The Inaugural Sunbelt Bakery IRONMAN 70.3 Chattanooga - Race Report

4:30 am, Sunday May 17, 2015, my alarm beeps.  Time to get up, its race day. The first thought that crosses my mind was - why did I signed up for this? It's so early in the season, after a hard winter. My head keeps going, I can count the number of outdoors rides I've done so far this year on one hand. My stomach is turning, those butterfly again, they started on Friday when we arrived to Chattanooga and now on race morning they are becoming even stronger. I get out of bed and head down to the lobby, I need coffee and then I try to eat my usual pre race breakfast (apple sauce with protein powder and rice cake with almond butter and half a banana). This morning getting the breakfast in is harder than usual. Those damn butterflies, why can't I relax? Why di
d I sign for this? still rings in my ears and kept ringing until I was on the dock to jump in the water, but before we get into this, let's go back to the days leading to the race.

The Days Before the Race

Saturday Open Water Swim and Warm up Ride 

My 2015 big triathlon challenge is IM Chattanooga in September 2015, so when the inaugural Chattanooga half was announced back in November of 2014, I knew I had to sign up. The half course was close enough to the full IM and I couldn't pass on the opportunity to train on the course in race conditions; regardless of the fact that a 70.3 in mid May is way early in the season for someone like me that lives in Chicago. I was glad that I had company for some of my training as Michelle decided to sign up for this race as well. I tried to do the best I could training through the rough Chicago winter and cold spring. With a handful of outdoors rides I felt OK about the bike. My running, however, was not where it should be (at least in my head), so I was not going to this race with the confidence that I am ready.  Yes, I knew that I would finish the race, but I was doubting a fast time.  I treated it more like a good training for my main goal this year in September, but I was still nervous.

Aretha Frenkensteins

We arrived to Chattanooga on Friday late afternoon, really happy to see that our hotel was 2 min walk from the Ironman village and packet pickup.  We decided to get that out of the way on Friday and we very happy that it took us basically 5 min to do so.

Saturday morning, it was time for our first open water swim of the season.  I have not touched my wetsuit since Mont Tremblant so though it would be a good idea to try it before race day. We headed to the river where some other athletes were swimming and headed in for a short swim. Water temp was almost 72F, that made me happy, for once I will not get out of the water all purple. After a quick swim, bike and run it was time to head to breakfast. We decided to checkout a local place that was recommended to us. To be honest I loved the name Aretha Frenkensteins and this is why we made the decision to go there. Cute place with OK food, certainly was not worth the long wait, but hey, it took my mind of from stressing and obsessing over the race.  In the afternoon we drove the race course and just chilling in our room.  I was happy that we drove the course as now I knew what to expect, where the sharp turns were and the road conditions. We also got to enjoy the magnificent views, something that I tend to not always notice while racing. We had dinner in the room and tried to go to bed early, although sleep did not come easy and I am not sure how much I slept.    

Race Day

5:45am Transition is All Set

Race Morning

After our early 4:30am we headed to transition at around 5:30am. I noticed that ground was all wet but it was warm out so I didn't care much. Nervously I set up my bike and transition, one more quick stop at the port-a-toilets (probably too much information here, I know) and we head to the buses that would take us to the swim start.

The Swim

The swim course start about 1 mile upstream from the transition and on the other side of the Tennessee River. It's a point-to-point swim that starts with a short up-river section before making the turn and heading downriver to the transition area. At the race briefing it was announced that the current in the river is very slow (makes sense as we need to be able to swim upstream), so my dreams of a super fast swim, like they had for the full in September, washed down the river along with the fast current (I guess).

The race started at 7 am with the pro men, followed with pro women at 7:05 am and then 5 min later in a rolling start, us, the age groupers. This is the first time I'm taking part in a race that has a rolling start. This basically means that athletes start to line up at whatever time the swim start opens and when the gun goes off will jump a few at the time, legs first, into the water and start swimming. They expected that all athletes will be in the water within 30 min. We were shooting to position ourselves somewhere in the middle of the line, but I by the time we got to the swim start (around 6am) we were more like 3/4 back of the line, and we didn't jump in until about 7:53 am (they did apologize that it was taking longer than expected). Of course this meant a lot more time to obsess about "why did I sign up." At 7:53 am, I cross the start gate and head down the steep ramp into the dock (I'm thinking I must not slip down, not to give the photographers as good photo op). A moment of hesitation, thinking "I sure hope the googles will stay on when I jump" and I go. My the last second decision to hold my google in place as I jump ended up being a smart one as post race Michelle told me that her googles started to fill out with water after the jump.

Swim Exit
(taken from Facebook race page)

The shock of the cold water takes me by surprise and takes my breath away and for the first few strokes I'm struggling to get into a swimming groove but it happened pretty quickly; I regain my focus and start heading upstream. The rolling start is great in a sense that it spreads the group out and takes away the craziness of a regular swim start with the pushing and kicking and fighting for position, which means I was more relaxed. The downside is that you don't really know when you will start and when others in your age group start, which makes it impossible to estimate your position within your age group. The swim was non eventful, and except for a little pushing and shoving close to the turn buoys not much contact with the other swimmers. I positioned myself as much as possible towards the center of the river, figuring out that this is where whatever current there was would be the strongest (I need all the help I can get in the swim :-). Sighting is easy on this course, you have both the buoys and the bridges, and swimming under the bridges was cool. Surprisingly the swim passed very fast, I felt good and confident and just pushed along (thanks Kelli). All of a sudden I realized that the swim exit is right ahead and I need to brake left. I reach the exit, a volunteer is handing his hand to me and I try to stand realizing that there is nothing down there, he said to me, "you need to lift your feet onto the step". Got it! I'm out of the water.  Quick glance at my Garmin, WHOA 36 min. Never though I would see this time on my watch. Excited I head into T1, walking up the steep and slippery hill out from the water (again trying to avoid an embarrassing photo op). A volunteer helps strip my wetsuit, love this relatively new addition to IM and 70.3 races. The run into T1 is all paved and tons of people are standing and cheering. I run into the transition area and get to my bike. Quick stop to put my shoes, helmet and glasses on and I'm off to the bike leg. 

The Bike

Views from the Bike Course
(taken on Saturday while driving the course)

The bike course includes an 11 mile out and back section (the stick) and a 34-mile loop that goes into Georgia (very cool, my first 2 state triathlon). The loop course offers rolling hills and beautiful scenery of the surrounding mountain (including Lookout Mountain). Road surface is in good condition. Except from a few railroad track crossings (most of them were covered with mats) and a few well marked potholes, roads are mostly relatively smooth and fast rolling. As I head out from transition and within the first few miles into the bike, I feel drops, I'm thinking a little drizzle is not that bad. However the drizzle soon turns into non-stopping heavy rain. I notice a bunch of tubes, tires, bento boxes and other stuff on the course, probably from riders that did not secure them properly to their bikes as the road was not bad. The course does not have a lot of turns which meant I could keep my speed up pretty consistently. The rain, however, made the road slippery and more so the other riders on the course, who were all over the road, made me slow down and hit my brakes more than I normally would. Thanks to the warm temperatures, the rain actually felt good and had a chilling effect. I was trying to keep consistent pace and power throughout the course and not overdo it on the rollers (easier said than done when people pass you, but I pass them right back on the downhill), I was also trying to keep higher cadence than I normally do on race day (sorry for being too technical here). I was also testing new nutrition plan on the bike trying it for the first time in a race situation and realized that it was not sitting so well with me. I was having hard time keeping it down. I had to do a quick adjustment and was able to somewhat recover and keep going with only slowing down a little. If felt like I spent most of the ride passing other people, yelling "on your left" to some that were all over the road, and generally enjoying the fast course. The annoying part of the course were the cars. For some reason, some of the narrow roads were open to cars and more than once I got stuck behind cars going slow for several miles without being able to pass them (believe me I tried once and almost got hit by a car coming from the other direction). This is the only negative I have to say about the bike course and this race. I hope that for next year (and more so for the IM in September) they will fix this issue. On the last few miles of the bike, the rain stopped and the roads started to dry out. Good just in time for the run, and then it hit me "I sure hope I remembered to cover my shoes, if not I will find them all wet." Oh well, nothing I can do about it now, I guess I'll find out soon. I pass the 55 mile marking on the road and when my Garmin was showing 56 the dismount area is nowhere to be seen. The rumor was that the course was slightly longer than 56 miles, but I wasn't sure by how much. When it seemed that I didn't have much more to go I decide to take off my shoes in preparation for a quick dismount. I finally see the dismount, I slow down just enough to quickly dismount off the bike (thank you Zoltan for teaching me this cyclocross move, which is not as easy with no shoes on I have learned, but this time I nail it perfectly this time) and I'm running into transition. I take a quick look at my Garmin 2:48 hours, not my best but I sure am happy; not bad for early season race in wet conditions. When I got to my spot, I realized that I didn't fully cover my shoes, but thankfully somehow they stayed dry as well as my the socks. Sweet, I'm smiling and I'm off to the run. 

The Run

The Run Course

The run course goes through/on some of Chattanooga's tourist attractions and had us running on the the Tennessee Riverwalk and 2 of the river bridges in a two-loop hilly run.  After a hard winter, being sick a lot, traveling, and bad allergies season, I knew I'm not in the best running shape, not even for the beginning of the season, so I wasn't expecting a PR or even a great run, but I was expecting a decent run. I sure was not expecting to have the run I had in this race. Right off transition, we started running up a longish hill (about 1 mile long), the rain stopped and with it came the sun, heat and humidity (mid 80s). Right off the start my calves started hurting, something that never happened to me on a run before and caused me to start slower than normal. I kept telling myself that it will go away once my legs warm up for the run (and it did after a few miles). After this first climb the course start going downhill and then up and down a few more times with one steep climb at around mile 4. I decided to just walk the steep hill as I figured I can probably walk it faster than wobble up running. The heat was getting to me and even when my calves stopped hurting I couldn't speed up. I was also feeling a little bonkish probably from the bike section. My goal for the run was not to slow down too much. At every aid station I grabbed water, poured ice cold water on my head and put ice cubes in my hat. By the start of my second lap my shoes were soaked, which did not help my running.  I was trying not to slow down and maintain my slow pace, determined not to stop. At one point on the run I notice a sign saying "touch here if you need power" I have to be honest on both loops I almost did. Finally I'm on the wood bridge, which means the last mile. At that area tons of people standing and cheering, which helped a lot. I keep running, making the turn into the downhill leading to the finish line, I can hear the music playing at the finish, the crows showed up to cheer. Last push, I try to sprint and I am done. It was my slowest run in a half in several years, and I was extremely disappointed with it.  

The Finish Line

Final thoughts 

As I crossed the finish line, I realized that I hit a PR, probably thanks to a fast swim, but who cares, I'll take it. Great start for the season, especially when I was doubting my fitness. Yes, I have a long list of things to work on and improve as the season progresses (including running more hills and start working on some core and strength), but good strong start for sure. I was happy. 5:35 hours. YES!!! 

It was a great race in a great venue, the organization was flawless (with the exception of the cars on the bike course which created quite a shitshow), the volunteers were amazing and so was the crowd support. Big thanks for both!!! I can't wait to be back in Chattanooga again this coming September. 

Half ironman number 11 is in the books with a big smile. A day that started with skeptic thoughts of "why did I sign up for this" and ended with looking into signing up for more races, came to an end - yes the typical viscous cycle of a triathlete once more in play. 

Time to celebrate with some good food and drinks!!! 

Post Race Breakfast at Maple Street Cafe

Thanks for reading!!