Believe it or not #1: There is a slightly longer version of this. Believe it or not #2: It did take more time to complete the race than to write this race report.
Executive Summary:
PR over Augusta!!
Swim – COLD, 1/3 upstream. Bike: HILLY but doable. Run: HILLS but scenic
Results: Final time 6:51:21 (Swim - 46:06, T1 6:50, Bike - 3:38:12, T2 4:02, Run 2:16:09)
Augusta HIM 2010 Results (for comparison) Final time 6:54:54 (Swim - 28:59 , T1 11:37, Bike - 3:42:02, T2 10:20, Run 2:21:56)
It's amazing what we'll do for a piece of shiny chunk of metal & a 'free' T-shirt.
Race Report (Long Form):
Background:
My primary goal this year is to finish Ironman Wisconsin in September. I made a decision back in January not to do a lot of races this year because I figured that the race and recovery cycle would take away from IM training & should save my $ for souvenirs in WI. So why did I make a last minute decision to do this race? There were a lot of things about the race that I thought would be transferable to IM WI and other good reasons to do it. 1. Wetsuit swim . 2. Hilly bike. 3. I would have plenty of time to take an extra recovery week. 4. Thought it would be interesting to do a REV3 event. 5. Good excuse to get a sports massage.
Race Weekend
Up at early Saturday so I can get Knoxville for the practice swim. The drive from the highway to the Lady Vols Boathouse told me the area is hilly. The boathouse is across the street from transition so I knew I'd get a chance to check out transition after the swim.
Practice Swim
Practice swim starts at the swim finish. I am only planning to go in for a short swim to determine t how much the current will slow me down. It was quite chilly. Upstream it takes about 5 minutes between buoys. On the way back it's less than 4 minutes between the buoys.
Packet Pick Up
Head to packet pickup. You get your packet then get race tattoos for your age and distance. After packet pick up you get your timing chip. They have you verify your race info, take your picture for the jumbotron at the end of the race (I never saw it though), then they grab a timing chip and swipe it on a sensor to assign it your number. Time to check out the hotel. Highly recommend the Worlds Fair Park Holiday Inn if you are going to do this race. The expo and finish are basically in the backyard of the hotel. From the lobby to the expo was about a 90 second walk. The athlete's brief was on the lawn and it had been raining so I grabbed a patch of grass and sat on a poncho to keep my shorts dry. Peg calls to say she's there. Peg gets her race package and timing chip while the race brief is going on.
Race Brief
The USTA guy gets up and does his spiel. He was wearing mirrored sunglasses and resembled The Boss from Cool Hand Luke. NO WARNINGS or notice of penalty. Check your time at the end to see if you have a penalty. He goes over the common penalties and takes a few questions. Even though the Athlete Guides calls for race bibs to be worn on the bike the official says this is not a USTA requirement and the race director confirms. So on the bike course on the next day you can tell the people who only read the Athlete's Guide.
Transition – Bike Check In
Peg and I decide to get our bikes and check then in at Transition.
No metal racks. Wooden ladder like boxes with a small slot for the wheel and a big space in between the next wheel slot. I thought the space was for your gear. During the Race Brief the race director said you could put your gear at the front tire. Sunday morning it was obvious that you could not have put your gear in the spacer box. It ended up being a great place for bike pumps. I took note of the swim in/bike out/run out. At Augusta I went to the bike out for the run start and had to run all the way to the other end of the transition to the proper run out. Made sure that wasn't going to happen here. Left my bike with a cover over the seat and handle bars. Off with Peg to preview the swim, have lunch then off to drive the bike course. Before driving the bike course I had to go back to transition to take a little air out of my tires b/c it was hot and sunny by that time.
Bike Course Preview
After a more than a few false starts, working off of my hand transcription of the bike route from MapMyRide we found the signs marking the bike course and started following them. There where lots of hills but there were some sections of rollers like the section of Silk Sheets. Beautiful farm country for most of the bike course. Found the bad a$$ climb at mile 48. Was worse in the car and my mind than on Sunday. Found the SHARE THE ROAD sign at mile 52 installed in way that indicated exactly how hilly the city of Knoxville. Funny detour for where they are removing the Henley street bridge with a few hills. Done and time for Peg to head to her brothers house and I check in at the HI. Just enough time to get to church and then found a nice block of restaurants on the walk back to the HI and grabbed a bite. It's 7:30pm before I get started packing my gear for the morning. Done by 9:30pm and thinking about bed. Damn free cable in the hotel. Asleep before midnight.
Race Day
Up at 4:45am to get ready. Eat a little, final touches for transition gear, dressed, drop luggage in the car and head out a few minutes before transition opens. It's chilly and there looks like rain in those clouds coming from the west.
In transition Peg comes over to say hi and see if I have any extra water b/c there is no water available in transition. I have an extra bottle b/c that's how I roll. I run into a guy that I used to work for that I have been running into a races and other training places since Chattanooga. I get set up, A few details: Helmet hanging from handle bars with heart rate monitor, sunglasses and gloves inside. Bike shoes (with socks rolled up inside) heel to toe on the right side of wheel with a bike jersey and nutrition that won't fit in my bento box. The weather is cool enough that wearing my tri-top as a base layer with a bike jersey sounds good.. Running shoes with running socks rolled up inside, race number belt and Garmin for the run in a ziplock bag on the left side of the wheel. Tri-bag at the back on the chain side, bike pump and Camelbak in the spacer box.
Take a couple of enduralytes and take a swig from my Camelbak. Grab my swim stuff and wet suit and go chat with Peg while she finishes getting ready. Final potty break. It's cool enough to put my wetsuit on up to my waist and go off to the start with some time to kill. Watched the pros start and realized I've never spectated at a triathlon. I am in the 1st wave age group wave so Peg & I say our goodbyes and good lucks and I am in line heading down to the water.
The Swim – 46:06
Tied for 1st with my WORST RACE EXPERIENCE EVER
They are calling out 4 mins to the start so I have 3:45 to go before I get in the water because I was in yesterday and I can wait. In the water. With the air temperature around 60 the water did not seem as cold as yesterday - but it's cold. We start I hit my stop watch and off we go. At the 1st buoy I have what must have been a panic attack and I am ready to pull the plug on the whole damn thing. Pop up and look for a kayak - good thing there wasn't one nearby. Time to: Suck it Up Buttercup. Maybe I'll breast stroke the whole swim. I start doing something like a side stroke which ends up being breathing on the right with every chance I could. A couple of buoys later and it feels like a colder version of any other OWS. At the turn buoy I figure it will ease up but there seems to be some wakes at the surface and it fairly tough sledding to the end.
After the finish the lady at the timing booth said everyone's swim was "about 6 minutes longer than expected" which was code for the swim course was around 300m too long. I predicted a 40 minute swim after the pre-swim on Saturday and came in at 46:06.
T1 - 6:50
No wetsuit strippers. That kinda sucked. Not sure what order I did it all in but I got ready and headed out. I had not laid out a towel but I had to wipe my feet so I spent 15-20 secs getting a small towel out of my transition bag before I put my socks on. I am pretty sure the bike in and out crossed and they were holding people at the bike as the pros where coming in off the Olympic bike course. No traffic by the time I get to that pinch point. Got instructions to mount before the mount line but the guy at the line said go across and mount. Confusing but no problem.
The Bike - 3:38:12
Being slow at the beginning sucked. A bit of the 1st few miles was on the highway and consisted of concrete paved lane on the left and asphalt shoulder on the right. Where does the debris go on a road like that? You got it - on the shoulder. I have to ride on the right as the faster cyclist go by. Made it out of that section and onto the road. 1st Aid station at mile 10, they don't have water and my Camelbak is still in transition b/c I was thinking there would be water at every aid station. I grab a bottle of Gatorade just in case and stick it in my bike jersey (YAY on choice to wear bike jersey). I get a sick stomach when I do Gatorade or anything with citric acid as an ingredient but I figure it'll beat being dehydrated. My aerobottle is mostly empty but I do have another bottle of water and the temperature is low 60s with cloud cover. Can probably do it without more water but the run will suck.
Mile 20 – The Fall. I decided to eat my Honey Stinger Waffle around mile 20. While getting it out of my jersey I dropped my bag of enduralytes. The road was clear so I went back for it. Bent down to pick it up and did not unclip my outside leg. I fell. +700 miles on my tri bike before my 1st fall. It was a lot like my 1st fall on my road bike. 1st thoughts after the fall are: Did I break me or the bike? Quick check: we're all good. While I am standing there I transfer the water from my bottle to my aero bottle and it's go time. 2nd aid station and THEY HAVE WATER. I get one from the front of the line and stuff it in my bike jersey (YAY bike jersey) then get another from the end of the line, fill my aero bottle and drink the rest before discarding. Here I am at mile 30 with plenty of water.
Note on my nutrition plan for the bike: All solid food (Powerbar Energy bites, Honey Stinger waffle) and gels. Now that I have water I start eating more food. Starting with the waffle. After that I am trying to eat an energy bite every 10 minutes. It must have worked because at mile 35 I feel great and start pushing a little.
The only thing that is bothering me is that I need to pay my water bill in the worst way. When I hit the last aid station (only Gatorade again) and there is a beautiful sight – porta potty!!! I pull over and a volunteer offers to hold my bike. Back on the bike I am ready to rock the rest of the race. Big climb at mile 48. Just ground it out. Steep and twisty decent on the other side. I took it easy on the way down. Off to the finish. I saw Tracy out there at some point. I get to mile 56 according to my computer and Garmin I still can't see transition. As I am making the last turn I loosen the straps on my shoes. Stopped short of the dismount line and I am out of my shoes and dismounting the bike. I've practiced this during Thursday night bricks since last season. Headed to T2.
T2 - 4:02
Still cool so I decide to empty the bike jersey of bike stuff but leave it on for the run. I can always unzip it and my tri-top if I get warm. Change socks put on my shoes and tie them. Grab my visor, handheld water bottle with 2 hours of HEED, and the Garmin I'll use for the run. I've still got the 2nd water bottle from the 2nd bike aid station and it's half full so I decide to bring it along. Time for to finish this long training day with 13.1 mile run.
The Run - 2:16:09
At this point I know I can PR if I run a decent half. Nice strong run/walk to finish out the race. Got to see Tracy & Peg on the run. Did 2:30 min run/1min walk. At Augusta I did 1/1. At mile 10 I had to decide whether I wanted to drop the walk breaks and run the last 5k. Opted to stay the course with run/walk until a little less that 1 mile to go. Hilly course. Got 2 extra walk segments in following the trail running motto “If you can't see the top, it's time to walk”. 98% of the run was beautiful either on the Greenway or a 2 mile out and back in a nice neighborhood that reminded me of TNR (hills and $$$ homes). The other 2% (part of the UT campus) reminded me of the backlot parts of the Disney marathon. Ate a few pretzels on the run course. Having HEED and water worked for me. May consider a 2nd handheld in lieu of my Camelbak on the run.
The Finish – 6:51:21 PR
Finished the run/race a couple of seconds behind I guy a used to work for that I keep running into at races. Wonder if the photogs got our big grins and high fives at the end... Apparently they caught it on the live video feed according to a friend of mine who was watching me finish. He's doing IM Tx next week so I'll be watching him finish.
Did I mention I PR'd
Likes:
Transition without hanging the bike by the seat. Two thumbs way up!
The vibe was laid back.
Volunteers were great.
Close enough to drive
Dislikes:
No Water at the 1st and last aid stations on the bike
Swim course too long
Bike course too long
Riding on the shoulder on the bike
No water in transition in the morning
No wetsuit strippers
Would I do it again? Not as a target race but if it fell into my training schedule like it did this year then sure.
Would I recommend it? YES. If you want a challenging course or it falls into your training schedule then go for it.
Lessons Learned:
Need to get the 2nd cage back on my hydration rack or wear the Camelbak
HEED is what the runners were asking for at the GUTS Reactor Run and it really worked on the run for me.
I can freakout on the swim and still keep going. HTFU
Stayed the course on my run/walks and finished a couple of minutes ahead of my goal.
Probably need to reevaluate my estimated finish time for IM WI.
