Rev 3 Knoxville

 After reading some reviews on the race's packet pickup and talking to Katie who did the race last year, I decided to leave here at 7AM. My concern was the line for the packet pickup would be super long like Augusta. I didn't want to stand in the line for 1.5 hours. Apparently Rev3 did a much better job and the line was supposedly not bad at all. Sarah came at 6.45AM. We packed the bike and bags and took off 5 minutes earlier than planned. The drive to the K town was 3 hours. It really flew by. We talked about our family. For some reasons I was talking about my dad when he was sick in 2010. My mom took care of him and was by his side 24/7. One morning she called me before work and said she dreamed of me. I came home to visit and she was so happy. She and I were just balling over the phone. I felt so helpless. Sarah told me when his dad was sick and finally passed away. She had to be away for her brother's wedding one weekend and she told her dad to hang on until she came back. When she saw her dad again, he told her he was so happy to see her beautiful face and that he kept his promise to wait for her. I was tearing up while driving.

We got to Knoxville at 10AM. The hotel had our room ready so we checked in early. We went to the expo which was literally at the back of the hotel. We didn't know the shortcut and took the long way to get there. The expo was very family friendly. They had a bounce house for kids. I saw Darren, Heather and their 2 year daughter, Holland. I gave Holland a penguin bath toy for her first birthday. Every time I saw her, Darren or Heather always told Holland that I was the one that gave her that toy. Funny! That kid was a chunky monkey, so cute with her curly reddish brown hair. Heather looked great, she lost 15 pounds getting ready for her first half. I also saw a bunch of other TNT friends. It was nice to see them all.

Nice swag from Rev3. We looked like frogs with those goggles.

There was no line for the packet pickup. We also had to get our timing chip and our picture taken. The line was a little longer but was moving. I asked what the picture was for and they said it would be on the jumbotron when we crossed the finish. Nice! I didn't have my best look (no make-up, pony tail) but who cares. I spotted a BBQ vendor at the expo. I loved a BBQ sandwich for lunch, plus we were in TN, their BBQ was one of the best. After picking up the packet, we went back to the hotel. Susan and Ellen was an hour away at the time. We decided to wait for Susan for the practice swim which was from noon to 2PM. We met up with Susan at the expo. While waiting for Susan, Sarah and I bought a pork BBQ sandwich for lunch. We saved them for after the swim. The plan was to drop off the bikes at the transition and went for a practice swim. The transition was about 0.5 mile from the expo. It was weird that the transition was actually in a parking garage. There was no bike racks, instead we had bike boxes. The rear wheel rested in a slot. I memorized the bike in/out, swim in and run out. Last year I had a brain fart in Augusta. I ran to the bike out at T2 which was the opposite side of the run out. We headed out the swim finish where the swim practice was. We saw more TNTers. Most of them did Olympic distance. The water was nice and not too cold. Perfect for a long sleeve wetsuit. I swam for 15 minutes. I had a good practice swim.

After swim practice. We crossed this track in T1.

We walked back to the hotel. I took a cat nap. Sarah woke me up for the 4PM mandatory athlete meeting at the expo. The race director did a quick overview of the course. As expected, T1 would be long since we had to cross the street and half circle the parking garage. The way they served water on the run course was not on cups but in plastic pouches. At first, I thought it was a bad idea because it would just splash all over as we tried to drink, but I took one to practice, it was actually easier to drink than cups.

Discussing race strategy while hydrating

That night we went to eat dinner at Cafe Four. There was a pork tenderloin sandwich on the menu. Immediately Sarah and I thought of Iowa State Fair's giant pork tenderloin. I had grilled turkey burger. It was delicious. I practically inhaled my dinner. I went to bed early that night. Every hour or so, we heard loud fire truck siren. So annoying. We got up around 4.30AM. Before heading to transition, we checked out from the hotel and put our stuff in the car. We saw Renee at the hotel lobby and we walked over to the transition. I set up my transition area. I thought I had everything but I forgot to lay out my gloves and Garmin wrist strap. I didn't realize about this until T1/T2. I started to get nervous walking to the swim start. This was when you asked yourself why I did what I did. Signing up for a race sounded great 4 months ago, but not that morning. I was still a little uncertain of the turn around for the half. I guess I would find out soon.

Swim start. I was in the front left.

I was in the front of the pack, not that I was a super fast swimmer but for some reason, I felt I would not be passed by too many people. As soon as they blew the horn, I swam hard to get away. The swim wasn't brutal and I didn't get hit. The turn around wasn't a struggle either. By the time, I swam with a lot of red caps, they were Half's men that started before my wave. After the turn, I swam a little bit away from the buoys. I had more space to myself but I decided to get closer to the buoys since I didn't want to be off course too much. Pretty soon, I saw a bunch green caps joining the swim course. They were Olympic's men. I chuckled a bit since we looked like Skittles. A bunch of red, green and yellow dots floating around.

Colorful swim caps floating around

As soon as I swam around the green caps, I started swimming defensively. Their limbs were all over the place. Not good swimmers but aggressive. Not long after that, I passed the last bridge. There was no ramp at the swim finish. We had to swim to the dock and either pulled ourselves up or had one of the volunteers to help us. I extended my hand and a volunteer pulled me out of the water. Great!

After a long run to T1, I got on the bike. My stomach felt great at that point. No bloating, thanks to Beano. I even burped in the water, which rarely happened. I don't remember much the first 20 miles. It was hilly but not too bad. At some point, one guy passed me on my right. It wasn't his day because the race official was right behind us. I saw a motorcycle passed me, wrote his number down, and caught up to him.

On top of one of the hills

Around mile 30, I started getting tired and to make matter worse, somebody's helmet sticker got stuck on my front wheel. It made noise every time it hit the ground. Imagine that my cadence averaged 80 per minute. I heard that stupid noise 80 times in a minute. I could've got off the bike and yanked it out but I didn't want to stop. Honestly, the last 26 miles were quite painful. The hills were getting worse. I felt I was riding in the Gaps at times. There was a short stretch where you rode out and back. I saw Susan. She was just 2 miles behind me. She sounded great as she screamed my name.

Susan: "Monikaaaaa!!!"

The last 9 miles were quite lonely and scary because I didn't see anybody around me. I was afraid I took the wrong turn and went off the course. I was happy every time I saw the pink arrows on the ground. It seemed like an eternity but finally I made it back to the transition. The last 10-15 miles my stomach started to bother me. It was acid party in my tummy!!! I didn't have my med with me but I remembered I had it in my transition bag.

I racked my bike, changed to running shoes and couldn't find my wrist strap. I ended up holding it on my hand. The first two miles of the run was excruciating. My stomach was killing me. It was burning hot running with no shade on the street. I felt like a turtle. We entered the park and I saw a TNTer 50 yards in front of me. It was Heather. When I caught up to her, she told me her quads were cramping. I had extra salt pills but she just took some. After I passed her and the Olympic turnaround, I was either up the hill or down, hardly any flat. I saw Scott, he was having a tough time. He had a flat that took him 20 minutes to fix and now his GPS/ HR watch quit working. I thought I could run with him but his pace was actually slower. I took off. After the half turnaround, I saw Susan again. We chatted a bit over the island. She was in great spirit. Not long after, Sarah came. She looked great too. We all did fairly well in this tough race.

Around Mile 10. Pretty good running posture although felt like crap.

I didn't have a run strategy, except hydrate, keep a steady pace and pick my battle, decide which hill I should walk a bit to save energy. The last 3 miles were painful. I was back on the street and there was no shade. It was hot. I passed one guy that was cramping. I gave him some salt pills. After I passed the swim finish, I knew I had to be really close, maybe a mile away from finish. Then, I saw Ellen sitting on the grass. She said this was the first time she saw me the whole day. I wasn't sure how we missed each other at the swim finish.

Home stretch

As I got closer, I could hear the announcer. I sprinted to the finish. Overall, it was a good race.
Swim time 35:35 (I had a great swim, but not this great, the course had to be a little shorter)
T1 6:01 (a quarter mile distance between swim finish and transition)
Bike 3:20 (16.8MPH, not too bad, considering it was super hilly)
T2 3:34 (It was worth to spend 30 secs to dig up some Antacid med)
Run 2:13 (pretty good on this course, especially after 56 mile ride)
Total Time 6:17:59. My first goal was 6:15, my second goal was 6:30. 

Going home. Post race.

I talked to Coach Mary post race. I asked for some kind of feedback. I realized that I always have to keep acid indigestion med with me all times. If I didn't have stomach issues, my run would have felt so much better. I need to take in more calories on the run. Half a cup of Coke and a bite of banana every mile or two was not enough. Again, if my stomach feels good, I wouldn't have a problem taking in more calories. Hammer's raspberry gel always works for me and I'll stick with that.