I came into this race hoping to blow last year's time out of the water. I was very unprepared last year for the hills on the bike course, and this year, between training hill repeat on River Road and 9W with Team in Training, and the Quassy course preview two weeks earlier, I was fairly confident that I would have a better showing on the bike than I did last year.
After pouring rain Saturday, race morning on Sunday was a lovely Sunday day - not too cool. Unlike last year, I stayed up in Middlebury the night before the race. My roommate for the night had booked a room at the Crowne Plaza, and was gracious enough to share with me. We had lots of fun putting on the extremely sticky race tattoos the night before and posing, prepping our transition bags, and getting excited for race day.
We made it to the transition area minutes after it opened, snagging a much-coveted parking spot in the main lot. We saw Coach Scott and JP at the entrance to transition As usual on race morning, I had a hard time getting down my breakfast - rice cakes with choco-almond butter and sliced bananas, and a cup of joe, but continued nibbling as I set up transition. I was in the second-to-last wave, starting at 7:30, so was not in any real rush to finish eating quickly.
One comment on the "service" pre-race compared to last year - last year there were huge water coolers for us to get drinking water prior to swim start, both to drink then or to fill bottles. This year they weren't provided, and the water fountain at the amusement part wasn't turned on. The only place to get drinking water was the bathroom sink. Less of a big deal was that last year there were volunteers with spray-glide that sprayed you prior to you wearing the wetsuit, and they weren't around this year either. Don't care about the glide, but really hope that there is an available cold water drinking source by transition next year. I was pretty thirsty after transition closed and prior to my start time, and there was nothing to drink.
After a quick warm-up swim, I watched the pros take off, cheering Meghan on, and then hung with the Team for a bit before hitting the toilets one last time before my wave went off. The water was a gorgeous 71 degrees, and I felt good in it. I noticed that the sighting buoys weren't exactly in line with the turn buoys, so thought it would be a good strategy to sight off the turn buoy in order to swim in the straightest line. And it would have been a great strategy if 1. I was a good sighter 2. I hadn't doubted my sighting skills 3. I could sight smoothly while swimming with proper form and 4. I hadn't spent a third of the race swimming into the sun. Instead, I zig-zagged back and forth. However, I stayed well within myself, and felt good throughout the swim. As I turned for the third leg of the swim, toward shore, I started using my kick to wake up my legs for the bike. Swim time: 42:07 (IDENTICAL to last year!)
Coach Scott was at Swim out and it was nice seeing him there and getting a cheer. After a quick in and out, I was on my bike, and out on the course (T1: 2:43)
Previewing/preriding the course a few weeks before was absolutely critical to my performance on race day. I knew where to push and where to take it easy, and could tell myself that the hills were tolerable and doable. There was one 4-mile hill about 25 miles in, and I was surprised when it was over, as I expected it to be a lot worse. The bike was definitely more about passing than being passed, though I only managed to gain 2 places. Nutrition was the Chia Charges at the :30, 1:15 and 2:00, with sips of Accelerade, then watered down Accelerade, as I refilled my Speedfill passing through aide stations. At about 3:00 on the bike I figured it was time to take something in again, so managed just over half a Lara Bar (Chocolate Peanut Butter, of course), but didn't want anymore after that. I finished the bike feeling strong, and as if I could have given it more, but wanting to save my legs for the run. Bike time: 3:27:15 (Last year: 3:48:11)
After a chatty transition, (talking up Anne from Terrier and seeing Lauren race out past me!) it was off to the run. T2: 2:39
Coach Scott was cheering at about Mile 1, which was on a down-hill, and I was trying to get my speed and heart rate in check. He told me that I looked strong, and that I'd keep going like that. It made me feel good to hear that, though I was terrified to disappoint. And I managed to keep running past the 2 mile mark, and to the 3rd aide station, where I used the port-o-potty (yes, 40-60 oz. of liquid will eventually catch up with you!), downed a couple of of salt tab, and ripped open yet another water bag with my teeth, then split it between drinking and pouring on my head. Pretty soon though, with a sharp right-hand turn, the lovely flats and downhills came to an abrupt end and we hit the dirt road (which I enjoy) and the hills (um, not so much) - it was time to walk. I resisted at first, but even walking, saw that my heart rate was creeping up toward 170. I wanted to have enough juice in my legs to make it to the end - better to finish strong then power through those hills. So I employed the same strategy as last year-run the flats and down hills, and walk the ups. Mile 5 came after most of the hills were done, and Mile 6 saw me visiting the port-o-potty yet again. I was alternating water, coke and gatorade at the aide stations, with an occasional piece of banana thrown in. My body has a pretty good sense of what it needs, and I tried to respect it (though given how fatigued I was for the first 8 miles of the run, I probably should have shoved in more calories during the bike).
Mile 8 saw me picking up the pace, and deciding that there would be no more walking. Aside from the port-o-potty break at mile 9, I kept to that, picking up the pace to what felt like a sprint (but really, really wasn't anywhere close!) for the last 5k. That found me finishing the run 5 seconds faster than last year at 2:29:43.
Total time: 6:44:26 was over 25 minutes faster than last year's time of 7:09:40.
I met up with some Team people and we waited for a few more people to come through, then got a couple of hamburger patties (great idea), potato salad (not so good) and green salad, and headed to cheer on the last few TNT runners. Unfortunately, it started pouring then, so that mission was aborted, and instead, I headed to Transition to pick up my soaked gear and head home.
Last minute thoughts: I'm still fairly new to this sport, and this is the only half course I've done, though I've done it twice now. While I am very interested in trying other halfs next year, I am equally interested in improving my time in this race. I've proven to myself that I can shave a significant amount of time off the bike leg, and even off of the transitions, but the swim and run times were eerily identical to last years. I'm confident that I can improve my time on both of those as well as trimming down the bike time even more. There's also a certain satisfaction in completing a challenging course, and Rev3 really does put on a well run race!
Other little things:
1. They were offering free quickie A.R.T. massage sessions, and I had my guy work on my right leg - calf, glute, psoas, IT band, which all tend to give me problems, particularly as I fatigue. I felt no pain at all on my right side during the tri (though my left achilles started acting up a bit). While uncomfortable when being performed, I think A.R.T. is pretty friggin miraculous, and I'm searching for a go-to person in Manhattan for tune-ups.
2. I'm not sure about the calf sleeves during the race. Maybe this brand is a little thick for my liking and doesn't provide quite enough compression. I have a set by CEP that are thinner and snugger. I went with these on race day because I thought that they'd be easier to put on. However, I will say that I've started running in them in training and feel significantly less calf soreness than before. Maybe I should explore the full sock option instead of ankle socks and sleeves.
3. Potty time ate a lot of my race time - easily 10 minutes. I have to learn how to make this a non-issue. (Putting it delicately - use your imagination.)
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