Subject: RE: Rev3 Knoxville - Olympic RevAlways fun to read your race reports. It is usually filled with exquisite detail that leads one to want to read more... and root for you to keep going. Very eloquent. I'm happy you were able to race. I had a similiar experience with the Rev3. You may not remember that my first triathlon, last year, was rev3 Quassy and I failed to actually hit the submit button on my registration and was able to get into the race anyway. Classy organization and it seemed they went the extra mile for you and likely do it for many. Solid race all the way around. Your swim time is excellent and you have excelled on the bike for a while. I'd bet if you (and I fall into the same-actually worse category) shed a few pounds, you would drop some time on the run, but who really cares. I'm happy you did so well. Congratulations on your AG finish! Very impressive. Hope you make the big race next year... |
United States
REVOLUTION3 Triathlon
53F / 12C
Precipitation
Overall Rank = 50/355
Age Group = 45-49
Age Group Rank = 2/23
Well, this did not go as planned, but I'll spare the bulk of the non-tri details.
Suffice it to say that JT and I were supposed to leave when she got off work friday afternoon, but we woke up to a very, very sick pet. So rather than obsessing about pre-race details like I normally would I instead rushed her to the vet which led to a day of tests and various trips to other specialist vets for more tests. While in the middle of all that I did manage to get the car packed up with all of our gear (I was racing the Olympic distance race and JT was racing the half) but I was already pretty sure I was not going to get to drive up based on what our primary vet was telling me.
JT and I conferred when she got home, and she struck out for Knoxville alone while I waited in Atlanta to get the rest of the test results back on Saturday morning. I fired an email off to the RD to inquire about the possibility of a late check-in, but did not hold my breath as "rules is rules." If the tests came back OK and the little critter was stable, I planned to catch a late afternoon flight up to Knoxville so that I could at least cheer on JT and the rest of our friends that were racing. A little after mid-day I got a call from JT saying that she was able to speak with the race coordinator and she had given her cell number to her and told me to call her if/when I got in. Things were looking a little better on the pet front (surgery scheduled for tuesday) so I scheduled the pet sitter, booked a ticket, packed a carry-on, called a cab, and headed for the airport.
After a perfectly unremarkable flight I arrived in Knoxville right on time and raced to the hotel, which was right at the finish line. I called the race coordinator, she was still working to set up the med tent and she said come on down so I made a beeline for her. She was awesome: she already had all of my check-in stuff together and put me on the pro list that would let me bring my bike to transition in the morning. I thanked her profusely (there really was no reason for Rev3 to bend the rules for me) and headed up to the room to get my race gear n order. When I got there JT already had unpacked all of my stuff and had it organized - that let me get my transition bag together and everything double/triple checked in less than 30 minutes. She had also ordered up some rom service so we just ate a relatively good pasta dinner in the room and got to bed before 10 pm.
Since JT was racing the half, we got up early (alarms went off at 4:30) ate breakfast (banana, oatmeal, & yogurt for me) got our tats on and I went down to get my bike out of the care and ready to go. We walked in the rain to the transition area which was about a 10 minute easy walk from the hotel. Since I was pushing my bike a number of people asked what my name was, was I a pro, etc. which I thought was pretty funny.
Since I was not able to do any course reconnaissance JT filled me in on everything that she learned and as we got to the transition area I was very happy to find out it was in a large parking deck so everything would stay nice and dry no matter how the weather turned out. Since I got there so early with JT I was the first to get set-up down on my end where the olympic racers were set up. I still had not decided how I was going to roll on the bike, so I laid out arm warmers and gloves just in case I wanted them. Toe warmers were the only thing I was sure of so I put them on my shoes. And walked down to find JT.
JT's half wave was going off a good hour before mine, so I put on my wetsuit (including booties) to stay warm and walked down to the starting line with her. This was the only part I was really worried about as I was going to be out in the cold for about an 1.5 hours before I went in the water and was not sure how good of an idea that would be. But I really wanted to see her start, so I just sucked it up. When we got down to the start there was a large covered pavilion we could huddle while we waited, but did have to get back out in the rain to where we could actually see them go off. Even in my full suit I was getting a bit of a chill so I went ahead and put on my swim cap/neoprene cap/swim cap sandwich and that helped out a good bit. Molly showed up right as I was wishing JT good luck - it was nice to have someone to hang out with and chat while I was waiting the hour or so left before the the Olympic race began. It was kinda crazy watching the swim waves go off: there were people that went out on the dock but did not get in, there were folks that jumped into the water, but got haled right back out, and even some that committed to the swim but were immediately breast stroking or on their back. I have never seen anything like it.
Todd showed up about 15 minutes before our wave went off and we both started warming up in earnest.