Church Creek Time Trial

This past weekend was the annual ABRT Church Creek Time Trial, which takes place in Cambridge over a 40km course in the Blackwater Wildlife Refuge. The day was going to be a long one for me as I was doing the individual race and then also going again in the 4-man team event. The weather was almost perfect with sunny skies and a decent morning temperature of 75 degrees. My individual race started at 9:19am and I was the first one off in my category....everyone would be chasing me! Having never done a time trial I didn't have any idea what kind of time I could do but was hoping to go under the hour. From the start I hammered away and basically tried to go as hard as possible for the entire 40km. This tactic started off well as we had a tailwind for the first 6 miles or so and I was flying past the women that had started in front of me. Making the first turn put us into a headwind which would last more or less the next 12 miles. Predictably the speed began to slow and things got much tougher. It was at this point that Team Banks caught up with me out on the course and with Dad hanging out of the car they got some good video footage. After about 30minutes into the headwind it was time to turn for home and gain some much needed time with the wind at my back. Coming across the line I had broken the hour by a scant 20 seconds for a time of 59mins 40secs (about 25MPH average) and 5th overall in my category. For this race I had worn my heart rate monitor, and for all you tri-geeks out there, I had an average of 158bpm for the hour with a max of 166bpm. In the end I had actually timed my race well, in that I hadn't gone out too hard and had a little left after coming out of the headwind to hammer the last 6 miles home. The day wasn't done though....in about 45mins I had the team event to start.

The team race was a complete blast and was also over the same 40km course. Three members of our team had previously done the individual, with only one being "fresh". Unfortunately the wind had begun to blow, as it always does on the Eastern Shore, and after only 5 miles our "fresh" rider suffered a puncture, leaving the remaining three of us with 18miles to go. It was good however, and working well as a team brought us across the line just under the hour, 5 seconds slower than my individual time from earlier in the day. That placed us 2nd in our category (although to be honest there were actually only two teams entered in the 3/4 category). We were only a couple of minutes behind the winning time and that was with 3 people for the majority of the course.

I think that Team Banks enjoyed the event as they could get out onto the course and see a lot of both races. I will post some photos soon and also update the blog with the adventures of the rest of the weekend, which included a trip to Ocean City, MD. In two weeks I will be back on the roads of Cambridge for the third time this season at the Blackwater Traverse Duathlon.