Chattanooga 70.3 Race Story!

All I can say about this place is WOW. It was a spectacular venue for a race and since I love the heat, the days leading up to the race were absolutely perfect. Chattanooga did not disappoint!

But before I go into the details about that race, I had a short sprint a couple weeks ago that kicked off my season and boy was it fast. Like under an hour fast. I got to test the legs and see how my new bike performed at maximum effort. Pretty happy with that day and 3rd OA isn't too shabby i'd say. Oh and the fact I forgot my goggles and a buddy had a second pair was so clutch. I couldn't imagine that swimming with 2 others in your lane is easy without goggles. Nice way to start the season and make adjustments for TN.

Ross's Landing. made for tri

On to the main event! So my cousin Blake and I drove down from St. Paul, MN. A nice 1,200 mile trek to get to Chatty. The drive was pretty uneventful until we got into Kentucky and Tennessee, then bam, it changed into these huge rolling hills and beautiful landscapes. What a way to be welcomed into the city. Stayed about a mile from the race venue which wasn't too bad of a walk at all even at 4:30 a.m. Fast forward to saturday and Blake and I went to watch the pro panel. Mainly to see and meet Heather Jackson, (who is amazing by the way). Got my cheesy selfie with her and wished her luck for the race! We chilled a while down by the river and watched how fast the current was moving, like this'll be fun to swim against. Later that night we walked to this Pasta Place called Tony's. Homemade stuff that was some serious good eating. I'd recommend. In bed by 9 pm and the wake up call was 4 bells.

Heather!!

Race morning comes along and I ate a pretty random breakfast; a banana, a picky bar and this tiny smoothie thing. Better than nothing! We chatted and walked down to transition and saw my bike was still in one piece from the wicked storms the night before. Now i am very grateful these storms happened the night before, given I wasn't exactly keen to the idea of driving this far and not being able to race. Thank the heavens they passed and allowed for one spectacular day of racing. After i set up the bike, we took the bus across the bridge to the swim start. I sat and talked with Blake for awhile before the pros took off and then he took the bus back to transition. I was with a couple teammates, Chris and Joe, getting all pumped up for the day ahead. We were all funneled in to the water like livestock and we were underway!

(the pros swam the whole course, we swam like straight downstream and maybe 1500 yards. I Guess only professionals and salmon swim upstream.)

Needless to say the swim was blazing fast, like 1:09 pace fast. Thanks current for that. And although I would have rather swam upstream and the whole swim course, it was probably a good idea, you know so nobody drowned. Coming out of the water some dude yanked me up the steps and then the strippers rid me of my clothes er. wetsuit. T1 was purdy quick and then it was time to turn up the heat, figuratively not literally. (65 degrees)

She did well.

The bike was pretty freakin sweet. It was rolling, no super huge hills and at least i could not feel any wind? A teammate, Chris and I were pretty much within 100 yards of each other the whole ride. Lets see, I ate 2 small clif bars, a clif gel and a package of clif blocks on the bike, along with 1 bottle of Gatorade and a few bottles of water, mostly got emptied over me. I'm digging my new bike setup/ position and I've gotta say the Wattie team kit looks so wicked. The miles were just flying by, and I felt in control the whole ride. I am sure the dudes in big groups were all just passing each other right? No illegal stuff going on there.... My power meter broke earlier in the week so this ride was all by feel and staying in the flow. I've gotta say that when you are not looking at numbers and just riding, it is a whole different ball game. The closer I got back to transition, the field seemed to be really spread out and that was good, it made for less congestion, besides those big ol groups. I would like to think I paced my own race and rode as steady as I could. I definitely hit a PR for my bike split.

To da run! I grabbed my visor, and my Base Salt, lets see what this course is all about. As I got going, I wanted to make sure I stayed within my limits, at least for the first lap. I guess my limits were a lot higher than I thought. The pace was steady and my body felt good. I was awfully worried about the run because I had been dealing with some ankle stuff.Turns out new shoes really do make a difference. This run course was pretty sweet. Only a couple major hills, otherwise it was flat. There were aid stations about every mile, and you bet I took advantage of them. LOVE getting ice cold sponges. I took salt licks before I reached each aid and then would throw down some water over me, grab red bull or Gatorade and then keep on trucking. I tried to keep everything liquid on the run this time and it worked out well. No cramping and no loss in breath because of chew time! Always good when you can breathe. The hardest part of the run for me at least was going up this steep hill with about 2.5 miles to go, because that is when the real pain set in and it was either face the pain or walk. Yeah, we ain't walkin.

Picture break. Breakfast on Saturday, where I was introduced to grits. Not sure how I feel about them. I had pancakes and coffee, Blake had the other stuff, who TF puts ketchup on eggs.

You da man Balake.

After that, mountain, there was a short u turn incline and then back down until we ran across the wooden pedestrian bridge which sapped all the legs I had left. At least it was downhill to the finish line, I passed the only dude in front of me to get to the line and near fell over after that. Gained my composure and Blake was there, what an awesome friend! I am never really sure as to what place I am in during the race, so it was all about doing my best and hoping it was enough. Turns out this time around it was good enough to squeak on the podium in 3rd in my age group. Totally happy about that. Also ran a half PR,  And better yet, a teammate was 1st in our AG and it is pretty sweet to share the stage with a fellow Wattie.

This race really helped boost my confidence in all three disciplines (even if the swim was a breeze) knowing I am developing as a runner is something that proves hard work does pay dividends. I plan on taking this fitness with me to Ironman Boulder in two weeks to really put myself to the ultimate test again! Wow, only two weeks away. Time to get it!


(ok kids, a short side story from this weekend. as i mentioned earlier, my power meter broke earlier in the week, which is not exactly ideal before a big race. so needless to say i was kind of flipping out because this is also my crank and my only back up was the original spec, which was kind of sub par. so in my haste i asked the team if anyone had an extra crank i could use for the race. turns out i am on the right team. coach flanny and Joe stepped up and helped me out big time. so thankful for them and the support of this team. this means i had to install the crank two days before the race and get one little ride on it and hope it did not explode on my ride. it did not explode and it worked fantastic. turning my worries into a pretty darn good race. thank you guys, i am so appreciative for everything.)

Thanks a ton Blake for coming with and experiencing a real road trip for your first time! I hope it makes you want to do it again. This trip would not have been as funny/great without ya. Thanks to everyone who followed me and their continued support. Meeting HJ and Wattie was so cool and to all my teammates that raced, you guys crushed it!

See you in Boulder in 2 weeks time for twice the distance!

who knew TN had volcanoes?

bridges, yo

cooling off on a hot day