Rev3 Cedar Point - Half Rev - Triathlon

After no warm up, I figured I'd go out easy for the first 200. Luckily it was time trail, so it wasn't a washing machine for the first 200. I thought it was nice and easy, then I got into my grove. Things got a little dicey just as I started coming upon slower swimmers from previous waves in the narrow channel. It was hard to find room and at one point, I had people swimming 4 abreast, so I sprinted to get past them. Spiked my heart rate and I started having a bit of a panic. But slowed down my breathing for a minute and calmed down.

The rest was straight forward for the most part. I just kept plugging away the the next buoy. As I was coming into the return back into the channel, I got a little of course, but correct towards the blue arch. With about 200meters to go, I got clocked in the head by another swimmer and pulled up for a second. As soon as I pulled up, my calf cramped up. Poor guy who hit me thought I was in pain cause of him. It was because of the cramp. I told him not to worry about it, and I continued on with my foot locked at 90 degrees for a minute and then it subsided (I still have a not in my calf today).

I found my way to the boat ramp and climbed up. Ran over to the wetsuit strippers, had them pull my wtesuit off, found my shoes, and ran the .6 miles to transition.

Not sure why leg cramped up again at this race with the last few hundred meters. I need to look that up. Same thing happened at Cedar Point last year.

Only problem with transition was long run to get there. Everything else was straightforward. I had to take my wet shoes off and place them on my TA spot, but everything else was easy.

I jumped on the bike and immediately started passing people. My goal was to keep my HR in the 140s. It started out in the high 150s and even though I was passing people, t came down. It finally settled in around the 4 mile mark, then I just kept trying to keep it there. I felt great the whole ride.

On my bike, I had a highly concentrated Infinit solution on the down tube that I hit every 25 minutes. Then had water in the aerodrink that I filled at every aid station. I was averaging like 22.7 mph for the first 30 miles and I was waiting for the headwind to hit.

It hit a few times, but wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The worst part was the last 4 miles of gusting crosswind off the lake. The deep rims didn't like that and I had to focus to keep my bike going straight.

Came into transition feeling good but was scared of the run given my lack of run training due to injury over the past few months.

Everything was great until my GPS watch said low battery when I went to put it on.

Turn the GPS watch on when I hit T2 for the run instead of thinking my battery can hold out for 6 hours.

I have been injured for a good amount of the 2013 season with a bone spur in my foot. My longest run going into this race was 10 miles and I was still having some pain. This foot problem was lingering in the back of my head through the whole race as I wasn't sure how it would respond. I also chose to use my new orthotics which I got two weeks ago and did some practice runs in and they felt good.

In my head, I played it conservative. I figured I just needed to run about a 2 hour half marathon to PR the race. So I decided to take it easy for the first part of the run. For the first mile, my feet already didn't feel good with the new orthotics, I stopped for minute on the first mile to adjust, and then continued on. I was trying to keep my HR in the low 150s. I also realized that at any second my watch would die and I would lose my HR guidance. I was passed by a few guys in my age group early on, and then latched onto another runner who seemed to be running low 8s (which I should normally be able to do for a full marathon). I was able to hang with him with minor discomfort. There was some pain in my foot, but my stomach wasn't feeling too great. I may have over consumed Infinit on the bike and that was starting to effect me on the run.

Anyway, I hung with this guy through mile 8, then he stopped at an aid station and I kept going, then my GPS died at 8.5. He passed me about 3 minutes later, we exchanged some words of encouragement, and I tried to keep him in my sights for the rest of the race. The last three miles of my run got really ugly because I was going off of RPE instead of my actual heart rate. I learned on this race that I rely too much on my HR monitor to tell me if things are good since I perceived I was racing to hard and my splits had me slowly going down the tubes.

Anyway, the last three miles were painful, I got passed by three guys in my AG in the last mile, and I slowly jogged it in to a just barely sub 2 hour half marathon. Ran through the shoot and was glad it was over.

Charge up my watch better and dial in my nutrition to avoid stomach issues. I was also heavily undertrained for the run, so this was about what I expected.

I was hurting a bit, so I stretched, hit the rest room, then grabbed a little bit of food over at the pavilion. Not much there since my stomach was in a bit of distress.


Run training, some nutrition mishaps, and lack of battery in my GPS left me running in the dark.


I love Rev3. I am so happy they had a swim contingency plan. This year I did a WTC 70.3 and Rev3 HIM. Rev3 is head and shoulders above WTC 70.3 series when it comes to racer experience and entertainment value. The announcer had me laughing out loud several times. They had tons of volunteers, great race support, and tons of energy at the finish line.