IRONMAN Chattanooga 70.3 Race Report

IRONMAN Chattanooga was to be the first real test of the season at the half distance. 70.3 races are long enough to hurt like hell and short enough where it does not take a week or two to recover. Race week was busy for me despite the taper. For starters, I was winding down my employment with the company I worked for and I was starting a new role with a new company two days after the race. So, I had a lot of mixed emotions during race week- excited, nervous, anxious. But I also was feeling very confident in the training I had put in since December.

Chattanooga was designed to be a B race for me for several reasons. For starters, IRONMAN Muncie in July is going to be my A half distance race and IRONMAN Louisville in October will be my A race at the Ultra distance. Secondly, my coach and I were going to analyze data files to see where we can continue to extract minutes, dial in pacing with heart rate, and perhaps incorporate better nutrition choices to fuel my upcoming training and races.

The Town

Chattanooga is a really cool town. Located near the Georgia border, its a great southern town where my dad was born. Lots of great restaurants, scenery including Lookout Mountain, and the Tennessee River winding through town that splits the north and south sides with cool walking bridges that double as part of the run course. (I highly recommend this destination!)

Reggie Garcia, my good friend and I arrived on Friday evening to checkout the IRONMAN Village and grab a bite to eat. Unfortunately, we arrived just after athlete check-in closed so that would have to wait until Saturday morning. No worries, No pressure. But the next day would be busy with check-in, a easy ride and run on tap plus checking out the river.

Saturday

We woke up at 6:30am and drove to the market street bridge on the north side of the river, close to where the swim would start. I got into the wet suit and swam 750m up stream and 750 down stream. Uh oh...not much current. Anyways, swam hard enough to get the heart rate up but easy enough to not to wear myself out for race day. The water was a lovely 72 degrees, perfect for wetsuit. (Race morning was 72.1 which was too warm for the Pro athletes, rules state that pro's cannot use wetsuit in temps above 71.9)

practice swim in the Tennessee River

Water felt great!

After swimming, we hopped on our bikes and rode the run course for an hour, stopping and checking out the turns, climbs, and bridges. This was really helpful getting a lay of the land because you can visualize where you can surge on the run and where you hold back.

Reggie Garcia- Tri- Loco Team mate

After a quick 15 minute easy run, it was time to go to athlete check-in, and listen to the athlete briefing. Having raced a few WTC events, I know what to expect from these, but I arrived late to the meeting and I was not about to wait until 5pm for the next one. So, instead, I hung around and stayed for the Professional athlete briefing. It was pretty cool listening to information that the professionals get. Most of it was the same but you do hear about differences in rules and regulations. It was also cool as I got to sit with Andy Potts, Terrenzo Bozzone, and Greg Bennett. All of these guys are legends in the sport.

After listening to the briefing, it was time to check in bikes to transition. I knew where my spot was in the area because there was a parking lot attendant booth at the beginning of my rack. This would make it easy to find my rack after finishing the swim.

Once checked in, it was back to the hotel to get the feet up, rest, eat, and hydrate. This was also the time I would spend getting my gear together, and going over my race plan that Coach Kim and I had talked about. I was confident in the plan but also slightly nervous. The day before a race, I think any athlete gets nervous, going over gear lists, check lists, problem solving, "what if" scenarios, and then re-checking the lists.

Race Morning

I was up at 3:30am, after actually sleeping for 5 hours. First time for me sleeping that much before a big race. Once I was up, I drank coffee, ate some waffles, and drank my INFINIT making sure I was topped off. Race morning I always like to take an easy jog to loosen up the legs. So I went outside the hotel and jogged for 10 minutes- legs felt good! About 4:15am We all drove down to transition where I set up my gear, clipped in my shoes, pumped the tires, and re-checked my gear and transition plan one final time.

Transition race morning is packed with nerves and lots of carbon

Ready to rock! Buses were waiting to take all the athletes to the swim start and luckily I got on the first one! A quick trip over the river and we were dropped off. Walking to the swim start reminded me of Ironman Louisville and the swim would be exactly the same- athletes jumping off the docks one at a time instead of a mass start. I was one of the first in line so, I would be in the water quick!

Nearing race time, it was time for the Pro's to go off. I paid attention here because some of the best swimmers were racing such as Andy Potts and Anna Cleaver. I wanted to see how they start and either find the lead or find the draft. Pretty cool to watch!

Five minutes after the male pro's went off, the female pro's went off. And five minutes after that, we were jumping in!

Swim

I jumped in 30 seconds after the canon went off and soon I found my heart rate maxed! I think that's typical for a lot of athletes. I had a goal in mind of swimming 30 minutes but didn't want to blow up the first 300 meters, which was upstream by the way.
Although there was traffic, the swim was manageable the entire way except for the first turn. Found some traffic, swam over a dude, and then found feet to draft. I really wanted to swim straight and so I was to sight every 5-7 breaths. The buoys were to my left down stream, so this made the swim better for me as I breathe to the left more so than to the right. I got into my groove and really started flying. Kept the heart rate under control and was soon at the swim exit! I hit the stairs in 30:17 and after some acrobats, stepped up the stairs and began running to the wet suit strippers.

Swim 1.2 Miles 30:26

39th/233 AG

T1 3:59

Bike

Disadvantages to traveling to a race: previewing the bike course can be tough to do. I wish I had more time to do this as I would have known where to push myself a little more and where to hold back. Oh well, it was going to be a fun day no matter what. Now, weather always plays a part in racing- hot, cold, windy, rainy, humid, etc. This race was no different as soon as I left town, the clouds opened up. for 35-40 miles, it rained. I was soaked. Wearing a visor, it was hard to see at times and now safety became important. The last thing I wanted was to hit a pothole and pinch flat or worse- crash. So I played it safe, kept even further distance than the legal draft zones, and just made sure that my heart rate was still where my coach and I wanted.

The first 26 miles, I covered in a so-so 20.7 mph. But what mattered was heart rate and I kept that in check. After the Andrews Lane climb which was not too difficult, we had a nice down hill stretch for a few miles.

Now...one goal that my coach gave me was to Pee on the bike. Not "pee at the next port o pot" but pee...while rolling! When Kim told me this in our chat before the race- I was like "are you serious?" never had i peed on the bike. Ever. Not on my pretty TREK Speed Concept!

So at approximately 1.5 hours into the bike I peed! And it felt good! ha ha. I quickly washed it off with the water bottle I had in my bottle cage.

Peeing felt so good, I did it again 3 miles from T2!

I loved this bike course. Despite the rain, the course was rolling, had some fast flat sections, some good climbs to soften the legs, and great pavement which meant smooth riding. And I left some pee out there...

Bike 56 miles 2:41

62nd/233 AG

T2 2:31

They say you bike for show and run for dough in triathlons, so that is the mentality in which I approached the run. It was getting hot and soon the sun would be out. So my goal was again to watch heart rate and negative split the race on heart rate alone and let the chips fall where they may. I was quickly in and out of transition within a couple minutes. Races can be won and lost here but for me it was all about being smooth and collected to make sure that I had my INFINIT Napalm gel flask and my bib number.

Picture courtesy of Jenn Wilson

I hit the ground running so to speak and the legs were there. I knew then that I would have a good run. The question was...how good? This is a fun run course, scenic, and hilly. There are places to surge and places to hold back. Climbing out of T1 on to the first hill, I took it easy to keep from blowing up. My heart rate was still approaching 160 which is normal going up hill, but I knew that I had to get it down to that 150-155 level. It took me 5-6 miles before I got it down.

awesome scenery!

At mile 6.5, it was time to press the pace. I had some heart rate room to play with and because I was controlled the first half, I was able to kick it in the second half. Even though I was holding a solid pace, my goal of going sub 5 hours was slipping by. I knew that I had to run a 1:41ish to get close. Going over the last bridge really hurt and by mile 11, it was about finishing a solid race that I had started. As I ran towards the finish, the pain turned to satisfaction. The hurt turned to joy. And the butterflies of finishing my best 70.3 ever took over!

Run 1:49 8:21/mile

52nd/233 AG

Finish 5:08:46

To summarize, the race was a great report card of where my fitness is at the moment. To say I aced the test is an understatement. The execution was near flawless. Heart rate was controlled the entire time, and the results speak for themselves! The swim was my fastest ever at the distance. The run? A 1:49 was a 20 minute PR coming off the bike. My confidence in my abilities is growing and I am anxious to continue the build towards IRONMAN Louisville in October.

Time to celebrate!

The Tri-Loco team!

Thanks to my Ironsherpa Jennifer, my Tri- Loco teammates, and my family for your encouragement and support. Thanks also to my coach Kim Schwabenbauer who has taught me how to approach racing in a professional manner (despite my amateur abilities), and to my wonderful partners who help me get to the start line faster, stronger, better!