Rev3 Knoville Race Report

Rev3 Knoxville was my first race of the US season. The Olympic Distance (1.5km/40km/10km) Triathlon was held on Sunday in Knoxville, Tennessee. This was the first time I have ever traveled to a race on my own (domestically or internationally), so to say I was a little apprehensive about it all would be an understatement!

I was greeted at the airport on Friday night by my wonderful home-stay hosts Karen and Cecil. They went above and beyond in helping me out over the weekend, from driving me around, to providing me with meals and even buying ice-cream on Sunday night! I am so grateful for their support over the weekend, it definitely made me feel more at ease.

Photo courtesy of www.rev3tri.com

Race start was 7am Sunday morning (which was actually 5am Boulder time which made for an early one!). Aside from 70.3 World Champs, this was the toughest field I have come up against, as such, I didn't sleep too great the night before as I was pretty nervous.

The swim was held in the Tennessee River. We swam 500m upstream, then a nice 1000m downstream. I got into a good rhythm fairly quickly and exited the water in about 11th place, and this was the position I would hold for most of the day.

Photo courtesy of www.rev3tri.com

The 40km ride was held on an awesome out and back rolling course, with some steep ascents and a few gnarly descents. While the 10km run wound around the out skirts of the University of Tennessee. I felt pretty good for the majority of the race, although I felt I lacked a little of my speed on the run which could've come in handy! However I managed to hold my position, crossing the finish line in 11th place out of 25 starters. While a top 10 finish would have been a much more satisfying result and what I was gunning for, I gave it my all on the day and it was my fastest time in a non-drafting Olympic Distance race by a long shot, so I'll take that.

Photo courtesy of www.rev3tri.com

These past few weeks have definitely been a steep learning curve. It was tough dealing with post-race emotions on my own, however it is toughening me up and I am learning the importance of staying in a positive frame of mind. I have a 3 week block of training in Boulder and then will travel to my next race, Rev3 Quassy which is promised to be another tough race!

Photo courtesy of www.rev3tri.com

Thank you once again to the Goodricks for being great home-stay hosts, Mum, Dad and Sam for staying up into the early hours of Monday morning tracking my progress and to Josh for continuing to provide his coaching wisdom!

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