Rev3 Knoxville Race Report

As you may already know, if you live in the eastern half of the country, the weather was absolutely gorgeous this weekend at the Rev3 Knoxville Triathlon. Steady rains and 50 degree air temps made for a pleasant ride through the foot hills surrounding the downtown area. Not knowing whether a puddle of water was hiding a wheel-eating pothole forced me to call on my years of minesweeper training:

Oh s#!@, I'm in trouble

Alright, so it was actually quite unpleasant. (WARNING: Excessive bitching ahead, reader discretion advised) My lack of bike course knowledge proved to be costly. I found myself braking to much in some areas and overcooking corners in others. The rain and poor viability made it hard to navigate the course at race speed. I came out of the swim in pretty good shape, but kept loosing contact with faster riders as they came by me. I also froze my ass off, a condition I can trace back to before the race started. After donning my wetsuit, I realized I forgot to put on my usual cold weather embrocation (tiger balm). Usually used for pain relief, I've found that it works really well to help get and keep blood flowing on cold days.

As usual, I was cutting my prep-time extremely close and did not have enough time to remove my suit and apply. Fortunately, I was able to turn in a decent run and limit my loses. When all was said and done, I finished 15th on the day. Not what I was hoping for, but I was happy I was able to mentally stay in the race after a sub-par bike. Post race, I was hacking up a lung for a good 2 hours. During the race I was spitting up a combination of sports drink and energy gel that left me with a pretty raw esophagus. Still not quite sure what that was all about. I guess maybe I should't have taken Towlie's pre-race advice:

Getting high in the Sun Sphere

Ok, so maybe I took his advice a too literally. I took this photo from the Sun Sphere at the Worlds Fair Park in Knoxville overlooking the race finish/expo area. The Sun Sphere is a giant gold globe on top of a pedestal that you can see from all around the city. I did what Towlie said, and got as high in the sphere as I could, but I don't think it helped.

The next race on my schedule will be the Columbia Triathlon up in Maryland. Much like Knoxville, it's a challenging course that ensures no one is getting a free ride. However, having raced Columbia before and grown up close by, I know the course well and enter with confidence.