Rev3 Williamsburg Half (70.3 triathlon)

Training race on the road to Ironman Wisconson 2013.

The swim gave me pause at first glance, it looked too long.

 

Setting up for 70.3 miles of fun

Ok, so race morning my cousin, who was racing the Olympic distance race, & I dropped off our T-2 race bags into T-2 at the William & Mary race venue. The RD had organized busses to transport racers to T-1 & the race start, 5 miles away. I noticed, as we walked to our awaiting vehicle in the rain, that the line of racers waiting to get on the buses wrapped around 3 sides of the block. Not ideal, especially in the rain. I was thankful my husband had offered to drive us to T-2 & the start.
Race #323.

The race start was delayed due to the buses not arriving in time. Which gave me more time to warm up. The water was warm, but the RD said still wet suit legal. I think that was a good call, considering this was the worst swim course in HISTORY!!! They had us swimming against the current in the James River; nuff said.

I thought I would never get to the first bouy, the current was sooo strong, when I finally did get to it & tried to swim around it, it moved over my head & I had a hard time getting passed it, got caught up in the ropes. Seemed to me the anchor wasn't holding it in place. The swim was tough & I'm a fairly strong swimmer. The whole time, I thought "someone's going to die today". Thankfully no one died, but over 50 people did get pulled from the swim.

The race needed more spotters in the water. What should have taken 30-35 minutes ended up taking 46. That is all I will say about that disaster. (came out 6/40 AG)

Did notice several half distance swimmers cutting the swim short. 

Next: the run to T-1.

Ridiculous. But, whatever.We got it done. They reversed the flow of traffic into & out of transition area at the last minute. So, there was some confusion for a lot of people, luckily not for me.

the run from swim to bike

The bike course was pretty straight forward. The weather wasn't too bad, cloudy, no rain.  It seemed like the difficult swim elevated my HR & it never really recovered fully. This played into my race, unfortunately. Ave 20.5 for the 56 mile course. The bike worked well & my new ENVE wheels were amazing. So smooth & rolled so well.
Nutrition on the bike: water in front, bottle of Isagenix WME mixed with maltodextrin to equal 240 cal per hour, Metasalt tabs & Hammer gel for when the intensity goes up. Seemed to work fine, good energy levels & no GI upset.
The last few miles of the bike course were funneled into a main road with lots of traffic. The  cars seemed gridlocked from the race & it made it very difficult to pass.
The Run:

I was really looking forward to running on what was sold as a "beautiful run course through William & Mary College Campus". But, was disappointed, it was not scenic & we ran behind the college, through some parking lots & between some dumpsters. My goal was to practice IM pacing, but because of the heat, I chose to walk the aid stations & hydrate & dowse my head with water. This slowed my overall pace down from 8:30 to a 9. By the 2nd loop, my HR was way too high, so I took off my HR strap & just ran on PE. Again, I blame the swim for messing up the rest of the race. During the last 2 miles I suffered greatly, & got passed by 2 girls running together, both in my AG. I had nothing left to give & crossed the finish line in 4th place AG with a time of 5:36.

Overall, it was a good training race. I would not recommend racing any race during it's inaugural year, there were a lot of problems that the race promoters need to work on. But it's not meant to be easy, that's why it's a race & survival of the fittest. I gave it everything I had. Still got some work to do. 10 weeks till IM.

I want a pair of these!

I had a great support team, both daughters were there to cheer, my mom & dad traveled with us & were there & of course my biggest fan, my husband was there as well. Christy, my cousin had a good race too & she cheered me on during the run, that helped a lot.

We spent the rest of the week touring Williamsburg, Busch Gardens & the Outer Banks.

Rev3 Williamsburg Video