Monday, May 6, 2013

Rev3 Knoxville








Rev3 Knoxville Race Report
So it was the first race weekend of the season. A much anticipated weekend that has had a lot of winter training and miles put in to get there. I was really looking forward to seeing how Rev3 does things and let me say now that I was pleasantly surprised and they put on really great events. Super fun filled weekend and definitely family friendly were all ups sides to their weekend.

Rachel and I left home Thursday night and made it out to Roanoke. Our good friend Caldwell Clarke met us there Friday morning from his drive down from D.C. so we had breakfast and finished out the drive. Knoxville seems to be a great city, just up from the hotel was a market square with restaurants and such and most everything is walker friendly. There was a pretty cool farmers market in the square on Saturday. We spent most of Friday just putting around checking things out then Caldwell and his Wattie ink teammates met up for the Rev3 glow run at night. Cool little 5k that went to support a Tennessee Swimmer that was injured in the Boston bombing. I’m pretty sure they had more people show up for the 5k then the triathlons on Sunday. We had great weather Friday and Saturday for the start of the weekend but that was soon to change come Sunday and race time. Saturday involved race prep, a couple ez workouts, bike check in, and a pretty awesome ugly wetsuit contest which Caldwell won. We were all kinda the highlight of the weekend. I don’t know if I have every laughed so much leading up to a race.

Well on to Sunday. The water temps were taken at 58degrees and it was calling for pouring rain all day. We got everything the weather predicted. The day started with a nice cold swim, who needs an ice bath when you have an entire river. I was pleasantly surprised that I could still swim 30mins given the conditions. I hit t1 feeling pretty good and that may be about where it ended.(I was ill prepared with gear given the conditions) I tried to take extra time to get my arm warmers on but couldn’t so I flew without them thinking I could make it. About 10miles into the bike my teeth started chattering and didn’t stop until the run. With the exception of the rain all day the bike course there is great with a little city and then some farmland roads. I had a little miss hap on the bike somewhere around mile 40-45ish where the half and oly course comes back together. A car was pushed through and when I came around the corner and got back to speed I found the car slowing fast on the left side of an oly cyclist I had nowhere to go but in the middle of the road and pass, the car then decides to turn into a drive way. I got on both brakes and just followed the car luckily I had just enough space to squeeze into the gravel driveway, I lost a lot of momentum in the drive way and just went down in the gravel. I thought it was going to end worse than it did. I wasn’t hurt but it definitely shook me up for the rest of the bike ride. I finished the ride out and hit the run. With thoughts of not going out for the run I knew what I was there to do and a DNF wasn’t it. I laced up the shoes and went. Not the run I was hoping for but it was all I had on the given day. I dug myself into a hole early on with how cold I stayed on the bike. It continued to rain the entire run and the little creeks were pretty high causing some places on the course to be washed over. When you’re 4miles into a run and hit shin deep water knowing that 5miles later you will see it again it’s not the greatest feeling. The couple people off the front of the race that I saw on the out and back I give credit to them for putting together a solid day. I was kinda in survival mode and was happy to run even and finish the race. I ended up 6th overall on the day and really no worse for wear. I have some things to think about and Eagle man is just a short 4weeks away and we can try it again.

I had the oppturnity to meet one of the new Zoot Ultra team members Danielle Baker and congrats to her on first overall women. Also the guys at Wattie ink have some great members on their team and it was good to share fun time with them this weekend as well. Big thinks to Rachel Jastrebsky for being an awesome Sherpa for me and Caldwell this weekend. It’s a good wife that gets up at 4:30 and heads to transition with you.

All In all awesome weekend and rev3 had a great event I look forward to being at the Williamsburg venue this year also.

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