REV3.TRI HALF IRONMAN RACE REPORT
What a great race that almost didn’t take place for me. My family and I got on the road Thursday night to drive to Knoxville. During the night I became very dizzy and nauseated. I was throwing up and could not walk. I went to an Instant care facility in Kentucky and was diagnosed with Position Vertigo. The doc said that I shouldn’t race Sunday, I was greatly disappointed to hear this. After medicating the symptoms for 2 days race day was here.
Saturday I went ahead and checked in and picked up my registration info. Sunday morning after much prayer, the Lord Jesus blessed. I felt good, not 100% but good enough to race. My plan was to just enjoy what I could do and quite if I needed to.
It was a brisk cool morning I believe it was 63 degrees but sunny. I leave the hotel after eating a banana and a begel, half of which I put penutbutter on and plenty of hydration. I’m now at the transition area getting ready and shivering because of the cold. I walk down to the race start which was at the boat dock of Calhoun’s famous BBQ restaurant. We all jump in and tread water until the start. I didn’t warm up much because I was a little concern about my health. I wore two swim caps and ear plugs as a safety precaution. Well I got killed in the water, I drank a lot of water and got pulled, pushed and grab mostly by the women who started 5 minutes after my wave start. (Those women are so fast in the water). Well it took me 45:02min to complete the swim but I am happy that I made it out of the water in position 109, for the 1.2 miles swim.
Now I’m on the bike and to be honest I am feeling a little shaky, I just dig deep and breathe and it’s on. I felt I had to make up time and that’s what I did. I have never felt so fast on the bike like I do with my new Quintana Roo Saduza. I pass a total of 54 people 11 of which was in my division. I am feeling good! As I see people ahead of me I just hammered harder. It was very windy and hilly but I was ready for this. I finish the 56 mile bike in 2:34:56 an average of 20.28mph.
It’s running time and I’m hoping my legs come back around mile 3 or 4 but it never happened, too many hills and I went to hard on the bike. I was able to run a steady pace averaging 9.17min per mile for14 miles. I got passed by only 2 people in my division.
Overall I placed 57 out of 184, 16 in my division. I had a great race and I will cherish this one. It’s a race that I would love to do again. Rev3 put on a great race and the staff, volunteers and participants were so friendly.
Labels: Rev3tri.com race report
