Swim
Comments: The water was cold, about 57 or so that morning. It had been raining for a couple of days prior to (and on) race morning, so the river had a good current. This made the upstream leg a bit more difficult but the downstream leg was wonderful. At the start, I was trying to get as far upstream on the dock as I could. The actual start line is just upstream from the end of the dock. I finally heard the announcer counting down the final 5 seconds until the start of my wave and I was still on the dock! So, I quickly jumped in. I heard the air horn for the wave start as soon as my head came back out of the water so I started swimming. It was probably for the best that I didn't have time to think about how cold the water was and just got into my swim rhythm. As it was, the water was shockingly cold. My swim rhythm was ok, but bilateral breathing went out the window. I was breathing every other stroke just to catch my breath. Once I warmed up a little, I got back to better form. It seemed to take forever to get to the turn around point on the swim due to the current but, once I made the turn it felt like the afterburners were going! Seemed like as soon as I rounded the turn around, I passed by the swim start. About 100m from the swim exit, my right calf cramped up and I had to stop for a second or two to sort it out. A support guy in a kayak was about 5 feet away and made sure I was ok. Made it to the exit and my calf cramped again as I was getting out. Had to just sit on the dock for a couple of minutes. The volunteer that helped me out of the water was also helping me to stretch my calf to work out the cramp, so a big "thank you" to him. Once out of the water, it was about 1/3 mile run to T1, mostly over road and side walk. Transition 1
Comments: I intentionally left my wetsuit on for the run into T1 just to stay warm. Then took some extra time in T1 to warm up and put on extra layers, namely arm warmers and a bike jacket. What would you do differently?: I was going to be wet and cold anyway, so there was no need to towel off and warm up. Just throw on the arm warmers, jacket and other normal stuff and go. Bike
Comments: I have only ridden in the rain once before this, so my confidence in wet roads and racing tires was not too high. So, I backed off the bike speed a little bit to make sure I could finish. It was a good thing that I planned that as my legs felt completely dead after the swim until about mile 10. After that, I felt like I could pick up the pace a bit and had also gotten more confident on the wet roads. By the end of the bike, my toes were completely numb and my body was soaked and very cold from head to toe. Transition 2
Comments: T2 was at least faster than T1. At this point, I knew that I was going to be wet and cold no matter what, so just lose the bike stuff and throw on the shoes and go. I kept on the arm warmers and bike jacket for the run to keep what warmth I had. Run
Comments: The run course was pretty soggy because of all of the rain. It seemed like I was constantly going through puddles that were about ankle deep. This made for some heavy shoes. At least I started to feel my toes again after the first couple of miles. I didn't feel like I had anything in my legs the whole time. I just turned out the only pace I could and tried to keep it steady. The volunteers on the run course were great! Encouraging, making a lot of noise to cheer us on, all while standing in a downpour. Post race
Warm down: Cooling down wasn't really a problem on this day. My problem was being too cold. After finishing I got some food and found the mylar blanks that were being handed out. I was waiting for my wife to finish the race and started to shake quite a bit. At that point, I made my way to the car to get into some warm, dry clothes and thaw out. What limited your ability to perform faster: The cold and wet conditions made this race a lot more difficult. This was my first olympic distance race and after this one, I think I won't have any problems with being able to complete others :-) Event comments: While the conditions of the race were terrible, Rev3 did everything in their power to make it a good event. There was lots of support on the race course. They handed out mylar blankets at the finish to help racers warm up. They even had a couple of rooms at the hotel that you could go into and warm up after the race. A huge thank you to all of the Rev3 volunteers who were so supportive and stood in the rain all day so that we could race! Last updated: 2012-09-04 12:00 AM
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United States
REVOLUTION3 Triathlon
Precipitation
Overall Rank = 308/356
Age Group = M40-44
Age Group Rank = 41/45
Woke up, ate a bagel, dressed and made my way to transition
I was running a little late the morning of the race, just had enough time to setup transition, put on my wetsuit and walk to the swim start.