I had the opportunity to race the inaugural Rev3 South Carolina olympic distance triathlon this past weekend. Despite it being the first event by Rev3 at this location, it was an absolutely fantastic race. If you are looking for a top notch race, this is definitely one to put on your list!
On race morning I woke up w/ a BG of 71.
Ate a PB/J sandwich and a banana for breakfast. Bolus was almost too effective and was in the 70-80s all morning leading up to the race start. I didn’t have any expectations for this race (others in the past I had put quite a bit of pressure on myself to perform well. This was my last tri of the season and I had not really been training for tris lately, so I wanted nothing more than to have a good time at this race). I think this lack of pressure made my stress levels much less significant, so my bolus (which is usually counteracted w/ insulin resistance from stress hormones) was not counteracted by anything, which I think is why I ran lower than I usually do prior to a race start. I had set my basal profile to run at -65% starting 1 hour before the race start until about 1/2 hour before the end of the run, at which point it would return back to normal.
I ate a chocolate #9 gel (15 g) and 2 hammer gels (25 g each) prior to entering the water and my last BG was 97.
It was a mass start from the beach. I positioned myself at the front of the group and had a good run-in. The water was very mirky/ruddy brown which reminded me very much of Oklahoma lakes. It was really windy on race day but the lake was fairly protected so the chop was minimal. I never really found any feet to follow, but for much of the race I was able to swim to the side of someone. I could see that they were sighting frequently so I was able to just follow their lead w/ every other breath (when I looked their direction) and could focus on getting good even stroke pulls rather than trying to look up to sight myself. I came out of the water and there was only one bike missing from the rack (for my age group), so I felt pretty good about that. Going out as #2 on the bike course was a big boost to my confidence in the race. Swim time was 25:34.
The bike course really played to my advantage. It was rolling hills that I could power up and bomb down the other side. I was feeling good so I didn’t really have the urge to hold back on the bike in anticipation of the run. I felt like I would have the strength I needed, so I gave it 100% on the bike. I took in most of a gatorade bottle (roughly 30 g carbs) and ate a hammer gel at the 45 min mark so it would be hitting my system at about the start of the run. Bike split was 1:05 and averaged 22.9 mph.
The run course had a lot of turns and plenty of rolling hills (which would usually be a bad course for me because I dislike hills). For some reason it didn’t seem to bother me and I was able to keep picking off each of the runners in front of me. I took gatorade at the mile 2 aid station, but water at all the rest. The end was slightly deceptive because it brought you down to about 10 m from the finish line chute and made a 180 degree turn to go back out for one last 3/8 mile loop. I kicked a little early because of this, but still managed to finish strong. Run split was 44:13, running 7:08 min/mi (fastest splits I’ve ever run for an oly). BG was 112 after the race.
Total time was 2:18:06, a PR by over 8 minutes! Finished 2nd in AG and 11th overall.
I appreciate the kind words, and I’m glad you enjoy reading the reports! I think diabetes has the potential to be limiter, but by taking a few extra steps in training and on race day, I can eliminate that potential and can really race the other competitors (my favorite part! ;-D ).