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Rev3
Knoxville Half Ironman & 3-Day Adventure!
I had been counting down the days
leading up to the Knoxville Rev3 Half Ironman as this was my
first race as a member of the Team Type 1 Triathlon Team.
Being involved with this organization and on this team of
amazing athletes is a huge honor for me.
Early season races are a great way for
me to judge where my fitness is at while allowing me to work
on my nutrition and insulin strategies. It’s also just a
great way to work out the kinks after a long winter of
training.
The weekend started at 6:00am at the
United Airlines ticket counter in Boise. “You want to charge
me how much for my bike box?”, I exclaimed! The United
ticket agent replied “sorry Sir, it’s $100 for the bike and
another $100 because it’s over 50lbs”. After several
unsuccessful attempts at removing items to make the box
lighter, I could tell the United agent wasn’t going to let
it slide. So I paid the $200 and proceeded to security.
Security can be interesting for me as a
diabetic due to all the diabetes supplies I have in my
carry-on bag. I recently began using the Omni Pod and was
concerned it might trigger an alarm or the agents to inquire
about this device stuck to my arm. Good news! The Pod, my
carry-on and I cruised though without any problem! I did
make sure to bring all of my prescriptions along with a note
from my doctor, just in case.
As the plane took off from Boise, the
pilot made his usual announcements and even mentioned we
were going to land in Chicago a couple of minutes early.
Nice! I was all about relaxing now and looking forward to a
short layover in Chicago, then meeting up with my teammates
at the Knoxville Airport! However, it seemed Chicago and
United had other plans for me.
Upon landing in Chicago, I proceeded to
my gate only to discover that my flight to Knoxville had
been canceled. No big deal, I thought. I’ll just grab the
next flight…or so I thought. Ten hours and one Steve
Martin scene from “Planes, Trains & Automobiles” later, I
finally made it on the last flight out of Chicago around
11:45pm! Finally, the stress was behind me. I was in the
air on my way to Knoxville! Tom (the TT1 triathlon and
running Team Manager) took excellent care of things in
making sure that I was all checked in at the hotel and told
me that we would all meet for a practice swim in the
morning.
We landed in Knoxville at 1:30am, only
now to learn that United forgot to load the plane with our
luggage! After numerous phone calls to United, they
confirmed that my bike box (with my wetsuit inside) wouldn’t
be arriving until 10:00am that day. I finally got to my
hotel and got a couple hours of shut-eye as I knew the next
day would be busy! I contacted United first thing in the
morning, reiterating the importance of the contents inside
the bike box, then headed down to meet my teammates for a
practice swim. Since I didn’t have my wetsuit, I was hoping
Rev3 would have some sort of wetsuit demo. Sure enough, I
was in luck! TYR let me demo their new wetsuit, the
Hurricane. This wetsuit was incredible, unlike any other
wetsuit I’ve worn before! If you are in the market for a new
wetsuit, be sure to check out the TYR!
TYR
Hurricane!
TT1 Tri Team - loving the morning swim!
Now back to my bike issue.…
Surprise, surprise….my bike did not
arrive at 10:00am as United promised. Instead, they
informed me that my bike would not be arriving until 3:00pm.
I was now anticipating I would not have my bike in time for
check-in, thus, may not be able to race.
Instead of waiting around the hotel, I
decided to get some breakfast and check out the Rev3 Expo
with the Team!
 Mmmmmmm grits!
Now off to packet pickup and to
check out this Rev3 Expo!
Enjoying a little nice weather! I
know what you are thinking the day before your race you
should be off your feet and relaxing…..
Hello Recovery Pump Boots! (www. RecoveryPump.com) These
are amazing! I will definitely be coming back to these
after my race.
After exploring the expo, we went and checked the progress
of the bike. The bike had arrived with just enough time to
get it assembled and beat the bike check-in closing time.
Quick dinner with the team then off to bed.
Race Morning Glucose
level was 124 - just where I like it on race day. I decided
to skip breakfast and just have coffee. My race nutrition
and insulin strategy were as follows:
Swim – Omni Pod and
Nutrition – I leave my basal rate normal during the swim. I
always check my blood before leaving transition and if I’m
100 or above, I don’t do anything. If the number is lower
than 100, I’ll take one hammer gel. My numbers were 127.
The swim went as planned except for my goggles fogging up,
which made sighting a little tough. Lesson learned.
Don’t skimp on goggles. Buy new for the race. I exited
the swim and headed to T1.
Bike – Omnipod and
Nutrition - On the bike I consume 6 scoops Perpetuem and a
couple of Hammer gels if needed. I also carry a few
Fireball candies as they taste great and provide constant
glucose. I leave my basal rate the same and take an
extended bolus to cover the carbs that will be consumed over
the next couple of hrs. I try to have the extended bolus
end thirty minutes before I get off the bike so I minimize
the insulin on board during the run. At the start of the
bike, my BG’s were 130 so I stuck to the plan.
This was both a challenging bike
course but also really fun. Things were going great! I
checked my blood at mile 30 and I was at 198. This is
higher than I like to run at, so I decided to cut back on
the nutrition consumption for 25 minutes and let my body
burn off some glucose. Everything was going good until
around mile 47, when I saw one of the racers in front of me
miss a corner during a huge descent. He ended up flying off
course into the woods, out of site from the road. I know at
least five athletes besides me saw this occur and was
surprised that I was the only one to stop. I can’t believe
that people would turn their back on somebody in need just
to get a certain time or to place in their age group. After
about 8 minutes or so, I was able to flag down a race
official and have them help with the situation. This
definitely rattled me but once I was back on the road and
under control, I was able to get back to racing. I pulled
into T2 with a glucose level of 119.
Run – Omnipod and
Nutrition - On the run I will decrease my basal rate – 90%
for the entire run, or if I find myself going hypo I will
completely suspend the Pod altogether. I planned on taking
a hammer gel every 3 miles and coke/ water when available.
This was a tough run and I knew I was going to have to dig
deep to make up for lost time on the bike. I found my
rhythm about mile 2 and just continued to knock out the
miles and move my way up in the race. I decided to check my
blood around mile 7 and I had a reading of 90. I suspended
my pump and was able to keep my BG around 110 for the rest
of the run. I felt strong on the run and ended up with a
negative split and a strong finish!
Finish - The finish line
at Rev3 is spectacular, with a long finishing shoot and a
huge display which showed me crossing the finish line. It
was especially nice to be greeted by my teammates at the
finish line and hear about their races. Our team had a
great showing that included Tom taking 3nd
Overall in the aqua bike. Laura is coming back from a
season-long injury. We are glad to see her back on the tri
seen. Angela also had a strong day coming off her
Wildflower performance just a few weeks earlier. As for me,
I felt good, finishing 6th in my age group and
look to building upon this effort!
  
Thanks TT1 for a great adventure! I’m looking forward to
our next race!
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