#im703chatt

GREAT JOB to the MOFOS at Ironman Chattanooga!

Ironman 70.3 Chattanooga Race Report May 21, 2017 Swim(1.2 miles shortened to .8 miles)- 17:14   Bike(56 miles)- 2:37:57   Run(13.1 miles)- 1:46:15 Total- 4:47:26     10th 25-29 Female

Chatty 70.3! My favorite Half Ironman! I love this course, I love this town, I love how close it is to Atlanta, and I especially love how so many Atlanta Tri Club peeps are there to race and cheer! Running through a tunnel of people wearing luau attire while cheering you on through the hardest part of the day is so rad! All the high fives and smiles for meeee! Alright, so let's get down to it:

Jason and I left for Chattanooga nice and early the morning before the race so we could meet up with my coach, Carrie, for the usual check in and pre race spin/run. So you guys may remember from my previous race reports that I've had some issues with my bike fit/ lower back problems. Well let me start by saying I'M A BIG DUMB DUMBASS…because I decided to try and wiggle my saddle down just a smidge, about a week before the race, in an attempt to ease some discomfort downstairs. Just a tiny bit! That's all! Well, naturally I ended up moving it way more than I intended. Then I couldn't tell if it was anywhere near where it had been before. Whoops! On our pre race spin I could tell things definitely weren't right, but at that point- the day before the race- I thought, f*ck it! Time to smile through it and just hope things don't fall apart!

That night we attended the annual ATC pre race dinner and had some pasta, laughs, and a beer just to calm the nerves. We headed back to the hotel (luckily coach hadn't cancelled her reservation when we offered for her to stay with us at our Air Bnb that ended up being a super weird situation that none of us wanted to stay in…) got all our things together and hit the hay just in time for the GNARLIEST storm to hit. I mean it was bananas out there. Raining like crazy, lightning, you name it. I suck at trying to sleep any earlier than midnight and I also hate storms sooooo let's just say I didn't get as much sleep as I had hoped. SMILE THROUGH IT! WOO!

One major difference between this race and Florida 70.3, which I blew up during in April, was that I was planning on giving it my all while smiling and having as much fun as I could. No pressure. No goals. Just fun. After weeks of post Florida bummed outness, I had a little "come to Jesus" with myself. I absolutely love triathlon. It's my happy place and I had totally lost sight of that. The pressure I put on myself had absolutely made me fall apart during Florida 70.3. Chattanooga was going to be my redemption. My return to racing for the love of it. Ok I had 1 goal: HAVE SOME DAMN FUN.

Shortly after Fla I decided to stop training with numbers and focus on feel. I still wore my Garmin and uploaded all the info for coach, but I didn't look at it while training. I would focus on how I felt and how happy I was while training…and my numbers IMPROVED. Since I had been training by feel, I was planning on racing by feel, but with little number checks here and there to make sure I wasn't over doing it. I was ready to race!

RACE DAY: Woke up earlier than any human should and choked down my peanut butter toast and crappy hotel coffee. Eating before race has gotten way easier for me. I used to only manage 1 or 2 bites, but now I can knock out 1 or 2 whole slices of pb toast with some Gatorade. Score! Finished breakfast, obsessively checked my gear about 600 times, paid the potty a visit (don't even play like pooping before a race isn't crucial..we're all humans here) and headed out!

Got to transition nice and early, set up our spots, and somehow managed to get our little crew together before hopping on the bus to the swim start. A few days before- myself, Coach, and a number of other wonderful gals all aiming for around 5 hours decided we would start together in the hopes we'd be able to cheer each other on out on the course. I LOVED THAT IDEA, of course. Racing with friends makes everything better! This was possible because Chatt 70.3 is a self seeded race with a point to point swim. This year they tried to divide the line into certain time estimates. We almost ended up in the 50 minute section before realizing we were waaaaaay further back than we wanted to be.We seeded ourselves kind of near the back of the "faster" section and got our wetsuits on.

Swim: The cannon went off as the male pro's started their day. We watched as they seemed to be taking their time getting to that first buoy upstream….uh oh…the storm the night before had made the current craaaazy strong. The lady pro's started next and it was the same situation where it seemed like it sure was taking them a long time to get to that first buoy…. The first age groupers are supposed to go in about 15 minutes after the male pro wave, but they hadn't started filing in. We were all anxiously waiting to see what the hold up was. After a bit more waiting, we heard the announcement that the upstream part of the swim had been cut. Instead of going up stream to turn right, go across stream for a bit, then make the right turn down stream- we would now hop in and make a diagonal dash across stream to the next closest buoy. We were told it was about .4 miles shorter than usual. I honestly wasn't even bummed. Even though the swim is my "strength", a shorter swim down a fast current sounded super fun! More energy for later!

I was walking down the dock with some of my best friends and favorite ladies around me, ecstatic to start my number 1 race. I turned and yelled "Love y'all! See ya at the end!" and hopped in the water! No time to mess around- shorter swim means harder pace so I got down to it. I love this swim because there are no waves and its cool swimming under the big bridges down stream. Nothing stands out about the swim this time. It wasn't crowded so I pretty much had open water the majority of the time and made my way down stream as fast as I could. I made it out of the water in 17:14 and sprinted towards the closest wetsuit stripper I could find. She yanked that bad boy right off. I ran up the ramp to see Jason cheering and taking photos and made my way past as many folks as I could while sprinting to my sweet lil Orbea- which thanks to the AWA section was in a way more convenient spot than last year!

Bike: So like I said…I'M A BIG DUMB DUMBASS…and hopping on the bike I could tell things weren't perfect, but I honestly didn't care! I was so happy to be at this race and to be racing with my heart.

Things were going as usual as I was taking in nutrition and hydrating on schedule for the first 25 miles or so. I was feeling pretty solid.  Then, like always…I started feeling my lower back getting angry. I was staying positive, though. I still felt good. Plus, it was overcast and not very hot! My back started getting angrier. STUPID BACK! I hit mile 30 and could tell I was losing power and had developed a pain shooting down my inner thigh into my knee. The pain wasn't as bad as it had been in the past, but I was also constantly having to shift my butt back on the saddle because of my genius adjustments. Things were uncomfortable, but I was still smiling. I was trucking along when some of my gals started speeding past! I don't mind if my friends pass me going at what seemed like the speed of light! Any and all smiles and cheers of encouragement help when the race pain starts setting in.

I settled in, put my head down, and just kept on going.  Despite my back pain, it was a crazy fast kind of day. I looked at my power average after the race and it was quite a bit lower than it should have been, but I ended up with an 8 minute PR! I mean I felt like I was trucking along like usual, but apparently I was zoomin' and so was everyone else! I'd heard the 2015 bike splits were way faster than 2016 for some reason. Well, apparently the stars had aligned, like in 2015, and it was a speedy day for all.

My run had improved a lot this season so I was looking forward to getting off that damn slip'n'slide of a saddle. I was ecstatic when I rolled into transition in the 2:30's! I had never even broken 2:45! I was chanting, "I'm getting off my bike! Yay! I'm getting of my bike! Yay!" in my head when I hopped off and sped through transition to snag my saucony's!!

Run: Yaaaay! Run time! I came off my bike ready to get my leggies movin'. Knocked out a speedy transition and was off! I've simplified my transition strategy this year so I was in and out. A number of ATC peeps were there to cheer us through transition and I just could not stop smiling. I made a point to try and actually smile as much as possible during the run. I had a guy come up to me after I finished and say, "did you know you smile while you run?" And I said, "I sure do! Gotta get through it somehow!"

I did a quick pace check within the first mile to make sure I wasn't hitting it too hard from the beginning and I was running a little hot. I decided to reel it in a bit, hoping I could hold a stronger steadier pace throughout instead of slowing down as the mileage increased. I got my tail up that big ass hill at about .8 miles and was welcomed by the ATC cheering crew and my amazing boyfriend. I LOVE THIS GROUP. I smiled even bigger and tried to high five as many people as I could without losing time. Things were good in my world and I was actually running some folks down. This is new to me, because my run had really kind of plateaued last season. So I was getting all kinds of pumped. I caught up to my lovely friend Deirdre and gave her a much expected smack on the tush before continuing on.

I came through the first aid station and got my usual swig of water, swig of gatorade, and some water over my head. It was still over cast-ish, but things were definitely heating up. Even though I wasn't feeling super hot, I wanted to avoid even coming close to overheating. I hit the next porta potty for my usual pee break and fell right back into stride. I mean, even though my back was a turd on the bike, this was pretty much my dream run. Oh, and I didn't forget my Base Salt in transition like I did last year…so that was a plus! No cramping for me!

So Chatt is a 2 loop course with a variety of surfaces and hill intensities. Mostly little rollers, but a couple of nasty climbs too. It's just challenging enough, I'm my opinion. I love the riverside wooden walkway. It's a nice change from pavement and it's just cool running by the river while totally shaded by big trees.

I was smiling, taking in nutrition and fluids right on schedule, so things were great! I caught my amazing friend, Meg, who literally destroys souls on the bike and she was looking strong as hell. We shared a quick little chit chat with lots of love. I love racing with my friends…have I said that enough times yet? Because it's dope.

I held my pace right around 8 minutes for both laps and came flying down that final hill to the finish with a BIG BIG grin. Crossing the finish like of a 70.3 feeling like I had conquered the world was such an awesome change from my last half. I was back. Honestly, I'm glad I raced Florida and had such a shitty day, because it was the wake up call I needed. I have raced so much harder and happier since then. When you have a crappy race-learn from it. Don't dwell on it and give up. Let it teach you something. It taught me that racing with your heart is so much more powerful than anything else in triathlon. Chattanooga 70.3 was my dream race and I have 0 complaints. I am beyond ecstatic with my time, my place in my age group, and my overall positive mentality throughout the race. SMILE Y'ALL! GET THROUGH THAT RACE BECAUSE YOU LOVE IT!

I was heading into Chattanooga 70.3 with no taper and a month after IM Texas. My coach and I fit in a bit of speed work but it has been a bit of an adjustment. They are such different races. I have been in Ironman mode since last September. Sounds like a good excuse for a wussy day right!? It isn’t, I had a cracking day, it just did not play out the way I planned it.