I came into Rev3 Quassy thinking I already raced the hardest half distance course on my race schedule at St. George. But I was wrong. Quassy is definitely a more difficult course. The cycling courses are comparable but the run course is where Rev3 ups the ante. St. George ran us up Red Hills Pkwy, which is a long and arduous climb, but after that the course is manageable. The Quassy course starts with a similar climb on White Deer Rock Rd. and then is unrelenting all the way to the end. Add in the heat and humidity and it’s killer!
But onto the race, somehow Lake Quassapaug managed to warm up 7+ degrees in the week leading up to the race so the non-wetsuit swim caused some big separation between groups. Eric Limkemann pushed the pace from the beginning and I got caught behind a split. I ended up leading in a big group about one minute down from Eric and a few others.
The initial part of the bike was very hard. Starky, Yoder, Collins and Limkemann were setting a punishing pace at the front and a big group of guys (including myself) were trying to match it. Eventually Starky made the break and Yoder and Collins slipped back so the pace became more sustainable. I became part of a big “stagger rule” group – this is the USAT drafting rule for professionals. The group was initially 15 to 20 guys strong, but by the end we were reduced to seven or eight, the remainder either blowing up or receiving stand down penalties.
During this external struggle on the cycling course I was having some internal issues of my own, mainly that two water bottles launched from my bike, leaving me with only one for the entire 56 mile ride. I was able to get a second bottle at the second aid station, but my attempt to replace the other bottle failed at the third and final aid station. I knocked four or five bottles out of the volunteer’s hands in my attempt to grab a bottle. So I ran out of liquid around mile 42, and with 14 miles of riding left and a half marathon, this was bad news. Brandon Marsh was nice enough to give me about a third of a bottle of Gatorade right at the end of the bike – thanks Brandon!
I felt fine going out onto the run – no dehydration issues yet. I walked the aid station at the exit of T2 and downed as much liquids as I could. I set what I thought was a sustainable pace and took the lead at mile 2.5. Up and over the climb from miles three to four I opened up a gap of 30+ seconds to second place and still felt strong. I slowed down for aid stations to get as much nutrition as possible each time, but around mile seven I started to feel not well. Not well at all! I was re-passed by Gambles, Cunningham and Docherty as my pace slipped. I jogged for a couple of miles and walked three aid stations trying to regroup, and during this time I slipped to fifth as Christian Kemp passed me. At mile ten I started to come back to life as my aid station gorging kicked in, and just in time as the Russian (Parienko) was bearing down on me. I held on for fifth place, which was good because Rev3 only displays the top five on the homepage for Rev3live.com, and I didn’t want Lindsey to start calling local hospitals to find out what happened to me! It was a very impressive showing by the race winner Joe Gambles – he ran a smart race.
Probably about to blow up.
Overall I’m a bit disappointed with fifth place after going for the win, but I would rather learn from these mistakes now than in Vegas. Next up for me is Rev3 Williamsburg in three weeks. Virginia in June, it will be hot!
Here is the pro recap video from Rev3: