Sunday: The Rev 3 Knoxville and My Second Mother's Day

So, today My husband and I were up at 6:00 AM Knoxville time with Ivan (which is 5:00 AM for us) and headed out the door to get to the Rev 3 before they closed down the transition area. Now, this triathlon required that you check in your bike to transition the night before the race. This is both a worry and a relief, as it just great to leave it transition so that there is less hassle in the morning. The downside to this is that I spend the rest of the day slightly concerned about who is babysitting my bike and what if I get there tomorrow morning and the cold had changed the air compression in my tires and I have to pump them up when I am trying to worry about everything else. Confession: I am terrible at pumping up tires. It is a frustrating effort that often ends up with a completely flat tire or two.

Now, when I arrived at transition, my bike was fine, and I sat out the rest of my stuff. I had a momentary glitch where I couldn't find my goggles, and I think that my blood pressure shot up to dangerous levels. They were located, I got on my wetsuit and made my way to the dock to wait for the swim start.

Here is what I realized when I got to the dock: my wetsuit is horrible. It is too thick, it has a rip at the neck, the shoulders don't have enough give (so when I swim in it, it makes my shoulders sore), and the crotch is full on embarrassing. The crotch comes down too low, so it looks like I could carry my luggage in the gap between my wetsuit and my crotch. It is definitely sort of shameful to have crotch issues anywhere. Also, the gap makes my legs look short and this is the most intolerable injustice of all. I am, however, too frugal to spend money on a better wet suit that I will only use twice a year. I definitely want a pair of white jeans more than I want a new wetsuit. I talked to Jase Durard (in my swim group and coached by Richard Baker) at the start of the race, and he told me that he rents a wetsuit before races. This way, he can try whatever wetsuit he likes for whatever the circumstances of the race. Also, his wetsuit looked fantastic on him. So, renting a wetsuit will be my new plan of action.

SO, onto the race. I got in the water for my wave start, and I had no water panic issues. I swam easily, it got a bit crowded at the end, but the water was not too cold. My only real complaint with the swim was that they had no ladder to get out of the water and I had to hoist myself out with the help of a rather rough neck volunteer, who grabbed me by my arm and jerked me most ungracefully by my arm onto the dock, where I was laid out like a fish for a few seconds. Also, the swim was downstream in the beginning and you finished upstream. It took my 5 minutes to get downstream and like 19 to get back up. I ran to transition, struggled out of my wetsuit (9 minute transition time) and headed out on the bike.

Now, I was wet from the water, the temp in Knoxville was in the 50's, and there was a cold wind, combined with the wind you feel riding a bike. It was freezing. I could not feel my toes at all the whole time I was on the bike, and my bike posture was rigid from the cold. It was a hard bike course (lots of uphills and twisty downhills) , but I feel that it was one of my better bikes and my Todd Nordmeyer and Spinervals practice is helping me. Now, I am gauging this "better bikes" by the fact that I passed about 3 or 4 people on the bike. This is a first. I ONLY GET PASSED ON THE BIKE. To wit, according to the Rev 3 Results Page, I was in 55th place when I got out of the water, had fallen to 82nd place when I finished the bike, and moved up to 71st place by the time I finished my run. Interesting right; my bike sabotages me every time.

The run was easy. I averaged sub-8 minute miles, there was some slight confusion when you intersected with the bike course, but nothing huge. I finished at the REV 3 arch, and my husband got a picture. Thrilling. They gave me a tasty boxed lunch and a finishers technical tee. Also, I received the heftiest race medal of all time. It feels like an anvil. All in all, I am completely pleased with the whole race, and I think I will do it again next year. When you have done a race once, it makes doing it again easy, as you sort of know the drill. I might shoot for the half-iron next year, but this year Richard Baker said it best when he said "Right now, there is nothing I want to be doing for 5 hours".

The race was also fun, because it was relatively local. Jill Mongene, Jim Day, Jase Durard, Richard Baker, Scott (who use to swim with me), Judy Daggett, and lots of other fun people were there. That part is always fun as well.

We made it home with one blissful stop at Starbucks.

Pics from race are posted above. Also, embedded my Garmin bike. Run did not download.