Where are the whales?

Seriously? Where are they?

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I'd like to think that I will get back into posting to the blog, so I'm going to start by posting my latest race report.
I did the Rev3 Quassy Half a week ago Sunday.  It's a long one...

I picked the Rev3 Quassy Half based on location and timing only.  I am limited in the amount of traveling I can do, especially in the summer, so I wanted to do a race that would allow me to visit my sister at the same time. She lives in New York City, so a June race in Connecticut seemed like the perfect fit. It wasn’t until after I signed my name and paid my money did I start reading about the “challenging” race that was Quassy.  In the weeks leading up to the race I would read things like “hardest half in the U.S.” and “one of the toughest courses around.” Then I really started studying the course maps and elevations. 4, 5, and 6% grades were not uncommon for either the bike or the run. Crap. I asked around for some advice on how to adjust my expectations for a finish time based on the difficulty of the course. I was told to add 30 minutes to a flat course as a “starting point.” Oh yeah…and this was in reference to the bike leg only. I figured with a past best time of 5:52, anything around 6:30 was a good day and I was thinking it wouldn’t be too out of the question to see the seven hour mark.  While all of this certainly added to my pre-race anxiety, I think I did most of my stressing out before hand, so when race day arrived I just couldn’t think about it anymore.

Saturday

Mark and I drove from NYC on Saturday morning. We arrived at the race site around noon, just in time for me to take advantage of swim practice. Rev3 held an Olympic distance race on Saturday, so there was quite a bit of activity going on. While I was swimming, Mark took my bike to the mechanics on site to change my tubes and give my bike one last check-up. After a brief swim out and back to the first buoy, I took my bike out for a quick 20 minutes on the course followed by an even quick 10 minute run. Take home message from this last workout before the race…Connecticut is hot and hilly.  Crap.

Then it was time to pick up my race packet. Nice schwag! A headsweats visor, a short-sleeve tech tee and GU chomps, all in a TYR bag. I also saw that my race number had my name on it. I had to stand in line to activate my timing chip, but also to get my picture taken for the “big screen” that was to display updates to waiting supporters throughout the race. There were the first of many things Rev3 did to impress me.  I was required to rack my bike the night before, so I took my bike over to the transition and discovered that I had scored arguably the best spot on the racks.  I was the second bike in on the first row from the bike exit. I also discovered another Rev3 surprise. There was a high quality printed sign with my name marking my spot on the rack. Nice. Very nice. So, I racked my bike, kissed it goodbye and then headed to lunch. After lunch, we checked into the hotel and I used the next two hours to fuss over my nutrition and gear. To get my mind off things, Mark and I decided to explore the area a bit. I’m not going to get into details, but let’s just say that our evening involved the most terrifying K-Mart in all of the U.S., a salad bar whose main items included raisins, cubed ham and jell-o, a parking lot arrest and a vomiting woman. After that little adventure, we managed to find a decent dinner and headed back to the hotel around 9:00. I set my alarm for 5:00 and was surprised at how easily I fell asleep.

Sunday

I woke up at 4:45 and as soon as I realized what that meant, the butterflies started.  Breakfast was a half a bagel with peanut butter, a banana and protein power in a small bit of yogurt. I also alternated sipping on water and electrolyte drink. We left for the race site around 5:30.  The weather was calling for temps in the upper 70’s to low 80’s with thunderstorms, heavy at times and accompanied by strong winds. Hmmm, that seems less than ideal. But, at 5:30 it was mostly sunny and looked like a decent day was ahead. After parking, I made my way to transition and started to set things up. Being in such a prime spot, I was also able to watch the pros. Other than being extremely sexy and built, the main thing I noticed was how small most of them were! In transition there was a lot of nervous chatter about the difficulty of the course and people swapped rumors about how hard they had heard about this section or that. Looking at the quality of bikes and hearing people talk, I realized that this was not a normal, diverse race crowd. There were no newbies: there were no fat tires. This was a group of obsessed and serious tri-nerds. Nice! Wait…crap!

 I finished up in transition and got body marked. There wasn’t much left to do except go down and watch the swim start for the pros. The pro males went off at 6:50 and my wave was scheduled for 7:15.  I watched the pros start and then went for a 10 minute run to warm up. I made my way back to the swim start where Mark was waiting with my wetsuit. With the wetsuit on, I ate a gel, took a sip of water and bid farewell to Mark.  Sine the race had started, those of us waiting couldn’t do any actually swimming, so I just waded into the water to get wet and cool off! 

My wave was called, so I made my way to the beach. I tried to position myself away from the fast swimmers, but closest to the buoys in order to take the shortest route possible. Before I knew it, my wave was off and I found myself in that familiar madness of the mass swim start. Legs and arms everywhere. Any open space I found was short lived until the wave spread out and everyone found her rhythm around the first buoy.  The water felt great, but was very murky. I tried several times to find some feet to follow but could never see anything more than a few bubbles. The water was warm enough that the wetsuit was not a necessity, but I was glad to have the extra buoyancy. The swim course was basically a giant triangle and passed surprisingly quickly. I really had no idea how I was doing time wise, though I felt like I was taken it pretty easy. At the beach, I stood up and pressed the lap key on my watch. My split was 39:37, though my official split was 40:17, a difference due the position of the timing mat that seems small, but significant if you were hoping to get in under 40.

    I made my way up the ramp (yes, uphill to transition just to set the town of the day, I think) and heard Mark yelling my name. I also heard my name over the PA system. It wasn’t until later that I found out that was Mark’s doing and that the guy on the PA was only playing music and pumping up the crowd, not announcing names. I had a quick transition and was soon out on the road.  I quickly realized I had two issues. First of all, I had a stomach cramp. Second of all, the Velcro holding my aerobar bottle in place had come loose and my bottle was jumping all over the place. I decided the cramp was a result of swallowing half of Lake Quassapaug and sucking air and it would go away as I found my pace on the bike. The bottle was another story, however. I tried to fix the Velcro while continuing riding, which is never a good idea. My next strategy was to hold it in place with my thumbs, but that quickly proved a bad strategy when I tried to navigate, shift and hold the bloody bottle while going down hill. About 5 miles in I decided I just needed to stop and fix it. So I did.  Whew, now I could really focus and get going. That lasted until the first decent bumps in the road when the whole thing came unraveled again. Not having learned a single lesson from the first time, I rode for several miles fussing with it, holding it with my thumbs, cursing it, etc. I decided I just needed to stop again and fix, that I was probably losing more time by going so slowly and not concentrating than by just stopping and addressing the problem. So I stopped again, but just has I was slowing I hit a nice big pothole and my water bottle from the back cage rocketed it onto the street.  Ugh.  OK. Fixed the aerobottle problem. Debate for one second whether I should go back and get my other bottle. I decided that I likely would really need the fluids (it was full of EFS), so picked up my bike and jogged back and picked it up. Whew…finally all systems go! Of course by this time I was about 10 miles in. I have no idea how much time the fussing and stopping cost me. I would say 5 minutes on the low end. With that mess behind me, I just began to ride and enjoy myself. The course was breathtaking. It went through gorgeous neighborhoods, big green fields and farms and quaint little towns. Very, very nice scenery. Which was good because it created somewhat of a distraction from the constant up and down of the course. There were NO flat sections to be found. You were either going up or going down for the entire 56 miles. The downhills were glorious and sometimes quite long, but they never seemed to equal the grinding uphills. Each time I went flying down a hill, there was a voice in my head saying “you do realize that you will soon have to make this up.” But whatever. I actually had fun and didn’t stress too much about the snail’s pace required to get to the top of some of the hills. I could have pushed it harder, but I knew a difficult run course was waiting for me and I didn’t want to blow up so I rode at an effort that was hard but not punishing. About 3/4 of the way through the race, the wind picked up and I battled a head wind for most of the rest of the course. With about 4 miles to go, I began to see runners out on the course. None of them looked very happy and I started to get nervous. Of course, you couldn’t just coast into transition; you had to earn those last few miles on the bike by riding uphill.  Bike split 3:31:15.

After a quick transition and a wave to Mark, I was off on the run. The first two miles or so were a slight downhill, which was a great way to let the legs switch gears. I noticed for the first time how warm the day had become and that I had a rumbling in my stomach that was going to need to be addressed. Though I was feeling quite good, I was nervous about what the next couple of hours would bring. I stopped at the aid station between miles 2 and 3 to take the first of my run gels and to use the john. Another Rev3 bonus…potty options at each aid station! That diversion only cost me 2 or 3 minutes and I felt great afterwards. So I just kept running. I stuck to my nutrition plan…water at every aid station with a gel and 2 salt caps every 3 miles. Because I was feeling so good, I never thought to stop and walk even on some pretty brutal climbs. I kept thinking I would pay for it later and waited for the inevitable meltdown to come. But it never did. Mile after mile and hill after hill I just kept running and feeling great. I ran quick on the downhills and the few flat sections and chugged my way up every bloody hill I saw. I couldn’t believe it when I was past mile 9 and going through a brief section that past by the race venue and was still smiling and putting down a decent pace. I started to hit a bit of a wall around mile 12, but by the time I knew I was home free so just talked myself out of it. I was really, really enjoying myself.  Coming around a corner, I knew I had less than a mile to go and could make 6:30. Then I saw that cruelest, steepest hill of the day. Dear God was that thing menacing.  But not having walked the entire course, I refused to do it so close to the end and I ran up that sucker. At the top, I said to a race volunteer how mean that hills was and he said “yes, but you’re there.” And I was. I saw the cones marking the last quarter mile or so. It was flat and I was nearly done, so I ran hard to catch that 6:30. Which I did…barely. 6:30:19. That counts doesn’t it?

After I crossed the line, I was handed a nice finishers shirt and medal and I realized what an amazing day I had. I was far from setting a PR, but I felt so good about my day, about the course about how I handled the challenges that I can say this was the most rewarding racing experience I have had. As silly as it sounds, I actually got a little choked up when I was reliving my day to Mark at the finish line.  After fussing around the finish line for a bit, we opted to skip the post-race festivities in light of the tornado warning that had been issued for the area. I think we chose wisely.

While I can’t help but wish my times reflected how great my day was, I try to remind myself that the course was hard and the day was hot and humid.  Looking back I think I could probably have pushed it a little more on the bike, but without knowing what the run had in store, I’m glad I did what I did. I do wish I had those wasted minutes fussing with my bottles back, but what can I do? I do, however, know I could have had a faster swim time. I was far too relaxed and could have shaved a couple of minutes off there for sure.  Lesson learned. I have to give massive kudos to Rev3. They thought of everything and really put on a first class race. I would not hesitate to do another one of their events or recommend one to another athlete.

Official Splits

Swim – 40:17

T1 – 2:32

Bike – 3:31:15

T2 – 1:45

Run – 2:14:30

Total – 6:30:19

21/42 Age group

94/171 Female

Man, I’m good at finding the middle of the pack!