It's been about a week and a half since I had my first self inflicted DNF. I say that because I believe that sole responsibility for this embarrassment is my own. (My only other DNF in a race was when the 84 year old women ran me over with her car....not self inflicted!)
We (Chi Chi and I) arrived on Friday after some rather nasty traffic on the highways. But the excitement of arriving at the Rev3 Quassy venue, quickly washed away my frustration at sitting in the highway parking lot! I was very excited about this race! We've been training hard and I was all set to ride my new Scott Bike!!! To make it even sweeter- Wattie had put his Reynolds race wheels on my bike! I've not ridden on race wheels, so I was really pumped to see how this was going to play out!
If you haven't done Quassy, you're missing out! It is one of the most difficult, challenging, cool race venues out there! And yes, we will be returning again next year!
This was also designated as the East Coast Race for the Wattie Ink Team! I was ecstatic to finally meet in person many of the people that I've been playing with since January on Social Media! This part of our stellar weekend did NOT disappoint!
We arrived at the hotel, and managed to get booked next door to HJ and Wattie. That was cool. We don't get to see as much of them as we would like, living on opposite shores and all. (hmmm, 4 kids-3 on the West Coast, was this a result of parenting???? LOL)
Saturday morning we biked down to cheer on the Watties doing the Olympic distance! It was awesome to see such great performances that day! We also got to meet up again with good friend Sean English- dj/announcer extraordinaire! He keeps the day hopping!
Sunday was the half race. Bikes were racked, had dinner at the 121 Restaurant (amazing food), and headed to bed.
Anatomy of my DNF: After the fact, as I whined to my Coach (Lesley Paterson-Braveheart Coaching), she said to me, please write down everything you consumed prior to and during the race. Let's start there. Hmmmm. Didn't take long to figure out that I really screwed this one up. So here it is.
Night before:
Usual: chicken and vegetables
Rev 3: chicken and vegetables .... so far so good
Breakfast:
Usual: steel cut oats with skim milk, raisins and brown sugar
Rev 3: no microwave, so no way to heat my oats. Instead had Cinnamon Chex with skim milk. oops.
Before the race:
Usual: chocolate milk. Yes, before. I know, most people moan. I have had some serious GI issues in races before, and one of the things I discovered was that chocolate milk works for me. So yes, I use it!
Rev 3: walked to swim start, forgot chocolate milk in transition, oops, no calories there either.
T1:
Usual: more chocolate milk
Rev 3: chocolate milk
Bike:
Usual: 3 to 4 rice bars from the Feedzone Cookbook. I really like the rice/eggs/bacon/soy sauce ones. I have had great success using them. 2 to 3 bottles of Perform plus water. Bananas from the aid stations.
Rev 3: I made them in advance and had them refrigerated. I had not planned on using a bento for this race because the one I had was disgusting- landed in the trash. But I bought a new one (thank you Fuel belt!- love the new one!), and opted to put 2 of the larger rice cakes in the bento. Unfortunately, having planned to eat them from my pockets, I did not remove the tin foil. I thought I had eaten all of them, but when unloading my bento back home, discovered that most of it was still in the box all messed up with the annoying tin foil! I suspect that I was already becoming a bit unfocused on the bike, as I usually am a mad eater (whether during racing or just living!) I had a couple of Powerbar Gel Blasts...those being one of the few "sweet" type things that I can actually use when racing! When I hit the aid stations I refilled my Speedfil with water. So I started with 2 bottles of Perform in my Speedfil and then refilled 3 times with just water. Probably should have opted for sports drink. There were no bananas on course- so missed out on a key number of calories. (next time read the fine print on what's at the aid stations!)
T2:
Usual: chocolate milk
Rev 3: chocolate milk
Run:
Usual: water only as my innards won't take in anything else. Orange slices that I squeeze in to my mouth for the fast sugar. Coke near the end of the race. This is dictated by how I am feeling.
Rev 3: water went down. There weren't any oranges (just gels, which I can't stomach), and I never got to a station that had coke. According to Chris, there were some out there, but I just never saw it.
I will say, had I stuck with my plan, it would have been a decent finish for me.
My transition times were the same or faster than the previous year.
I took almost 3 minutes off my swim time and 3 minutes off my bike time! The really exciting part on the run for me was that I ran the first 8 miles. I was bound and determined that this year I would run the entire course....last year there was a lot of hill walking involved! I was actually chugging (ever so slowly, but still chugging) up the big hill when I passed three men who were walking. As I started to go by they all shifted a bit to the right towards where I was passing. ( I really don't think it was intentionally to prevent me going by, but at that point I was tired, so I said in a regular voice- passing please) The guy in the middle said quite loudly, (his words not mine) "God damn it" and threw his water cup in my direction. I just kept running! Ha!
The problems started hitting me when I hit the straight long stretch before heading in to town where there was no shade. There was a water stop, then the stomach cramping started. Every foot fall created havoc with the stomach. I kept going though, determined not to stop. As I came back down towards transition and mile nine, things went south fast. I stopped and leaned over to try and get things back on track. Went another 30 yards or so, and realized that I was about to drop. A very kind Rev 3 Volunteer came running over to assist me. I decided to sit before I fell and hit my face on the pavement. Roger Thrall arrived next- THANK YOU! Then the rest of the Wattie's, Eurostar and Heather arrived. At that point the shakes started. Oops. No so good. I sooo wanted to finish- not happening on that day. Off to the med tent for some IV bags.
Clearly race day nutrition is extremely important, and overlooking the small things can be very damaging. I learned a lot from this race! We're heading up to the White Mountains Half this weekend! I can guarantee, a lot of things will be different in the nutrition department! : )
Yes, the race was disappointing for me, I obsessed over it all week. But can I say that the entire weekend itself was a blast! Wattie's know how to play hard! It was great. With that I will leave you all with some of the photos from the weekend!
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| One of my favorite shots of the weekend! |
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| Words from Cliff before the start! |
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| The Pro Panel with a box! |
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| Wattie's having some fun! |
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| Watties rocking the Powerbar Booth! |
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| Smokin'! |
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| Bill showing us how it's done! |
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| Eurostar!!! |
