Ironman 70.3 Chattanooga - Triathlon

Shortened swim due to extreme current. So the up river part was taken out and we just swam down river. I did ok, nothing extreme in one way or the other,.
Glad to be out of the water at the end.

Train for the swim

Putting socks on is a challenge these days.

I wasn't in a hurry

Had a pretty good ride, didn't pass as much as I used to and got passed more than I am accustomed to, but I have a long way to go to get back to the bike fitness I had in 2016. I did this course in under 3 hours with a mechanical then.
Also, being on my road bike I feel is a bit of a time penalty even though this course has some hills, there are plenty of miles to take advantage of aero.

Pretty uneventful ride other than a snake coiled up on the road later in the race. I didn't see it until I was just about on top of it. According to Facebook (so it must be true!) it was a rattlesnake. I couldn't tell if it was alive or not, but I do think it was alive.

Once back into town I just tried to stay within the pace I was at and tried to get ready for the run.


Hours and hours on the bike.

Here I could have been a bit faster.

Once I got off the bike I could tell that my back needed to loosen up some. It didn't hurt, but was tight and uncomfortable. So I tried to walk at a steady pace. until it felt better.
Plus, I knew I was a bit behind on hydration as my mouth was dry. So I would run a minute, walk a minute. I wanted to get up the hill and to the first aid station before trying to run anymore.
From here it was a matter of beating the heat, taking advantage of the downhills and managing nutrition and hydration.
I knew when the weather forecast came out that in all likelihood that 13 to 14 minute miles were the best I could hope for. I struggled but by about half way I had managed to get into the 14's and kept it there for a while. A little breeze helped as well.
About 4 miles into the second loop I caught up to Dudley. We walked along for a bit, but at the time I was still feeling ok and Dud was struggling with the heat causing some stomach issues. So I ran on for a while.
Going over the bridge the second time over the bridge my right hamstring started to act like it was going to pull. So I stretched it and walked it for a bit. Tried to run the downhill to the bottom of the bridge, but no go.
Walked up to the last aid station and hoped to be able to run again.
I was able to run at a slower pace, but run never the less until I made the turn to finish at the split. Coming down the hill the other hamstring started to pull so I stretched it good, did some walking and headed to the finish. A couple of my TriCoach Georgia team mates were here to cheer us in and that helped push me to run and fortunately the legs held together till the end.

My running leaves a lot to be desired. I am going to put the work in and see if I can get reasonably close to where I used to be.

Walked around and got out of the sun


I am happy despite being 90 minutes slower than 2016. With the back surgery and lengthy recovery just being able to do this again is a thrill to me.

That said, I am a competitive person and I need to lose the weight I put on during the back process and get back into better training habits.

I also struggle a bit with training in the early season since we started spending the better part of winter in FL. It shouldn't be so hard, but the combination of traveling more and everything else makes it a bit harder. I like this race so that needs to get solved.


I used a new product developed by a couple team mates and my coach for the ride portion. www.slayrx.com I thought it worked well on the bike, maybe I could have used a few more ounces. I am not a fan of carrying hydration on the run, but I need to rethink that as I wished I had the slayRX rather than living off the course. The product works well and the taste isn't over powering to save the gut.

After almost 3 years of back issues and recovery, it was great to be out on the course again. Highly motivating and enjoyable despite the heat.

The Chattanooga community as well as the surrounding areas are wonderful. The support they give this race shows and it is one of the reasons I love coming here to race!

The volunteers are also the best! The aid stations are all high energy and a much needed distraction!