Rev3 Quassy, Heat, Hills and Humidity part 1

It has been a quiet few weeks (months?) in the racing department around here so even when we suddenly had a LEGIT 40 degree temp spike late last week it did little to deter my enthusiasm for the big 70.3 relay at Quassy.

Anyone who has read my blog for any length of time knows that I'm not a big fan of the heat, especially when it is a huge shock (going from 52 on Wednesday to 95 on Friday. Hello?)

Just gotta roll with it sometimes kids, and stay hydrated!

 

 

Team Shut Up Legs
Me for the run, Kate for the bike, Eric for the swim.
Don't be fooled by out cuteness, we are terrifying athletic beasts!

Kate and I drove down on Saturday in 98 degree heat, we consumed an absurd amount of Scratch and water in an effort to get a jump on the hydration. We were already sweaty which led to conversations about chaffing, which led to discussion of rashes and how they make us uneasy, which rather bizzarly transitioned to chat of horrific communicable diseases and their symptoms. WHAT? Yeah, just a normal conversation for us.

When we arrived the first thing we said to Eric and Andy had something to do with HIV which was a good conversation starter. Sweet Jesus....

Luckily things got somewhat more socially acceptable after that..

 

REV 3 FTW.
They put on a damn good triathlon.
Please lower the heat next time though...

The lake was the best place to hang out as it was legit boiling out.

We got to know the lay of the land, took in the athletes meeting (which was actually worth staying for and for the first time in my life I listened... What is happening to me!?)

Part of my compulsion to listen was this was my first time doing a Tri relay and I didn't want to f**k it up. I also had my ears open on Kate's behalf as it was her first race EVER and I figured (as most older sisters do) that maybe she'd be too nervous to listen or would have inherited my inability to pay attention in athletes meetings. As it turned out, she was fine.

We chatted as a team about what we thought we could bring to the table in such warm weather. Eric was not concerned about his leg for obvious reasons (if he started dehydrating he could just gulp some lake water after all) but since it has been 30 degrees out here in Maine open water swims have been almost non existent. Eric is a very good swimmer though and could do 1.2 miles with one arm tied behind his back so his estimation of a 35 minute finish seemed very reasonable.

Kate is a strong biker but hasn't had many competitive opportunities thus far. She openly admitted to having a whole list of cop outs should she need them "I just gave blood! I have a really bad back! I am undertrained! (and after the discussion in the car we had diagnosed any number of vile illnesses... hahaha) She really, really wanted to make it around the course in 3:30 and since Eric and I are dinks we kinda said "ummmmmm. about those hills?" She was adamant that she would not go one minute over 4 hours, not ONE DAMN MINUTE. Unless her lack of blood/a good back/training got the best of her. :-)

I straight up suck at running in sudden onset heat (that's MY cop out!) So I decided to run the half in 2:10.

That is a lie.

I said if it was flat (it WAS NOT) I could run it in 1:45-1:50. If there were hills (THERE WERE) 1:50-1:55.

It was, after all supposed to be well into the 80's.

 

We saved this turtle who was trying to cross the road.
This might not seem to apply to my race report but I love turtles!
When I saw him almost die there was much screaming...
I picked him up so that he did not have to climb this mountain and he RAN back to the woods.
Then, forgetting my fingers were all turtle-y I ate some pretzels and got nervous that I had turtle germs, haha!

A Perfect name for our team!
And it was justified, as well.

We wrapped up night one with normal activities. Eating tons of carbs at the OG, having a car dance party to old school rap, not allowing Andy to go to sleep early as he had hoped for because we needed to chit chat, read, take online tests for school, drink a glass of wine, put on our race number tats, ya know the usual.

However, with a 4AM alarm set we all crashed eventually. Crashed is relative as we were all a little nervous that our number tattoos would end up stuck to the sheets. They were a bit tacky, and did stick a bit which was alarming if you wanted to roll over but they made it thru the night!

And how would we fare in the intense heat and humidity the next day? Would we all make it over the legendary hills? Would Eric be able to make his swim goal with only a tiny handful of open water swims in 2013? Would Kate's lack of blood allow her to motor on the bike? Would I puke on the run? Stay tuned for the answers to these pressing questions!