Once I finally got into the water, it was an uneventful wetsuit swim. I question the whole seeding thing but to a large extent, that is not something that I can control. Longish run to transition with a quick stop at the wetsuit peelers.


I would think about seeding myself differently for the swim. This is tough because I felt like I seeded myself honestly.

The bike for the 144.6 and the half iron distance events are very similar the main difference is the half turns on Andrews at about the halfway point so basically, when you see your left turn, be on your gears because it's a hard left and uphill at the same time. I only saw one bike marshal on this crowed course but when I passed the penalty tent, it was full. There seemed to be a lot of inexperienced riders on the course. At each of the three aid stations on the bike course, people stopped (full stop, unclipping, etc.) without pulling off the road resulting in those around them having to make full use of their bike handling skills.. At one point just before Chickamauga, a rider went down behind me. He must have hit some debris on the road. There was no one close to him. We had just passed two volunteers at a minor intersection so I did not stop, thinking that the volunteers were literally right there to check on him. Ouch! I also had a problem with vehicular traffic on the course. Once it was not too bad, The driver was just a jerk. He pulled around a stopped car and a volunteer asking him not to go and then clogged up the course for a few miles but fortunatelly pulled off before I got all the way up to him. The second two cars were on the twisty climby part after Chickamauga -- draft the car or cross the double yellow and pass? That's not a good situation to be in. After the car problems were done, I completed hte long grinder out of Chickamauga followed by longm super fun downhill. I passed so many people at the end of the ride. Normalized power for the ride was within 2 watts of my race plan so I am pretty happy with that.

On bike nutrition - 2x Infinit plus shot blocks on bike. 3x bottles of water. Peed twice on the bike and again in T2.

Shout out to the Epic Ride Weather app. I found it to be useful for this event. If you are not a Best Bike Split subscriber, check it out.

Managed heat by managing heart rate. Gatorade at aid stations. Gu at 4,7, and 10. I had a good guess at what my average bike heart rate would be and I confirmed that on my watch in the last few miles of the bike. I tried to run that heart rate for the first three miles. It seemed really really slow. Then I tried to keep my heart rate in the correct zone for the next 10 miles, slowing down when it got too high. It was hot and this seemed like the best way to manage the heat. I was pleased to pass a lot of people on the run (yes, this may well be commentary on my swimming but I'll take it!)

I finished with a smile on my face which is always my number one goal.

This was a fun event and I'd definitely do it again. The community is welcoming and the race logistics are easy.