My wife has been asking for several months for me to start
writing blog posts for her site. There
are a lot of topics that I’ll hopefully get to write about at some point – what
I’ve learned and experienced about faith in God, leadership, and family life to
name a few. For now though, Christy
wanted me to write a race report for a recent half ironman I completed in
Knoxville, TN (Rev3 Knoxville). Some
free advice for you men out there – do whatever your wife tells you to do and
life will be great. So, here goes my
first guest blog post on her site and first race report – hope you enjoy!
Pre Race
We arrived in TN on Friday night and checked in to our
hotel. On Saturday, covered the expo,
light workout bike/run, checked out the transition area, etc…standard pre-race
prep work. It was humid and temps into
the 80s – not ideal but good prep for the hotter summer races. One interesting thing was that the water on
the run course was going to be delivered in sealed 8oz bags…possibly a more
eco-friendly approach? All I know is
that no one practicing opening these bags on Saturday did it without soaking
themselves, and the water tasted pretty bad (like plastic, weird huh). Didn’t seem like the best decision to
me. We went to drive the bike course
after dinner - after leaving town, we must’ve made a wrong turn and ended up in
the ALPS! I am talking climb after
climb, it was almost comical. The course
begins near a river so I am not sure how they couldn’t find a flatter bike
course; but, it was a good test if nothing else. Christy was literally laughing at how hilly
it was and was almost relieved to not be racing (had to have emergency dental
surgery the week before – doing great now thank God!). I had that hilly ride and a steamy half
marathon to look forward to afterwards the next morning.
Race Day
Awoke early and fueled up, then got rolling to the
race. The transition area was in the
bottom floor of a covered parking garage, which was awesome for two
reasons. First, everything was protected
from possible rain/etc, and second, we parked like 100 yards from my bike. Quickly got things set up and started the
walk to the swim start.
Swim
First lesson learned (again, unfortunately) – make sure you
account for proper time to get in the water and warm up. By the time I was ready to roll and wetsuit
zipped up, I had probably <2 minutes until I had to get in the water. Not the best swim warmup when you get the 30
second warning as you are jumping off the dock and into the chilly river.
Swim was a “J” where 1/3 was upstream and 2/3 downstream,
with very little current. Water temp was
cold but not uncomfortable, in the high 60s.
I am a middle of pack swimmer in most bigger races; got out at my
average pace and swam in a somewhat straight line to the turn, and through to
the end. Not thrilled with my time but
that is a function of lack of consistency through the previous few weeks of
training and the resulting lack of fitness for the swim, and that I didn’t push
particularly hard but focused on trying to be efficient in this leg of the
race. And I am not the fastest swimmer
out there. Oh well, pulled myself out of
the water and began the couple hundred meter jog to the transition.
SWIM GRADE: (am I supposed to grade myself in these
reports?) B-
Transition and Bike
Rolled through T1 and onto the bike and got my feet into my
shoes for a pretty quick transition.
Within a few miles was into climbing mode J. I made it a point to try and push myself on
the bike while trying to moderate HR. In
hindsight I probably overextended myself slightly on the first half of the
course. Wasn’t hammering up the hills,
but was holding HR probably about 10bpm over where I should have been. I have been riding quite a bit more this year
though so again, wanted to test myself.
Made it a point to ease off slightly in the back half of the ride, to
save some juice for the run. Speaking of
juice, I drank too much on the ride…lesson learned #2 for the race – make sure
you do your nutrition homework to a high level of precision. I drank between 4.5-5 bottles of 285cal
Infinit on the ride when 4 would have been about right. I should have known better based on
experience, but now I will remember for next race. It is important to pay attention to all the
details to set yourself up for success.
Finished off the bike with some TIRED legs due to the challenging, hilly
course, and a knotted up stomach.
Christy yelled “how was the bike” and I replied “I guess we will see
soon”; still had the sense of humor anyway!
Got out of my shoes before dismount and flew through T2. I think I passed three people in transition
that got in just before me, which is always nice…free speed!
TRANSITIONS GRADE:
A
BIKE GRADE: A-
NUTRITION GRADE: C-
Run
Running off the bike is a strange sensation if you have
never done it before. You need to manage
your pace and turnover on your “tired” legs or you will go way too fast out of
the gate. Well, within the first 10
steps of the run I knew it was gonna be rough run…I wasn’t running on “tired”
legs, I was running on TIRED legs...not a whole lot extra to give. And, I was running on a full/upset stomach,
which is about as fun as it sounds.
Clipped off the first 3 miles at ~7:00/mi pace, close to where I wanted
to be, and from that point had to take what my legs/body would give me. Pace slowed ~45sec/mi depending on the
terrain (some long rollers during the middle 6mi of the run) and focused on
staying relaxed and regulating body temperature. The one good thing about those plastic water
bags is that I grabbed 2-3 at every aid station and doused my head, top, and
arms. The arm coolers I was wearing
stayed wet and helped to keep me cool – whether placebo or not, I was getting a
benefit. Finally was able to take in
some fluid ~11mi into the run, though at that point I probably didn’t even need
it. I started to run out of steam at
mile 12 and was unfortunately passed by a couple people over the last 2 miles
as I slowed a little, but really I was pretty happy that I kept a fairly steady
pace for the last 10mi given the heat, my unhappy legs, and the stomach
situation. Coming up to the finishing
chute is always exhilarating and finished off the run in 1:41ish for an overall
time of 5:02+, good for 27th place.
RUN GRADE:
B+
OVERALL: B
I came out of the race pretty happy with my fitness for
early May. I had a few clear areas to
work on and since then, training has gone really well. Both Christy and I are pumped for our races this
summer so look to hear more about them in the coming weeks!
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