This was an awful, awful swim. It stormed overnight and poured rain most of the morning leading up to the race. I'm not sure how that affected the swim, but I did the practice swim Saturday morning and it honestly was like an entirely different body of water on Sunday.

The water was really shallow for several hundred yards. It looked like for the waves ahead of us, the announcer had them wade out and actually start the race in waist deep water. The announcer unfortunately wasn't very clear with my wave and we ended up taking off from the shore. I ran/dolphin dived for probably 200 yards. The water was really choppy, and that combined with it being my first race in my wetsuit almost had me panicking, feeling I couldn't breathe. Once I reached the first turn buoy, I had gotten into a bit of a rhythm despite the heavy current and chop.

Rounding the buoy, I saw a swimmer in a red cap (given to swimmers who felt they might struggle) panicking and struggling with no kayak close by. I worked in pools and water rescue for years, so I stopped to help her. I calmed her down and got her to back float leaning on me, and waved down a kayak. Once the kayak arrived, I continued on.

It was really impossible to sight in that mess. I had to stop and tread water multiple times to even tell if I was still on course. I've never been so happy to get out of the water.

This swim wasn't as bad as the time indicates, given the conditions. There wasn't much I could have done differently that day. However, I'm a strong pool swimmer who hasn't yet figured out how to translate that to open water. I need to investigate some sighting drills or something.

There was a long run into the transition area, maybe a quarter mile. This was also my first time taking off my wetsuit in a race scenario, and I had a hard time getting it off over my Garmin.

More practice removing wetsuit quickly.

Here's where the day's fun really begins...

Rev3 ended up changing the bike course the morning of the race, basically just flipping which direction we exited T1. I had studied the map and thought I knew where the sharp turns were, but the course revamp changed that.

I took off from transition moving at a good clip, and within the first mile, hit an unexpected S curve. I made it through the first part of the curve OK, but knew I was in trouble on the second part. The pavement was wet and I hadn't been able to slow enough -- I was going about 23 MPH when I went into the curve. I crashed hard down onto my left side. I got up immediately, assessed that nothing was broken and that I hadn't hit my head, and grabbed my bike. The bike was totally OK, minus a ding on the horns. Thank goodness for crashing to the left. I have bad road rash all over my inner arm, my rib cage, stomach and hip, and my knee and shin. After a quick inspection and fussing with my front brake, I decided to keep racing.

I was fairly shaken up, obviously, but at this point nothing really hurt and I was moving along OK. The first ten miles of this race are pretty fast, and I was averaging over 20 MPH at this point (goal for the day was faster than 19 MPH for the bike split). Then the course goes out onto Jolly Pond Road, which absolutely does not live up to its name. I've never ridden on such a crappy road before -- potholes everywhere, descents with giant bumps at the bottom, etc. I had already wrecked once and wasn't about to repeat it, so I slowed way down and all of the people I had flown by earlier caught me. Depressing.

The course then went out onto a main road that I had thought was going to be closed to traffic, but it definitely wasn't when I was riding it. It's possible they got the traffic stopped later in the race, but I and the other people near me were relegated to riding in the bike lane. It was impossible to even pass safely. There was one point where the volunteers were attempting to direct us into a left turn across three lanes of busy traffic that refused to stop. It was honestly terrifying.

Between bleeding into my socks, the traffic scares, the crappy roads, and more hills in the back half of the bike course, I got really disheartened and kind of moved into survival mode. I am capable of much better than this.

Not crash.

On a happier note, I've been really timid about cycling because I've been so afraid of crashing at speed -- but now I've done it, and it wasn't that bad. I actually feel less afraid now on the whole.

This was pretty decent. I didn't want to stop to examine my wounds for fear of not starting back up again. Just grabbed my race belt and shoes and went.

Nothing.

This was pretty awful. It was really hot and humid by that point, and I was bleeding everywhere and just not feeling it. Rev3 advertised the whole race as being fast and flat, and while I am definitely a flatlander, I thought the run course was hilly. It was also through parking lots with crappy uneven pavement. I started out holding a low 8:00 pace as planned, but by the long climb to the halfway point I decided I did. not. care. I basically jogged it into the finish.

Obviously, not give up.

Attempting to evade first aid personnel in order to find my husband, and subsequently failing said evasion. After they cleaned me up, I found my husband and did NOT find food. Eventually located pasta and meatballs, found myself disgusted by pasta and meatballs. Waited for my swim bag to be returned to me, eventually gave up on my swim bag being returned to me, hightailed it to the hotel for the world's fastest shower and check-out. Returned for my swim bag and finally got it THREE HOURS AFTER FINISHING.


Oh, let's see:

1. Horrible choppy water and current;

2. Crashing my bike like a big dumb idiot;

and

3. Swamp weather.


Inaugural races are hard, and I have all of the sympathy and understanding in the world for how difficult it can be to pull these events off. I am sure that Rev3 will address the logistical issues with this race. I personally will probably choose to do a different race in the future, but I wouldn't rule this one out forever provided future years improve.

Pros:

1. Loved having a practice swim the day before.

2. The volunteers were all great.

Cons:

1. The two transitions didn't work very well. Bussing that many athletes and spectators to the start is always going to be a problem if it's not perfectly executed.

2. It seems that there were issues with getting the bike course closed to traffic as originally planned? There were points where I felt extremely unsafe. There were also parts of the road that I thought were incredibly rough.

3. The dry clothes and swim-to-bike bags weren't bussed to the finish until 1:30pm. I finished the race before 10:30am! I was extremely lucky in that my husband had my keys and phone -- most people had their car keys and phones in their dry clothes bags and couldn't call anyone or check out of their hotels. They blamed traffic for the delays, but my husband watched them finish loading the truck with bags around 9:30am, and sorry, it just doesn't take four hours to cross Williamsburg. Once the bags arrived, they wouldn't let us sort through them -- they had a small number of volunteers yelling out numbers, and some of the volunteers weren't loud enough to hear. Total hot mess.