Tim Delss – Rev 3 Williamsburg – Saturday, July 8, 2017

2:26:56 – 3 of 21 AG, 37 of 359 OA I had originally signed up for the 70.3 distance at this race but due to my mountain bike crash and resulting shoulder surgery I decided to "drop down" to the Olympic distance and I was also comped an entry into the sprint distance the day before by Rev 3 to help with the fact that I would've been losing money from my 70.3 registration. I was really looking forward to, and actually quite a bit nervous about, racing this weekend since I really still wasn't sure about how my shoulder would hold up as well as the rest of my fitness as I'm still quite a 20+ lbs. heavier than I would like and I lost 3 months of training after the crash/surgery. I really needed to test myself and knock the rust off and I will say that while I'm not where I want to be I was pleasantly surprised by how this weekends experiments went. Swim: 26:11, 1:41/100y – 5 of 21 AG Those who know me know that my swim is generally the weakest of my 3 sports. The water was a warm 85.4 degrees which of course meant no wetsuits, the same as the day before in the sprint. I was sitting at the tent relaxing and waiting for my 7:20 swim start when race staff member came over(at 6:58) and told me that I need to get to the water for the 7:05 start. I was confused until he told me that they moved the swim up 15 minutes because the currents were starting to change and they didn't want us swimming against the current the entire way as we had the day before. I ran to the swim start, threw on my cap and goggles and waded in with the rest of my wave. The horn sounded and we took off. I could feel that my shoulder was pretty tight from racing the day before and I worried that I might be in for a rude awakening once we hit the current in the body of the river. On the way out the current was slightly in our favor and the trip to the first 2 turn buoys was uneventful and decent. I am still a little nervous about my shoulder so the contact in the worried made me slightly uneasy, which has never been a concern before, but all was fine. After the second turn we hit the longest stretch towards the finish line and the current was pushing against us but it was far from horrible. I think it was just enough to even out the slight push we got at the beginning so while there were no super fast times like last year they weren't terribly slow either, pretty much right on average. T1: 1:25 – 2 of 21 AG Not sure what took me so long here since I was under a minute the day before. Must've taken a nap or something. Either way it was uneventful and I headed out with my bike. Bike: 1:09:19, 23.54 mph – 3 of 21 When I hopped on the bike and headed over the bridge I could feel soreness and tightness in my quads from racing the day before. I was sure I wouldn't be able to duplicate my 23+ mph performance from Saturday with a course 12 miles longer but I though I might have 22 in me. Near the top of the bridge a fellow from DC Tri Club passed me and after I got to the bottom and settled into my cadence he was running the same pace about 40 yards ahead of me. As I continued down the first stretch of road I caught and passed him. About 3-4 minutes later he came back around me. This started a game of leap frog that lasted from mile 1 to mile 27. He and I would take turns setting the pace with the other dropping back out of the draft zone and just playing a game of pursuit. It really took my mind off of the ride and with the exception of keeping an eye on my heart rate I was able to just have fun and turn the pedals. We went through most of the 70.3 racers that had started 10-20 minutes before us and were knocking down most of the olympic distance riders as well. I wasn't really watching my speed until my watch went off for 40k(typical Oly distance) and I saw that I went under 1:04 which meant I was over 23. Once I got to the bridge I got out of the saddle and pushed up to get passed the last few riders so I'd have a clear shot to the dismount line and made my final pass on the DC Tri guy. A nice smooth dismount and into T2 with a bike split about 3 minutes than I was hoping for. T2: 0:43 – 1 of 21 Nothing special to report. Racked my bike, put on my shoes and grabbed my hat, sunglasses and race number to put on while running out of transition. Run: 49:19 – 9 of 21 AG This was were I was most concerned. After 2 days of racing and the heat I was very unsure as to how my run would go. I settled in a manageable pace around 7:50/mile which was 10 seconds slower than what I ran conservatively the day before and for the first 3 miles to the turn around it was ok. Water at every aid station to drink and dump on my head. After the turn around we were running back into the breeze(not terrible but noticeable) and also the sun was shining in our faces so I started to get hot. I held it together through mile 4 and then it starting getting tough. A mix up at the aid where I was trying to get Coke forced me to stop and walk back a few steps which took me out of rhythm and in hindsight I should've just skipped but Coke has been a wonder drug for me in the past and I needed it. Coming over the bridge on the way back to complete mile 6 the switch just kind of turned off. I felt like I was melting and while I was still running I wasn't doing so well or very upright. I overshot the turn back into the park because I was staring at the ground instead of ahead and the volunteers graciously screamed at me to turn around. The run through the park was tough but cheers from Mike Lombardo and Danny Serpico who were working transition gave me a slight boost. I kept myself together until I got to the finish line and then when I stopped running my body decided it no longer wanted to stand. Next thing I knew I was on the ground and people were grabbing ahold of me. I heard mention of a woman saying she could feel my heart beat in my upper arm when she grabbed me so the wonderful volunteers whisked me to medical for some attention. They packed me with cold towels and ice and I had the not so awesome privilege of having my temperature checked shall we say…uh hmmm…. "Mark Yost" style? My core temp was 104.4 so they kept me laying down and packed down with ice and cold towels until it came back down and I could get fluids in. A huge thank you to Chad, Rebecca Bollweg's who saw my finish and quickly got to medical to check on me and help with whatever I needed. It is amazing how quickly this club rallies around it's members and I am grateful. After a while of drinking and icing down I started to feel relatively normal and made my way around to cheer for others. I went by the scoring tent to see how I fared since I beat my expected time goal but a little over 3 minutes and to my surprise I held on just enough to lock down a podium position in 3rd place. MMTC rocked the podium this weekend with I believe 6 podiums as well as some first time 70.3 finishers, first time Olympic finishers and some just plain old good racing. It was so great to see everyone out there and congrats to all who raced. You guys did amazing! PS: For those who don't know or have never seen a long race report, race reports can be an extremely good source of knowledge and information. The format I used is one that MMTC had used for years and it was so easy to go back to old race results and read what worked, what didn't, find things you wouldn't expect about races you have coming up, etc. I encourage to include details, highs, lows, nutrition, etc when they fill out reports because it will help someone else down the line to avoid pitfalls or pick up extra tidbits that will help them succeed in the future.