This past weekend was the 2nd annual Rev3 Knoxville race. I wasn't in shape to be competitive last year and was upset with myself that I wasn't competing so I made sure to be there this year in good shape. Knoxville is only about 170 miles from Lexington so it makes for a fast trip. It is definitely the closest prize money race (excluding IM Louisville). I headed down on Friday and met up with my team director to get some goodies from the team. I rocked my new US Pro Tri racing kit during the race thanks to Champion System. The uniform was super comfortable and definitely got some attention as I made it in two different photo galleries from the race. I drove to one of my good friends' in-laws' house as that is where I would be staying for the weekend and called it a night. The Cochrans treated me like I was a king and I want to thank them for that. I had a fantastic time staying at their house and was very relaxed the whole weekend. Mrs. Cochran made us rice krispie treats and Strawberry Shortcakes. They were amazing.
Saturday I got my shake out workouts out of the way early, then relaxed for most of the day before we had some great Italian food that evening. Race day rolled around and I was feeling good. After setting up my transition area, I headed down to the race start with my Profile Design Marlin wetsuit since the water temp was below 68. While I was hanging out before the start, Kevin Lisska and I (my teammate) were putting on our wetsuits and Matty Reed came over and gave us a hard time since he already had the Marlin 2 (which I don't believe has been released to the public). At 5 minutes til 7, they walked us down to the water and let us get in. At 7am, we were off.
I got a starting position very close to shore since we would be swimming up stream for the first 500 or so meters. It was great to have some open water and not have to fight with a ton of guys like I did at St. A's. I had a good start and settled into the group around 300 - 400 meters. We hit the turn buoys and were headed back down stream. It was pretty uneventful as I just sat on some feet the whole time back. I ws stuck behind at least 5 - 8 guys all of which seemed like they were swimming side-by-side. I knew it would be stupid to try and get around them so I just enjoyed the ride. We came out of the water and my brother yelled at me that we were the main pack and only 5 guys were in front of us. I had a good T1 and got out with the lead guys from our group. I recognized a few names in our group and knew they were strong cyclists so I knew I would have to go hard to stay with them. I put my head down and forced myself to not let those guys go. I stayed in touch the whole bike ride and was even pushing the pace at several points. We caught 1 guy up the road so when we came back into T2, I was roughly 6th or 7th place as I headed out onto the run. Richie Cunningham and David Thompson both were with me running out of T2. We were 6th - 8th positions. We were chasing after Joe Gambles who was roughly 20 - 30 seconds up the road and we were running away from the other guys that were in our bike group. Thompson pushed the pace for the first mile or so until I took the lead and tried to make a little gap. I was unsuccessful so we just ran hard until we hit the turn around point at around 2.5 miles. About a mile later, we hit a hill and I tried to get away again. Again, I was unsuccessful and we were all still together. Richie took off with about 1.5 miles to go and I couldn't go with him. Thompson responded so they both put about 10 meters on me. It stayed that way to the finish with Richie managing to gap Thompson before the finish line. I crossed in 8th position in a time just over 1:52. I was extremely happy with my performance but it would have been nice to finish 6th instead of 8th. After the race, my dad treated my brother, Kevin, Casey, and myself to Calhoun's on-the-river, which was amazing as always.
Congrats to Matty Reed for pulling out the win and Cam Dye for finishing 2nd. They were really flying out on the road. Thanks again to the Cochrans for letting me stay at their house. Thanks to my dad, brother, and girlfriend for traveling down to Knoxville to watch me race as I'm always excited to have support at races.
I now have a 3 weekend break from racing and next up is Kansas 70.3 on the 12th of June.
Thanks for reading.
T-Bird
Check out these 2 sites for some photos from the race. The photo albums are both entitled "Rev 3 Knoxville"
www.triathlon.competitor.com
www.lavamagazine.com
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