Steve Theobald's Rev3 Williamsburg 70.3 Race Report
This marks my very first race report with Endurance Nation (or anywhere else for that matter) so please bear with me as this report is probably a little too long and gives TMI, but here we go. I raced Rev3 Williamsburg Half on Sunday, July 8th. This was my second 70.3, with my first being Eagleman way back in 2010. The 8 year gap will give you some idea of how much I enjoyed the first experience, so when I decided it was time to give the endurance events another tri, I joined EN at the suggestion of a colleague of mine from work. My A race for this season is IMMD at the end of September so I was using Williamsburg as a race rehearsal opportunity and a chance to really gauge where I stood in terms of fitness, particularly on the bike, as well as nutrition, both of which were problems for me at Eagleman. Here is my recap as well as observations from the day.
As an overall comment, the weather could not have been better on race day, but for the lack of cloud cover. This race is historically hot and humid (someone told me it had gotten up to 95 last year by the time the run started for most people) but there was virtually no humidity and temps were pleasant to start and only warmed up to high 80’s by early afternoon.
The Swim – Goal: 40 minutes Actual: 42:48 9/16 in Age Group
Swim is in the Chickahominy River, which is slightly brackish and was 84 degrees at the start of the race. Obviously, no wetsuits, but I was prepared for that as Rev3 makes it clear in the athlete guide that the race is rarely, if ever, wetsuit legal. The current is not overly strong but we were swimming down river to start, with a right hand turn back towards shore at a little past the halfway point. The start itself was self-seeded based on expected pace and for the most part I experienced very little contact in the water as the spacing and self-seeding seemed to work pretty well. The challenge for the day was the wind, which created some chop to swim through and blew the sighting buoys off line. I tend to ingest a fair amount of water when I swim, which is both gross and annoying, so the chop didn’t help, and I am not particularly adept at sighting, so the buoys being all over the place also was not helpful. Based on the conditions and the fact that I don’t swim in a straight line to begin with, I thought I added a lot of extra yardage to the swim. However, when I checked my watch after the race, I was about a tenth of a mile over, which I didn’t think was too bad. The wind was blowing in from the right on the outbound leg and I tend to pull to the right when I swim so the wind may have actually kept me more on course than I thought. I did not feel at all fatigued when I came out of the water but I did have a stomach ache (more about that later).
T1 - No goal set. Actual: 4:33
T1 included a quarter mile run from the swim exit back to transition, partly on an asphalt road. I elected not to leave shoes by the exit and was fine not having them. Had my gear well organized and a plan for getting in and out which I will repeat for IMMD. However, even with the long run to T1, there was no wetsuit removal so I think the 4:33 is more time than I should be taking and my overall transition time was longer than most of those finishing ahead of me.
Bike – Goal: sub 3 hours Actual: 2:54:30 7/16 in Age Group
The bike course for this race is really great, until you get to the last 8 to ten miles. Prior to that, the course is rolling countryside, with very little traffic and no significant climbs to speak of. The roads are in good shape with very few potholes and several sections with nearly fresh asphalt. The last 8 to 10 miles are on a busy two lane road back to the park, which can get congested with bikes and cars in various spots, which made for a few tense moments towards the end.
As I got out of T1 and onto the roads, three thoughts went through my head. First, stay in the box. Second, screw the box, this is a race rehearsal so you need to push a little bit to see where the edge of the box really is. Third, why does my stomach hurt and hopefully this will go away soon. These same three thoughts repeated themselves over the course of the next nearly three hours.
My hydration and nutrition plan for the bike was to drink Gatorade Endurance every 10 minutes and take a Clif Shot every 30 minutes. I alternated one 30 minute section with Clif Blocks, eating two every 10 minutes with the GE. As mentioned earlier, it was not very hot or humid but I still drank more than I have typically done on my training rides. However, in hindsight, I only drank 2 and a half bottles (about 45 ounces of fluid) during the ride and never had to pee while on the bike. (In fact, I didn’t pee until 5:00 that night after I got home, despite drinking several bottles of water post race and on the drive home). I continued with the gels and blocks until about 2 hours in, then took only one gel in the last hour due to my stomach pains. By this point I was concerned about my nutrition plan and impact to the run, even though my legs felt really good coming off the bike.
T2 3:04 Uneventful. Can find some additional seconds here as well. Grabbed a Picky Bar to eat on the way out, hoping it might settle my stomach. No such luck.
Run – Goal: sub 2 hours Actual: 2:03:11 5/16 in Age Group
The run is a two loop out and back on a recently constructed asphalt bike trail. The trail itself is flat, but there is a bridge between the two turn arounds that effectively puts four hills into the course, one at the beginning, two in the middle, and one at the end.
The first three miles were faster than goal pace but then my left hamstring cramped at about 3 ½ miles. Another sign that my hydration plan failed. I was able to stretch it out and begin running again, but by that time my stomach was starting to completely rebel. Twice during the remainder of the run I stopped on the side hoping to puke, only to experience the unsatisfying sensation of dry heaving. My hamstring cramped again on my return over the bridge at about mile 6 ½ but again, I was able to stretch it out and it never bothered me the rest of the run. As a result of my stomach issues, I switched to mostly water at the aid stations with the occasional cup of GE. I also had one gel about 45 minutes in and nothing after that. I was able to pull it together for the last 2 plus miles to get back to goal pace for the finish but miles 4 through 11 were not much fun.
Conclusions and Observations:
My takeaways from Sunday’s race are as follows:
1) My nutrition plan didn’t work for me on that day, and I have a couple of theories. First, I ate a large breakfast two hours before I was in the water (bagel with almond butter, packet of instant oatmeal, banana and Greek yogurt). I have done this before biking and running and never really had a problem, but I have never done that before a swim and I think I overloaded my system and could not process all of the food. Adding gels and GE on top of that only compounded the issues. Next race rehearsal I need to experiment with eating less and giving myself more time before the event. Second, too much caffeine. I drank a bottle of NUUN with caffeine before the swim and then most of my gels were also caffeinated. Again, I think I over did it and paid the price. This will be another control variable for my next race rehearsal.
2) I need to drink more, and perhaps that needs to be something besides GE. Prior to switching to GE I was using NUUN tablets but thought it would just be easier to train with GE since that is what would be on the IMMD course.
3) The Outseason really works. While I still have a long way to go, my bike fitness is exponentially improved from last fall and certainly from 8 years ago. While they are different courses and different weather conditions, I took nearly an hour and a half off my Eagleman time. That is encouraging and something to build on going forward.
If you have read this far, thanks. Would love any observations or suggestions based on what I have provided. I have learned a lot from the forums and believe I put a bunch of that into practice on Sunday but I clearly am a novice with much to learn.