Racing Manatees - Better Together in 2022 (Page 24)

woo hoo! Have a great race! I am interested to see how the change in nutrition works for you.

looks like it’s a closed group and I don’t want to join another! Are they saying the swim is canceled 

Ugh, so you want me to copy/paste the whole thread?  :-/

Chickamauga Dam? Unless you need to practice with the current?

I’m from Nashville too and have been there several times to practice in years past. I always leave from Coolidge Park on the North side. Stay close to the shore and bring your own pilot. It’s a great swim!

Sydney's suggestion of the dam is one place. There is a TVA park just above the dam on the south shore, off of 153. Easy access and fairly low boat traffic if you stay within the buoys. Another location is to start at the small watercraft ramp under the Market St bridge in Coolidge Park. This is where COWS swim on Wednesday. Stay close to the North Shore and swim upstream, then downstream. Do not swim downstream from the ramp. Be aware of boat and barge traffic. Check TVA.gov for the current flow. Once you see a rate of 40k cfs or higher, most tri athletes will not want the upstream challenge. Remember the current is lower the closer to the shore you swim. Even 10-15' off the rocks is plenty deep. Look at the unofficial Ironman Chattanooga groups where I have posted extensively regarding swim practice for prior races.

If you want more than that, you'll have to join the group!

Good luck.   I have commitments but am going to try to get over to watch part of the run.

Cheer for Jim for us!  It's one of the only times I can cheer for Michigan State ??

It sounds like it's gonna be a hot one 85-86 degree high temps, with wind gusts up to 30-35mph.  May the wind be always at your back and all that.

I think the heat is going to be a bigger factor than the wind tomorrow. 

Racing Manatees!!!

April 23
Jim - Ironman Texas

Doooo eeeettttt!!!!!!

Is anyone else racing or doing anything else fun this weekend?

Jim is in the water! Go Jim! Go!

Swim, bike, run, GO!

His wife Michelle said: "Well, Jim made it just short of 74 miles on the bike and had to stop for medical. He’s okay now. The heat, humidity and wind were brutal today."

Tough to prepare for those conditions coming from Michigan.

Hang in there, Jim.  We're in your corner.

Heat and humidity are no joke even when you have them in your everyday training, so not being acclimated to it and then add in the brutal winds make for a very hard time.  But, if there's one thing we've learned about Jim, he will be back at it in no time. I suggest he pivots to Choo end of September. It won't be any cooler (probably), but I'll be there (probably)

I made it over to the IM Texas race finish on Saturday.  The finish area was great for spectators.  They finish right through a strip of restaurants with outdoor patio seating and you could walk 100 yards from the finish down to the waterway (or to the pedestrian bridge over the waterway) to watch the runners come by on their three-loop run.  They were running down one side of the river and back up the other so you could pretty much watch the finish line and two points on the run all from your patio table while ordering food.  Not that I sat down or ordered any food the whole time I was there.  The finish shoot came in perpendicular to the finish line then turned to the left and did a dog-leg 100 yards down one side of the street then back 100 yards to the finish.  So there was no chance of missing anyone as they came to the finish.  They come running straight towards you then ran away from you then back towards you.  They were not back places to watch the race.  I had need been to the finish line of an Ironman before.  It was really fun.  All the pros hung out for an hour or two before very many other people came in so it was like having VIP tickets with just the pros walking around talking with each other. 

I had five people I was tracking.  One was a Pro doing her first Triathlon that I got to spend a lot of time with at Kiwami Team Camp 6-weeks ago.  She dropped from #2 to #14 in the second half of the run.  She didn't stop to talk to anyone at the finish line and just went straight to the medical tent when she came in.  She was back up on her feet before I left so I said hi briefly on my out.  I didn't get the full story of what happened on the bike but think the wind was pretty brutal.  She said that she had never been is some much pain on a bike in her life and that her pain level was a 10.  I think that was from crosswinds (??? missed part of this).  She told me that on the run the problem was leg cramps.  I struggle with leg cramps in every triathlon I did for the first three years.  So I know how that goes.  The pros are superheroes so I sometimes think they are immune to heat exhaustion, dehydration, muscle cramps, etc.  I look at people like Molly Sidel and Ryan Hall who podium at the world level in their 2-3 Marathon and think they are invincible because I was still bonking every race when I was 2-3 races into my Marathon career.  It was still nice to see her finish her first IM. 

I also saw a guy from my running group finish his first IM on Saturday.  He had things go a lot better for him.  He finished in the 3rd place position for the M25-29 AG.  Then twenty minutes later a guy who was a later swim time got a chip time that was 0.02 seconds ahead of him and pushed him into 4th place.  That was unreal I have never seen that before.  He was saying that the guy who won it was probably not taking a Kona spot because he was probably going Pro.  So that left two guys ahead of him for AG Kona slots.  I told him if he missed getting a Kona slot by 0.02 seconds that he should protest since he was going to take it.  I know for a fact that the precision of the chip timing is not accurate enough to separate 0.02 seconds.  They would need a photo to see who broke the plane of the finish line first because the chip was probably not what broke the plan on either of them.  Since they started 20 minutes apart if they offer one a Kona slot and not the other if would not be fair.  I didn't hear how roll downs went today, but the text message sting sounds like he didn't get a slot.  He was talking about races for next year and they were the ones he said he would do if he didn't Kona Qualify.

I didn't see my other three people including James come in.  One finished at 14.5 hours and the other way after that (16.5 hours?).  The three that came in without problems we all Houston residents.  The two that struggle (the female Pro and James) were both from the way up north.  :-(  I am still impressed with James.  I have never completed a 2.4 miles swim or a 74-mile bike ride. The people out there on Saturday we all tough athletes. 

It sounds like the DNF rate may have been 18%.  That's very high.  Not Chattanooga 2016 hight (that was north of 25%) but right their with St. George 2012 and Louisville 2018.

ugh!

I'm so happy you called it when you did and got yourself out of harm's way! I'm also glad you were able to call Michelle - especially after the lack of good judgment comment by the waiter. I recall having to take myself out of IM Lou 1/2 way through the run when hypothermia had me thinking all wacky and hyperventilating. The body reacts the way it's going to and we just need to make sure to listen. Funny how your ideal conditions are my danger conditions and your danger conditions are my normal (minus the wind) conditions.  

Take care of yourself!

Too funny!