Hey everyone!
Doing my 1st 70.3 in May… I have heard good things about Chatty. Would anyone like to share any tips or race strategy for this course?
For context… I would 1st: just like to finish… but I have my eyes on a sub 6hr finish…
Hey everyone!
Doing my 1st 70.3 in May… I have heard good things about Chatty. Would anyone like to share any tips or race strategy for this course?
For context… I would 1st: just like to finish… but I have my eyes on a sub 6hr finish…
Great race. Done it once before and doing it this year. No real tips to share - it is a very fast course. They changed the swim a couple years ago, so now it is all downriver and super quick. It is usually a wetsuit swim. The bike is mostly flat with only one short & steep hill. You can use aggressive gearing (I will ride on a 12x25 cassette). The run is mostly flat with a punch-in-the-gut climb that you do twice. The run course is great for spectators. If you do not already have a place to stay, almost everything is booked.
I wouldn’t call this a “fast course”- IMO, I believe it is around 10 minutes slow. The swim is 1.4 miles (yes down river) but no faster than a calm lake swim. The bike is at least a mile long yet it is still a pretty quick bike course. There are a couple solid hills on the run you will hit 2x. The race can be quite warm so prepare in the heat or use a sauna when possible to adapt to the heat.
Great race and great venue.
Nice!
Yeah just booked my VRBO today.
Swim course is surprisingly slow for “down river”. Current can be highly variable and it has been cancelled many times previously.
Bike is nice and rolling. One punchy climb. Important to pace correctly.
Run is hillier than expected. Important to save some gas in the tank for the second loop. Saw a ton of people who had faded hard by that point.
Great race. Done it once before and doing it this year. No real tips to share - it is a very fast course. They changed the swim a couple years ago, so now it is all downriver and super quick. It is usually a wetsuit swim. The bike is mostly flat with only one short & steep hill. You can use aggressive gearing (I will ride on a 12x25 cassette). The run is mostly flat with a punch-in-the-gut climb that you do twice. The run course is great for spectators. If you do not already have a place to stay, almost everything is booked.
Anyone that says this course is fast is high af…lol. Long swim that is known to have a highly variable current from year to year. Hilly bike relative to almost all IM 70.3 races. Very hilly run relative to about 90% of IM 70.3’s. Heat Index could easily be 100F or 103F like the last time I raced there. Challenging yes, fast no.
I must have had a great day. I did my 2nd fastest 70.3 time there. And I lost all my hydration and nutrition the first few miles into the bike.
Swim start is a mess. People just line up and start so get there early if you don’t want to start too late. As far as I know, Ironman asked to close the dam so swim was not fast at all last year. Don’t count on down river swim. T1 is pretty long compared to other 70.3 so check it out a day before. Bike course is fast and good. You will enjoy it. Run has a couple of hills like other people say but at least, it’s downhill to the finish line. I liked that. Overall, it’s definitely one of the fun and good 70.3 races so good luck!!
It’s funny how different this race is for everyone. I’ve done it 3 times, most recently last year.
Swim: only the first year I did it did I feel the current helped, they also cut the swim short because the current was so strong, they thought the small upstream swim was too dangerous. Last year I barely felt the downstream current. Walking to the swim start last year was not ideal. I don’t think there were busses because of COVID but not a big fan of the walk before the half IM
Bike: Mostly rolling hills, 1-2 steeper hills, beautiful ride. Road conditions pretty decent.
Run: 2 loop course with some hills but nothing terrible. Mentally screws with you that you have to do each hill twice. Nice downhill at the end.
My biggest issue was the heat. If you are fortunate enough to start early, it starts getting toasty towards the end of the ride. But the heat bouncing off the tarmac and the bridges was brutal. Cramp-fest for me all 3 times I raced despite my futile attempts at aggresively hydrating and salt intake/nutrition.
Definitely not a fast course. Not exactly easy either. But great spectators cheering and atmosphere. Fun event. I’d recommend it just respect that heat!
Several have talked about the road conditions being good on the bike . . . have they been paved since 2019? If not, I thought they were pretty bad, particularly West Cove Rd and Hog Jowl Road (not to mention the railroad tracks!).
Was there any type of training you wish you had done more of?
I’m doing it as well. It’ll be my first half, too.
I’ve done it a few times.
The bike section, as mentioned, has a couple of climbs and some rollers…nothing serious. I feel like it’s a pretty fast course (though a bit long).
To me, the run course is a bit hilly and can derail your race if you don’t pace it properly. Most of your run training leading up to the race is usually in cooler temps so your mind “thinks†you can run a particular pace. If race day temps are warmer than your training temps, you’ll need to start at a more conservative pace.
Side note-the swim this past year was 1.4 miles with little current help. I spoke with the RD after the race and he said he expected to be able to use shuttles to the swim start in 2022…if they use the same course. He said at some point they were going to have to move the transition area and swim start/finish to the other side of the river since the current transition area was scheduled to be developed.
Good news is that for now, transition will stay the same! At some point, yes, we will likely lose our current transition but Ill kick that can down the road until I cant anymore!
Last year, we did have a new swim start and yes, we did walk up there (for the record I made the walk with you all…). This year, assuming nothing drastic changes, busses will be back in play and we will shuttle athletes up to the swim start just like we’ve done at every other race in Chatt. This should allow us to “control” you all a little better with the staging area and hopefully get you all lined up/grouped up by estimated swim time a little better than last years free for all.
Same bike and run courses as we’ve been using. Heat is the unknown for this one. We’ve had plenty of amazing weather along with a few scorching hot ones.
Hope to see you in Chatt.
Brian
Good news is that for now, transition will stay the same! At some point, yes, we will likely lose our current transition but Ill kick that can down the road until I cant anymore!
Last year, we did have a new swim start and yes, we did walk up there (for the record I made the walk with you all…). This year, assuming nothing drastic changes, busses will be back in play and we will shuttle athletes up to the swim start just like we’ve done at every other race in Chatt. This should allow us to “control” you all a little better with the staging area and hopefully get you all lined up/grouped up by estimated swim time a little better than last years free for all.
Same bike and run courses as we’ve been using. Heat is the unknown for this one. We’ve had plenty of amazing weather along with a few scorching hot ones.
Hope to see you in Chatt.
Brian
I’ll be there racing in 2022. Thanks for the feedback. Due to the swim being long do you forsee some flow from the dam to mitigate the extra distance? It’s very little extra distance, but it does exceed 1.2 miles. It would be nice if this was truly a fast swim despite being 1.4 miles. If someone swims a 2.00/100 the extra 352 yards would add 7 minutes to their swim. Some flow is needed imo, but nothing crazy fast either that would skew results.
Several have talked about the road conditions being good on the bike . . . have they been paved since 2019? If not, I thought they were pretty bad, particularly West Cove Rd and Hog Jowl Road (not to mention the railroad tracks!).
There were A LOT of potholes and bad patches of pavement on this course. One of the worst pavement conditions for a 70.3 I’ve seen in the last 3-5 years spanning several states and countries.
There was also one freshly paved sweet, sweet section of pavement that you did in both directions. I was easily 2mph faster there than elsewhere on the course. You could just set into your position and ride. In a few spots the potholes were so wide if you were passing someone you were over the yellow line if they moved L to avoid the broken pavement
It’s still a pretty fast ride (sub 2;20 on 216avg watts) and iirc only ~ 1800 ft of climbing.
Wow nice time for amount of watts
What do you figure your cda is?
I’m hoping the water flow in low/slow . . . the extra swim helps me!
Makes St George run look easy?
Wow nice time for amount of watts
What do you figure your cda is?
My biceps are very aerodynamic and I sail extremely well. Aka in crosswinds my CdA plummets compared to at 0 yaw. At zero I’m (still) about a .235 and at -7.5 & -10 in the tunnel I’m typically just under a .210.
I can do things to get it down to .19x but that’s not always sustainable for long periods of time. Maybe 5-15 min of straight, flat uncrowded road. Which if I have that I can hold those positions. For instance on the good pavement out n back sections I avg’d 26.7mph and my AP was 205w.
For comparison my first testing session on the track put me about .245 iirc and my first wind tunnel testing session had me about the same at 0 yaw. About .225 at -10 iirc