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Rev3 Knoxville Race Report

Wednesday, May 12th, 2010

Last weekend rocked. I can’t possibly recap everything, but let’s see how close I can come.

Friday morning I got up, packed a few last minute things into the car, and hit the road pointed South starting at 4:30 am. 950 miles, 2.5 tanks of gas, five bottles of water and countless bathroom breaks later I rolled in to Knoxville, TN. I pulled in just in time to meet up with my team for dinner and a beer before calling it a night.

The road trip was uneventful, which I guess was all I could ask for.

The Day Before

Saturday morning I woke up again with the sun and headed down to the expo to help run the tent and hang out with all of my Trakkers teammates who had rolled into town.

Photo Credit: Eric Willis

We had a friendly rivalry going on with the Terrier Tri team and it didn’t take long for antics to ensue. We hijacked their banner from their tent and had some fun with it.

Photo Credit: Eric Willis

Me practicing winding up and punting their little dog mascot, er… I mean “stretching…”

Photo Credit: Eric Willis

But then we got down to business and had to take some serious team pics.

Photo Credit: Eric Willis

We roll deep.

Photo Credit: Eric Willis

Proudly rocking Saucony all the way down the line.

Photo Credit: Eric Willis

My legs were KILLING me all day from the long drive into town, so most of the day involved stretching, hydrating with a full camelbak full of EFS, massaging and warming up with a little SwimBikeRun.

After a quick run around the ‘hood, Sonja and Michelle took me out on the bike course to show me some of the technical parts so I knew exactly what to expect and there weren’t any surprises.

I have officially made it into one of Sonja’s over the shoulder bike pics. I feel like my triathlon blogger street cred just tripled.

Notice the Camelbak still on my firmly strapped to my shoulders. That thing didn’t leave my side all day. The theme of the day was all about hydration and stretching out my aching legs from the long drive.

Next stop, swim course!

We went out and loosened up, all while having a blast. I met up with some of Sonja and Michelle’s CO crew and they are good people. You could spot them anywhere from the random shouts of laughter that echoed down the river banks.

After doing some last minute race prep and meeting up with Megan, Sonja and her adorable daughter Annie for some late night ice cream, I called it a night and got some sleep.

Race Day

Morning rolled around once again, and I was up and out the door just as the sun was rising and on my way to the transition area.

Michael Lovato hand delivered some special EFS Liquid Shot prototypes to us the day before. I stowed it away in my bento box and was going to use it as my secret weapon.

As I started to set up my transition area, I look up and realize that Tara Costa from Biggest Loser was racked right next to me. Sam and I watch BL all the time, so I texted her a picture immediately. I knew she would be pretty jealous.

Photo Credit: Eric Willis

Not only that, but Heather Gollnick ends up strolling over and asks me to do a short little video interview with her. Pretty sick, right?! If i see it get posted, I’ll share it here. I have no idea what I rambled about. I forgot where I was from and it was probably pretty awkward, but still cool.

Swim

The awesomely fun vibe continued in the swim too. As each swim wave jumped from the shore into the water, people were doing back flips and cartwheels off of the docks and splashing everyone still up on shore. I’ve never seen so many people pre-race with so few butterflies and just out there having a good time.

Photo Credit: Eric Willis

I have no idea why, but I started off in the back(ish) of my swim wave. The swim is my weakest of the three sports, but I know I can be more competitive than just hanging out in the back of the group. I paid the price for it too. After the first stoke I took a heel right to the eye. I poked my head up, let the guy in front of me get some distance, and kept on trucking.

My time wasn’t expecting anything spectacular. I’m still stuck in that 1:40-1:45 pace, a rut that I need to figure out how to get out of soon.

Bike

An uneventful T1 and I was off on the bike course. I made it a goal to suck down as much water as I could (without letting my stomach blow up like a water balloon) and grabbed water at every aid station just to slurp down and spray the rest over my helmet and down my back.

Photo Credit: Eric Willis

Here is Meredith and I rocking the first section of the bike course.

The course was a blast. It had everything. Some flat sections, beautiful scenery, short steep climbs, technical winding descents. LOVED it. Super challenging, low traffic and a ton of fun.

Photo Credit: Eric Willis

Bull Horn Pose Credit: Kim Kaltreider

If anything, I probably got distracted by how much fun I was having and could have pushed it a little harder out there. Can you tell from the stupid faces I was making every time I saw Sonja’s dad, Eric Willis, snapping pictures of me and all our teammates. I definitely could have pushed it a little harder looking at my time, but at least now I have some better insight into my pacing…

Time: 1:22:07

Avg Speed: 18.12 mph

Run

Blasting through T2 and I was off on the run. I always falter a little bit on the beginning of the run, but by mile 1.5 when I still felt good, I really cranked it up. It was the best I had ever felt on the run by FAR. A confusing feeling, but a very welcome one.

Photo Credit: Eric Willis

Again, still having a one man roving party on the whole course, shouting at all my teammates and tossing out high fives along the course.

Photo Credit: Eric Willis

Coming through the home stretch before the finish line, I laid down the last high five on Carole Sharpless before gunning it to the finish.

Photo Credit: Eric Willis

I re-passed a few guys (not in my age group unfortunately) that took me earlier in the course as I neared the finish. I heard some grumbles as they spotted the age on my calf. “He is young, that isn’t fair.”

I huffed “It is just a number, come with me!” as I blasted by some more old guys, but no one could hold on.

Photo Credit: Eric Willis

It was great having such a strong push to the finish because it shows that my run fitness is way beyond where it has been for the past few years. My pace wasn’t anything spectacular, but knowing that I still had some juice in me says a lot. Better understanding my pacing will come before Rev3 Quassy next month and I’m hoping to totally rock it there.

Run Pace: 7:42

Finishing Time: 2:41:33

The End

Overall I wasn’t totally happy with my finish time, but had a BLAST during the race otherwise. My plan was to leave everything out there on the course. I left everything that I THOUGHT that I had out there, but it turns out my tank holds a lot more speed than I thought. It is dissapointing to not hit anywhere close to what I think my potential is, but I’m totally psyched to realize that my new training plan is bringing me places that my old plan from last year could have never done.

All in all, it was a great day.

A major thanks has to be laid out to Team Trakkers’ Momma Bear, Carole Sharpless. Managing of team of +30 athletes all across the country is no easy feat, and she was a blast to hang around with all weekend. She makes me proud to be part of such an amazing group. I won’t even try to attempt naming all of the awesome teammates and blogger friends that I met in person for the first time last weekend. You know who you are. You all rock and I can’t wait to race with you again very soon.

Photo Credit: Eric Willis

Until next time folks! The next race on the plan is to seek revenge on the Rev3 Quassy course and annihilate last year’s time. Only a few more weeks until race day comes again. At Quassy I’ll have to race a little more seriously and not make stupid faces for the photographers every time.

Photo Credit: Eric Willis

Celebrating a great day with some of Trakkers’ speediest ladies, Sonja and Michelle.

Lastly, a huge OBVIOUS thanks for Sonja’s dad, Eric Willis for taking a million awesome pictures for the team. He is the one with his name plastered in the photo credits all over this post. If you liked all the pictures in this post, he is the guy to thank.

Tags: olympic distance triathlon, rev3 knoxville | Posted in Nutrition, Race Reports, Triathlon | 10 Comments »

Lobsterman Race Report

Sunday, September 20th, 2009

Yesterday I closed out the 2009 triathlon season with the Lobsterman Oly. I know what you are thinking. Didn’t you just tear your legs off during the Ragnar Relay just one week ago? Yeah. About that…

The timing probably wasn’t the best as far as planning for a perfectly executed end of season race, but I just couldn’t turn it down. A teammate had registered for the race but couldn’t go anymore. I jumped up and made sure that his tickets to the lobster bake got put to good use too! I’d hate to see those poor little lobsters die in vain.

The venue was perfect. About 2 hours north of Boston in Freeport, Maine. Gorgeous coastline and nice quiet roads all along the course. It even started late (9:30 am) since we were waiting on the tide to come in.

The thing about an ocean swim in Maine in mid-September is that it is guaranteed to be C-O-L-D. A lot of people spent plenty of time in the water warming up, but I thought they were pretty insane. Especially when the water was still probably warmer than the air was early in the morning, I wasn’t going to join them. I dipped my toes in and that was all. My guess was that it was high 50s or low 60s.

After the pre-race meeting, my wave was called up. We walked down the boat ramp into the water and treaded water by the end of the dock until we heard the signal to go off. As we walked down into the water, each one of us gave a little squeal as the water came up above our waist. It is always entertaining to hear grown men squeal like girls, especially when we were all wearing bright pink caps.

I have to admit, I sang a few lines of “I feel pretty… oh so pretty!” while we were waiting for the gun to go off. Always gotta keep the pre-race nerves in check and make sure I’m not taking myself too seriously.

Not my swim wave, but here is the swim exit.

Pretty gorgeous course, right? It was pretty brutal too. It was probably one of the most aggressive swim starts I’ve ever been in and the waves and current made sighting a constant challenge. Thankfully it was a little warmer farther out in the water than it was close to shore.

The bike course was just as scenic. Beautiful country roads and more than enough rolling hills. There was almost a constant blowing wind from the front and the side. For a lot of the downhills I had to squeeze my legs on to the frame to stay stable. I’m usually really confident on high-speed descents, so that is saying a lot.

My legs felt surprisingly good. When I was pounding up the hills or laying it on to pass someone, I could feel a little extra hurtin’ in my quads. I was a little nervous about how running would feel, but I figured there was no reason to hold back on the last race of the season.

Once I made it to the run course, it was a different story. The first mile was all up hill and beat me up from the start. I was getting passed a lot, but was holding a pretty solid pace that I knew was sustainable. I just held on.

At the turnaround, I figured I was doing just about 8:00/mile. Nothing spectacular, and I knew I could have done a lot faster if I was better recovered, but I was happy with it. I turned up the throttle for the last 3.1 and drove it home, catching a few runners that passed me in the first few miles of the run.

My unofficial time was 1:43:33. It is surprisingly close to a PR for me! I’ll have to double check the official results and dig through my past results, but it was a pretty strong way to close out the 2009 triathlon season!

Me and Sunny comparing times.

And the best part, there was a huge post-race lobster bake and free beer! Me and a few other Wheelworks teammates claimed a spot on the grass, soaked up the sun and stuffed our face full of lobster. I went home smelling like Geary’s, lobster, seaweed and sweat. I call that a good day.