Rev3 Half Iron Race report 5-9-10


What a great weekend I had!! Not only did I get to hang out with my Dad, my brother and my step mom I got to race an inaugural event put on by a relatively new race organization and I have to say Rev3 put on a top notch race!

This inaugural event was held in Knoxville, Tennessee. The focal event was an Olympic distance race with a $50,000 pro prize purse. They had a deep field of pro men and women. They also put on half iron distance event which only had amateurs- this is the race I was in. The race fell at the end of a rest week and was perfect timing for a half iron before Ironman Cour D Alene on June 27.

Knoxville is pretty cool place to hold a race. If you’d heard anything about the Rev3 in CT held last year – you know how tough the course was. Apparently Rev3 likes to find tough courses—good call! This venue had us swim in the Tennessee river- first upstream then downstream. Next we rode through downtown Knoxville (read up and down, up and down) and out of town through some very rural areas. This bike course had very little flat—you were either going up or going down. The run was a rolling course with a lot of it on a bike path.

Race morning –

At 5am promptly I had my 3 cups of unsweetened applesauce as written in my QT2 fueling plan. My dad took me to the race site where we scored a perfect parking spot. I have to point out that my dad was the ultimate race sherpa and host this weekend. I am so lucky to have such a giving dad—he really went out of his way to make sure things were good for me while I was there. Thanks Dad!

Transition set up went well- all things were looking good. In a word my area was: simple. All I had to do upon exiting the swim was put my helmet on and go. For T2 all I had to do was put shoes/socks on, race belt and grab my Garmin and fuel. That’s it---no frills. I’ll get to why this was key below.













The swim –

Over the last few months with work and coaching my swim volume has been lower than planned and to account for this I’ve increased the intensity of my swimming. The swim was an area I wasn’t carrying as much confidence as I have with bike and run fitness currently. Gun goes off- I started off with perfect pacing- not too hard, just right. I had a set of feet almost instantly and was not even getting beaten up! That’s a first. Things spread out quickly and before I knew it my arms just felt really tired- aerobically I felt like I was barely working but my muscles just couldn’t stimulate enough power. I just need to get in more swimming. I tried to hang tough but I just wanted the swim to be over. Finally I make it the dock in 30:50—OK I thought- that’s not too bad. I hit the timing mat at 31:20. I just kept saying – let the race come back to me, let the race come back to me. I exited transition with the eventual winner who I went back and forth with all day. By the way- the eventual winner swam over a minute faster than me but I started the bike with him. Do the math—see my comment about my transition area!!

The bike-

I settled right in at half iron wattage—legs felt great. I was flying. The first 2 miles were some of the only flat sections of the bike- I was holding around 26mph!! We then went up a steep climb and then dropped right into the city. From there it was all up and down with fast technical turns. This course rewarded solid bike handling! I was swooping in and out turns and just simply hauling ass.

At around the 20 mile mark – a guy at an aid station said I was in second! I could see a guy ahead of me who I was rolling up on fast (the eventual winner was no where in sight behind me). I caught and past that guy and was wondering if I actually was in the lead. I kept sticking to my pacing plan although I was going more by heart rate (QT2 zone 2) since after the first few miles my power meter stopped working – I think the batteries are dead. Anyhow as we get within a few minutes of the turnaround I see the guy who was actually in the lead absolutely hammering and is way out in front. Where is the turnaround? How could this guy be so far ahead? You’ve got to be kidding me! This guy was flying. After the turnaround I could tell I had a good gap on everyone behind me—I just kept plugging away. By mile 45 or so I got caught by a guy (the eventual winner) and let him get up the road a but kept him in a safe distance. He went really hard on the most significant climb we had in the race—similar to the hard side of Duxbury gap. I stayed even with him on the climb but had to dig a bit to do so. Coming into the city again we had a series of short steep climbs- he punched it hard on those and I decided to let him go thinking I would run him down.

I was off the bike in third, no back pain and I was ready to run!!

Run-

Once my Garmin synced up – I looked down and was running 6:12 pace! Great – that’s perfect. I was feeling good. I could tell I was pulling back the guy in front of me. By mile 6 or so I started getting IT band pain—what??! This was a somewhat new issue that hasn’t bothered me until recently. I had to back off a bit- - I just couldn’t run really aggressively like I wanted to –for instance on the short downhills I held back. I also forgot my shot blocks but instead grabbed a gel at each aid station and had half a gel every 2 miles to mimic my protocol with the shot blocks. I also drank about 3-4 oz of sport drink at every aid station. I got passed by a hard charging dude from Atlanta and moved into 4th. Then around mile 10 I caught the guy who led off the bike and had obviously cooked his run legs by riding too hard. He was going backwards and not looking good. I moved back into 3rd.

I crossed the line in 3rd overall and 4:29:33. I couldn’t be happier. Even with the IT band issues I ran 1:25 on a rolling course which I’m happy about.






Overall Rev3 put on a first class race on par with (and even exceeds) any Mdot race I’ve done. There were so many little details that just made the experience great. The transition area had little placards with your name on it; they had ice baths at the finish, athlete tracking, and 2 great t-shirts. The venue was huge- big staging area, huge finish chute with megatron video screen. They take your picture at chip timing pick up and then post it on the big screen as you cross the line. The volunteers were amazing. There were plentiful aid stations, I never once felt like I was wishing there was a closer station. Each station had 10-15 people!! They had gels/sport drink etc. Everything was first rate- I highly recommend checking out some Rev3 races. These guys are the real deal.

On the flight home I got to hang and chat with Jasper Blake (he was 9th overall in the pro race) in the airport and on the flight. Really nice guy and killer athlete. It was great to pick his brain on a number of training topics and just shoot the breeze with him.