The Fear of the Unknown

If you have read my other post's, you would know that I have been dealing with mono. As of this post, it has been roughly two months. The past few weeks have had some major ups and downs. Mono, I have found out is a horrible virus to contract. It takes away the things in life that I have been accustom to doing. The biggest thing affected has been my active lifestyle.

Each day when I wake up a new adventure arises. Some day's I am tired within an hour of waking up. Other day's, I get through my work day and crash as soon as I get home. The best day's are the ones where I can live my life how I want and do the things I need to do. The best laid plans never seem to go as planned when you have mono though.

This weekend I embark on my longest triathlon of the season so far. The Half Rev at Rev3 Williamsburg was going to be a benchmark for my fitness. I am doing the Full Rev at Cedar Point in September and needed to see where my body is in relation to where I need to be preparing for the 140.6 mile distance. Well, like I said the best plans don't always workout. My training the past 3-4 weeks has been reduced to 5-9 hrs per week at best. Knowing off the bat that I am under trained for the race, it makes for some tough things to deal with.

As an athlete going into a race, you know based on your training what to reasonably expect. Some days you can over achieve and other days underachieve. As you guessed, I have no idea what kind of achiever I am going to be this weekend! I am the total planner down to the most minor detail. "The fear of the unknown" is such a true statement to describe the way I feel. This is the most nervous I have ever been going into a race. Not knowing which body of mine is going to show up is driving me nuts. As an athlete, I am there to race not just participate. The competitive juices start to kick in and it's go time. It's hard for me to say this, but my outlook for this race is to just have FUN! This race is not about the time that shows up on the clock this time. For me, it's about saying F U to mono. I am going to get me life back and mono is not going to stop me! It will be crossing the finish line knowing that I have better races ahead of me.

I am looking forward to seeing all my Rev3 teammates again. Lot's of friends from Central Virginia Endurance and the Richmond triathlon community will be competing as well. This race is going to be a blast. Good Luck to everyone racing!

See You at the Finish Line!!

REV3 Quassy Race Report

Well, Quassy Olympic was going to be my first team race for 2013. With the mono situation still going on and my issues racing two weeks before had changed my outlook on this race. After talking with my doctor, coach and wife, it was decided that I would be better suited to just do the Olympic Aqua Bike at Quassy. I needed to look big picture and see how my body would react. With Rev3 Williamsburg half only three weeks away, I played it safe.

With the Olympic race being on Saturday, I decided it would be best to leave on Thursday to head to Connecticut. From Richmond it is only 425 to Middlebury, CT, but you have to deal with DC, Baltimore, Philly and NYC traffic. One of my Rev3 teammates, Chris Garges invited me to stay at his house Thursday night. I left Richmond around 12:30 and headed to PA with my on the go snacks.

Thanks Powerbar for keeping me fueled during my travels!

We would both drive from his house in Bethleham, PA  Friday morning over to the race site about 3 hours away. Once we arrived at the Heritage Hotel, we dropped our bags off and headed to the race site. The race site was really quite. Powerbar, Compex, Normatec and Biotta Juice were still getting their booths setup at the expo. Its amazing to think that all those empty bike racks will be filled in just a few hours.

REV3 Quassy Early Friday

Chris and I walked around for awhile. Talked to some teammates and asked if anyone needed help. We were gladly taken up on the offer and helped in packet pickup for the afternoon. Around 5:30 we need to get check in ourselves and rack our bikes for the day ahead. The team dinner was at 6pm, so we hustled to get our crap together. 

Race Morning

Alarm went off at 5am. I jumped in the shower really fast and then had a bananna, cliff bar and some water for breakfast. It was going to be a hot day and wanted to start on the hydration early. Arrived at the race site at 5:45. It was a short 10 minute drive from the hotel. Got all my bottles loaded onto my trusty stead and was ready to rock.

 With me doing the aqua bike, I was in the last swim wave. The first wave went off at 7am, but my wave did not start until 7:35 am. Since I had not been in my wetsuit in awhile, a warm up was in order. Chris, Jordan and I put on some Trislide and started to get our wetsuits on. I got in and did a 600m warm up. Told Chris good luck and waited for my wave. As I waited in the hot sun in my black wetsuit, I continued to go to the outdoor shower and put cold water down my suit.

Swim- 30:43
The horn sounded and off we went. I positioned myself to the right and had a good line to the first bouy. The sighting went well and I found some feet to draft off. Not much contact until I got to the turn bouy. The course was almost a triangle on it's point going clockwise. Once I made the turn, I was surprised immediately. I was sighting directly into the sun. Even with my mirrored Blue Seventy googles, I could not see the next sighting bouy. I picked out some swimmers and tried to follow them. When I heard a kayaker say left, I took a moment, treaded some water and looked hard for the bouy. Once locked back in, I got rolling. Lost all the feet to draft off. One final turn and no more sun glare. HTFU and got going again. Found some more feet and had the most contact of the swim on the way back in. Was happy with my swim until I started running towards transition. My left calf cramped.

Transition- 1:59
Got my wetsuit down to my waist on the run into transition. Could feel the cramp getting worse. Once I got to my bike, I had issues getting the wetsuit off from around my timing chip. Grabbed my glasses, helmet and was off.

Bike- 1:27:00
Went to do a flying mount and bam! The other calf cramps. Start out of the parking lot, hear Laura yell go Matt and off I went. It wasn't until I hit mile 2-3 that the legs loosened back up. I had driven the course on Friday and was glad I did. The course is either climbing or descending.


The course was humbling to say the least! I had some fun on the down hills to the tune of 47mph. It was the first time my aero helmet had started to lift off my head. I took two bottles with me on the bike. I was glad I did since the heat continued to rise. All and all I loved the course but was glad to be done on the downhill back into transition. The people were telling me to slow down, but I was flying. Got the feet out of my shoes, cruised in and perfect flying dismount. Race Complete!!

Post Race- 2:00:00 Finish Time
Talked with teammates and grabbed my finishers medal.

They had some Gatorade towels in ice water. It was the best feeling putting that towel across my back. Chris was at the finish. We chatted and I learned he took 2nd in his age group. Pulled out my phone and looked at the results. This is the best thing with Rev3, live results. Turns out I took second place overall in the male aqua bike. missed first place by 45 seconds. Now the mind starts to replay the race and where I could have got a minute faster. The joys of racing. The coolest thing was the finishers medals and how they messed with the award medals. When you put them together, you get this bad ass piece!

            Big THANKS goes out the the Rev3 crew, all the volunteers, my coach Bob Flanigan at CVE and my teammates. It was great to see everyone. Cannot wait until Rev3 Williamsburg in 3 weeks. I should be back in the run game by then.