Ryan and I (Daphne) had the pleasure of participating in the Rev3 Knoxville Olympic distance (.9 mile swim, 25 mile bike and 6.2 mile run) this weekend in Tennessee. The Rev3 race production company puts on a top-notch, competitive, well-organized and family friendly event.
Here is my race re-cap: I am always awestruck at the new innovative things they are doing with their races. This year they began using
‘bags of water’ instead of bottled water on the race course at water stations and the finish line. This eliminated the need for all those messy water stop cups. They also had to be mega creative and think outside the box when it came to this year’s transition zone. A new building was being erected where last year’s transition zone was so the new transition was in a parking deck. Yes, a parking garage! This is the first time that I have ever had transition in a parking garage… it had it’s good points… no need to cover my bike and stuff in case it rained. The bad part was lots of concrete to run across with my cleats and barefeet and the good ole Garmin doesn’t like to find satellites when it is under a parking garage thus I had no idea how fast I was going on the bike course. Good thing I am a wingin’ it kinda gal and didn’t get all bent outta shape about it, I just went by effort and that was really nice!
The race awards were also super cool, the finisher medal fit into the notches on the age group award medals, so it turned into just one nice, big medal! I was fortunate to feel spunky and fresh today and came up with a great performance, placing 3rd in my age group and 12th female overall. The swim was once again tough this year, with a bit of choppy water and choppy bodies and arms flailing around. My swim wave was the not so lucky group to go last and this meant swimming over and through the slower swimmers. It also meant that the other groups of swimmers were coming back from the out and back section and caused even more confusion in the water and running into other swimmers. Once I got onto the bike course I felt in my element and attacked the hills and got in a good rhythm. I noticed that some other cyclists weren’t having quite the lucky day, one was puking over the railing up one of the climbs and several guys had crashed out, flat tires all along the way and I had a near miss by a cyclist not paying attention to where she was going. Whew. I realized early on that my gears weren’t shifting quite right on the bike so I was trying to stay out of the easiest gear to avoid the clunking sound. I mistakenly put it in the gear going up one of the steep hills on the way back in and my chain instantly fell off the ring. Uggh… the worst place to stop on the bike is on a hill, but it had to be done to put my chain back on. So I climbed off the bike, put it back on and then clumsily tried to get my foot back in my pedal as I climbed up the hill. I started passing back all the gals that had passed me while I was fixing my chain. By the time I got to the run I was feeling sooo good.
I kept track of my nutrition and saved some for the run and it really showed when it came time to get off the bike. I stuck it in my GOOOO gear and started pushing. I had some girls to catch that came out of transition and off the bike before me and so I picked them off one by one. I was feeling like my legs were just flying, the sun was blazing but I kept telling myself that it felt good. Nothing like a little mental trickery, right? The run seemed to go by pretty quickly, considering that the last time I did the Rev3 race it was the half-ironman so twice the distances. All in all, I kicked it to the end and felt great the entire time. I had a blast and enjoyed hanging out after the race, eating black bean burgers and getting all the cool swag with my age group prize! Rev3 Knoxville 2013, oh yea!
Ryan made a really cool video of his experience with this family -- check it out on youtube! http://youtu.be/ynwsBfazJiE
Thanks to all of our awesome sponsors that have made it possible for us to have these race experiences! A special thanks to Myers Chiropractic for the chiro adjustments this past week for Ryan and I, they worked! Also, a shout out to Hearn's Cycling + Fitness, Jus Running, FastPivot, Whitney Commercial Real Estate, Ultimate Ice Cream, Filo, iDaph Events, Madamba Training, Nine Mile, and SpinTech.
The season is here and we are ready to put all the winter training to good use in the upcoming races this season. Thank you to all for following our adventures and support!
