There were close to 1,000 triathletes in this morning's race in Chattanooga. The race was an interval start where competitors lined up and started the race on 3 second intervals. Your time is tracked via a computer chip that you wear on your ankle. The water was a pleasant 84 degrees. I swam freestyle for as long as I could then alternated between breast stroke and free style. I didn't think there was much of a current till we swam under a few bridges and I could see my speed relative to the bridge pillars and realized there was a nice current helping move us along. I finished the swim in 27:42. You had to climb some serious stairs to get to the transition area and I did not take my swim split till I climbed the stairs and entered the transition area. I got my biking shoes, shirt and helmet on and got out of T1 in 2:33. I kept my gloves on my aero bars and thought I'd put them on while biking. This was not a good idea and next time I'll invest the 15 seconds in T1 to put the gloves on. I nearly crashed getting clipped in as I tried to go before I was properly clipped in (my shoes into the pedals) and hit an orange cone.

I had pretty much emptied the tank on the bike so struggled greatly on the run. The run course was tough as it started out with a series of serious hills in the first mile. There was ample support on the run course with water and Poweraid and a few spots where they had garden hoses and I allowed myself to be drenched. It felt very good to be soaked save the squish-squish of the shoes afterwards. It was 0830+ hrs by the time I got in the water so I started the run at about 10:30 and it was plenty hot and humid. I walked the hills and did the 'marathon shuffle' as much as I could on the rest of the run. My normal running pace is 10:00 minutes per mile but not today. The fatigue plus the heat and humidity kept my pace at about 12 minutes per mile. I finished the 6.2 miles in 1:15:12.

In addition to putting your race number on your arms and legs, they also put your age on one calf and your division on the other calf. So I took comfort that most of the people that passed me were younger than I. As 22 year old would pass me and I'd say to myself, "Yeah, come back in 20 year and let's see if you have all that speed!" ;-) I had many people pass me on the course but I didn't see any 275 lb/43 yo guys pass me!

It was a lot tougher course than what I was expecting. This tri is called the 'Waterfront' so I was thinking it would follow the banks of the river. It does but the banks of the river happens to be a series of bluffs as Chattanooga is in the mountains! Overall I had a good race and am pleased with my time. I believe I can do considerably better next year - if I drop some of the excess baggage! My next goal is to do the Disney Marathon this January and I'm going to shoot for a PR. My current PR is about 4:50 but I was 6 years younger when I set that so this will be a sporty goal.

I'm not in as good of shape as I was in May for the GFT HIM but I learned today I was not in very good HIM shape in May. My great uncle said of my DNF that maybe God was teaching me something and I believe He was. I never should have gone straight from a sprint-distance tri to a half-iron distance tri. I learned a lot on the Olympic distance course and am a better athlete now with this experience under my belt.