascents and descents in very rocky conditions where the rocks are of various sizes, but mostly mid sized offering very little stability. This was very much not our conditions and they hills were quite steep in places. The swim was billed as 700 meters, but Garmin had it at 580 yards. Quite a difference and down to less than 2 miles total which really hurt us, but we knew going in that this was for more the experience than to truly compete.

Map of the last Leg. All other legs were just different versions of the loop back to the lake

Gear Check:

No changes from Mackinac Island. No complaints. Vigg worked perfectly in the rainy muddy conditions with fairly warm water.

Gear	Skav	Pat
Wetsuit:	ARK Vigg 22 + Kangeroo	ARK Vigg 22 + Kangeroo
Shoes:	Adidas Terrex 240	Adidas Terrex 240
Pull Buoy:	ARK Keel+ (Lasso Style)	ARK Keel+ (Lasso Style)
Paddles:	ARK Blades – Medium Camo	ARK Blades – Medium Camo
Googles:	ROKA R1 Clear	ROKA F1 Dark Vermillion Mirror
Socks:	CEP Compression Knee High	CEP Compression Knee High

Someone's having a good time

The Race:

The best thing we can say, is that we finished. On the second loop there is a climb up the Big Red Trail that you go down the last 3 loops that was soul crushing. On the 4th loop Pat and I admitted that we both had wanted to quit on Lap 2 going up it. The first 3 loops have runs less than 2 miles, so with motorboating the field on the 580 yard swims, we were able to stay close to the mid pack teams. At the end of the 4th lap we were right with the Short Course leading teams, so we felt good about that. The runs are about 4 or more miles the last 3 loops and we just didn't have enough swim time to catch up with the real runners. 

Toward the end of the 5th loop the lead male and the lead male team lapped us. That was pretty incredible to witness these men just crushing the course that was humbling us pretty bad.

Entering the last leg we really had settled for just trying to finish with as much effort as we had left, but to avoid getting hurt. The rocks were taking a toll on our ankles and we both were worried we wouldn't be able to walk for a week afterwards! We came across a team that seemed to not be enjoying themselves and tried to chit chat to bring them out of it, but nothing doing. So we just went ahead and started the last descend down the Big Red Trail hoping to stay upright. We were within 200 feet of the end of the descent when I told Pat not to lose focus and fall now. And then I promptly fell! What an idiot. To make matters worse it was in a clearing where spectators across the lake could see and my buddy Jeremy witnessed it! LOL. Can't make this stuff up. Pat proceeded to drag me to the finish and we were out of there.

Walk of shame to the end.

Proud of the effort.

The Tape:

Finished in 4:41 and 8th out of 11 teams. A bunch of Navy Cadets had shown up and humbled us. The winners were incredible. We had thought we'd be about 30 minutes faster, but there was less swimming and a lot more tough climbing than we expected. It was a great trip and we will do again, but not in a rush to repeat an event that doesn't suit us.

The Vibe:

This race didn't have the family feel of the other SwimRuns we've done. That could partly be the weather with it raining, but most of the usual crowd was not there. The course is amazing if you're looking for a lot of trail climbing and challenge with only a modest amount of swimming. There was no one left at the end to watch our finish except our two friends. Not even an announcer. We weren't THAT far behind the previous teams. That was a tad disappointing, but got to support the races we have.

Get the coffee in!