This past weekend (May 6) I was in Knoxville to run the 10k portion of the Rev3 Knoxville Triathlon. What a crazy weekend but so much fun (minus the really hot run!). This race has been 3 years in the making. My Mom ran the inaugural Rev3 Knoxville Tri and while my dad and brother watched, they decided to do it as well. They both did the Olympic and Mom, my friend Matt, and I did the Olympic relay. Mom did the swim, Matt did the bike and I did the run. My brother and our friend Rachel raced as well.
I don’t have too many pictures of Friday or Saturday but my camera was in full force on Race Day!
We got up early but since Mom and I didn’t have to get transitions ready we took our time. We made sure to apply our race tattoos. Normally, triathlons use sharpies but this race does temporary tattoos. Good in theory but the tattoos ended up sticky and took my 4 days to get off!
See how shiny it is? My shirt kept sticking to the tattoo.
We stayed at the official hotel and got to check out progress at the finish line on Sunday morning as we looked out the windows by the elevator (we could NOT take stairs. Who thought that was a good idea???). It was neat to see the hustle and bustle of the race taking shape.
On the way to the swim start we passed the Sun Sphere. That was my goal on the way back in. As soon as I could see that I knew I was close to the finish!
We caught up with Dad and Chris (brother). I dropped Mom off and took her shoes back to transition.
Once back at transition to drop off Mom’s shoes, I met up with Matt who was ready and waiting at the bike.
All my pictures in the parking garage transition were terrible. The lighting made everything really bad!
I then headed to the Lady Vols boathouse which was the exit of the swim. I wanted to make sure I caught everyone!
Chris was first out of the water and looked pretty good!
Next up was Rachel. She was booking it!
Mom was all smiles!
Once Mom was out, I ran to the transition to get in place. Matt had already taken off but I spoke with Mom for a while before she went to go take a shower. Then it was time to wait. I wasn’t sure when Matt took off or how long he would take so I was pretty clueless of when he would come back. I ate some granola bars with peanut butter, stretched and twidled my thumbs. Not much else to do when you have no clue people are coming.
But it was awesome to see everyone come in! I saw Rachel and then as I was taking a last trip to the porta potties, I saw Dad!
He told me Matt was behind him but I had time so I booked it to get all the nerves out and raced back to see Matt come in.
Dad was still in transition so he stopped us for a picture.
Dad and I took off for the run. In the orientation, they said there would be lots of shade. Unfortunately it was not very shaded by the time we got there. We ran along the main road for about a mile before turning onto what appeared to be a walking trail.
It was beautiful but didn’t provide nearly enough shade. Soon, I saw Rachel. She looked strong and appeared to be first in her division.
I ended up seeing Dad again because it was an out and back. I was really struggling with the heat and just exhaustion. By that point I was just so tired. I don’t do late starts very well. Boo! I was very happy to make the turn around and head back to transition. I was so happy to see Chris running as I got closer to the main road.
Once I saw Chris I went back to the main road.
This part was brutal! There was no shade and it was beyond hot. It seemed like it went on forever. Soon enough, we passed the transition area and the half triathlon racers were just heading out for their 13.1 run. I was not envious of them. It was too hot to have another several hours worth of running!
By this point I had been squirting water all over my arms to keep myself cool.
The official water of the race came in these little baggies. You bite a corner and then squirt. I didn’t think they tasted all that great but they sure made carrying water much easier!
Soon enough I saw the rest of my team and they joined me running though the finish.
Check out Matt looking for Trent so he could see us race!
I’m not so sure I’ve ever been happier to see the finish line!
Before the race we took a picture as a team and they displayed it as we crossed the finish line.
Check out Team Tri Harder! Dad thought it was a funny name but we did not necessarily agree!
Team Tri Harder
After we finished, we booked it back to see my brother finish.
Dad ended up getting us a late check out so we had plenty of time to see the awards ceremony. We were pretty sure Rachel had won her age division.
And she did! Now she is hopefully closer to her goal of becoming a pro!
Once we all were cleaned up, we booked it back home. Too bad our car got stuck for 1.5 behind a very bad accident. I’m hoping everyone is ok.
It was a great weekend! I’ll have my thoughts on the race in a later post.
Have you ever done a Rev3 Triathlon?
