Ironman 70.3 Chattanooga - Triathlon

In the athlete meeting we were told that there wouldn't be as much current as there was for the 140.6 race last September. I think they said the dam was spilling 26000 cfs last September and they were targeting mid 6k cfs for the 70.3. It looked like a lake out there in the morning but I know we still got a bit of a push on the downriver segment. I felt like I had a solid swim. I got caught up in traffic a couple of times but with only 1 turn buoy, the congestion was fairly minimal.

Not much. The swim went off in a rolling start. I'm guessing I could have found some faster feet to follow if I had gotten there a little earlier to get closer to the front.

Pitiful T1. You would have thought I stopped to have a snack. I used a wetsuit stripper but I should have just done it myself...didn't save any time since they were all occupied when I first got to them. The bike was a good ways from the T1 exit but I still think I lost time by being a little too casual when I got to my bike.

I had a solid ride except for having to make a rest room stop. Avg was closer to 20 mph if you take the RR stop out. We were hit by rain for the first 15-20 miles of the outbound leg but, otherwise, conditions were nice for riding. Since this was my first 70.3 I wasn't sure how hard I could push the bike and still be fine on the run. I tried to keep my HR and cadence in a comfortable range but I feel like I left some time on the course. This course was fast. It only had a couple of climbs of significance and they were pretty short. There were a few rough spots that caused some bottle launches (the spots were well-marked) but I made it through all of them without mishap until the very last one. I was only .5 miles away from T2 when I hit one of the bumps and heard my flat kit (had it in a water bottle behind me) hit the ground. I didn't have a safe place to stop at the time so some volunteer ended up with a nice parting gift.

Work on nutrition for race pace efforts. I relied on Skratch and gels which were fine for a while but I had a bit of a stomach issue half way through the bike which led to a rest room stop. I was planning on using Perpetuem for the race but all of my local stores were sold out of it.

A bit better than T1...no major issues here.

Surprisingly, I felt good coming off the bike. The run started off pretty solid but I was still having some stomach issues so I visited the rest rooms probably 3 times on the run. It was pretty cool seeing some people I know and getting/giving words of encouragement. I tried to monitor my heart rate but I should have just gone by feel...felt like I left a bit of time on the course. Maybe, maybe not since my right hamstring cramped briefly at mile 11.5. I walked about 100 yards and it seemed to loosen up so I was able to run it in from there.

More training volume would help. I ran a 1:53 HM last November and 1:58 at the Country Music in April when I was using the latter as a training run. The pit stops didn't help but I probably also wasted a bit of time going through the aide stations (there was 1 every mile!).

Grabbed some pizza, met up with my wife and daughter and chatted with some friends about their race.


The usual...fitness, pacing, nutrition.


I'll do this race again. I thought it was a fun course...I just need to get faster!