Ironman 70.3 Chattanooga - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I had done NOLA 70.3 a couple years back, so expected a similar TT start- 3 people jump, next three come up and five seconds later, 3 more, etc. Nope.

Air horn (or maybe the cannon?) went off and it was apparently RUN AND JUMP. No organization, no orderly procession into the water, it was a little nuts.

Sadly, one of the racers a ways behind me passed away from a heart attack at the start of this swim, no idea if it had anything to do with the manner of the start, but it was a little bit nuts.

Nevertheless, I jumped and started swimming. 3 buoys to the red turn buoy upstream, staying far to the left of everyone else, could tell there was a little current and my garmin file shows a pace about :20 per 100 slower for the first 300 or so yards than the rest. Once we hit the turn and headed downstream, we reached the start a lot faster than it had taken to go upstream. I settled in in what I deemed to be the middle-est of the river to use the current. Not many people around me, and I think I touched one other person the entire swim.

Near the second bridge I converged with a guy swimming without a wetsuit. He seemed to be going slightly faster than me, so I determined that he knew what he was doing and must be local, given his mid-river line, so i just followed him, drafting off his hip. That was good because as I looked ahead I saw very few people to guide me. We swam together for a good 10 minutes, then he started veering right, and me left, to apex the buoy line. We converged again close to the third bridge, but think at some point he fell behind as I didn't see him again.

Last red turn buoy was upon us quickly, and I had looked at my watch and saw 26, so was having a good time and knew I'd be sub 30. Another local tip was to aim for the upstream stair handrail to avoid going past with the current and having to salmon it back upstream. And I had been warned of the shin shattering step underneath the water line at the exit.

Safely navigating these dangers, I let the volunteers help lift me out onto the stairs, and headed to T1....

Nothing. Would love to see what I could do with this if I was in really good swim shape (although I wouldn't count as my PR).

I hadn't scouted the swim exit other than to generally see which general direction T1 was. I rounded the corner and saw about 20 folks in volunteer shirts just standing there.... "Strippers?" BIG guy said "right here," dropped to the ground and two guys ripped of the wetsuit, and guy behind picked me up, and up the very very steep ramp I went.

Halfway up saw Wendy cheering as always :)

Ran into T1 and just tried to go fast but efficiently. My rack spot was almost as far from the bike exit and entry as physically possible - from one corner to the other - but as there were very few people in transition at this point, it was just my slow running in bike shoes that caused any delay here. But honestly the winner of my AG went 3:32 (and 2:51 in T2), so I wasn't THAT far off.....

Nothing, I did not lose Chattanooga 70.3 in T1

My cycling is slowly coming back, although it's not where I want it to be. My coach had given me a loose plan, similar to Oceanside but a few watts higher. Essentially, 225 ish on the flats/rollers, 240 if there was a headwind, and 260-280 on the "climbs." This had worked fairly well in Oceanside so we roughly went with it again.

First 5 or so miles is through the back of town towards the Chattanooga Valley, and there are some train tracks and rough surfaces to deal with. RD did a good job marking the potholes and covering the RR crossings with a person there to help pick up bottles. Guy ahead of me lost his bottle at the RR right away, and nearly ran into me stopping to get it.

Soon enough we were on the highway and had a slight tail/cross wind. Getting in line early was such a pro move, there were just a few folks ahead of me, and a few behind. At one point I saw one guy about 1/4 mile ahead and that was it. Jockeyed for position and tried to stay within power goals and out of draft zones (which was not hard at that point), at one point decided to pass a couple guys who, funny enough, were going a little faster than I had expected. But dammit, I had committed, and I do my best to ride clean, so as much as it hurt I had to complete the pass, and then not be a douche and free wheel in front of them. One of them re-passed me later, and the other I basically dd the whole ride with near me somewhere.

The road then turned into a narrow two lane country road, and the importance of being out early became more clear. This would be a shitshow with 2000 cyclists. On the recon drive I had noted the large number of churches on this road (hey, it's the south), and wondered how that was gonna play out on a Sunday morning... In fact, having not gone to the (mandatory) athlete meeting, I wasn't sure if the road was open-until a big red caddie passed me about mile 20. That and a police cruiser were the only cars I encountered on the outbound leg through northern Georgia.

Although I had dismissed the rollers and just assumed I'd be using inertia to ride up them, they did start to take their toll. I had the time displayed with garmin splitting every 5 miles and wanted to be sub 15 for each. Not an issue as I hit 20 miles in about 52 minutes, but I knew the way back would be a bit slower.

Saw the left turn up Andrews coming up so downshifted to the small cog, and just spun up as easy as I could. It was a bit steep but very short, so not much of an issue. Although I was over my 280 watt goal here. Crested the top, over the other side, and then a left turn on my favorite course direction ever: "Left on Hog Jowl Road."

Just about here things started getting interesting. About mile 30 had two guys come by clearly and intentionally drafting. A few folks sped up to grab the train, and though I saw the neutral wheel moto several times, only saw the marshall once soon after this. Another guy road by and said "I sure hope he breaks up that peloton up there." Not sure if he did, but they were causing havoc by riding as a pack (probably 8-10 people). I did have two cars come by here, including a large truck, who couldn't pass the group, and slowed down. I passed the truck, eventually passed me again, and then slowed down. Frustrating but not much I could do.

Oddest thing happened in this section while we were playing pickup truck leapfrog, I was closing in on a girl I thought was wearing the team USA kits, the ones with the names on it. name here was Mendez. I looked down though, and saw a big "P" on her calf.... I passed my first pro! About 3 or 4 miles later, I passed another girl with a "P"..... two pros! :) I am assuming these were the last 2 or 3 pros that finished, not sure how I caught them, perhaps flat tires? Or they are just slow pros....

I noticed that one of the guys had either backed out of the group, or let it pass, and was standing on his pedals, freewheeling, with a car behind him. I knew what he was doing, and wondered i the poor driver did too.... Seemed like a really long pee, and at one point I wanted to yell out "Hurry it up!!" as I couldn't pass the car, and it was slowing. Speaking of that, I had had to go from about 25 miles in, but knowing I'd be putting my bike shoes in luggage after.... that.... I decided I could hold it. Been there, done that, pinched my nose and soaked the shoes in woolite...

Anyway, we came into the town of Chickamauga and there were lots of folks out cheering. Looks like a cool little town. Soon turned left to do the last "climb," and I was just cruising along when two guys powered up, with a third whose front wheel was nestled between theirs. "OK, a couple more drafters...." then two more behind, then three... I sat up, looked behind me, and said "You have to be fucking kidding me...." A group of about 25 riders was barreling past in a large, and very intentional, peloton. A guy in an AWA kit looked at me and said "I know, it's awful, right?" And promptly continued in the large group. I noticed there were at least two Moxi Multisport kits working with the group..

And my pro friend Ms. Mendez, who I had left far behind. I still beat her bike time, but I was for a moment royally pissed. Then I got over it and carried on. There was a bit of head and cross wind coming back, so they were getting a huge benefit.

Big downhill to the main highway, turned right and got caught behind a jeep that was (politely) not passing a rider that was not willing to ride to the right (same guy I started the ride with). This was frustrating as I was going faster than him but had to slow down as I could not get around the Jeep, which eventually turned right, resolving the situation.

I could tell that I was on target more or less for time. I took water bottles at the first and last aid station, and they didn't fit tightly into the rear cage, so for the last leg to town I put the bottle in my back jersey pocket so it wouldn't pop out on the RR tracks, making me stop. Of course, went over train tracks less than a mile from the finish and my flat kit popped out of the frame holder... So I had to stop anyway. The volunteer stationed there got it for me and I was on my way. Probably cost :20 or so

Saw Wendy and Chris' girlfriend coming in off the bike. Made sure to see what guys were wearing for the run, as I had a cooling top in T2 in case it got hot. All tri tops so that's what I ran in. Weather on the bike was absolutely perfect, mid 60s-ish even a little cool, but by the run it would be in the mid 70s with a "realfeel" (whatever that means) higher than that.

I had a concentrated Infinit bottle with 600 calories on the bike, and two gels. Had about 1/2 of the infinit and one gel, perhaps not enough. Probably total 2 water bottles

Wendy had asked what I thought my split would be so she could plan, and I had told her 2:35. So pretty spot on

AP 204/NP 216
IF .71
2,000 feet elevation

Nothing, happy with the ride

Long run back to my little corner of the world. bike stuff off. run stuff on. Had volunteers slap on some sunscreen. Change the garmin to run. Press start. Look at watch, press start again, stopping it.......!

Nothing. I didn't lose Chattanooga 70.3 in T2 either

and i beat the AG winner in T2, bitches!

I hadn't scouted the run course much at all. I'd looked at maps and thought I had a general idea, but other than the bridges didn't really know the terrain.

First little section is a nice, tree shaded out and back along the bike finish, so back past Wendy. It was nice and cool under the shade and I flt comfortable... except for the rock in my shoe. Once I cleared the area where the crowd was (I didn't want to stop there!), I took the shoe off, got rid of the rock, and put the shoe back on the foot I had put down on the ground and to which another rock stuck. Probably here where I looked down and realized my garmin clock wasn't moving (ended up with 12.8 miles of data).

Then we ran past some portapotties and remembered what I had seen on the bike, and what I had to do, so stepped in for :30 or so, Finally everything in place (I thought), I took off at a comfortable pace. The exit from T2 to the loop course requires a bit of a climb, so the first couple miles are a little difficult, but a large crowd to motivate you. There's a saying I've heard, "never trust an IM fart." Well it wasn't an IM and it wasn't that bad, but there was clearly an issue that had to be dealt with... a consequence of the early morning's activities I guess.

So this was a first for me, I'd never had to do... that.... in a race, ever. And I wear tri bibs, requiring removal of the tri top. Hadn't ever been an issue before. Ran to the point I was pretty sure if I didn't stop now I'd be a viral photo on slowtwitch if I didn't, dropped my race belt, entered the portapotty, essentially disrobed... and nothing happened. Oh come on, you were so insistent 500 yards ago.

Let's just say we were finally able to lower the threat level to green.

So miles 1-3 were not representative and I was hoping I'd settle into a consistent pace after my issues were resolved. Not so much.

Miles 2-3 and 8-9 (two 6 mile loops) were the ugliest, along the highway. Then the course goes down to the riverwalk and loops back on itself with a couple short out and backs, odd design but it was fine. Nice and cool on the riverwalk, through a nice bamboo forest with a nice breeze. Then at mile 5 and 11 there's this massive huge climb... ok a stupid short little one block climb, but it is steep. Other than through aid stations, this was the only section I walked each loop.

It's a deceiving course design, because you know you cross two bridges to the other side of the ricer and back, but you've only got about 1.5-2 miles to do it, and it looks much further than that. Over one bridge, up a short hill, down underneath the bridge (at the swim start), block or two to the wooden plank walk bridge, back to town to start it all over again.

Just tried to maintain a steady comfortable pace through 11 then see what I had. Turns out it wasn't much. But as much as I wanted to walk the little climb over the bridge, I still ran it as it was almost over. Made the left turn after the walk bridge to the finish and down the hill, way more painful and a lot longer than I expected. Tried to run in strong, but everything down below was starting to cramp a bit and just trying to stave that off.

Because my watch screwup had no idea as to my time, all I knew is it was about 4 minutes longer than the watch showed. Finishing clock said 5:33, thought that was my time until Wendy told me it was 10 minutes fast. Happy with that time, although not that pleased with the run time and pacing, especially the last two miles. At Oceanside I was able to run a much more consistent pace, but that run course is a bit easier. I had predicted a 2:05 run, so with the hijinks in the first few miles pretty close

9:05
9:19
10:40 - poop!
9:19
10:08 - mile 5 hill
9:34
9:55
9:48
9:26
10:12
10:58 - mile 11 hill
10:09
9:14

Be a better runner?

Pizza


Lack of run training. If I could put together a 1:45 run.......


I've done a few 70.3s and not a lot I'd repeat, but this one I would (as long as I get up early), the course is beautiful and just challenging enough, volunteers fantastic, and the city of Chattanooga is just a blast (I likened it to Portland without the hipsters and meth heads). We got super lucky with the weather and I imagine this would be a LOT more painful in typical Chattanooga weather.

Post race meals included Urban Stack for burger and fries race afternoon, and a stop at Ben & Jerry's (and why can't I run a 1:45 again???). Monday morning breakfast at Aretha Frankenstein's on Tremont. Very.. interesting. Tiny place, good food.