Rev 3 Williamsburg Race Report

Chasing Iron & Forging Steel

“Do not let the hero in your soul parish, in lonely frustration, for the life you deserved but never have been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of your battle. The world you desired can be won. It exists, it is real, it is possible, it is yours.”

― Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

The plan for this year has always been about Louisville and my first IM.  That didn’t mean there weren’t other goals; but rather they didn’t take precedence.  I was chasing Iron and about to pour my marrow into the crucible of the forge.  You are thinking that is just fiery rhetoric.  It is not.  My training volume for May was nearly 673 miles of swimming, biking, and running.  It was a month of firsts – I swam my first 100m under 1:20 and completed an 80-mile ride, my longest ride up to that point.

June started off with the MS150, and a 102-mile ride on day one with a 3-mile run, and a 75-mile ride on day two.  I completed my first swim of 5,000 yards and a 113-mile ride.  By the end of June I will have exceeded 750 total miles.  I expected early mornings.  I expected to work hard.  I didn’t expect it to be this much fun.  It is hard work, but I love it.

I was ecstatic when Rev 3 announced a Half Iron event in Williamsburg.  My first triathlon was Set-Up Events Patriot’s Half in Williamsburg and I had returned to it every year since 2009.  This year it was too close to Louisville and I need a race to test my mettle in June.  The inaugural Rev 3 Williamsburg Half was set for 23 June and it seemed to be the perfect choice for my last big race before Louisville. 

It took Rev 3 a long time to put a course together.  It was no surprise when they chose the James River for the swim course.  It’s really the only suitable location in the area, unless you could convince the city of Newport News to let you swim in one of their reservoirs.  The bike course was more exciting.  Every cyclist in the area would recognize this course.  It picked up pieces of nearly every major route in the area, including the one nice climb, “Car Wash” hill.  The run course looped through the college of William and Mary.  Overall Rev 3 did a great job in picking the racecourse, the execution on race day turned out to be a lot harder for them.

May had been a great month.  I had PR’d at the Kinetic Half IM and I was training well.  I tapered for the first time this season.  On the right day I felt like I could beat the time from Kinetic.  Race weekend was fast approaching and on the Friday before the race I finally checked the tides.  “Tides” you say, why would that be important?  Tides in the James are wildly important.  The current at peak flow can exceed 1.5 knots.  The forecast for race day was 1.7 knots at 0530 dropping to slack water at 0824.  That meant that the long leg of the swim was going to be into over 1 knot of current.  I steeled my resolve and packed my gear.

My training partner and I went to packet pick-up on Saturday morning, walked the expo, picked up our packets, dropped our bikes at T1, checked the swim start, chatted with old friends and met some new friends.  We wrapped up the day with dinner at Carraba’s and headed home.  Wake-up time was 0330 to be to Adam’s by 0400 and to the racecourse by 0430.  Since T1 and T2 were not collocated, we put our shoes in our racks and hopped on the bus to T1.  It had started to rain.

First order of business was topping off the pressure in the bike tires.  Then I pulled on my spare pair of shoes and went for a 2-mile warm-up.  I packed up my dry gear bag and dropped it in the numbered bin for transport back to the finish and then pulled on my wetsuit.  I rushed down to the swim start and did a short swim wam-up.

The weather was still questionable, the start was delayed, later we learned this was because the buses transporting athletes from T2 to T1 had been stuck in traffic and athletes were still arriving at T1.  Finally, the pros were lined up and the horn sounded.  It was a long slog out to swim depth, maybe 200 meters.  The more experienced pros began dolphin diving at a steady pace and quickly opened up a gap.  Then whole pack was swimming.  The entire professional field was swept hard to the left.  Next up were the pro women.   They were swept left too.  This swim was all about navigation in heavy current and expectation management.  Soon enough it was my turn and off we went.  Pointed 45 degrees upstream I crabbed my way to the first buoy.  There was chop as well as current and I focused on keeping an even cadence and staying long.  I kept repeating Dori’s mantra as I swam – “Just keep swimming,” and to my surprise I was holding my own and maybe even gaining on the swimmers I could see when I sighted.  It was a tough swim, but it wasn’t as bad as I had expected and I stayed within myself.  Soon enough I was out of the water.  I looked at my watch and saw 41 minutes.  A long way from the 34 minutes at Kinetic, but it was more than 4 minutes better than my swim at the same river in similar conditions at the Patriot’s Half in 2012.  Swim time 41:46 - 87^th out of 573 overall and 13th out of 88 40-44 age group.

The run from the water to T1 at this location is around 500 meters.  It’s a haul, but I felt pretty good.  I got wetsuit pulled down and I was ready to get on the bike.  T1 time was 3:51, but with a 2 minute run from the beach, that is 1:51 on any other course.  It meets my standard of under 2:00 minutes.  I jumped on the bike and off I went.

There is something special about racing on your home course.  Some sections of the course I had ridden a hundred times.  There were no surprises, no mysteries, no “Oh, shit” moments.  I settled in and went to work.  The plan was to spin up the hills and work down the backside.  Steady even power output at about 75% of my functional threshold until 38 or 40 miles and then if I felt good, go after it.  I rode the plan and on a challenging course it was good enough.  Bike time 2:32:53 – 56 out of 573 overall and 11 out of 88 age group.

I popped out of the shoes a little early, but had a good dismount.  I ran to my box, racked my bike, and grabbed my shoes.  As I am grabbed my visor I heard Adam yell my name.  Sure enough I had put time on my training partner in the water, but he had closed the gap on the bike.  I took off out of transition like someone had lit a fire in my shorts.  T2:  1:05.

My legs felt good, but it was hot.  My coach had been preaching about not over-reaching at Louisville, that the heat and humidity could and would do bad things you on the run.  I focused on setting up a good cadence and going easy.  I came though mile 1 at 6:37.  I tried to back it down, but came through mile 2 at 6:45 and passed one of the male pros working on his second lap.  I was worried about going too hard and focused and keeping my cadence but easing up on the effort.  The next mile fell in at 7:12 and the pro and I ran together the rest of my first lap and his second.  The remainder of the race became an effort to manage my core temperature and keep the effort steady as I slowly rolled up my age group.  I decided that I would begin my final push at mile 8 and when it was time I began to accelerate.  The course was a two loop out and back and I began trying to figure out how many of the runners coming at me were in my age group and ahead of me.  It was nearly impossible, but I spotted a face that I recognized and with two miles left and I set out to close the gap.  I pushed Mile 12 under 6:50, then mile 13 under 6:40.  I passed Matt Kemple, the guy I beat at kinetic to pick up 3^rd in my age group, with 100 yds to spare.  Run time 1:31:56 – 31^st out of 573 and 4^th out of 88.  I missed 3^rd place in the 40-44 age group by 15 seconds and 2^nd place by 19 seconds.

Total Time:  4:51:31.  It wasn't my best effort but it was a solid race.  I think I have some unfinished business on this course and I hope, even with the difficulties and challenges that they worked through, that Rev 3 will come back Williamsburg.  The 40-44 Age group places 2 through 6 were separated by less than a minute.  That's great racing and I know I'd like to be in the mix again next year!

Steel is made by taking iron and working it in a forge at high temperature.  It is work hardened and tempered to give it greater strength and durability.  This season is all about chasing Iron and forging steel.  Rev 3 taught me something about running in the heat.  It made me stronger and more durable.  The clock in Louisville will let me know if I got it right.