Knoxville Rev3, a humbling eye opening experience

This past weekend I raced my first A race of the season. It was the first race where I could be around the Pros and hopefully have a shot at moving closer to earning my Pro card. haha what a humbling weekend. You must crawl before you walk young Hanson. I had visions of placing top 3 or maybe winning. haha I'm laughing at myself for typing that. Last year was the first time the Rev was held in Knoxville. The age group winner put down a time of 2:08 and some change. I figured with my training and with the paces that I've been able to hit that I could throw down somewhere just under 2:10. One thing I didn't take into account was the fact that a well put on race will typically draw much better talent in their second year. This years age group winner put down a 1:57!

It was a fun weekend and I felt good. I hung out with some friends at the Expo the day before the race and with my cousins family the rest of the time. I was never nervous. I knew the bike would be hilly and the run somewhat hilly. However what I was not ready for was the severity of the hills. I had trained on my hills here and was prepared, just not aware of what I was going to see.

Race Day:
I got up at 4:15 and made some breakfast and watched sports center. I left the house around 5 and headed to downtown Knoxville. I randomly found a parking garage pretty close to transition around 5:45. Transition opened at 6. I got to transition and set everything up then walked around to chat with some friends. Something new I did this race was place my "Easy" button in transition. It was just a reminder to have fun and not be so serious. Julie Dibens blogged about controlling the controllables and not worrying about the rest a week or so ago. That was my mind frame the entire race day. Which helped me stay calm, because I forgot to turn my running watch on before I went to swim and I forgot to reset my bike computer so it still had my last workout on it. Both things would have stressed me out had I not already decided to not let that type of stuff affect me. After watching the Pros swim and transition onto the bike. I found a volunteer that went and turned my watch on for me. I didn't find out about the bike computer until I got on it in the race haha.

Swim: (.9 miles 23:54)
We swam in the river that runs along Neyland Dr. I would guess the water temp was about 65 degrees. I was in my Xterra Vortex 4 wetsuit so to me the water felt great. Many others were complaining about it being cold. We waded and waited for the gun to go off, horn actually. BANG! We were off and evidently all thirty of us guys on the front row had the same thing in mind...get out in front. We gunned it and didn't start to space out for probably the first 2 minutes. My pace felt good and I was calm. My breathing was a tad heavy but that was because of the pace so I wasn't concerned. At the half way point we turned around to head back and this is when we met up with the swimmers from the 70.3 race who had started ahead of us. It was pretty crowded and the line I wanted to take was not what the other few hundred swimmers were on. I wanted to go straight and the pack was swimming in a arch. So I simply cut across the entire field. I managed to do so without to many collisions and elbows to the head. However, during all this I had settled into more of a cruise type of pace and not my race pace. Somehow I didn't notice though. When I finally got to the dock I pulled myself out stopped my watch and took off running. I got my goggles off and looked down expecting to see 20ish minutes. 23:54!! Crap. "Ok no worries we can work with that"

T1: (Swim to Bike 2:09)
I was breathing pretty heavy after the swim and it was a long run from the dock to my bike. I got my wetsuit off pretty easily and was off onto the bike.

Bike: (24.8 miles 1:09:11)
The first few miles of the bike felt great. I was rocking along at a good pace and passing tons of the 70.3 riders. I knew the first climb at mile 8 was going to slow things down though. Before the race I had noticed on the bike profile that the climb at mile 8 was ranked a Category 5 climb. That is the lowest a hill can be ranked. Anything less doesn't even get ranked. I now have a lot of respect for tour riders who climb cat 2 and even cat 1 hills, because my cat 5 about killed me. I felt that if I were to quit pedaling that I would go crashing all the way back to the bottom. Even in the easiest gear it was still super difficult to climb. Going into the hill I averaging 22+, when I reached the top of the hill I was averaging 19+. From there until around mile 14 it was a typical Tennessee ride, lots of rollers and a few fun descents. Then there was one more long long climb. It was during this climb that I knew I would not hit my goal time. The bike course was just too slow to pull it off. I reminded myself to have fun and keep pushing. After another awesome descent and some more rollers I was back to transition. At the time I didn't know how long it had taken me because I had forgot to reset my bike computer before the race. I noticed it and reset it somewhere after the first mile. I knew from my mph avg that I hadn't made up anytime on the slow swim though.

T2: (run to bike :55)
T2 is pretty simple as always. Put your bike up put your shoes on and go. Only thing difficult was running on a numb foot over pebbles and uneven concrete after getting off of my bike. I racked my bike, took my helmet off, and put my shoes on. I glanced at the "Easy" button and reminded myself again to have fun.

Run: (6.2 miles 46:12)
The run never feels good in triathlon. Your legs are heavy and it's hard to feel your pace. It took me the first two miles to work though a spiking heart rate and side stitch. I walked twice for about 10 seconds to try to calm my breathing. After that I found my stride and settled in. With four miles to go I figured I was in the top 30 and that was my new target. "Don't give up any more position". I started having guys fading in front of me and I was able to pass a few. The course had a few hills on it that I handled pretty well because of all the hill training for the Country Music Marathon a few weeks ago. But the guys in front of me were struggling on the hills. Had I been able to get into the run a little earlier I could have picked off a few more guys. The run is where I flat out sucked last season. I was not training nearly enough and never had anything left in my legs when I got to the run. However, on this day I pr'd my run by 4 minutes.

At the end of the day I ended up swimming 4 mins slower than my pr, biked 1 min slower than my pr, and ran 4 mins faster than my pr. Although my total time was not a new best, my performance was. It was hard at first to be happy about this race since I had missed my time goal. But then as I processed and took into account the difficulty of this course compared to the two I did last season, I was a little more ok with it. A friend asked if there was anything that I could have done differently. I said no. I took what the course threw at me and did my best with it. I stayed in the game mentally despite a few minor details that could have thrown me off. I had fun even though I knew my dreams and visions of the race would not be a reality. So now it's back to work. I have a mini sprint in two weeks, but it's the Music City Olympic race in late July that I have my focus on. I'm determined to make more improvements. I am happy with what I did in Knoxville but not satisfied. There is always something to improve on.

Thank you to all that supported me and continue to support me. Thank you to my sponsors K-Swiss and Base Performance Nutrition for top of the line gear and amazing nutrition.

See it. Believe it. Do it.