The Things that I enjoy in life: Rev3 Knoxville Championship Race Report

Rev 3 Knoxville Championship Race

I qualified for this Race last year with the 2 rev3 Races that I did. They notify me on December. I thought it was great motivation to keep me going through the winter. The problem was that the winter in the DC area was really tough with a lot of snow (not normal for the area). Add to the winter an unexpected lost of employment and a 10 day trip (vacation) back home. I knew I wasn’t in top shape in any of the 3 disciplines but specially the bike.

On Friday, My friend Brian my GF Dagmar and I left rainy and flooded DC to Knoxville. It was an easy 8 hours drive. One flooded road near front royal added extra time. It was my first time going in to the state of Tennessee. I saw a dramatic change once we hit the state line. You could feel the southern hospitality. We arrived around 6 and went straight to packet pick up. The swag was really cool and the Rev 3 set up cool as usual. We select a hotel 5 miles from transition. We had dinner and went straight to bed as we were tire for the ride.

With Pro Cameron Dye

On Saturday, We wake up set up the bikes and went to transition to do a short bike ride, short run and swim. The day went on uneventful. The weather was colder than expected but no rain. The water was 70, warmer than outside. During lunch we went to a nice river front bar restaurant and my friend with a swimming background spotted, London 2012 Gold medalist Davis Tarwater. He was really cool and aloud me a picture with him. We spend the rest of the afternoon resting at the hotel and setting everything for the next day.

With Davis Tarwater

Race Day I was up 5 AM had the usual stuff for me at breakfast: 1 Banana 3 TB of Peanut Butter 2 breads and Coconut milk. We arrive to transition and set up everything. Everything went smooth. I Walked 10 min to the swim to get my wetsuit on with time. It was on and finally it was game time.

Swim 1.2 miles 34:35

My Goal for the swim was to be between 33-35 min, I knew base on my workouts I would be around that time. The Swim started rough for the first 100 mts but then everything was clear path. By ½ way I found my self swimming alone. This was my first swimming alone on a race so I thought I was struggling. With like 200 meters I saw 30 min on my watch so I started to push. When I climb the deck I hit my watch and it said 33: 52, but the timing mat was 50 mt away so add that to the time.

T1- 5:47

The transition was located a good 500 mts from the swim exit add that I decided to wear my compression socks for the bike. The decision for wearing compression socks on the bike was to test it in preparation for my next IM. Any way that makes up another picnic transition for my collection.

Bike 40 miles 2:15:33

This bike course was a true honest course. It was tough a lot of climbing but at the same time it was fun. I knew that my lack of bike fitness for a course like this will catch up to me at some point. I took it easy the 1^st 30 min and then began building up at the 1hour mark I began to hammer and to catch people. With like 15 miles to go the course merge with the Olympic race so it was more people to catch. I was feeling great until mile37; there I hit nice 6% grade climbs that knock me off. From there those 3 miles I was on survival mode. I just was thinking on getting to transition and get ready for the run. Regarding the drafting I only saw

T2- 1:35

When I hit the ground my toes were froze form the bike ride so it was hard to run bare foot. I miss my toe covers. I got my Newtons on and went for the run. Not a picnic this time !!!!

Run 1:17:37 9.8 miles

The run course was fun but tougher than expected is resume like this, mile 1-3 flat 4-6 hilly 7-9 flat last .8 small incline after small incline that was tougher than expected. Most of the run was on pave trail and a residential neighborhood. My goal originally was to run between 7:30 and 7:45 but after the hills on the middle of the run I adjust it and then push the last 3 miles. I wasn’t passed by anybody on the run and I was able to move up 8 spots over all. The last inclines of the run were tough so I had to dig deep. Finally I hit the finish line and was really happy to cross it and complete my first championship race.

Time 4:15:07 10/16 Age group, 54/84 Gender

Crossing the finish line with my #1 fan

Congratulations to Rev 3 for the great work that they did for this race. The race swag was different and nice the medal was great and the area family oriented. The championship race was that a true championship race with a true honest course and a lot of tough competition. I was happy with my placing I thought I lost a lot of places due to my slow transition but I only lost 1 place even with faster transition I will only had finished 9^th on my ag. I definitely want to be back on that championship course because with the proper bike training I should be able to go under 4 hours so may be next time. I also met a lot of local athletes (from the south) that will be competing in Ironman Chattanooga on late September. That was great and got me motivated.