It turned out to be a beautiful day for the Rev3 Championship race last Sunday. I enjoyed being back in Knoxville and ready to have a much better race than a year ago. About 200 age-group triathletes have qualified for this championship event and started the deep-water swim in a 68F Tennessee River. The total distance of 50 miles comprised of a 1.2 mile swim, 40 mile bike ride, and 9.8 mile run. Rev3 Knoxville was also the final championship race that included professional triathletes.
On my way to the dock for the 1.2 mile swim. I am wearing my new Blue70 wetsuit which provided a lot of comfort during the 35 min swim. Lots of open-water and plenty of feet to catch.
A 150 m run to transition. Did not particularly like to see a yellow cap around me, which meant she swam faster than I did. The swim-to-bike transition took longer than I have planned due to cramping.
Six minutes later I was turning the big ring out of transition and on my way to a 40 mile bike ride through the picturesque Tennessee countryside. The city streets and country roads were virtually empty of vehicular traffic and the Police and volunteers were present at all intersections. The course offered plenty of challenging climbs and fast, technical descents. At mile 30 the Championship race merged with the Olympic-distance course for the final stretch to the transition. Unfortunately, this is when I made a tactical mistake and turned around thinking I took the wrong turn. That was a costly error which added about 7 min to my bike split bringing my total bike time to 2 hrs 6 min.
Transition to the run went much faster and my legs felt very light despite having endured plenty of climbing on the bike. Frequent brick training sessions have prepared me well for the rolling hills of the run course and allowed me to set into a comfortable pace. After a picturesque run through parks and residential neighborhoods I crossed the finish line in 4 hrs 8 min, that is, until I learned about having incurred a 4 min penalty for an "abandoned equipment." So, my official time was 4 hrs 12 min, still good enough for the 5th place in my AG.
In the finish chute
A solid day in Knoxville representing the TriBike Transport Team. Next stop, Grand Rapids, MI on June 8th for the long-distance national championship and a world championship qualifying race.
