Rev 3 Maine HalfRev Tri - Race Report

Rev3 Maine Half Rev Race Report - Longest Race Report EVER!  (Will add pictures at some point)

• Race Name: Rev 3 Maine, Half Rev
• Race Date: August 26, 2012
• Race Location: Old Orchard Beach, Maine
• Race Distance: 70.3  (1.2 mile swim, 56 mi bike, 13.1 mile run)
• Division: Women 30-34
• Total Time: 7:28:56
• Time Breakdown: Swim – 46:09, T1 – 7:17, Bike – 3:29:25, T2 – 1:31, Run – 3:04:33
• Age Group Placing: 33/37
• Gender Placing: 143/159 (women only)
• Overall Placing: 413/444 (overall)

Pre-race – Days before

I registered during early bird registration when the race was first announced. I think I paid about $215 for the race – a steal for a half distance race!

Once we got settled in Old Orchard Beach, ME (OOB from here on out), we headed over to figure out where Rev3 was setting up and where transition was going to be. I have to say, I was immediately impressed that the OOB police department set up shop to guard the transition area as early as Thursday – even when there was nothing in it!

Rev3 knows how to throw a party. There were so many events planned pre-race that we didn’t attend everything. We drove the bike course on Friday morning, which was probably one of the best things we could’ve done – other than ride it. Later that afternoon and picked up my packet, got my swag, and picked up a few (too many) pieces of race memorabilia. Friday night, we headed out to dinner with Jon’s cousins and had a fun, and relaxing, time with them. The headsweats visor is one of my favorite items from the race – hands down!

On Saturday morning, I headed out at 8am for the practice swim. I haven’t been in my wetsuit since TriRock Annapolis, so I figured it’d be a good idea to see if it even fit (um… right…). The first thing I discovered is that the water temp wasn’t horrible. It was about 65 degrees – definitely at the high end of what they told us to expect. The second thing I noticed is that the water was very clear! Much different than the mid-Atlantic region! The only bad part about this is that you noticed where the shelf drop was during the swim. Around 9am, Rev3 did the worst-wetsuit competition, so we hung around for that.

Trying to figure out where we were starting the practice swim from. These guys were awesome and allowed me to tag along in their group.

Swimming, swimming, in a swimming pool... wait... this is the ocean.

Um... where are they moving the buoy to?

Chillin for a mid-swim discussion

Out of the water after a successful practice swim

We headed back to the room, I showered and set out the wetsuit to dry a little bit for the next morning, we ran out for a quick lunch, then back to get my bike. Around 12:45 or so, we headed toward transition, and I racked my bike. It was so cool that Rev3 had volunteers escort us to our space. The volunteer who walked with me told me this is his first triathlon event, and he was super excited to learn all about it. That enthusiasm radiated over the entire weekend.

Around 1:00, we sat down and listened to the pro-athlete chat and then stayed for the 1:30 athlete meeting. I didn’t find it all that helpful, but it was good to be there. I felt a little weird as we walked away, knowing my bike was staying outside overnight. I knew it’d be out with all of the other bikes; it was just a bit unsettling.

We had an early dinner at Olive Garden, I finished putting my transition bag together, and then we headed to bed around 8:30pm, knowing it’d be an early morning.

Pre-race – Day Of

The alarm went off at 4am. We snoozed until about 4:15 and then hopped out of bed and started the morning routine. Jon helped me apply the race number tattoos. He accidently didn’t take off the plastic on the ‘3’ for my age tattoo, so that was a little stress inducing (for him, not me – I packed permanent markers and knew I could just write it on). I ate breakfast, had some water, and we headed out at 5am.

Transition opened at 5am and was fully buzzing when I got there at 5:10! Susie (Jon’s cousin) was already there and found Jon pretty quickly. They went to get coffee and I went into transition.

It was a bit chilly, so I kept my warm-up pants on for a while. I pumped up my tires and loaned my pump to someone near me. A DC Tri team member, Toby, came over and said hello. The one GREAT thing about wearing the Team Z green is that people who are from our area generally chat with us – especially when we’re not close to home! Toby was telling me that this was her second attempt at the 70.3 distance. Her first attempt was Musselman, and it ended when she was found in a ditch at mile 9 of the bike. She said she spent 2 days in the hospital after that race. I wished her better luck for this one and continued to set up. At some point, Brenda (my friend) arrived at the race. It was so great to finally meet her!

A nod to everyone who had encouraged me in their own ways while I was on my journey to this race

I put on my wetsuit (and performed the wetsuit dance, pretty much like everyone else there) and headed out of transition to hang out with my cheer crew. We headed to the beach for swim start. After a few minutes, I sent my cheer crew on their way so that I could have some mental prep time. I opted not to get in to do a swim warm-up, given the amount of time that I had until my wave started. It wasn’t terribly long, but it was long enough that I was a bit worried about getting chilly while standing on the beach. Before too long, Rev3 was making their announcements, played the National Anthem, and the first wave of the HalfRev was off!

Swim

The water was a cool 65 degrees; definitely a wetsuit legal race! The water was so calm, it was awesome. Being my first ocean swim (I guess technically second since I swam the day before), I was super nervous about this swim. I had nightmares about it months before the race – ones involving breaching whales. Turns out, the scariest thing I had to deal with was other swimmers and the shelf drop!

I'm in there somewhere

The swim course was great – straight out to the 2^nd buoy, turn left, go straight, turn left at the 4^th buoy and head back in to shore while sighting on the huge Ferris wheel (thanks for making it simple Rev3!). My goggles fogged up pretty badly and even after fixing them the first time, they fogged up again. I decided just to deal with it as best as I could and swim through it.

I felt a little sea sick when coming in to shore because you could see the bottom of the ocean again and you could tell when the current was pulling the water and sand back out, while you were trying to move forward. At some point, I decided that it was just better to stand up even though I was a bit further out than I’d normally stand up. Wasn’t worth wanting to throw up! Coming out of the water, I was a little disoriented at first, but quickly got my bearings. The funny thing is, I can normally pick Jon out of a crowd so easily. I had a hard time with that coming out of the swim. Not sure why, but it threw me off a little too. I like to make eye contact with him so that he knows I’m OK and good to go. (He probably doesn’t realize that I like to see him for that reason after the swim!)

Gotta love the post-swim face

Now to get to my bike

T1

T1 was so long. It was at least a .35 mile slog back to the transition area from the beach (complete with dumbfounded tourists as to why they couldn’t go where they wanted to). I chose to walk the beach part of it and even some of the road. I knew it was going to be a long transition and had allowed myself 8-10 minutes for it. When it turned out to be 7:17, I was actually really happy with that time.

I put on all of my bike gear, reapplied sunscreen, grabbed my bike, and headed out.

Yes, I could’ve moved faster, but I knew that today was more about just getting it done and not necessarily getting it done quickly. I’ll aim to do it a bit faster next time.

Ready to go

Headed out of T1, thanks hill!

Bike

The bike course definitely had some rolling hills. The city of OOB and the surrounding areas did a great job to make sure we were protected against crazy drivers (though, I didn’t see too many of those in Maine in general!). They had also repaved several sections of the course in the days leading up to the race, which was a great touch!

It took a while for my legs to warm up – especially with the first thing to hit out of transition being a hill. I got settled in and took it easier than I thought I should, knowing it would be a long 56 miles if I didn’t. The first water stop was around mile 15. I managed to get a water bottle, but had to stop to refill. A couple of other people asked if I was ok, which was nice of them. I just am not quite coordinated enough yet to refill on the fly. I’ll be practicing that for next year.

At mile 20, I went over the timing chip pad and noticed that I didn’t beep like I should’ve. I made a mental note to listen at the next one, just in case something was weird with my foot positioning. The first 25 miles of this course trended uphill, so that kind of sucked. On the hills, we’d get all bunched up, and then spread out over the downhills and flats.

Somewhere around mile 30 was the next water stop and I got my water and stopped to refill again. I didn’t beep at the timing chip mat there either. I figured my chip died and that was that. Oh well! Around mile 35, I saw Toby from DC Tri on the side of the road. She had the bike mechanics with her, so I figured I’d be seeing her zoom up past me at some point.

Miles 40-45 were the most challenging of the course, by far. Simpson Road wasn’t repaved and it was just nasty. You could tell the winter heaving is bad in Maine just by this road. I think all of us were throwing nasty words either out or thinking about them. Just after Simpson Road, there was a one lane bridge, where we had traffic control (which was great). I went down just after another woman and going back up, she was having trouble shifting. I had already down-shifted and was in my easier gears. She almost ran into me – thankfully just at the split second they needed to, her gears clunked into the right spots and we were able to avoid being on the ground. WHEW!

This is the only photo I have of me actually riding that's not to/from transition. Thanks Rev3 photographers!

Right around mile 46, I heard a “GO TEAM Z” from the side of the road. I look over and it’s Toby, pulling on another shirt and getting her bike loaded into the back of the truck. I literally yelled out “OH NO!” and kept going. I felt bad that her second attempt was ending early, but was glad that she wasn’t being taken to the hospital!

I took water at the last water station, around mile 48, and stopped to refill once again. I knew it was mostly downhill back into town (with just a couple of uphills) and my mood definitely went from good to better! I was almost done with this thing! I started singing songs to myself and my pace apparently picked up a bit.

I was so proud of myself for sticking to my nutrition. I had my pre-mixed Infinit and water. I just drank and drank and drank. It served me well and I was happy to not be messing around with gels! The only think I’ll do different next time is that I’ll only put one hour’s worth in my aero drink at first, and I’ll keep the super concentrated version down below.

I ended up rolling back in towards transition about 2 minutes earlier than I had thought. Not a HUGE amount, but enough to make me a little worried about the run.

Headed back to transition. Only 13.1 miles to go!

T2

After dismounting and getting back into transition, there was a bit of chaos. Rev3 was allowing people to leave who had already finished, which was a bit of an issue to those of us who were still coming in. Nothing huge, but it was a minor annoyance. I made the mistake of sitting down to put on my socks/shoes (mostly because I was falling over trying to do it standing up). Toby was coming into transition at the same time. She told me her tire was shredded and there was nothing she could do – she had to pull out of the race. I was so bummed for her. I got encouragement from a couple of other racers, grabbed my run stuff, and headed out. (Forgot to reapply sunscreen during this one!)

If I were going to redo this transition, I wouldn’t put my sock on upside down. That cost me a few seconds, but since I wasn’t going for broke, I was ok with that.

Headed out to the run

Run

While I was out running, my bike was having a good time hanging out with the other bikes.

At first, my legs felt GREAT! Coming out of the chute, I felt really good. Good enough to smile and wave to my cheer crew. I ran down the street and this little boy was yelling from the balcony “keep running! We support you! The entire town supports you!” It. Was. Awesome. He couldn’t have been more than 10. It was everything I needed to keep my mood light… and then, my body started to revolt. I knew it’d happen, it was a matter of when. I didn’t expect it so early in the run. At 0.6 miles in, the insides of both knees started to bother me. A volunteer asked if I was ok and I told him what was going on. I said “you know, it’s ok. I’ll run what I can, walk what I have to, but I’ll get this thing done!” His response was “I love your resolve. Do it!” It was just what I needed. I ran/walked as much as I could. I’d run until the pain was too much and then I’d walk until it didn’t hurt any more. At some point, I went to a full walk. I walked at least half of the half marathon. I was ok with it. At the turn around, I caught up with another woman and we walked the rest of it together. We chatted and encouraged each other – we even started to run a little as we got closer in. Her boyfriend caught up with us on one of the streets coming back into town, so I decided to go ahead and run in and left her with him.

Coming into the chute was so amazing. I was thinking about the past year, from the chat I had with last year’s coach about this race, to the bike rides, the swims, the runs (and runs that should’ve been), and Jon and my family & friends putting up with me during this training season. Then, I looked up and saw Jon. He was jumping up and down and took off running for the finish line. I’ve never seen him as excited. I heard Susie and Brenda. I heard the announcer. It was so overwhelming. I crossed the finish line and just let the tears flow. The volunteers immediately asked if I was ok after wrapping a cold, wet towel around my shoulders (man that felt amazing!). I said I was great, just so overwhelmed. Another volunteer put my medal around my neck and hugged me and just let me cry for a second. A third volunteer offered me a medium shirt since they had run out of smalls. I was fine with it. She said that they’d send me a small if I wanted, but I was fine with the medium. I wasn’t leaving without my finisher shirt! (If it had been a large, I would’ve had them send it to me.)

Post-Race

After crossing the finish line and getting my towel, medal, and shirt, one of the volunteers grabbed me by both shoulders and said “I’m Ed’s girlfriend! Way to represent Team Z!” It took me a minute to figure out who “Ed” was – she meant Coach Ed! I forgot to ask for her first name, I definitely wasn’t thinking straight. I was still in tears about the fact that I had actually just completed my first 70.3! The lobster medal was AWESOME. It’s currently hanging on my armor, because I just don’t want to put it away. It was great to get a finisher’s shirt too. It’s a great touch.

Talia, Ed's girlfriend, is in orange.

After chatting with Talia (Ed’s girlfriend) for a minute, I found Jon, Susie, and Brenda. They were so awesome. I fell into Jon’s arms and just cried. Susie and Brenda gave me hugs – which goes WAY above “friend” duties! I was sweaty, salty, and just nasty!

Post race, all I wanted to do was get out of my running shoes. Susie had my flip flops and man did they feel good! I’m glad I left them with the cheer crew. Turns out it was my biggest need of the day!

It hurts really bad right... here... 

By the time I got done, things were winding down a little and there wasn’t much of a party left. I really need to get faster so that I can experience the post race parties a bit more! I knew I had a timing chip problem, so I posted on Rev3’s Facebook wall asking if there had been an issue and they asked me to email them about it. I emailed back and forth with Kati, and she determined that my chip had, in fact, died on the course. She was super apologetic about it. Between the finish time they had for me based on pictures and the GPS data I had, we were able to get my times down and entered into the results. It’s a bummer that they’re not technically “official” times, but I’m glad they were able to work with me on it!

After I packed up transition and changed my shirt (which Jon wasn’t too thrilled with me doing in the middle of transition), we took a few pictures. Then, the cheer crew came back to our hotel room so that I could shower and actually change. Note to self: it helps to bring clothes into the bathroom when you have people in your hotel room.

And done!

Susie, me, & Brenda - thanks ladies for coming out!

The BEST sherpa ever. 

"Like a BOSS"

Jon asked what I wanted for dinner and my response was “chicken”. We had seen a Famous Dave’s about 15 minutes away, so we drove Brenda and Susie to their cars and then all headed to Famous Dave’s for dinner. It is the only one in Maine! So weird given that we have a couple of them around here. It was so great to sit and chat with everyone and to hear about their day. It was Susie and Brenda’s first time spectating a tri, so it was really awesome to hear about what they thought. Jon and I exchanged stories over the next couple of days as well.

Lessons Learned

Looking back on the race, I’m so pleased with so many things:

• I’m glad I didn’t hesitate to call Infinit and change my formula to not contain any protein in my mix. Best decision I’ve ever made with respect to race day nutrition.
• No matter what happened, I was resolved to take it all in stride and roll with the punches.
• Setting my overall goal to finish before cut-off made this be a very low-pressure race.
• Jon being an awesome Sherpa fielded all sorts of phone calls, text messages, and Facebook posts when my timing chip died. Poor guy didn’t know what was going on and had to rely on the fact that he hadn’t gotten a phone call that I was being taken to the hospital, so I was ok.
• Took a chance on a new venue Rev3. They put on an awesome race and I was so happy to be a part of it.
• Earned the awesome lobster claw medal.
• That I was able to stay positive throughout the day.
• Allowed myself to be emotional at the finish line. I’m not an overly emotional person, but some things just bring it out – and accomplishing a major goal is one of them.
• I’m glad I did my “tribute” on my arm and carried around those who have put up with me for the past year as I’ve trained for this event.
• The way Rev3 treats their participants is just awesome. We saw the last place finisher come across the line – it was amazing.

There are also so many things I need to improve upon for next season’s 70.3:

• NEVER run a 13.1 in old shoes. It will not go well.
• Try not to get sick 2 weeks before race day.
• Research a little more about the restaurants in the area before arriving. Usually I’m on top of this, but I’ve learned to look for pictures of the places too – especially in a beach town!
• Figure out why my wetsuit chafed so badly around my neck. I’m tired of the “wetsuit hickey”!
• Do my run training. I really slacked on that this season and it came back to bite me.
• Do more hill and speed work on the bike. I know I can ride the distance, but I want to ride it FASTER. I need to get STRONGER on the bike.
• Find an aero-drink solution that doesn’t splash all over the place. My makeshift solution worked, but it’s annoying.
• Practice drinking more on my tri bike.