Rev3 Cedar Point - Half Rev - Triathlon1/2 Ironman


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Sandusky, Ohio
United States
REVOLUTION3 Triathlon
66F / 19C
Overcast
Total Time = 5h 33m 14s
Overall Rank = 176/706
Age Group = M40-44
Age Group Rank = 36/104
Pre-race routine:

My goals for this race were fairly simple. This was my second-ever HIM, so first and foremost, I simply wanted to execute better than I did in my first one, which I botched epically in a number of ways. Secondary goal was to hit a time of 5:30:xx, with a stretch goal of 5:15:xx. Beyond that, I didn't really know what to expect of myself. As I've said all summer long with every race, I've raced a TON, but I haven't done a lot of training. I wasn't entirely sure what I had in me for a HIM as I had not done anywhere even remotely close to the training volume I put in for my first. I was actually incredibly lackadaisical heading into this.

Drove out the night before and stayed at The Breakers hotel. I had a MUCH better experience than last year when I was signed up for the Sprint race. Got there a little later in the day and went through all the packet pickup and bike check-in stuff, then headed on over to the Team RWB dinner for some good food with a lot of awesome peeps! Finished dinner and headed back to the hotel, stopping at a convenience store to pick up some breakfast food for the morning.

Woke up at 6:00am and rather leisurely went through the routine of putting on tattoos, getting gear on and having my transition bag ready to go. I ate one bagel with peanut butter, one blueberry muffin and a cup of coffee for breakfast. We left the room and headed down the beach around 7:15, getting to transition right around 7:25am. About 5 minutes later, my stuff was set up, I took a SaltStick capsule, and I was on my way out of transition and over to the new swim start.
Event warmup:

The swim was moved from the lake side to the bay side due to winds and rip currents, which added roughly 1/2 mile run to transition.... walked over to the new start spot and just hung out. Because of the change and the lack of a beach on that side, it was changed from wave starts to 2x2 time trial start, and there was no warm ups that late in the morning... so, I did nothing but hang out and chat with folks. Took two gels roughly 25-30 minutes before my wave was supposed to go off. Before long, us old guys were up and made our way up and quick as anything we were in the water and going.
Swim
  • 36m 29s
  • 2112 yards
  • 01m 44s / 100 yards
Comments:

This swim started really well, and while my time seems really slow, it felt like I passed a ton of people. At the same time, the entire swim felt like deja vu.... every time I looked up, I swear that there was a different guy in a green swim cap and a sleeveless wetsuit, even after I kept passing them all. It was weird, lol.

Anyway, the swim was fairly uneventful. Some contact, a fair amount of failing to swim straight combined with a fair amount of forgetting to sight as I got into a groove.

I'm not sure what has happened with my swim of late, but I had expected a much better pace than this, especially when we were told that we would have a little incoming current behind us on the outside of the island.

What would you do differently?:

Need to work with someone on my swim form, I think.
Transition 1
  • 07m 47s
Comments:

Came out of the water and went on autopilot. They had wetsuit strippers there, but I decided to just skip them and just did what I've done all summer.... cap & goggles off, wetsuit down to the waist and off the arms as I ran. They had aid stations at each end of the long run to T1, and I took a cup of water at each end. I figured it was better to be ahead of the hydration curve than behind it like I was in San Juan for my first HIM. Made the half mile jog barefoot with the wetsuit still on, running alongside a fellow Team RWB'er named Scott.
Got into T1 and immediately started getting the suit off the legs while putting the helmet on... and that's where things then got a little wrong. The suit got stuck on the heels, and the visor on the helmet wouldn't go down. I quickly stopped messing with the helmet long enough to get the suit off the feet, then went back to the helmet. I thought that one screw was overly tight, so I was fiddly with it trying to find something to let me loosen it. It turns out that a corner of the visor was getting wedged against the edge of the helmet and so it wouldn't budge. Once I figured that out, it was all good, but I easily gave up a full minute-plus with this sequence. With that done, I put on my bike shoes, took down another gel, grabbed the bike and trotted out to the mount line.

I normally run with the bike right past the mount line and jump on while rolling, but the mount line was really close to the transition exit and it was congested, so I came to a stop and climbed onto the bike while stationary, and then was off...
What would you do differently?:

Check the helmet when setting up.
Body-glide/TriSlide the feet & heels... I had ran out of Body Glide that morning while getting dressed before I could do my feet and stuff.
Bike
  • 2h 38m 5s
  • 56 miles
  • 21.25 mile/hr
Comments:

So, this is the section that I really needed to nail a lot better than I did in my first HIM when I completely hosed up my nutrition.
I rolled with two bottles; one behind the seat mixed with four scoops of Perpetuem (Orange & Vanilla Death Flavor) and a Speedfil A2 between the arms filled with water that I would refill at the aid stations. As soon as I got going, I grabbed a Salt Stick capsule from my bento box and took it with some water.

Right off the bat, I could tell the winds were going to be nasty coming back, but on the way out it was a nice boost. I was feeling pretty strong, and felt like I was picking people off pretty regularly, for the first 20 or so miles, but unfortunately, I hosed up my shifting while going up a hill right after Mile 22 and dropped my chain. Not a huge deal, but it was a momentum killer. I had to get off the bike and fight with the chain for about two minutes as it had wedged itself in against the crank arm pretty hard. Got it unstuck and back onto where it belongs, then had to get back up to speed on an uphill. Again, just a momentum killer. It would take me much of the next 20 miles to pick off some of the faster people that passed me. At some point, we were treated to some light rain, but nothing terrible. With my nutrition, I figured that the mix I had was enough calories for what I could absorb in three hours, so I broke it up into thirds. I drank the first third roughly 20 minutes in, the next third around the 75 minute mark, and I forced myself to finish it off before the 2 hour mark to give it all time to settle before the run. I think that it was after the 30 mile mark that we started to really get some headwinds. Between them and complacency and the rain, I had a few lapses where I just started plodding through instead of paying attention to pace, then I'd snap to and pick it back up. The last 10-15 miles I stayed fairly focused and worked. Those last five miles, as expected, royally SUCKED. We were being buffeted by strong winds directly off the lake. I had my FLO90's and disc cover on, and even at 205lbs, I was getting moved around on that road big time. I never had to get out of aero, but I had a few "oh Sh!T" kinda moments for sure.
What would you do differently?:

Shift better.
Beyond that, I don't think I would change much. I feel like I absolutely nailed my nutrition and the effort level. I went hard, but I don't think I was too hard.
Transition 2
  • 01m 32s
Comments:

Rode up and stopped right at the dismount line with the right leg unclipped and swung over. As soon as I stopped, the left foot came off and I was trotting to my rack. The legs were a bit wobbly and I wasn't doing a stellar job of steering the bike, but I got there and racked it quickly. Helmet & bike shoes off; run shoes, run visor, race belt on; grabbed my little handheld water bottle and I was on my way out of T2, eating a gel on the way.
What would you do differently?:

Nothing. I felt that this was a pretty solid T2. No idea how it stacks up with others, but I'm content with it.
Run
  • 2h 09m 22s
  • 13.1 miles
  • 09m 53s  min/mile
Comments:

I felt pretty good coming out of T2, and my girlfriend was telling me that I at least *looked* strong, lol The first 2.5 miles, I tried to hold back on the pace, but at the same time it felt tough to do. I knew that I wasn't going to hold those paces (~8:30) for long, but I was having trouble getting the legs to go slower. I paid for that over the next four miles where I went 10, 10, 10.5, 12.5 with lots of walk breaks. That 12:30 mile, at least was me hitting a port-o-potty at the aid station near mile 6-ish. I had been taking one or two waters at every aid station up to that point and it caught up with me. Coming out of the potty, I felt a bit better, but the stomach was still kinda sloshy and I was starting to belch something fierce. I had taken a gel around mile 3, so I took another just before the next aid station where I also grabbed a salt capsule as I didn't bring any with me on the run, but I skipped taking any water. I still had my bottle with me, so I nursed that as needed.
I don't know if it was the gel, the not taking water, the potty break, or just time... but it wasn't long after this that I felt a wee bit better and fell into a groove and was able to just keep moving. The second half of the run was significantly better and while it hurt like hell, I even managed a sub-9:00 in the last mile.

At the edge of the finish chute, there was a Team RWB member there with a flag for me to carry across the finish. I took it and held it high and proud and strided it out around to the finish.
What would you do differently?:

Ummm... train.
Post race
Warm down:

I handed off the flag, grabbed my finisher shirt, medal, towel, and hugged my girlfriend; VERY happy to be finished. I then immediately got in line for one of the NormaTec massages, then headed to post-race food followed by a few hours of walking around the park and riding roller coasters :)

What limited your ability to perform faster:

I think that this was about the best I could have realistically hoped for myself. I completely nailed my goals, with the exception of that stretch goal.

I feel that I really executed this race almost as well as I could have hoped, I nailed my nutrition on the bike, even if I overdid it a little on the run. I had hoped that I could do a 2 hour half marathon, but it wasn't in the cards... but I came close enough. Given the addition of the extra long run to T1, I fully consider 5:33 to be hitting my goal of a 5:30. This was a GOOD race at a tough distance where I wasn't even really sure what I had in me, and I ended up with a PR for the distance by a hair more than 20 minutes. I'm happy :-)

Event comments:

You just can't beat the show that Rev3 puts on, and when your post-race possibilities include hitting the BEST roller coaster park in the world... well, you can't go wrong.






Last updated: 2013-03-28 12:00 AM
Swimming
00:36:29 | 2112 yards | 01m 44s / 100yards
Age Group: 22/104
Overall: 128/706
Performance: Average
Suit: Xterra Vortex Pro full sleeve
Course: Counter-clockwise loop around an island http://connect.garmin.com/activity/372989889
Start type: Wade Plus: Time Trial
Water temp: 72F / 22C Current: Low
200M Perf. Good Remainder: Average
Breathing: Good Drafting: Average
Waves: Navigation: Average
Rounding: Average
T1
Time: 07:47
Performance: Average
Cap removal: Good Helmet on/
Suit off:
Yes
Wetsuit stuck? Yes Run with bike: Yes
Jump on bike: No
Getting up to speed: Good
Biking
02:38:05 | 56 miles | 21.25 mile/hr
Age Group: 22/104
Overall: 88/706
Performance: Good
Wind: Strong with gusts
Course: Lollipop http://connect.garmin.com/activity/372989900
Road: Rough Wet Cadence: 74
Turns: Good Cornering: Good
Gear changes: Good Hills: Good
Race pace: Hard Drinks: Just right
T2
Time: 01:32
Overall: Good
Riding w/ feet on shoes
Jumping off bike Good
Running with bike Average
Racking bike Average
Shoe and helmet removal Good
Running
02:09:22 | 13.1 miles | 09m 53s  min/mile
Age Group: 36/104
Overall: 176/706
Performance: Average
Course: Crazy-Maze, lol http://connect.garmin.com/activity/372989920
Keeping cool Good Drinking Too much
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Good
Mental exertion [1-5] 4
Physical exertion [1-5] 4
Good race? Yes
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Good
Race evaluation [1-5] 5