Rev3 Cedar Point - Half Rev - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I placed myself near the front of the wave. I wasn't sure how this would work out for a race so large. (Each race I seem to want to start nearer the middle or back, doubting my abilities on the swim.) I looked around to judge what others might look like in terms of what I perceived their swimming ability might be but decided to nervously stay put rather than place myself further back. I unnerved myself by making small talk of the race and the water depth.
The swim start was in water about knee deep and slowly getting deeper for the first 50-100 feet. When they started the swim I ran until the water was just above my knees and I felt I would have better luck swimming than trying to run. I did a couple of dolphin dives to get a little further out before starting to swim. The rest of the wave that was either beside or on front of me was still running but I was able to gain some ground a little faster by using this method in the very early part of the swim.
In the early part of the swim I swam a little harder than the last HIM but still under control. It has become my habit to start a little slower and attempt to set a rhythm before trying to pace higher. I had set a little bit of a stronger pace early and seemed to drop many of the swimmers fairly quickly but there were plenty still hanging on that I was able to notice. I got to the second yellow marking buoy before I started to pick up the pace some and concentrate on relaxing my stroke while trying maintaining the faster pace.
It was about this time that I began to notice that I had caught the back of the previous wave. As I approached this wave I began to have to navigate a little differently because I had begun to run into other swimmers. I had been sighting about every 4th or 5th stroke cycle and been moderately successful at staying on course well. After hitting these other swimmers I began to sight more frequently. I had hit 6-7 swimmers, needing to swim over their legs to stay on course and after not noticing them come in from the sides of me. I know a couple of these swimmers had been off course enough to come in almost across my body, likely because of poor navigation.
I had a several bouts of poor navigation myself that I will mostly blame on the swells of small waves that deemed to part of large water body swimming. These waves seemed to push me slightly to the outside of the course. This effect was increased by the longer distances between the yellow sighting buoys. I never got off course a lot but enough to add a small distance to the swim.
Once around the first red turn buoy the water seemed to clear some from the other swimmers from the wave directly in front of mine. I did still encounter 1 or 2 swimmer during the rest of the race but no more.
The back of the course was easier to sight because of the way the waves were rolling now. Previously they had been rolling perpendicular to us as we headed out. Now we were paralleling them and I could sight right down them rather than try to sight over the top of them. I really like d this part of the swim. I seemed to be able to sight the best here. I also had the wind at my back for this part of the race. It was almost blowing right down my back here.
I made it to the final turn buoy and knew I only had . 4 miles to go before I could get on the bike. I waited until I passed the first yellow sighting buoy before I tried to pick up the pace a little more. By now the water was almost completely opened to me. I still had other swimmers to navigate around but there were fewer of them and they seemed to be more scattered around the water. I also think I was sighting the best for this part of the swim. I could see land a reference things on the land much better. I couldn't really see the Muscle Milk chute marking the swim exit but I could see where the treeline opened up to the transition entrance.
The rest of the swim was at a moderately hard pace. At the last sighting marker I began to kick a little bit harder to warm up my legs. As I approached the shoreline I wasn't too sure of how soon I would hit the sandy bottom and need to stand up and run in the rest of the way. I got about 100 yards from shore and my hands began to hit the bottom. I short stroked for a few strokes knowing that there was a dip in the depth again before I would need to stand up and run. I hit the bottom a few more times and decided I must have missed the deeper spot and stood up and tried to run. I got about 2-3 steps and the water began to dip again......Awesome timing!! I did another dolphin dive and stroked another stroke cycle and was back into the shallow water again and stood up and was able to run the rest of the way into the shore and into transition.

Probably not much. I think I could swam harder than I did but I am still trying to work out the pacing for long course racing and I am not sure just how hard to hit the swim yet.
Next season I hope to be a little bit better at pacing the swims.

This was one of the down sides of this race. I had spent some time during my volunteering on Saturday inside the transition. I found my spot, counted the rows and columns of other racks into transition from the swim in, marked my rack using the changing tent as a reference and I "knew" where my rack was.
Now, on race day, I came into transition and came down the wrong column and began looking for my bike.......Nothing! I couldn't find it. I had turned down the wrong column of racks but was in the right row. I paused for a minute to look at the numbers and realized I was one column off. Not a huge time consuming error but it cost me 10-15 seconds because I became disoriented and distracted.
Once at my rack I was off kilter mentally and kind of had to mess around with my wetsuit more than I remember ever having to. Not the best transition ever but it wasn't stupid slow.

Relax a little I guess. Maybe I got a little too "into" the race that I tried to go on memory rather than actually counting.

After my lackluster T1 I had some time to make sure I got refocused on my bike. I needed to get the mistakes out of my head and not rush into a harder bike effort than I needed this early in the race. I was able to put the frustration out of my mind surprisingly fast which is uncharacteristic for me. Usually I allow these things to affect my mindset enough to make me want to throttle everything up.
As I headed out onto the ride I got settled into my plan; Take the first 15 minutes or so to collect myself and allow my cycling legs to get under me, begin my nutrition plan at the same point and begin to gauge effort and pace closely.
I had ridden the first 5-6 miles of the course on Saturday and I knew those first miles were littered with a lot of manholes that could cause some problems during passing or navigation with other cyclists around. The potholes would rise and fall in varying places with rough pavement all around many of them. The road had lots of cracks and small holes that would also affect how I could approach passing or being passed. I had also needed to replace a bottle cage before leaving home but I forgot to do that and needed to purchase a couple of them at the expo.
This became important at mile 4 when I lost one bottle of nutrition. It was my bottle of Perpeteum that had a strong mix to include about 350-375 calories. The bottle fell out on this rough part of the road I had spotted the previous day. I had to stop and go back after it! It was way to many calories for me to have to figure out how to adjust while on the course. They had Gatorade but that would not have been sufficient to to get me into the run. I sharply applied the brakes and briefly sent the back tire into a skid. It caused no problems other than I thought about whether it may have some affect on a possible flat later, but really I put that out of my mind. I am guessing the brief stop cost me less than a minute to stop, turn around, unclip, get moving again and get back up to speed. Other than the frustration of dropping the bottle I didn't let this affect much of my thoughts. I figured I had better check my bottles more frequently for the remainder of the race.....52 more miles!
After this episode I was back up to speed and considered where I was at on the course several times, keeping a close eye on time and distance. Not to see my pace and projected finishing time for the bike, but rather to make sure I began my nutrition as planned.
For the first 8 or so miles I had a light wind at my back and was feeling like I was smoking down the road. My effort was well within control although my HR was higher than planned. Since about a month ago when Jeff (something I was just beginning to figure out myself too) suggested that his bikes were always hard for the first several miles after the swim I have begun to allow this to occur but focus on bringing it down while maintaining a certain level of RPE as planned for the specific race. This part of the course seemed to have a slight decrease in elevation and, no after checking the maps, the actual net of the first 8 miles was a gain but only at in the last 2 miles of the stretch. Although my HR was indicating a harder effort my RPE indicated a much more controlled and even effort. This was exactly what I was planning. Thanks to Jeff for teaching and re-enforcing this principal.
Once through these miles I began my nutrition and checked my HR occasionally to make sure I was well within my planned zones. However, rather than checking current HR I was checking my average HR for the ride all the time considering my RPE. I had 1 bottle of Heed mixed to about 250 calories and 1 bottle of Perpeteum mixed to about 350-375 calories and my aero bottle was filled with water. I had 2 Stinger Waffles for something as a filler in my stomach but also for more calories, knowing the calories from the waffles wouldn't likely have much effect on my "race nutrition." I simply mixed up the drinking combination to change up the flavor. I certainly DO NOT like Perpeteum AT ALL and tolerate if because of the calories, so I would use Heed to get something more palatable.
By about mile 18 or 20 I had a couple of riders in my AG catch me and they passed me slowly. I don't remember increasing my effort to keep them close and I assume they backed down after passing me. Most of the riders that passed me did this same thing. The problem was that after some of these guys passed me they seemed to form a group right in front of me and some began drafting. One rider wasn't even acting like he cared that he was drafting. I watched as he stayed on the wheel of one rider for 3-4 miles. I had gotten into and out of the group several times because of small hills. It seemed they, or most of them, would either burn down them and then burnout on the climbs or not carry an even effort down and then slow too much on the way up. This caused me to have to pass them going up only to watch as they passed me on the way down. I continued to attempt to maintain an even effort over the entire course. The only place I broke this plan as long down hill that was almost a mile long. I saw this in front of me and decided to have a little fun and push the pace downhill a little bit. Nothing crazy, just a slightly harder push on the pedals.
It was this downhill that I dropped ALL of the drafters. I kept looking back for them for a 2-3 miles following the big downhill and I never saw them again. I am not able to get to the data on my Garmin right now to see what peak speeds I reached during that short stretch but I looked at one point during the race and Saw 37.? MPH and I was loving the speeds again.
The rest of the bike leg seemed to go a little bit uneventful except that I traded positions with another guy in my AG several times from mile 40-50 before he finally dropped me for a change. I may have irritated him a little bit over those few miles because he may have burned himself up. I could always see him but he got close a quarter of a mile in front of me as we headed into T2.
The bike was a great bike for me. I wouldn't have thought I could have sustained that pace for all of the 56 miles before the race. I was passed in the first 6-8 miles about 5-6 times. One of those was a guy in my AG that passed me and abruptly slowed down and I never saw him again after I re-passed him. Other than he and the other "drafting" riders that traded positions with me several times, I never saw those first 5-6 riders again. I know at least a couple of them were in my AG and they crushed me in the bike.
I finished the cycling leg knowing I had completed the best bike I could have imagined. I was very happy! I had told Lis that I thought coming in at 2:40:00 was ideal and I surpassed that unimaginably.

Nothing! As with the swimming I am still learning my capabilities for the long course stuff. I planned well and executed my plan almost to perfection. This is not to say I am a stellar athlete but I was vigilant to stay with my plan.

Again, I was a little lost coming in. I am not sure what it was about this race. The rack were definitely different than I am used to and the size of the transition area itself is huge. Maybe this was enough to cause the disorientation and allow me to loose time.
This mistake was much less noticeable and if I didn't tell people it may have been completely unnoticed by spectators. I had to rack my bike from the wrong side of the rack but given the way the racks were made this made next to no difference in my time. It was just the slowness trying to fine my spot.

Just like T1, I should relax a little more and slow it down to make sure there are no mistakes.

As with the last HIM I did I took out of T2 like it was on fire. I checked my watch and noticed 6:54 over the first 200 yards or so. This time I was prepared for this and was able to more quickly gain control of my pace. I was feeling really good about a half mile in and settled in around a 7:30 pace, as indicated by my watch. I planned to take it a little bit easy for the first few miles, adjust my nutrition from the last race to include a few more calories overall and then see how the rest of the race unfolded.
Once out of transition I began to gain ground on a runner that was moving a little slower than I. He seemed to have a slight hobble and I knew I was about to overtake him. as I approached him I realized it was the last cyclist I had been doing battle with before he dropped me and put about about a quarter of a mile into me before T2. He was still moving a t a decent clip but I knew he wouldn't be catching me after I passed him based on how he was running. I felt for him and kind of wished we could kind of duel again rather than he give up a position to me because he was injured. I thought about knowing he was a stronger rider than I, but I felt like I could take him on the run based on his size. He was about 6 feet tall and had to have been very close to being a Clydesdale. However I knew this wasn't the case because the Clydes left about 1 or 2 waves behind the 40-44 AG. I passed him about .25-.5 in and saw him later as we crossed paths about mile 6 or 7.
About mile 3 or 4 I noticed a pick up with a man and a woman in it driving around shouting encouragement to runners. They stopped and parked and then I began to see the man running the course shouting words of encouragement to us as we continued on the race. A couple of times I made comments to him, such as: "shouldn't you be racing somewhere?" and "You need a bib buddy!" It was a friendly exchange and really lightened up some of the pain I was beginning to feel. I last saw him around mile 9 for the last exchange.
About mile 6 or 7 I saw one of my AG's pass that had passed me about mile 2 pull up with an injury. He had passed me with authority and I knew there was not going to be a chance to catch him......and then he became injured. Again another competitor in my AG out with an injury. He went on to finish but I passed him around mile 7-8 and didn't see him until he was getting ART after the race was complete.
I was getting late in the race and I hadn't seen Brenda. I had been looking for her since late in the bike where the courses join up as we headed back into town but I hadn't seen her. I was looking forward to seeing her and exchanging passing pleasantries as we seem to always do. I didn't see her until I was about 11 or 12 miles into the run. We saw each other coming a long way off and unless she was swatting flies she was waving like a cray person. She was smiling as she always is and offered more words of encouragement. I loved seeing her out there. She seemed to be having a much better race than 2 weeks ago.
The last mile and a half were pretty torturous. I had planned to try to negative split the last couple if I had it in me. As it turned out I was slowing down without really noticing. The miles of 11 and 12 were at 7:40 and 7:45, respectively, but this was quite unintentional. I think mentally I began to give into the pain a little bit and psychologically allow myself to slow. I noticed this a little bit late into mile 12 as I changed a field on my watch to indicate the current lap average. After noticing, I got my mind back into race mode and began to pick up the pace some. Mile 13 was recorded at 7:33 and the last .1 miles of the half marathon was at 7:26.
The highlight of my race, however, was not finishing high in my second HIM, feeling like I raced well or knowing that I had run a remarkably strong race (much stronger than I could have imagined), it was being able to cross the finish line with my girls beside me. THAT was the thing I enjoyed the most!!

I would try to get control of the run sooner again. I doubt that the short burst of speed at the beginning had anything to do with my slow down at mile 11 and 12 but it is something to keep in check.
Mentally I gave up a little bit at 11 and 12. I knew I was going to have an incredible PR that I don't think I'll be able to replicate soon and I think I allowed that to get into my head rather than pushing through and staying consistent. My most consistent miles were 3-6, coming in at 7:27, 7:27, 7:28 and 7:28. I can't even believe how close they were, even as I look at them.

I laid on the ground to elevate my legs for a couple of minutes. A I lay there the feeling I got immediately after the MCM came around, to a much lesser, degree but I was getting concerned. The feeling of all the muscles contracting and releasing rapidly makes for something very uncomfortable that I wasn't looking forward to experiencing again......Ever!
I went to the ART tent and got my left heel worked on. It has been giving some trouble for a little while and I allowed them to work it a little bit. I now have a pln in place to have more ART done at home, now that I know we have ART in Ft. Wayne.


Lack of knowing my capabilities. I thikn I could have went faster for this course with the proper knowledge of racing long course, but I am learning, so I'll defer to lack of experience.
I also think it was just this day. Everything seemed to work very well for me despite the poor transitions. I think this race was outside of my normal zone. I am not sure I could do it again given the same conditions. I was just simply blessed to have such a good day.



I loved this race, the venue, the atmosphere, everything was pretty incredible. This is by far the biggest triathlon I have been involved with and it was done first class, no holds barred. The Rev3 organization even waited for the very last Full Rev participant to cross the line at 19:20, more than 2 hours after the course closed. Very, very nice! It must have been an awesome experience for that last person to see that they had waited for them to cross the line.
Results: Bib #855 http://rev3tri.com/cedar-point/2012-results/