Chattanooga Waterfront Race Report

I’m a little late posting this. I was waiting on the final splits to be posted and once they were, I just didn’t have the time to write everything out. So here we go…

Saturday
Got up to Chatty around 9am (Eastern). MH went to Target, and I got in about 50 minutes on the bike. We got checked into our room and got settled in for a couple of hours. Around lunchtime we headed down to transition for packet pick-up. It was burnin hot outside. I grabbed my race packet and swag bag and looked around the expo a little bit trying to find a pair of glasses since I ran off and left mine at home. I forgot how big transition was for this race. With 1200+ racers, it would have to be a good size. We grabbed a bit to eat at the Blue Plate Diner. Lucas was in rare form during lunch. He was jiberjabbering the entire time. I don’t think we stopped to take a breath while he was “talking” (gets that from the Keyes side). Then we headed to a local bike shop so I could get a pair of glasses. The rest of the afternoon was lazy. We hung out in the room and watched TV. I laid out all of my gear and went over the race in my head. Lucas finally went down for a nap. That evening we met up with a bunch of VulcanTri (local tri group here in b’ham) members to eat dinner at the Big River Grille. We got back to the room around 900 and I packed up all my gear, set the coffee maker, and tried to get some sleep.

Race Day
I slept pretty good for a night before a race. I woke up around 430 and went to the luxurious, spacious kitchenette. I poured a cup of coffee and started fixing me a toasted bagel w/ PB and some smoked turkey sausage. I turned on the TV and relaxed for a little bit while I ate. I showered, laid on the sunscreen, and hit the road on my bike to head down to transition. I thought that I was going to be pretty early and beat some of the crowd, but nope…seemed like everyone was already there. I headed to the registration tent to change my division from Clydesdale to Age Grouper. I was feeling pretty confident this morning. I went and got inked (#1192) and headed to transition to get set up. A buddy of mine from VulcanTri, Bob, was 1194 so we were on the same rack. I was ready to go by 620. First person didn’t get in the water until 730 so I had a good bit of time to kill. I found a spot to sit and just listened to some music until it was time to head to the swim start area about a mile away. They had busses shuttling triathletes to the start, but a good number of us walked. Now the waiting game. My age group was the last group to go before the relay teams. We had a very long time to wait. The first swimmer was in the water at 730…I didn’t hit the water until about 850. This year was nice since I knew so many people up there. We all hung out until it was time for our groups to go. Me and bob were the only ones left standing it seemed. Now don’t get me wrong, Team-Magic puts on a hell of a race, but they need to rethink the music the blast at the swim start. You would think something upbeat or classic rock, hell even some Salt n Peppa would have worked, but nope…the song blasting as we made our way down the gangplank to the dock was Melissa frickin Etheridge’s Come To My Window…what the hell? I digress…I finally got down the dock, lowered myself into the water and waited on the magic words….1192….go!

The Swim (27:15, div rank 66/110)
The swim started out a little slow it seemed. I don’t know if it was b/c I had to wait so long to start or what. I finally got in a good rhythm, but old habits started to kick in. I started breathing to just one side. When I do this, I tend to pull to the right so I spent a good amount of time having to correct my course. I passed a good bit of people in the water. That is always a good feeling when you go by someone. I didn’t feel bad in the water, but I didn’t feel great either. I finally passed under the 3rd bridge and started building and angling towards the exit. There was a large crowd of people in the water at the exit. I was swimming pretty hard for the last 100m or so. I hit the exit and started my way to T2.

T2 (3:07)
The only bad thing about the race is that you have to run up the amphitheater steps to get to transition. It takes a second to find your legs after you swim like that. I jogged into transition, grabbed a cup of Gatorade from the table, put on helmet, glasses, shoes and I was off. Felt like it was a pretty good transition. I wish that I could be more efficient by having my shoes already clipped into the pedals. Definitely something to work on.

The Bike (1:31:04, div rank 96/110)
This is a fun bike course. I hit the road and focused on spinning to get my HR under control. After the first mile, I started hitting it harder. We took the onramp to the highway and started out to the 13 mile turnaround. There are two pretty good climbs on this course. The first one is steep but short. You get a little reprieve on the backside of the hill before you hit the long steady climb. This one tends to wear on me. I tried to keep a high cadence, but as I reached the crest, I was only turning at about 65 and moving at 9mph. The rest of the course was great. I went pretty hard at it. John (coach) wanted me to build on the bike so I tried to hold back just a little so that I could go harder on the return trip. I hit the turn around and off I went. I tried to stay aero as best I could. The only time I would come out of my aero bars would be if there was a cluster of people I was trying to pass. That was the cool thing about starting at the rear of the field…you get to pass a good bit of people. Nutrition on the bike was only diluted Gatorade. Wished I would’ve had just water. The heat wasn’t too bad on the bike. The only time you really felt it was on the hills when your speed dropped. Coming down the last hill, I let the big dog eat. I kicked it into gear and started hammering down that hill. I looped down off the highway and towards the waterfront. I tried to spin the last little bit to give the legs a break. When transition was in sight, I slipped my feet out of my shoes and pedaled on to the dismount line. Off to T2

T2 (2:07)
I was a disappointed in this transition. There was a bit of a traffic jam in the chute after you dismount. I wasn’t able to jog my bike to its place. Once I got there, I slipped on my socks and shoes grabbed my hat and was off.

The Run (1:21:19, 101/110)
My plan for the run was to run/walk the first 5k and then run hard for the final 5k. I jogged out of transition and made my way up the only real hill. Halfway up, my HR was out of control and I never really could get it under control again. After I’d run for about a minute, I could feel my heart beating in my head. At each water stop, I took a water to sip and one to pour on my head. The heat was awful. I walked a lot more than I wanted. I was still making good time compared to last year. As I hit the turnaround, I tried to run. I made it about 1 mile to the next water stop and couldn’t keep going. Legs felt fine, just couldn’t get my HR or breathing under control. I looked at my watch and saw that I wasn’t going to hit my sub 3hr time….well crap. I broke down to a run/walk the rest of the way. With about ¾ of a mile to go, I started running and was determined to finish the race on the run. I trotted down the steps and up the final incline on my way to the homestretch. As I made my way down the hill, everyone starts cheering…talk about motivation. I saw MH and little man with about 100 yards to go. I crossed the finish line and immediately grabbed a water and went to find the fam.

Final time of 3:24:51, 104/110 in 30-34 AG , 742/839 males

One thing I would do differently is have something to eat closer to race time. By the time I started, it had been almost 4 hours since I ate. I would rather have that closer to 2 hours. I didn’t feel too bad right after the race. I was just hot! I looked at my final time and was disappointed, but ok with it. I beat my time from last year by 48 minutes. Not too shabby. I’ll take that any day! If only my run had been better. I could have come in at 3hrs. Hopefully I can start focusing on the run and get faster over these next couple of races. I’ve put the link to the event pics below. Why do cameras always catch you when you are making a face or grimacing?

http://www.brightroom.com/view_user_event.asp?EVENTID=61805&PWD=&BIB=1192

Eric’s Quote of the Day: “Marathons? Yeah, I do those as a cool down.” ~off a random triathlon webpage