Rev3 Williamsburg

This was my first Rev3 event and I could not be more excited.  I really enjoyed the time spent at the expo on Saturday and after dropping the bike off at transition 1, I learned I got my own assigned spot in transition, which was a first.  Man, I cannot wait to race!  Especially since the field for a race of this size normally attract the best in the area and I was very interested to see where I stacked up.

Race morning arrives with that ever so lovely 3 AM alarm.   This was one of the few times I was wide awake the second the alarm went off.  The first things I did was to put on the temporary tattoos with my race number and age.  Next, I grabbed the ever important chocolate fudge pop-tart and started to move everything out to the truck.  By 3:45, my training buddy Steve had arrived and we were on our way for the 30 minute drive up to Williamsburg.  Right about the time we come off the exit for Williamsburg, it starts to drizzle, ah no big deal right!  A second after that thought entered my mind, the skies opened up.  The rain lasted for a while and once we arrived at the race site all we could do was wait for the rain to stop.  I am not even sure how long the wait was until the rain finally died down. Once it did I got transition 2 set up (running shoes, fuel belt and a hat) and I was off for the shuttle (a school bus, fun!) to take us to the swim start.

After a quick run to warm-up, I put on my new Xterra Velocity speedsuit, think of a short leg and sleeved wetsuit but made of a different material.  HOLY CRAP, this thing is tight.  The good things was that once I got into the water and started to swim the suit became a little more comfortable.

Swim: 0:45:38

As the first wave of pro’s takes off I noticed two things.  The 100+ yards they had to run until the water was deep enough to swim and as they approached the turn buoy to the Olympic distance race the entire pack is being swept to the left.  Great, someone doesn’t know how to read a tide chart in the Rev3 organization.  Oh well, we don’t do this sport because it is easy, right!

My wave was the 4^th to hit the water and was about 12 minutes after the pro men.  Since I had the advantage to watch the previous waves I moved as close to the rocks as I could and tried to line myself up on the buoys. 

The horn sounds and we are off.  Last time I swam a similar course in the James River I tried to dolphin dive through the shallow part and failed miserable, so this time I just stuck to running.  When I finally got to deep enough water I was lined up perfectly on the first buoy.  I sighted more than usually knowing I would be swept left and my plan was working.  It was working until I hit the turn buoy, basically from that point on my swim went to hell pretty fast. 

Starting with the buoy itself getting caught on someone right in front of me and no matter which way I went I could not get around the damn thing.  Next, my navigation went to crap, I kept swimming too far to the right and had to swim back to get the buoys back on my left.  Also, after the first turn there was about a 1 knot current to fight for about ¾ of a mile.  I finally get to the next turn buoy and my navigation was improving, somewhat.  The problem now was that I found myself in a pack of all different colored swim caps and with all that open water I didn’t have a lot of room to move.  Finally, I get to a point where I could not swim any longer and stood up.  Right away I looked at my Garmin, my heart sank! 45 freaking minutes….are you kidding me (for perspective, last race was 32 minutes)!  I was so deflated, any hopes of a sub 5 hour race was out the door.  I am strong on the bike but just not that strong of a runner, yet!

T1: 04:07

After the 100 yard run through the shallows to the beach there was the quarter mile run to T1.  One positive check in the Rev3 column, they had an aid station on that run, water please.  I had no problem finding my bike and got my gear on as fast as possible. Then I noticed it, Steve’s bike was gone.  DAMN! Steve never beats me out of the water; guess there is a first time.  We both have a friendly competition in our training and open water swimming is the one area I HAD an edge in that competition.  But seriously great swim buddy, you kicked ass!

I am not going to lie; I was fighting an internal battle within myself at this time to hurry up, I was just so pissed off about the swim.  Once I buckled the strap to my helmet I just said to myself “suck it buttercup, you some dreams and hills to crush”.

Bike: 2:29:00

I should mention that this is my home court, on the bike.  Steve and I ride much of the route for this race about every week for last few months.  I have been really looking forward to this!

From the start, I was feeling awesome.  I kept an eye on my watts and made sure I was holding back energy for the rollers and climbing that was to come.  I was making a lot of progress on the field and there was a group of three guys that I just seemed to keep playing tag with me.  They would pass and then a short while later there they were and I would pass them.  I never did get into squirrel chasing mode as I have done in the past, but knowing the course helped as I knew the attack points and used them.

This course had a two turn around points so there were a few occasion when you could see exactly who was in front of you and how far of a lead you had on others.  This helped with the internal battles after the swim.  Especially upon the realization that I was putting some distance between me and a few riders that started off strong that I caught.

After tackling the rollers on Richmond Rd, and the long climb on the return route of Diascund Rd, I had two more good climbs left.  First, car wash hill, which for the first time in 5 months of climbing that beast, I crushed.  Gearing was perfect leading up to it, keeping my hands on the aero bars as long as possible to shift, flawless.  It was awesome to get to the top of that hill with gas left in the tank to work up some speed coming down the other side.  Next, the climb on Jolly Pond, I was worried about this road as it has some rough spots prior to this climb.  As expected, when I reached those spots, there were water bottles everywhere.  Shortly after is the climb, it is a bit of a deceiving climb but as with car wash hill, I nailed it!  I do have to mention that by this point I had dropped all of the riders who were playing tag with me, this was a good defiantly a good ride! 

T2: 1:05

I rolled up to the dismount line and my confidence was back. I knew breaking 5 hours would mean the run of my life and with the hills and heat coming on, well, I guess we’ll see what happens. 

I ran into to transition and as I rack my bike, Steve is there racking his. I just about caught him.  Steve and I have similar strengths on the bike so to make up almost 3 minutes on him shocked me.  I found out later he also had a good ride but as it would turn out, today my luck was mostly on two wheels.

Alright enough of that, shoes on, hat on, number turned around. Time to run!

Run: 1:44:04

When I stated in this sport, I was a runner.  Now, two years later and as it turns out the run discipline is my weak spot.  I have lost more podium spots on the run than I care to think about.  So, it was important to me to stick to my plan and hope others blew up on those hills.

Steve and I left T2 seconds apart but Steve is an amazing runner and as expected by mile three he was no longer in sight except at the turn around points.  I have learned to not try to keep up with him and just run my race and over the first 5 miles, I was doing just that.  I was hitting my mile pace marks on the nose, tackled the first trip up the monster S turn hill and was feeling good.

Then came miles 6, my pace dropped more than 15 seconds but was still in range.  I decided to not worry too much about it but the temperatures were starting to rising and the effects were starting to show.  Mile 7, the pace dropped back down and I was feeling ok after walking an entire rest stop but there was the second trip to that monster hill and it was time to try and hold back a bit.  Around the mile 9 point was the top of said hill, I was hurting, mile 10 and 11 would turn out to be my slowest. I walked another aid stations or two trying to get the second gear to kick in.  It did for a bit during mile 12 but to get to the finish there was this steady climb for what seemed to be about a half mile.  It kicked my ass.  I got to the finish chute and my energy shot up, for some stupid reason I decided to high step it across the finish line. (Really bad idea with free finish line photos are coming your way).

Look of death on the hill

Overall: 05:03:54

At first, I was very disappointed with this race.  As time has passed I have gained perspective and my opinion has reversed.  I am not really sure there was anything I could of done differently about the swim, swam hard, did my best to sight an followed my plan.  I had an amazing bike, as far as the run, I did my best and followed the plan. Yes, it was my slowest time in over a year and I faded a bit during the last 5K, similar to what happen in the Kinetic half; but even with that, when I looked at the timing it showed something different.  I actually moved up 2 places in my age group.  I didn’t get passed, I did the passing.  Faster doesn’t always mean stronger, especially with running in the heat.  I finished 10^th in my age group out of 88 and 53^rd out of 573 overall. 

I want to add a huge congratulation to my coach Adam Otstot who took 10th in his professional debut.  Awesome race Adam!

It is easy to blame the conditions, the race staff for not knowing how to read a tide chart, that there was no ice at an aid stations (really people be complaining about that) or even blame your training.  Bottom line, train hard, stick to the plan, adapt and overcome what comes your way and when you look at that finisher medal, you know left everything on that course and should be proud.

Relaxing after the race.