(Photo courtesy of Paul)
“Trust, but verify” – Ronald Reagan
Before registering for a new race, I have my guide look at the course. If it looks good, then I’ll reach out to the RD with specific questions.
Part of that process for Knoxville showed that the run course had “rolling hills”. So between that and responses from the RD, I believed we were good to go. However, that turned out not to be the case…
The swim was a snake swim course (250 yds). The RD was kind enough to hold the rest of the racers until we got out of the pool. Very cool to hear everyone cheering for us as I climbed up the ladder.
T1 went as normal, and we headed out on what I thought would be a challenging, but decent bike. That was not to be… THe “rolling hills” were actually very steep hills.
While I’ve estimated them as 8% and 9% grades, on reflection, I believe they may have been even steeper. I say that because I have done Gold Camp in Colorado. While it’s been a slog up (especially from the second observation to the top), I have not had to stop. During the race, we had to go on the last hill.
I would estimate that that hill was at least a mile, and had at least two false flats. Before we physically stopped, Paul said that we were at 1.4 MPH. We ended up having to walk the bike the last 50 feet or so before using the downhill. And even with the 30+ mph on some of the downhills, the uphill part of those steep hills ended up keeping us well under 15 mph as an average. That’s in comparison to the normal 18.5 – 20 that I average (depending on hills).
After a relatively normal T2, we headed out on the run. This was an out-and-back. That would be fine if it was on a road — or even out on the road and back on the sidewalk. However, it was almost all on the sidewalk (minus road crossings and the portion headed towards the turnaround). Also, I was told there were a lot of areas with steep drop offs on the side of the sidewalk.
All of this caused a lot of challenges for us. Combined with my legs being a bit trashed from the hills, it was a very ragged run/walk instead of the more consistent run I had hoped for.
While it wasn’t the race I had hoped for, I am grateful to Paul for all of his help throughout the weekend, and to Para Guide for all their support!
