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Comments: I'm your typical slow swimmer, so this was a pretty good pace for me. Some small washing machine effects out to the first buoy, but once you rounded that it was pretty clean all the way to the finish. Water would have been a little chilly without, I'm glad I brought the wetsuit. Swim time was about 10 minutes slower than Augusta 2 weeks before, but that was a current-aided river swim (although wetsuit legal also). I beat my previous 1.2 mile swim time (at RnR Macon) by about 3 minutes, so I was pretty pleased with the results. What would you do differently?: Nothing.  Transition 1
Comments: Lake was a little nasty, but not nearly as bad as the Augusta river – the white portions of my top were stained mud-colored after the swim. After you get out of the water, you ran through about 4 feet of mud up to T1, but there’s nothing to wash your feet off with up there, so you ended up having to put your socks on your muddy feet. Had a little issue getting my wetsuit off since there were no wetsuit strippers, plus there was a photographer standing over me the whole time taking pictures of my futility, which was very unnerving. Probably cost me a minute or two in my transition, I'm usually just over a minute for T1. Plus, had to stuff my wetsuit/goggles/swim cap in a bag to get them brought over to the finish line. What would you do differently?: Bring a bucket to wash my feet off.  Bike
Comments: Whoever planned the bike course pretty much needs to be taken out back and shot. Very difficult - did someone even ride it beforehand to see how it was? It might have been the hilliest course I’ve ever ridden, was hella windy (I know that the race organizers can’t control that, but I was blown all over the course), and the roads were awful. Like huge potholes that could crack a carbon rim awful. And they were everywhere. It’s sad that the best roads that we rode on were in the “historic” town of Pendleton. As you turn into T2 – I thought to myself “that’s very apropos” – there was a hill leading into transition. After a 20.3 mph split at Augusta, this was disappointing. What would you do differently?: Plan a different bike course? Transition 2
Comments: A little trouble finding my rack, since it wasn't the same place where I got my bike from. Once I found it, though, no issues dropping the bike off, changing shoes, applying sunscreen, and heading out. Hit the porta-potty on the way out of T2, which leads to the approximately 1 minute increase over my Augusta T2 time. What would you do differently?: Bring some chalk or something to help identify my rack.  Run
Comments: Aid stations were well-stocked. Volunteers were great. Had some college-aged girls dressed as Disney princesses (don't know quite what that was about, but it provided a little motivation). The first 4 miles or so of the run was on the same course as the Olympic, so it was difficult to tell who was where. What would you do differently?: Not much - this was almost my open half marathon PR, so I'm pretty pleased with my pacing. Post race
Warm down: Saw my picture flash across the jumbotron! Found the wife, got some Gatorade/water, and rehydrated. Event comments: All in all, it was a pretty good race. Rev3 has a good reputation, and I think that they lived up to it. The finish line was 2nd to none (including Augusta). They had a huge finish chute. Inflatables (3 or 4) for the kids. Tethered hot-air balloon rides. It was a little like a fair. So, that was pretty cool. The finish line had good eats, too – BBQ, panera sandwiches, funnel cakes, beer (in addition to the standard water/Gatorade/muscle milk). Pretty much everything a growing boy needs after a race. Aid stations were exceptionally well stocked on the bike (Gatorade, gu, bananas, water) and run (all of the above, plus coke/pretzels/salt tabs). Rev3 managed the 2 transitions very well – it was a bit weird having T1 not be at the same place as T2, but it went pretty much flawlessly. That was the good. As mentioned earlier, the bike course was very tough. They needed to have something to wash your feet off after you got out of the lake. Also, my other recommendation to them – have more trash cans. You couldn’t find a trash can at the finish line to save your life. Glad I did it. Not sure I’d do it again, it would depend on the timing with Augusta. I think that 2 weeks is too little between HIMs (but now I know), 3 might work much better. I liked the course a lot more at Augusta, I liked the look and feel more of the race and finish line at Rev3. Augusta is obviously a much bigger race as well – there were approximately 3,000 athletes at Augusta, and I think there were less than 200 that ran the 70.3 at Rev3 yesterday (there were about another 500 or so that were running an Olympic on partially the same course). Last updated: 2011-10-07 12:00 AM
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United States
REVOLUTION3 Triathlon
70F / 21C
Overcast
Overall Rank = 85/197
Age Group = M30-34
Age Group Rank = 16/31
This is going to be a bit long-winded, but I think it's important to have a good number of RRs for an inaugural race.
Unfortunately, Rev3 required athlete check-in on Saturday between noon and 6:00 pm, and had a mandatory bike check-in, at a different location, also on Saturday between noon and 6:00 pm. As I was going to the GT football game on Saturday, that kicked off at noon, it was exceptionally unlikely that I'd be able to make both the athlete check-in and bike check-in by the time I was able to leave Atlanta after the game (approximately 4:00 pm) and drive to Anderson (approximately 2 hours away). I was going to be cutting it close to just get my bike checked in. So, I drove up to Anderson on Friday night after work to get the "athlete" check-in accomplished.
Got to Anderson about 6:00 pm (Friday night athlete check-in went to 7:00 pm), got my race packet/t-shirt/visor, etc. Checked out T2, which was right by the finish line, and tried to envision in my head how the two transition setup was going to work. Drove over to Darwin Wright Park (where T1 is located) to see where it was. Eventually got tired of walking around T1, and got back in my car to drive back to Atlanta. After stopping at the grocery store for the wife, got home about 8:30. Packed up the car for the football game, all my gear for the weekend, bike, etc., and went to bed. Thrilling Friday night, I know.
Baby got us up at 7:00 am on Saturday. Got her and the wife ready to go, and went to drop the baby off with the grandparents for the weekend. Headed downtown to watch GT beat Maryland, and left with about 2 minutes to go to beat traffic out of town (approximately 3;45 pm). Made good time up to Anderson and got there about 5:15. Checked my bike in at Darwin Wright Park, where the swim start was. Rev3 has these cool bike racks I've not seen before, they are like a deep slot that you stick your bike rear wheel in. Holds your bike vertically just fine, so there's no futzing with an actual rack for your bike.
Walked around Darwin Wright Park with the wife for a bit, and realized that I had not gotten my timing chip when I picked up my packet Friday night. So, we made the quick drive over to T2/the finish line (about 4 miles away) and get there right as the crew is packing up for the night. Jumped the fence and begged my way into a timing chip - score! Also of note, the Rev3 staff takes your picture when you pick up your timing chip, and they display this picture on their jumbotron when you finish. A nice little carrot for the attention whores :).
Had a friend that had moved up to Anderson a couple years prior, so met him for dinner downtown. Went and checked into the hotel, and watched Georgia beat Tennesee (booo), and got everything setup for the next day.
Saturday morning - alarm went off at 5:00 am. After much grumbling by the wife, we got up and moving. The Anderson Civic Center (where T2 and the finish line are located) has plenty of parking, and we were only a couple miles away, so not a huge hurry to get there to set up T2. Stopped by Dunkin Donuts to grab the wife a coffee to limit her grumbling, parked, got all the gear together and dropped my race belt, running shoes, a spare pair of socks, visor, and nutrition belt at T2. Everything else was coming with us to T1. Got in the shuttle (Anderson's got really nice shuttles) for the 10 minute ride to T1.
At Darwin Wright Park, got all my gear setup, hit the porta-potty, and into my wetsuit with about 20 minutes to spare.
No warmup, 70.3 miles is going to be plenty.
Watched the professional male and female waves go off about 3 minutes apart, then it was time for my wave, males 39 and under. Gave the wife a final kiss, tossed on the swim cap and goggles, and was off!