Rev3

or, It appears I AM actually doing a Half IM today.

Before I can tell you about Rev, we need to talk about Harriman.  The race in and of itself would really warrant no attention at all, except that it messed with my head right up until the gun went off at Rev.

I thought about discussing Harriman in a typical race report format but I never got much beyond the alternate title of "or, At least I got a bathing cap."  So in summary, I was excited and ready for that race and then they cancelled the swim due to fog.  That sucked because I like swimming.  It sucked more because they made it a duathlon.  And that change threw me for a loop, so to speak.  Desperately hoping the fog would miraculously disappear and refusing to accept that I would have to run 1.5 miles BEFORE I biked 26 miles and ran 6.2 more, I somehow failed to warm up.  My day thus began with a 1.5 mile sprint instead of a warm up followed by a swim (ie, a TRIathlon).  This might not seem like such a big deal, and in some circumstances it would not have been a big deal but, on a tough course with a smaller field it left me in almost last place from the start.  

So, even though I PR'ed the bike and the run (despite some pretty scary fog situations on the bike) and even though I remember (thanks to my race report from last year, which is why I'm writing this down now) to bring extra water on the last run and had pretty decent race execution, the race was frustrating to say the least and left me grumpy.  And no matter what I did, I could not shake the triathlon grumps.

The fact that 2 weeks before Rev I hurt my neck and didn't do much of anything didn't really help matters.

I wasn't grumpy enough to bail on the race, but I was grumpy enough to be unable to accept that it was really happening.  It was just not something I could get my head around.  Maybe because I've just been busy, or because I've raced at this site or because the field was smaller so things were less hectic, but even after the practice swim on Saturday and witnessing the insanity that was going to take up 69.1 miles the next day, it all seemed kind of pretend.

The morning of the race was like clockwork.  With just me and Sara in the room (ie, no non-racers) we got ready and fed and out the door without worrying about waking others at 5 am.  We got to the race site easily and did the normal bathroom, transition, body marking stuff.  I even went for a quick practice swim.  And before I knew it I was standing on the beach waiting for the gun to go off ...

The Swim

I was pretty much as calm as could be.  Per usual I waited for everyone else to go before finding some calm water to call my own.  I think I need to be more aggressive in these swims and not be so afraid of getting touched.  I have some less than 1/2 IM open water swims coming up and I think I'm going to have to try getting in there.  When the guys from the wave behind us (2 minutes back) caught us, things got a bit crazy and I survived.  I never freaked out, so I should be able to handle some 30-34 yo girls, right?

Eventually, after cruising along and feeling like the swim would never end, I decided to go faster.  Funny how that works, right?  I never really went fast, per se, but I went faster.  My average HR for the swim was 142.  I'm not sure how swimming HRs work, but I feel like I can go faster if I get over my fear of getting hit in the head or stranded in the middle of the lake/ocean/river.   Regardless, in 42ish minutes I was done.  It was a swim PR of roughly a minute, but I know I am capable more than a minute faster than I was in RI (even without any waves to bring me home).  Buy bygones kids.  We'll get that one next time.

And on that note, while I'd love to tell you about the bike and run, I'm tired.  So, to bed I go.  More later.