REV3 Quassy 2013 Race Recap

I had the pleasure, and yes it was truly a pleasure to race my first REV3 event last weekend.  REV3 is truly a class act and put on an amazing race, which was set among the hilly terrain of central Connecticut.  The race, held at a local amusement park made for the perfect backdrop for a fun day in the sun.  Luckily it was not the same heat as was present on Saturday in which the temperatures hit the mid 90’s.  This made for an unpleasant bike check-in, but otherwise was relatively unnoticed as most of the day before race is spend inside with the feet off the ground and in my Normatec Boots and filling myself with CHO of course.

Race morning started around 4:15ish, at transition by 5:30 and awaiting race start by 6:30.  The PRO’s went off around 6:50 which left me with a little under an hour until my wave started (@7:40).  We started in ankle deep water which allowed for a few steps to be taken before a couple dolphin dives.  I went out as hard as I could and found myself at the front of a large mass of under 30 year old men.  It was at this point that I either needed to sit in or man-up and bridge to one of the solo swimmers in my wave that was ahead of me.  I estimated that there were around 5 people ahead of me after 400 yards and with this solo swimmer about 15 meters ahead I went full gas and bridged up to him.  It was one of my proudest moments as a swimmer when I made the gap and was able to sit in his draft until the first buoy.  It was at this point when his pace slowed and I went by.  The rest of the swim for me was a series of solo swimming and subsequently passing through large masses of swimmers as I caught up to the waves that started before me.  In the end I posted a 28:58, which I was extremely pleased with and had me 4^th in my wave and around 35^th amateur.  Not spectacular by any means but it was a swim that kept me in contention.

Transition once again proved to be a let down for me as I had a hard time locating my bike which was in the middle of 1,000 other bikes.  I had a game plan for this and even had landmarks to help me but I still managed to mess it up.  A bit of panic ensued and I even thought that some greedy triathlete must have taken off with my bike, laughing the whole way.  In the end I realized there was a second row that I was not aware of and after moving to that “other” side I found my bike and was on my way.  Riding through the waves ahead of me I found myself coming up to a yellow REV3 car loaded with cameras.  I was moving along pretty well at that point and ended up with that car on my butt for about 20 minutes.  It was hard for them to pass me as the course is very up and down and twisty so no real good places to get by me as I was also avoiding the other bikers on the road.  So if you were watching the coverage at all you may have seen my backside for about 20 minutes, my apologizes if you were subjected to this.  Around 15-20 miles into the bike ride the other two top amateurs in my age group were around me.  The one that had led out of the water confirmed that we were the top three.  At this point I just thought to myself, “well dude we’ve got 40 miles to see who has come to play”.  The initial leader out of the water ended up falling back a bit, and the biker who rode up to me ended up sticking around me for the remainder of the bike.  Every once in a while I would peak back and see him in the distance, me being glad that I was the one dictating the pace as I was where I wanted to be and did not feel any outside pressure.  It’s hard to truly guage effort against your competition in the amateur race as your main opponents in the overall competition could be in different age groups that took off at a different start time.  Thus, you really have no idea how hard you truly need to push…you end up basically time trialing the whole race at your goal paces and hope for the best. (which was exactly the case here).

The rider that was behind me in my age group came off the bike around me but shortly into the run he had faded back.  At this point it truly was me against the clock.  I wish I could say I ran really well, but for my standards I felt that I underperformed. Whether it was the hilly, technical bike course that took some extra energy out of me or just a lack of pop on the day I just didn’t feel truly explosive and had a hard time stimulating my HR to the point where I wanted it.  Not to say I had a horrible run…because that’s not the case.  I simply rolled the miles at a solid pace.  I worried that it wasn’t going to be good enough for a top amateur spot but didn’t have much say in the matter as I was stuck in 4^th gear unable to throw it into one higher.  Luckily over the last mile or so I convinced myself (or should I say a really steep hill helped me) to move my legs a bit faster.  I sprinted in to the finish line and gave a big shout as I crossed the finish line knowing that for me I executed the race around where I thought I should be…and that was good enough for me, independent of where I finished.

Here’s me charging hard toward the finishing line while going through a solid group of QT2 Systems supporters, and those Wattie Ink guys who know how to have a good time.  Loved the cheering, really made for a great finish.

And here’s me crossing the finish line.  Thanks to Rev3 for allowing these pictures to be freely downloaded from your website.

After 10-15 minutes of cooling down and chit chatting, my buddy Steve Rosinski (the 2012 Quassy Amateur Champ and now PRO) helped me use the REV3’s awesome big screen computers to check the live tracking feeds.  It was then I learned I had won the amateur race, which for me was the goal coming into the race so that was nice.  This was bolstered by the fact that the second amateur overall was my QT2 teammate, Jason Franks who finished just behind me with a 4:28 and the fourth overall female amateur was Kaitlin Anelauskas in her third 70.3 ever who is also a QT2 Elite.  A huge day for the QT2 Systems Team as a whole!  There was a lot of baby blue on the podium.  Follow the link below for a full recap of the weekend on QT2’s website.  http://www.qt2systems.com/qt2systems-rev3-quassy-70-3-2013/

The race as a whole put on by REV3 was amazing.  I loved the challenging course as it really made each athlete work for a finishing time.  It was not a fast course but it was a fair course as it exposed any weaknesses an athlete may have.  REV3’s attention to detail from custom winner medals that attached to the finishers medals to create a GIANT medal to the free finishers photos was awesome…simply put, they just GET IT.  I can’t wait to do another REVOLUTION 3 race.

Many thanks to QT2 Systems for all that you do for your athletes, myself included.  Normatec for keeping my legs as fresh as possible, Rudy Project for protecting my dome and my eyes, Powerbar for keeping me fueled for maximum output and Pearl Izumi for keeping me looking good while both racing and training!  Also, many thanks to Towpath bike for always keeping my bikes in great working order!