Funny you say that cuz I was excited that the temp was going to be "mild" as the high temp is supposed to be 81 degrees as opposed to 94 degrees last year. Any word on the water temp.

I'll be there, ready to channel my inner potato chip bag as I float downstream.

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808 > NYC > PDX > YVR
2024 Races: Taupo

Depending on when you look at accuweather it gets as high as 88-89 with high humidity. Weather channel pegs it at 81-82, but historically they have not been super accurate.

I heard that the water is holding in 74-75sh range. With a hot week coming up my money would be on wet suit "optional".

crapola. hot it is, I guess. Good luck on the race. I just bought a swim skin just in case. Looks like I'll need it.

Rain on Wednesday and Friday could raise water levels, leading to a faster downstream current :-)

As someone who trained in Florida's 90+F and 90+% humidity all summer, those Chattanooga temps are looking nice!

See you there.

I'll be there for my first Ironman!

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Make Inside Out Sports your next online tri shop! http://www.insideoutsports.com/

I'm in, looking forward to it.

#6 for me. Remember to hydrate. Usually I drink 24 oz per hour in 75 degree weather, planning on adding 12-20 more oz of water per hour and will adjust based on pee rate.

On the bright side there's ~2% chance of rain, maybe it'll cool us down.

In. First ironman. If it's high of 85, I can deal with that.

It will be my first full IM.. I'm from Texas so that weather sounds nice. Anyone know where to find water temp data for Chattanooga? Gonna bring both wetsuit and swimskin but would like to know what to mentally prepare for

At this point, mentally prepare for either since it's sure to be close

You can get an idea here, but it won't be exact. 70.3 Worlds was wetsuit at 76.1 F, but like the other post said, plan for both.http://tnfishingreport.com/...s/lakes/chickamauga/

I did an open water 2 miles swim race in the Tennessee River this morning in Huntsville AL, and it was to cold not to wear a wetsuit. I swam without one and had some real issues toward the end. Three hours later, and I'm still not feeling right.

7th IM and first Chattanooga. Not looking forward to the heat, but it won't be as bad as TX 2015.

Had some change of plans due to a sick family member, so if anyone wants to rent some of my 3 empty rooms let me know. My brother and I have a 5 bedroom house about 2 miles from T1.

who is going to come on here and give us first times the "real deal" on the im chattanooga course. swim of course should be smooth sailing as all with current. sounds like the bike is mostly rollers with a steep section at hog jowl rd, is that correct? anything else to concern myself with on the bike? on the run sounds like barton ave is the killer. pacing myself on the run with those hills will be challenging.

In for #9, Did IMMT 5 weeks ago and felt it was warm there...LOL,... not looking forward to 85 and humid:/ First time at Chatty so looking forward to a new venue. Good luck everybody.

The bike course is surprisingly fast, for the elevation gain...nothing really remarkable. The run is a BITCH.

At least the predicted temp dropping 1 degree to 87 degrees 😉 Which will when we are on the run course

Yeah. By all accounts, the run sounds brutal

I better pack a long sleeve shirt in my run special needs bag. 😜

👍🏼
On a serious note. Is there anyplace to swim on Saturday. Nearby lake perhaps?

Checkout Facebook group

Ironman Chattanooga 144.6

There's chatter on there about swimming and I'm guessing organized swim info might pop up there. Others have mentioned swimming at the dam.

I am in, me and my training buddy are coming from central nc on Friday. Hoping for at least the humidity to be in check and maybe partly cloudy. I'm due for a good weather IM, my last three IM races all had weather issues.

IMNC Bike cut short because of flood and then gail force winds of the bike

IMCabo felt like I was swimming in a bathtub and riding/running on the Sun + Mexican Gatorade=total meltdown

IM Florida. Swim cancelled, 45 degrees and gail force winds. I literally saw people standing up mashing the pedals on a flat road going 5-8 mph into the headwind

I am due for a perfect weather day so please have mercy IM weather gods

ktm, you better not jinx us!

There is a lot of opportunity to tank your race on the bike course if you aren't careful. Hit the first loop too hard and you'll be sorry but you won't realize it until later. Having a PM and a good pacing plan is a big benefit on this course.

Looks like latest surface water temps are listed at 69 degrees. 😬 Wetsuit legal maybe !?!

Anybody know what the water temp is as of today, 9/22.

Not much to say about that swim. Sighting was easy and I had minimal contact.

On the first and last 5-6 miles of the bike, just watch out for road issues - potholes, cracks, lots of manhole covers, a couple of R/R crossings, etc. Most are well marked, but be wary. Outside of that, the bike is mostly rollers, hardly anything I'd call a real climb. Pretty nice roads once you get out of town (at least for a north Texan). I like the bike course. Looks like winds will be negligible. Not sure if you plan on using SN on the bike, but it was the fastest and most efficient of all my IMs. They had my bag before I came to a complete stop.

The run is tough. The course profile will show you the hills. There's a good one almost immediately out of transition that you do only once (you run down it just before finishing). It's then flattish for a while, with a steep punchy climb before crossing north over the river. The hills on the north side of the river are no joke, there's virtually nothing flat over there. You're going up or going down. There's some shade when running along the river, and perhaps a bit on the north side. I guess that all depends when you're running though.

Overall, it's a great city and great venue for an IM.

I swam at Coolidge park this morning at sunrise. It did not feel wetsuit legal. At the 2 pm athletes brief we were told the temp at 4 am was 75.5 degrees and to bring wetsuits because it could very well be legal. I find that hard to believe but I also know that Ironman will go to great lengths to coddle the marginal swimmers.

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"...the street finds its own uses for things"

The water actually felt cooler than I expected. I had my sleeveless wetsuit on and don’t feel like I would overheat in it

Normally I would agree with you, but in these 100% current aided swims, I feel like they don't look for that magic spot that is 76.1 deg

This race has never been wetsuit legal and the first year (2014) they said the water temp was 77, so they didn't give us anything.

But since Worlds was legal 2 weeks ago, it would not surprise me at all if it is legal tomorrow.

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Proud Member of Chris McDonald's 2018 Big Sexy Race Team "That which doesn't kill me, will only make me stronger"
Blog-Twitter-Instagram-Race Reports - 2018 Races: IM Florida 70.3, IM Raleigh 70.3, IM 70.3 World Championships - South Africa, IM North Carolina 70.3

Anton84 wrote:

Who is in this year? Looks like it's going to be on the toasty side weather-wise second year in a row.

We have a few athletes racing so I did a quick podcast on strategies for Bike and Run Heat Management as it is defiantly going to be toasty! Best of luck to all racing.
Available on ITUNES or Stitcher - IREP Triathlon Podcast

https://www.irepathletics.com/blog/2017/9/23/episode-13-heat-management-strategies-for-ironman-races


Scott Proscia, BS ATC M.Ed ACSM-CPT
Head Performance Coach
IREP Athletics / The Training Plan Source


Coaching - http://www.irepathletics.com
Training Plans - http://www.TheTrainingPlanSource.com

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Dynamic Athlete ProgrammingVIP Endurance Racing | Like us on Facebook Get Your Training Plan Here

Thanks. Will take a listen. It make not be the scorcher that last year was but it’s not going to be far off

Just listened to your podcast. Good tips although I wear a hat so I can easily put ice under it at aid stations but I know that discussion has been debated on here before. Drenching oneself at bike aid stations is a great tip. And two sponges in front of shirt with ice also great. I’ve normally done a sponge down my back but with the heat will grab all the ice and sponges I can.

Hat with Ice surely is a fair alternative I just never liked the water running down my face and on my sunglasses as the ice melted. A regular hat I do feel traps some heat hence the visor recommendation.

One thing I didn't mention is dumping water over your head while bent over to avoid direct dumping on running shoes. I usually recommend my athletes use a quick drying sock like a Swiftwick with a high olefin count as it's inevitable they are going to get wet and we don't need blisters slowing us down.

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Dynamic Athlete ProgrammingVIP Endurance Racing | Like us on Facebook Get Your Training Plan Here

Thanks. Yeah. I wear swiftwick. My hat is pretty lightweight and breathable . But have also worn a visor but my with my thinning hair I have to worry about scalp burn. ;) good point on leaning over for water. I’ve learned that in training. Thanks for the good tips. Going to be a scorcher tomorrow so paving, hydration, and ice will be extra important for me.

Anyone know water temp this morning?

77.9 water temp this morning. Z

77.9

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808 > NYC > PDX > YVR
2024 Races: Taupo

Championship Slots Per Division (600+ wetsuits pulled from calculation)
Division Starters Total
M18-24 20 1
M25-29 71 2
M30-34 128 3
M35-39 132 3
M40-44 198 4
M45-49 194 4
M50-54 151 3
M55-59 79 2
M60-64 37 1
M65-69 12 1
M70-74 7 1
M75-79 2 1
F18-24 10 1
F25-29 24 1
F30-34 49 1
F35-39 95 2
F40-44 123 2
F45-49 89 2
F50-54 67 2
F55-59 32 1
F60-64 18 1
F65-69 1 1
Sum 1539 40

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Sylvan Smyth | http://www.sportstats.asia | sylvan@sportstats.asia | Starvas

I haven't used the tracker in ages, but wow, is it frustrating or am I crazy.

Is there any way to get the old tracker, the one that briefly flashes before being replaced by apparently the new tracker.

I want to see the current list by age group. Or overall. You used to be able to do this. And the old interface that would allow this flashes quickly before being replaced by something new, which seems to be your custom athlete list.

I think, if you're a bad swimmer, you could turn around, swim against the current, and still make the swim cutoff. Still over an hour 'til the 2:20 cutoff and there are only 24 swimmers left in the water.

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Sylvan Smyth | http://www.sportstats.asia | sylvan@sportstats.asia | Starvas

Click Leaders, then either Top Age Group Men or Women, and then you can scroll down and select any age group.

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Sylvan Smyth | http://www.sportstats.asia | sylvan@sportstats.asia | Starvas

Pretty strong flow this am. ~13,000 cfs.

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Let food be thy medicine...

It seems faster than the first year, based on results. happen to know what the release was in 2014?

Not sure, but I think it was similar.

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Let food be thy medicine...

2016 was 6950 cfs.

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Janyne

Any info on the dates of the 2018 event? I heard Sept 23rd and "one week later."

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Janyne

Thanks again for these tips. I followed a lot of them out there today and kept heat under control. Some tech gadget fails derailed my some of my target race goals but I enjoyed the race. It was my first IM. One thing I also did was carried a ziplock bag on the run filling it with ice so I could put it were I needed it. Did the two sponges thing down my top. All worked great. Heat was less of an issue for me

It was ripping! I swam 27 minutes faster today then I did eight weeks ago at IM Santa Rosa, and I wore a wetsuit at Santa Rosa and a swim skin today.

2014 was somewhere between 13,000 and 14,000cfs

Hope to do a race report sometime later, first impressions:
Great host city, great venue.
Wicked fast swim this year, perhaps big rains night before race affected flow/release?
Beautiful bike course. First loop even has some shade on the course. I counted more fire hydrants than cars once out of the city: what's up with those hydrants in the middle of nowhere!?
High clouds on bike kept temp down a bit.
Run as promised with grueling hills but also with sections of great crowd support. Some clouds again kept temps under control. Ice and sponges were my best friends on run.
Finally, loved staying at downtown hotel. It's a few more $, but nice for logistics. Arrive, park and never need the car.

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Blog: https://swimbikerunrinserepeat.wordpress.com

In case anyone's interested, rolldown for Kona was, as expected, few and far between but some did roll

M65-69 1 slot went to 3rd
F40-44 with 1 extra slot, 1st didn't take but next 3 did
Both F30-34 and F35-39 winners let their spots roll to 2&3

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808 > NYC > PDX > YVR
2024 Races: Taupo

Thanks for posting! Any idea how many slots F45-49 received?

Sylvan- will you have results on your website showing the wetsuit distinction? I know IM usually posts them but I find copying the results into excel much easier from your website.

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808 > NYC > PDX > YVR
2024 Races: Taupo

Sylvan posted them on p. 2. Only 1 slot on each side rolled due to no finishers, for F it went to 40-44 and M went to 50-54

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808 > NYC > PDX > YVR
2024 Races: Taupo

Anyone know roll downs?

I did the half in 2015 and the race this weekend. Stayed downtown both times and being able to walk to transition and restaurants is great.

should this be in pink? I literally posted them a few hours ago, read a few posts before yours.

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808 > NYC > PDX > YVR
2024 Races: Taupo

600+ in wetsuits with 13000 cfm and 77 degrees?!? That is just insane. Are people really that scared of the swim? Have they not trained at all? Might as well just let them have a tube and a case of beer, open up the dam and let them float down to transition.

Basically a duathlon with a pretend swim. Seems like a lot of ironmans are pretend swims anymore.

A duathlon with a nice, warm bath more like.

The only thing I would say is while we knew it rained the night before, I don't think anyone knew the flow was going to be so strong on race morning. Perhaps they're concern was it was freshwater? Or perhaps they just wanted even more seconds off their time? idk, I wore a skin but I can't bring myself to count this as a "PR." That would be like counting a marathon finish on an elliptical.

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808 > NYC > PDX > YVR
2024 Races: Taupo

you're a jerk. as are the others that post things along these lines.

maybe not everyone that does an ironman can swim as good as you can. maybe they had a reason to wear the suit. maybe you should think to ask them why they wore the suit rather than immediately jump to bashing them. unless of course this is how you find your self worth? by looking down on others you judge to be not as good as you. or are you just an idiot by nature?

i was one of the 600+ in a suit Sunday. scared of the swim? not by a long shot. not trained? not by a long shot.

I've learned everybody has their own journey to a triathlon whether it's a sprint or HIM or IM and I don't see how I am in any position to judge them. I raced Sunday. If it was wetsuit legal I probably would have worn one but what do I care if others wore a wetsuit. It doesn't impact me. I was mainly concerned about overheating myself. I'm not a fast swimmer but making the cutoffs is never a concern. Honestly, I have a ton of respect for those coming into the race knowing they may be close to the cutoff times but they are out there pushing themselves as hard as the can. And I doubt all 600+ in wetsuits were worried about cutoffs, they just wanted a little extra assistance. Why would I care what they do?

I just want to say congrats to all the participants this year! I finished the 70.3 earlier this year and am jealous of all the finishers for the full! Way to go !!

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Jeremy Quijano
Kona Swim Bike Run
Shop Manager
Wesley Chapel, Florida
Custom Frames @ Quijano Bike Co.

Were you there racing? I'm guessing no.

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Make Inside Out Sports your next online tri shop! http://www.insideoutsports.com/

I was racing on Sunday. You could not really tell that there is a strong current before the start of the race. Also, water temps were wetsuit legal all the way to race morning. I guess some folks were more comfortable wearing a wetsuit.

Free speed. If you are not fighting for a Kona slot, why not?

Are non-Kona qualifiers with racewheels + aero helmet not trained on the bike?

Are non-Kona qualifiers with race flats not trained for the run?

I did the race in 2014 when it was also optional. I went with the wetsuit ... finished sub-1 on the swim and 10:4x overall. Was I not trained at all?

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__________________________________________________________________________
My marathon PR is "under three, high twos. I had a two hour and fifty-something."

I wore my wetsuit because it makes me faster. Call me crazy but I try to finish races in the least amount of time possible.

I raced Augusta 70.3 on Sunday. The wetsuit wave (a rolling start) was wave #27, dead last, and about 90 mins after the race started. So anyone whose regular wave was in the first 30 mins or so and who chose to wear a wetsuit was also guaranteeing that they were pushing their run much further into the heat of the day than would have otherwise been the case. We didn't have much of a current so I can understand why some would have made that choice, but I bet many who wore a wet suit might rethink that decision if they could have a do over.

I don't understand what the current has to do with anything? If the swim is wetsuit "legal" or optional, wouldn't the decision making be the same? If you have a fast current, you're going to be faster with a wetsuit. If you have no current, you are faster with a wetsuit. Are you suggesting that because there was a good flow, that it was "fast enough" and people should have just been happy with it? Where's the line? 10000 cfm? 7000 cfm?

Who cares if people want to wear a wetsuit or not. People in this sport come from all walks of life and all levels of skill/ability/training. I raced, and I decided not to wear a wetsuit. But it was mainly because I am not as comfortable with my wetsuit in the water, and I didn't want the hassle of carrying it around, plus I was eager to get in the water, and didn't want to wait around. I would have worn it if it was wetsuit "legal". But, it was really a coin flip.

And to answer your question: yes, some people really are that scared of the swim. But that's ok. It doesn't mean they can't swim. My brother in law is doing his first 70.3 this coming weekend. 2 years ago he couldn't swim at all. He's a novice. But he's worked hard at it and overcomes lots of nerves every time he gets in open water. That doesn't mean he's any less worthy of racing. I can't run worth a lick. I get concerned about the heat, and the hilly runs, but it doesn't mean I'm not worthy of racing, or haven't trained.