Ironman Chattanooga - Triathlon

Swim went well. My main goal was to take it easy and swimn straight. I never pushed the pace and felt great the whole time. I went to the middle of the river hoping to catch more of a current. Sighted well for the first half. By the halfway point, I had started to catch all of the non-wetsuit swimmers, and it got a lot more congested. Plus, there was a bend in the river where it narrowed down. I was having to zig zag around a lot of people, but did it in a controlled pace and never felt bad. I was hoping for a 60 mion swim, so was thrilled when I saw that time, especially given how good I felt.

noithing

LOng run up the steps to transition. Got the suit off easily enough, wanted to make sure I had everything ready for a 7 hr bike. Stopped to pee, had to wait a minute or so for a port-o-pot to open

nothing

First loop went very well. Never pushed it. Ate a Clif Breakfast pack about 10 min in, then a PBJ at 90 min. A sip or 2 of perpetuum every 15 min all day, and water whenever I felt I needed it. Also got a bottle of gatorade just to have something different. Tons of people on the road, so was constantly jumping past them. It was still cool outside. Enjoyed thefirst loop. By the second loop, it was getting hot. I stopped at the special needs stop at 53, refilled perpetuum, had a small coke. Continued the q15min perpetuum and water/gatorade as needed. Had 3 PBJs total, along wiht a couple of gels. About mile 90 I started cramping and really feeling hte heat. THe HotShot was great at warding off cramps, although the came back every time I hit a hill. Made it back in and felt pretty tired, but mentally, was feeling good. My goal was 6:45 on the bike, so I was still pretty pleased.

Drink more fluids

Went into the tent, got some ice water dumped on me. Relaxed for a couple of minutes, and was off to the run

nothing

I feltl strangely good coming out of transition. Talked to the girls for 30 sec, and jogged along hte riverfront for a 1$ mile til I hit a small hill. Waked up it, then did a slow jog interspersed with walking whenever I felt like I Was starting to spike the HR. No shade at all in the first 4 miles. At mile 3 I was very nauseated and didn't drink in fear of vomiting. By mile 4, I was dizzy, and very nauseated. I thought it best to sit and rest for a minute and cool off nad let the HR come down. a minute turned into about 25 min. I laid in the grass for awhile and seriously contemplated quitting. After cooling off, I thought I'd walk a bit and see how I felt. I got up, and within 5 min was feeling much better. I tired occasional 200m of jogging, but once my HR started creeping up, the nausea returned. I was able to take some fluids. ORanges and grapes went down the easiest. Also got a couple of peppermints which REALLY helped. Caught up with a guy that had ridden close to me all day and we began talking. He was feeling as bad as I was. We rna very little through the rest of the first lap. The hills in the second half were TOUGH! Nancy and the girls met us as we came back across theriver, and walking and talking with them for 5 min was a nice mental boost. I thought about trying to run some in the second lap, as I was feeling a ton better, but Doug was struggling, so I stayed with him. He'd lag behind occasionally, but always managed to catch up. I felt good mentally, talked to all the volunteers and spectators. Got back to thebridge to finish and was feeeling really good. Rant the last 1/2 mile, and slowed purposefully to have the finish chute to myself.

Not race in 95 deg heat.

Nancy was helping hand out medals, so once I got mine, I wanted to find the kids. GOt so cught up in finding them, I totally missed thepost race food spread. Got my bike, went back to hotel and was STARVING.


The heat was brutal. Only 1600 finishers out of ~2750 registrants.


Very well organized, tons of drink stops on both bike and run. I would like to see a better athlete tracking system in place, where you could have a text sent when I cross a timing mat, etc. I was so excited to finish and see family that I totallymissed the post race food. I was too slow to leave, shower, and come back and watch the finish like I had wanted to. Overall, a great experience, one that I will do again.