This should be a race report. After all, I did drive to Knoxville on Saturday for the Rev3 Triathlon Sunday morning. However, there wasnt really much racing at all on my part, so there is no race report! Rather, I'll just give a brief synopsis of the morning.
Riding over to the start, it was cold. Not "cool summer morning" cold but more like late fall "I dont want to get out of bed" cold. This unexpected dip in temperature was brought on by "a cold front, honey" as explained to LT at dinner on Saturday night by our lovely, intelligent waitress. Making matters worse, the water temperature was measured to be 69F, which meant we (the pros) would not be allowed to wear wetsuits.
Going through my usual pre race routine, I kept warm with 2 shirts, 2 jackets, pants, and my HTFU hat. This worked well and I was pretty comfortable after a little jog. Upon changing into my swimming apparel, though, heat began to dissipate rapidly.
Down at the river, I jumped in the when I thought we only had a few minutes before the start to try to move my arms a bit before the gun went off. After about 10 minutes, I was pretty cold and ready to get started. This being the South, though, the race director brought in a pastor to lead us in prayer before starting. With that out of the way, we were all more than ready when the race director announced it was time to start. But then, wait, we still needed to listen to the National Anthem. I listened, shivered uncontrollably, and finally we were given 1 minute to start.
I took off, felt like I was swimming fast, and found some people to swim with. Coming out of the water, though, I realized that I had actually been swimming very, very slow. As I started the bike ride, the downhill spiral only accelerated and it was everything I could do to just keep my legs moving and my body from shivering uncontrollably. I kept thinking that I'd warm up but it never happened. After finally making it back to transition, I racked my bike, and threw on my two jackets and pants.
I'm sure I could've finished the race but at that point my only thought was to get warm. Luckily the air temperature had warmed up a bit by this time but I still didnt get comfortable until I got back to the hotel for a warm shower.
So yeah.... all in all, a pretty awful race. But without the bad races, the good races wouldnt be any good!
1 comment:
well, you made it farther than I did. It was "don't want to get out of bed" cold up this way too....so I decided to skip Kinetic this weekend and stay in bed :)
Post a Comment