2010 - REV3 Quassy Half

REV3 Quassy Half; 1.2m swim, 56m bike, 13.1m run
Middlebury, CT

The REV3 Quassy half was my primary focus for the 2010 triathlon season. With work, and business school on the weekends, my time for training has been somewhat limited this season. While I questioned my ability to adequately prepare for a half-iron distance race in the end the extreme satisfaction that comes from training and REV3’s proximity to NYC made the decision to race a no-brainer.

The week before this race was unlike any I have had before events. Instead of a relaxed taper and meticulous race day planning & excitement, my pre-race week was crammed with intense work and night classes. As if to add insult to injury I came down with a bad cold Tuesday morning. Ah the adventures of dealing with the unexpected. I decided to cut most of my workouts while sick in order to give my body as much rest as possible and kept reminding myself to “focus on what I can control.”

By the time Saturday morning arrived I started to feel a bit better. Packing up the car the excitement finally set in as I realized the race, and summer for that matter, had finally arrived. 2 short hours later and I was up in Connecticut taking in the scenery. Lunch, followed by a quick swim in 77 degree water, an easy bike on smooth roads, and a short run and it was off to pre-drive the course in the topless Wrangler! The course reminded me a bit of Lake Placid. While the climbs weren’t as long they were certainly plentiful. It was abundantly clear that step 1 on Sunday was to keep from blowing up on the bike… A nice dinner and one 3:45AM alarm later and it was on!

Swim: the swim was one loop of Lake Quassapaug. The water was very warm, 77 degrees, and glassy before the athletes attacked it. I was in the first AG wave that started a few minutes after the pro men & women. There were no less than 4 helicopters in the air filming the pros which made the whole thing feel like the Tour de France; very cool! As the other athletes dashed from the beach at the gun, I started the swim slowly and settled into a steady pace towards the back of the pack. Things went pretty smoothly besides a few kicks & hits from faster people coming from the subsequent waves. I tried to draft but had a hard time finding someone only slightly faster than me to latch onto. I made it out of the water in 38 minutes (an improvement from my prior swims however not quite as fast as I would have liked). Oh well time for the two sports I’m somewhat better at!

Bike: in a word, hilly! The total elevation gain was 3517ft over the 56 mile course. I dutifully executed my plan which was to keep a steady effort through the first half and slowly elevate my effort towards the end without blasting through my threshold on any of the climbs. While it was very hard (ok painful) to watch people pass me, I kept faith that I’d reel in a few of them on the run. I finished the bike in 2:58:10 with an average speed of 18.86mph (47mph max) and an average HR of 137bpm. This was well within my plan and left me decently positioned to make up some time on the run.

Run: off the bike I felt good and ready to rock. Again, I stuck to my plan of an easy first half with strict heart rate caps followed by a more intense second half. From the start people were fading as the course and the heat took revenge. I used a run/walk strategy where I walked for 30 seconds while taking aid from the stations and then settled back into my pace. This strategy helped to keep my heart rate in check despite all of the spurts of effort required to get up and over the hills (~1k ft total vert). Towards mile 8, and the end of the major hills, I ran into Cliff on his bike and spoke with him for a bit. I was encouraged to hear stories of the carnage ahead on the course and doubly happy that my measured approach to the day left me with some energy left in the tank. From that point on the race was more like a parade, complete with snacks, than the death march some of the others were on. I had a great time slamming Cokes at each station as my pace steadily increased. I felt good right through the finish line which I crossed in 5:20.

Run Splits

5.4m - 42:42 (7:54 min/mi pace)

5.4m - 41:13 (7:38 min/mi pace)

2.3m - 15:58 (6:57 min/mi pace)

Thoughts: Pulling off negative splits (with an average HR of 153bpm) across this challenging run course was the highlight of my race. I ended up 127^th place overall and 19^th in my age category. Now that I understand the course a bit I hope to return next year and really push things to the limit and get closer to the 5 hour mark. Overall the weekend was a blast and reminded me just how exciting it is to be a part of this great sport. The experience was made even sweeter by getting to share it with some great friends who supported me each step of the way.