Revolution3 Full Distance - TriathlonFull Ironman

Started in the second row center. I did not want to deal with a massive crowd in the water and I was willing to sprint it out and dolphin-dive hard in order to stay with the up-front people through 400m's or so in order to. All went well.

First: 35:16; First rectangle went well. Sighted ok, but mostly followed the feet in front of me and got to each turn buoy uneventfully.

Second: 36:18; Second loop I slowed as the chop picked up a bit and I didn't want to have a floored HR going into T1. Swallowed a decent amount of water during that portion though:( Overall it was still pretty decent.

Seemed like I was in T1 for an eternity. I ran out of the water, unzipped and continued up to the water buckets. Rinsed my feet as I ran through, grabbed my T1 bag and into the tent. Took off the rest of my suit and a volunteer was asking if I wanted help (very nice) but I was good without it. Sat on the seat and grabbed my towel and dried my face and head. On with the glasses, helmet and was ready to bail. Started trying to get my wetsuit in the bag and the volunteer stopped me and took care of it.

Got to my bike and ran out (< 50yds though, I was near the pro coral and bike out) slowly and carefully got onto my already clipped in shoes took off and was into the shoes and to speed before leaving the lot.

Started out right of the bat with a severe side stitch in the lower right just under the rib. By the end of the Chassee (the road leaving CP) it had gone away enough that it wasn't on my mind. The first 30 miles went pretty well wattages were close to what I wanted and my mph was on track for my "best race" desired pace. I was definitely holding back as well as I could because the wind was directly from the west and on the one straight stretch of road going w->e you could really get carried away!

The second 30 miles I started having some pains in the lower back and it started becoming more and more difficult to stay in the aero position. I began to consider stopping to try to stretch everything out. Also was having quite a time getting from my small ring into the big one and I started taking the rollers in my big ring rather than chance being in the small ring for the remainder of the ride.

Miles 60-90. Well pain in my back got very severe. I started really trying to stretch and help in some way while riding but nothing was helping. Really had to pee by mile 60 and just couldn't bring myself to pee on the bike. Anyways, I stopped and peed and only lost 60 seconds. I tried to stretch out the back and right hip but it was too tight to make a difference.

Ironman-distance is a mind-game and then some!!! Can you push through the pain? It's only pain right? Your body simply trying to convince your mind to stop, or slow, or whatever. But your mind gets the last say? IDK, pain is pain and pushing through it is HARD! Miles 90-112 were not fun. I wanted nothing more than to get off that bike and into my run shoes! The wind had shifted and was not in our favor any more, my back was in incredible pain, and it was all I could do to just stay aero as much as possible and spin at a high cadence. By the last 2 miles my feet were also killing me and I couldn't get to T2 fast enough!

But, you know what? I made it there!!! Riding on top of the shoes, moving dismount went great, the catcher was on it and my bike was in their hands and I was ECSTATIC!

Lap and HR Data:
Lap|Miles|PwrAvg|HR Avg
1 30.46 173 154
2 30.89 194 152 --- Oops too hard, but I knew that!
3 28.77 187 147 --- Still too hard
4 21.36 191 150 --- Hard, but slow. Back pain caused problems.

I hobbled down to my T2 bag, headed into the tent and almost kissed my run shoes as I pulled them out of the bag:) On with the hat, race # belt and out of the tent (taking my time of course)...

Wanted to pace 7:54's - 8:00's.

Went out too hard (what's new? Should I expect myself to do anything but that;) Anyways, my run gait was pretty out of whack as a result of the back, but I was moving my legs ok and my pacing was decent.

I felt like I had a decent grasp on my nutrition and really just was going off of feel with respect to what I ate and drank at each aid station. This was good and bad in the end.

Miles 1-14 went pretty well. Running past the finish line @ 13.1 was not terribly fun, but what can you do? The run was very sunny and surprisingly hot feeling for it only being 75 degrees or so. My stomach was a bit unnerved so I drank mostly water and ate 2 gu's (if I remember correctly) trying to make sure things stayed good on the digestive front.

Miles 15-19+ were not good at all. My body was really hurting and actually was starting to cramp in my forearms and hamstrings, all on top of the pains in my lower right back. I started wiping my upper arm at mile 16 or so and realized (after rubbing off sand-sized grains of salt) that I had probably not been taking in enough electrolytes (via sports drink and endurolytes). So, I pulled out my endurolytes and took 4 caps and then started drinking sports drink and water at the aid stations. I also mad the tough call to walk each aid station in an attempt to get it back under control. All that went fairly well. At around mile 19 I realized that I was NOT going to make my "good day" goal of sub 11 hours!!! :-(

Well, it was time in mile 20-26.2 to see who had control of things. Was it my mind or my body? I resolved to no longer walk the aid stations and to push past any physical pain and to just ignore anything that was not making me go faster. I started counting the people that I was catching and passing, but lost my ability to focus or even care after about 8 people:) So, I hopped from person to person and just kept looking forward... Make it to that person, make it to that stop sign, make it to the end of the road... up the hill... see the parking lot? Keep going, keep going...

Anyways, I kept going and was NOT HAPPY until I rounded the corner and saw the finish line... That instantly transformed the grimace or whatever may have been on my face with a big and genuine smile!!! I was so happy to be done. I finally got to see something good come out of an incredible investment that I had made. After having dealt with some epic losses that came over the course of the training cycle it was good to finally get to see the work and pain actually pay off!

Lap and HR Data:
Split Time Dist Avg Pace

1 00:07:32 1.00 07:32
2 00:07:41 1.00 07:41
3 00:08:12 1.00 08:12 - Porta-John pee break
4 00:07:57 1.00 07:57
5 00:08:00 1.00 08:00
6 00:08:07 1.00 08:07
7 00:08:10 1.00 08:10
8 00:08:30 1.00 08:30
9 00:08:08 1.00 08:08
10 00:08:29 1.00 08:29
11 00:08:27 1.00 08:27
12 00:08:26 1.00 08:26
13 00:08:21 1.00 08:21
14 00:08:33 1.00 08:33
15 00:09:04 1.00 09:04 - Started walking aid stations
16 00:09:28 1.00 09:28
17 00:09:10 1.00 09:10
18 00:09:02 1.00 09:02
19 00:09:26 1.00 09:26
20 00:08:50 1.00 08:50 - Realized I needed to hurry up
21 00:08:48 1.00 08:49
22 00:08:26 1.00 08:26
23 00:08:16 1.00 08:17
24 00:08:49 1.00 08:50
25 00:08:43 1.00 08:44
26 00:08:10 0.99 08:15

Needed to take more electrolytes proactively. Realized it a bit too late after my forearms and hamstrings were cramping and seeing all the salt I had sweat out when I rubbed the chunks of it off of my arm.

Limp to the massage/medical area.


Pacing and mental toughness.


Revolution3 really has it going on and they are only going to get better. I'm incredibly impressed with how well they are doing and they have really great people running their organization and media. They need some help with their web management and social media experiences but they have awesome potential to do great things for the Triathlon community. It was exciting to hear how thrilled Cedar Point management was to have us there and that they are so excited to work out annual events! As more events happen in that community the support will definitely grow quickly.

I am very glad to have been a part of the first Full Rev and if I choose to do more Iron-distance events (and am not focusing on KQing) then I'd go with a Rev3 event for sure.