Rev 3 Triathlon
Yesterday was the Rev 3 triathlon (half ironman distance) a race probably made famous with its large amount of prize money on offer.
Most of you probably know that I have been training in LA for the last four weeks so last Thursday Terenzo, Kelly and I made the 5hr flight east to Middlebury, Connecticut. Going in to the race I was feeling very confident, my training has been going great and having traveling companions in the form of Terenzo and Kelly has made the trip much more enjoyable. So on arriving on Thursday we checked the course and much to my delight it was hard as hell with lots of seriously tough hills on both the bike and run course. The final days ticked by everything went smoothly and I really felt I was both mentally and physically ready for a good race. Race day arrived and on arriving to the race site it was announced that the pro field will not be allowed to wear wetsuits as the cut off is 68 degrees F and supposedly it was 69 degrees f?? Anyway I tried not to let this worry me even though my history with the cold isn’t good. I went about my normal pre race routines and before I knew it I was warming up in the lake, first big mistake of the day, my so called warm up turned out to be a cool down. I swam around for about 5 mins then everyone was told to exit the water and we then had to wait a further 5mins in the holding area for the actual race to start. By this time I was frozen and my core temperature had dropped dramatically. Speaking to some of the other pros after the race they said to never warm up in the water if it’s cold which after yesterday I totally agree with. You are better off just to get a good run warm up in and swing the arms a bit. Anyway the gun went off and I felt my start was good and I was sitting in a good position but after a few hundred meters unfortunately the cold water really started to knock me around and my body just seized up on me. I lost contact with where I needed to be and started drifting further and further back. I ended up coming out more than 4 mins off the pace which although the swim is my weaker of the 3 disciplines coming out 4+mins behind in a half is way off where I normally am. I got out on to the bike and I must admit I was in somewhat of a dazed state due to the cold and my body wasn’t functioning well but I figured just get on the bike and start pushing really hard and the body temp would warm up. This was the case but it took much longer than I expected in fact it wasn’t until this 1mile climb at the 26 mile mark where I started to get some life back in to my body. The problem was the air temp was very cold even though it was a beautiful day. That paired with the fact that you were already freezing from the swim, the opportunity to warm up was pretty much zero!! So about half way through the ride I started to warm up and I found some good rhythm but I was over 90mins in to the race by this point and to be honest it was too late I had lost too much time. One of my goal for this race was to run strong so I still wanted to do this so I pushed on to the end of the ride and got off and tried to put a solid run together which I am happy to say I achieved that, I ended up running a 1hr 19min half marathon on a very hilly course which I am happy with. I ended up finishing 17th in a stacked pro field which I was very disappointed about but one of my main reasons for coming to the US this year is to gain valuable race experience and learn and I do feel in a strange way I did get a lot out of yesterday so I am trying not to be too disappointed. Thankfully I have another race, Eagleman 70.3 on Sunday so I don’t have to wait too long to have another crack. I will check in after that, until then…
James
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