Revolution3 Full Distance Aquabike - Aquabike

Prayers were answered, the wind direction changed 180 degrees and the water was fairly calm. I lined up towards the outside and just swam my own race from the start. For some reason I could not swim straight to the first buoy. I found myself about 30 yds off course a couple times. After the first turn I saw a group about 100 yds in front of me and decided to try to bridge that gap before the end of the first loop. I caught the group as we rounded the second buoy and wished I hadn't. As I started to pass them I kept taking hits to the head by someone's unusually wide stroke. I moved to the outside and went back to swimming my own race. As I exited the water ahead of the group I looked at my watch and saw 28:** and was pleased. I porpoised a few times before starting to swim and noticed someone about 25 yds in front of me. As I passed him I thought about going wide and speeding up a bit to avoid him latching on but decided to just let him if he wanted a ride. He latched on for the rest of the swim and each time I looked back it seemed like there were more bodies hitching a ride. I exited the water and crossed the beach in 58:**. Pleased with that effort for absolutely no training I took my time in transition.

Swim straighter and train more

Slow transition, nothing to rush for.

Helmet on, glasses on, shoes on ........ Aquaphor caked on pretty good and it's time to ride. Going into this race my longest ride was 80 miles back in early June and since has been in the 40-50 mile range. I was not expecting much from this ride but definitely wanted to break 6 hrs. My Garmin stopped working as soon as I started the ride so this was essentially a "naked" ride with no distance or speed data to keep me occupied. The first 10 miles were with the wind and I was very comfortable other than the bumps in the road. I decided to take 10 mile splits on my watch to at least have some idea of avg speed. This was a very flat course with constant 20+ mph winds. They felt great when they were to the back but the last part of each loop was directly into the wind. For the most part my 10 mile laps were just under 30 min and my AHR was in the low to mid 130's. After about 40 miles I was feeling drained as we were riding into a headwind. I was taking in too much fluids for how cold it was and could not stop having to go pee. It seemed like I had to stop every 15 miles or so! I started taking in more gels and bananas for energy and layed off on the fluids except 1 bottle of whatever the drink was on course each hour. This helped the peeing problem. I rode through the first couple aid stations like I was racing then thought that's crazy, I might as well take my time in these aid stations and chat with the volunteers while I use the porta-potty and reapply some Aquaphor to the crotch area. I had a handful of Aquaphor with me and gave a few tubes to one volunteer that said "I love that stuff!!" The funny thing is they recognized me by name the next time around so I had to stop again.

Miles clicked away the second loop until we hit the darn headwind for the last 30 miles! That was the longest 30 miles I had ever ridden. All I wanted to do was get back and eat! I was glad to get off that bike when I reached the park. Watch said 5:48, with all the stops I had I could not ask for more than that.

Walked around, waited to see some BTers come through T2. Ended up walking to the finish to get some food and watch the winners of the full come through.


Lack of training


Great race and a perfect family venue. I wish mine could have been there.