Virginia Blue Ridge 70.3

 Virginia Blue Ridge 70.3. 

Where do I begin?? I’m going back to April 2018. Kevin Sturm and I run the Blue Ridge Marathon. The tall tale of superhero Joe Cobb is born. The challenge of hills in the area makes me love the city for endurance events. Then the relationship is made with the real Joe Cobb, who ends up becoming Vice Mayor of Roanoke. A local doctor gets the idea of putting on a 70.3 in Roanoke. Ironman signs a contract with Roanoke and boom, a 70.3 is born  Kevin participates in 2021, the inaugural year and gets medaled by the one and only Joe Cobb!! Kevin also comes back to tell of how the bike course is extremely difficult due to a section called The Claw. With the adventure mindset and want to continue seeing new places, I decided I needed to try my fitness at this 70.3.  

What I didn’t know was that the swim was in Carvin’s Cove. 

Carvin's Cove

This is a protected reservoir that feeds the city its water. There is no swimming in Carvin’s Cove year round, except for the 70.3 race. I love getting these opportunities to do things most people don’t. I had no idea that the road to Carvin’s was a 1 lane road that was tight for a school bus to get down. Athletes weren’t even allowed to go there before the race. Spectators were not allowed to go there before or during the race. Athletes had to check in bikes the day before the race and Ironman had a company load up the bikes and transport them to the cove. This race was different! This was my 15th 70.3  I’ve always been able to see the water we swim in and I’ve always racked my bike. 

Then there’s The Claw.  Technically it’s a 4.7 mile stretch of road that goes up about 2,000 feet at an average grade of 5.5% . 

Elevation chart for the course

The Claw leads up to the Blue Ridge Parkway. I over researched The Claw  I found people using the terms Epic and Brutal to describe The Claw. Living in Ohio, I don’t have a 5 mile straight up climb to train on. I do have a great training plan from the 80/20 group and big hills in Waynesville though. I used that and Alp du Zwift on Zwift to try and prepare the legs for this challenge. I became quite nervous about this climb. Ironman even threw in a sub challenge to the fastest male and female athletes up The Claw wins a new cycling computer.  They had timing mats to keep track of everyone’s speed up the Claw. I’ve made the mistake in a 70.3 more than once of killing a bike course and fatiguing my legs so bad I couldn’t run. Throwing in this 5 mile stretch only magnified the opportunity to blow up and have a really long day! Kona Paul always taught me to never grind up a hill, always spin easy. Kevin told me people were seen walking their bikes up The Claw. I did not want to do that. I wanted to beat The Claw and have a decent run. Everyone has their own version of what a decent run is during a 70.3. 

The day before the race was freaking hot, real hot! Like 87-88degrees of full sun. Chris went to Roanoke to train for his upcoming Ironman race and drive me home. He melted on his bike ride (100 miles of riding the same course I did, but then he rode it backwards also). Chris came back to the hotel and assured me I’d be fine on The Claw but I needed to respect the difficulty level of the climb  and not over do it. Another athlete had broken down the bike course as: First 23 miles has 600 ft elevation gain.  Next 8 miles, 2000 ft gain  Last 25 miles has 400 ft gain. I knew if I could make it to mile 31 on the bike, I’d be okay. The run course was flat except between miles 10-12 which had 2 or 3 hills. Nothing terribly hard or anything to worry about. 

A few days before Chris and I are scheduled to leave, I reach out to Joe Cobb and invite him to dinner on Saturday. Friday arrives before I know it. Chris and I drive down to Virginia and the adventure has begun!

Saturday goes smoothly. Get my daily mile ran, check in for the race. Sticker the bike and turn it in. Chill and nap at hotel. Then dinner with Joe Cobb and his husband James. 

Dinner with amazing friends!

I think it was as cool for them to get to hear the stories Chris, Marie, and I have, as it was for us to hear the stories of Joe’s political career and how it affects their family life. As an extrovert who loves meeting people and learning new things about an area I’m racing in, my heart was so happy! And this relationship materialized out of nothing more than Kevin and I taking our minds off our legs by using political signs is just too funny to me. After dinner, Chris and I decided to go see The Claw. We drove out and up, up, up, up we went. It seemed like it went on forever. And that was in the car. Reinforcing the idea The Claw was a real challenge and had great potential to overcook the legs on it. On the drive out from The Claw, I had never seen so many deer! They were everywhere! In a few of the peoples back yards, in the grassy areas, on the road! Ton of deer!

Sunday! Raceday!! The best day!!

Alarm goes off at 3:10am. Hotel Roanoke offered a shuttle to Ironman Village where shuttle takes us to Carvin’s Cove. It’s about a 20 minute drive. Then we sit and wait for about 15 minutes. We are 2 miles from The Cove. Due to the small road, we had to wait for the other buses to get out of the cove before we could drive into it. A full school bus loaded with antsy triathletes just sitting still, you could feel the nerves. Finally we drive down. It’s about 5am and still pretty dark. I’m setting up transition when someone says, “oh man!! Look at that view !” 

I turn around and realize the sun has rose just enough to show us the beauty of the mountains and Carvin’s Cove! It’s freaking gorgeous. Water was so calm. Area clean. I felt blessed just to be there. 

A lot of people will never get to see that in person. This racing lifestyle has put me in so many epic places! I’m truly grateful to do this and see so many amazing places! Then the announcer asks a new request. Anyone here want to sing the National Anthem?? I have no idea if they had someone lined up who bailed or if they planned to just play a recording, I don’t know. The announcer said if they had a volunteer, they’d have to answer a question or 2 and maybe sing a line, then they were hired. Her name escapes me, but a young lady stepped up and knocked it out of the park! Absolutely amazing job! I’m not sure if she was an athlete or volunteer, but she did great! All athletes gave her a lot of love after her performance! Marie and I made our way to the starting corrals and BOOM! The cannon went off  

We were led to the end of the dock and jumped off 2 at a time every 5 seconds. Marie and I started at the exact same time. Water was 72 degrees and flat as glass. I experienced very little contact with other swimmers. Even the turns that usually bunch people up had no traffic jams. I stayed consistent and relaxed. I tried drafting other swimmers but most were faster than me and I was not here to use all my energy this early. I felt great  I tapered well. Swim went by pretty easy. 

I saw 40 minutes on my watch and was happy with that time. Found my bike, removed wetsuit, put wetsuit and goggles in bike bag. Dried off feet and put cycling shoes and helmet on. Then we had to run the bike up a small hill before we could mount the bike. Just so we could pedal maybe twice before we started up another hill! We had to climb out of the Cove to  get to the main road. There was a little more climbing on the main road before we started descending again. The plan was to go fast without burning up the legs for the first 20-22 miles. Then easy spin the next 8 miles. There was a small town we rode through  that had a sign as you entered, “The Gateway to the Shenandoah Valley!”  I made a huge production about this in my head. It’s what I do to entertain myself instead of stressing about what was ahead. Very nice people in this town who showed us a lot of love. I made an extra effort to wave and say good morning to these fine folks cheering for us. Then at mile 13, I’m going up this small incline. My chain drops! I’m not sure why or how, but it drops. At least I’m like 90% up this hill. I fix it pretty quickly and jump back on my bike. This is not the course to have chain issues. I remember a guy on the video of tips and tricks saying,” be prepared for a few things to go wrong, it happens, fix it, recover and move on.”  That’s what I did.  I tested a few gear changes to make sure Vengeance was good and never had another chain issue. I took in some good nutrition and set my mind for the challenge ahead. 

Ironman had a big inflatable entrance sign welcoming cyclists to “Conquer The Claw!”. It’s game time baby! I try taking all speed and momentum with me as the road started to pitch upwards. Then I see a sign that wasn’t there last night.  “Ironman The Claw Turn 1 of 8”. This may have been bad for some but to me it worked great. I love breaking things down into small pieces. I just needed to find the next sign. The Claw road is smooth but winding. It’s all up hill but for the majority, it isn’t overly steep. There are 3 or 4 left turns that get steep, but they aren’t super long.  I looked at my watch, I remember seeing 1:10 for my cycling time when I started The Claw. I had my easiest gear going. 

 Climbing The Claw!

I was pedaling easy but could feel my heart rate rising  Tried to stay chill. Wasn’t my plan, but I was passing people. Most looked like solid riders. I was feeling good and my confidence rose with every “The Claw turn # of 8” sign I found. When I hit turn 8 of 8, I knew I had it licked. There was another sign, “You have conquered The Claw!” In my head, I said, “Fuck yeah I did!” And now let’s do this! The road hit a flat spot, a small turn….and then another climb!! I knew this was coming but it was like, “Cmon man!! I want to go fast!”  Then the next surprise hit. The cloud cover had really set in on top of the mountain. Most people call this fog but I’m racing in the mountains, so I call it clouds! 

you should be able to see way out here

bikes would disappear and reappear through the clouds

I know I should be able to see epic views, but nope! All I can see is clouds! The double yellow lines splitting the traffic lanes stands out but not super far. 

 out of the clouds!

 aid station in the clouds!

And now the road starts the descent! My bike is flying! I’m not even pedaling. I’m smiling and laughing. I can’t believe I’m bombing down a mountain with very low visibility at about 35-40 mph on a tri bike.  It’s wild!! A little scary!! A ton of fun! Then a cyclist goes flying by me and DISAPPEARS into the clouds! I saw the dude, and then he was gone! The clouds were so thick!! You couldn’t see more than 10ft in front of you! Then after all that bombing down, we hit another climb! We were at mile 33 and I remember thinking, “so much for the climbing being done at mile 31!” Back to easy spinning up this hill. Now I’m climbing through the clouds!

Climbing in the clouds!

And it’s getting cold! COLD!! Yesterday Chris was melting up here, and I’m genuinely cold. Then I catch this guy wearing a dark purple “F@ck Cancer” kit. Dark purple has always been my favorite color! And we all know people who have been affected by cancer. So I compliment the guy on his wicked awesome kit. I get a half assed “Thanks” back.  Ewwww, he’s in a bad place mentally. I said, “come on man! This fun!” He replies, “Fun?? This whole race is a joke! This ain’t fun!”

“Keep your head up brother!” I say as I cruise on by  poor guy had such an awesome kit in an epic opportunity and was all mad or angry. I just pushed on  we start bombing downhill again. I’m laughing. I’m smiling. I see signs about specific view points. All I can see is white clouds. I slow way down when signs show curvy roads. It’s always safer to go slow than to throw caution to the wind and crash. Finally, after descending for quite some time, the clouds disappeared and I could see trees again. Legs are feeling great after recovering on the descents. I’m taking in nutrition. Feeling good. Get to the city and finish off the slower section and back to transition. My watch says 3:05 for the bike ride. I’m super happy with this result. 56 miles with all that climbing in 3:05, and I feel ready to run! Hell yeah!!

I get to transition. I get my run stuff on and off I go! 

Hit The Pose!

Because we had to check in our run bag on Saturday , I had not filled my handheld bottle with water. It had my infinite blend but I needed water. There were some young ladies handing out water cups as you started the run. I asked if one young lady would pour 1 or 2 into my bottle. She used all 3 she had and filled it perfectly. I asked her to remove my red wristband off my right wrist because she just became my favorite volunteer! She smiled so big! Then one of her friends said, “dang it, that’s her 2nd one!”  Those volunteer appreciation bands are hot commodities! I hit my pickle juice just as Chris was walking up towards me. Always makes me cough! I tried explaining how much fun I had on that bike course without taking all day and off I went. Goal was now to keep heart rate low to start the run. So of course it tried to spike just over a half a mile in.  Walk a little and breathe. Stay calm. Back to running. 

I try and say Good Job or Good Work to all the other athletes. I don’t get very many encouraging words back. I’m giving these faster athletes some leeway as they were probably suffering more as they were pushing harder than I was. The run was 90% bike path. Close to 3.5 miles out and then back  to start. That made sure you got to see lots of athletes.  It wasn’t too long before I see Marie coming towards me looking strong and fast! In our true rivalry fashion, she tells that I better hurry up if I’m going to catch her! That isn’t going to happen! I’m content controlling my heart rate and staying in control. Life is good. Just find the next mile marker. Volunteers are awesome! Get us whatever we need. Always encouraging. Legs are now getting tired. I’m about 9 miles in and want to slow down. I remember Joe Cobb is awaiting me at the finish line. I must keep it moving! Just passed mile 10, I hit the downhill. Feels good switching up the stride. 

Athlete in red is an engineer who graduated from Purdue. Has 2 daughters.

Cross a bridge and there’s a DJ rocking out dance music. It helps keep me moving! Hit that turnaround and talk to another guy who has 2 daughters. We only talk briefly, but it helped. Walked up the hill and back to running. We’re almost there now! I know when I make the left turn off the path, the finish line will be in sight. 

And it’s glorious!! People on both sides! I’m getting all the high fives I can get! 

Then I see Chris and Marie! I hear the announcer say my name! I cross the Finish Line and stop my watch. 6:15! I’m thrilled with a 6:15! I wasn’t sure how I would do with this huge mountain in the middle of my race and I still nailed a 6:15!! Hells yeah!! Success!!! Plus I’m not hurting and didn’t  cramp! That’s a big win!

Vice Mayor Joe Cobb then came over and placed my well earned Finisher Medal around my neck! Man, that was the icing to this amazing cake! 

After a quick chat about the course, Joe had other responsibilities to get to. Chris then tells me he has already collected my bike and all my bags and loaded them into my car! He brought my phone to me so I could call Brittney. If you can bring an Ironman as your Sherpa, do that! It was awesome to just get some food and walk back to the car! 

Unfortunately, due to road construction on the Blue Ridge Parkway next year, there won’t be a Blue Ridge 70.3 in 2024. Joe Cobb believes the community wants the race to come back in the future. I would absolutely race here again! I might even be able to have dinner with the Mayor next time! Fingers crossed 🤞!! #joecobbformayor

I have to thank my beautiful wife and wonderful kids for their support. They all have responsibilities and events and didn’t get to join me on this trip. They have been to so many races and always understood Daddy needs to exercise to stay sane. I thought of them a lot during my weekend away!

Chris gets a big thank you for all his help and putting up with me in the car on the ride home. I was tired and feisty!