Race Prep
I signed up for Chattanooga 70.3 sometime around August 2016. I knew I was taking a risk signing up for a Half Ironman as my first triathlon, but I wanted to tackle a challenge that big. At my current fitness level, running background, and minimal swim/bike experience I felt this would really test myself and be a large enough goal to take each week of training seriously.
I got started in October with incorporating regular bike and swim workouts into my running schedule. I had a 2010 Orbea road bike that I used for a duathlon a few years back and started working out with the dumb trainer in the basement. A month or so into my bike training I decided I wanted to train with power to really get the most out of the time I was spending on the bike. Trisports.com was having a nice sale around Black Friday and I picked up a pair of Powertap P1 Pedals at an incredible price! It was too good to pass up. Once I got the pedals installed I realized right away I wasn’t working nearly as hard as I thought. Adding Trainer Road to the mix put my mind at ease knowing all I had to do was follow the workout for that day. Seeing my FTP increase was exciting, but I felt limited knowing I’d be racing on a road bike. After a few months I pulled the trigger and got a Cannondale Slice from Wheel Werks Bikes in my hometown of Crystal Lake. This was the same LBS I purchased my Orbea from and the owner, Bob, is one of the best fitters around. He got me set up nicely on the Cannondale and I was ready to rock! I allowed myself 2 full months of riding and training on the new bike and felt ready for Chattanooga.
On the other hand, my swim training was not what I had hoped. I suffered a slight shoulder injury while playing with our dog in the backyard in early Fall. I tried to grab a toy out of his mouth while he was running around the yard and it felt like it almost popped out of its socket. This took me out of the pool for about 3 weeks and was another 3 weeks of only swimming 2-3 time per week. Fortunately no serious damage was done and I was able to not think about any shoulder discomfort sometime around mid-January. I knew the swim would be my weakest leg, but felt hopeful with the progress I was seeing. I started off struggling to swim 100 yards, but quickly saw improvements each week. I went from PR of 1:52 to 1:26 SCY by the time May rolled around. Most swim workouts were right around the 1500 yard mark, with my weekly long swim hitting 2000-2200. A few weeks before the race I did 2000 yards straight through in 37 minutes. It felt smooth, controlled, and gave me the confidence that I’d be okay come race day. Looking back at the past few months I averaged right around 10 hours per week. A few 12-13hour weeks, and a few 8-9 hour weeks mixed in.
The Drive
My wife and I left around 6:30am to make the 10 hour drive down to Chattanooga the Thursday before the race. We headed out to try and get ahead of the traffic while passing by Chicago and got lucky for the most part. All in all it was a nice drive, but very windy getting through Indiana. We were both first timers in visiting Kentucky and Tennessee, and my wife got to cross Georgia off her ‘States Visited’ list as well (the highway into Chattanooga takes you just over the border into Georgia before looping back up into Tennessee). We got to our hotel room around 6:00pm ET and got all of our luggage brought up to the hotel room. This is where our fun day took a turn south. The room was absolutely disgusting. The dirtiest hotel room I’ve ever been in. There were raisins on the floor, sunflower seeds, an empty Snickers wrapper, and a bathroom that looked like it was straight out of a Resident Evil video game. The chair in the lounge area of the room looked like someone just decomposed on it (pic below). We were lucky to end up getting a full refund on our room and found a much nicer, cleaner room right across the street. After we finally get checked in to Room #2 it was 9:00pm. We got a bite to eat and then came back to bed.
Race Morning
Alarm clock went off at 3:30am (2:30 Chicago time) and I had my breakfast of Pop Tarts w/ Peanut Butter and a Coffee. The forecast all week for the race was rain, rain, rain. But once the slarm went off and I checked the weather it looked like we may get lucky. Everything went smoothly from there. I was able to eat and follow the normal morning routine. I left the hotel around 4:15 to make the drive over to Ross’s Landing and get transition set up. Natalie was going to head out a little bit closer to race start. Finding parking was easy since it was so early and I lucked out being in the parking garage overlooking Ironman Village. Went through body marking and easily found my bike in the dark. I was happy to have a spot right next to one of the parking lots “Pay Here†booths and made my T1/T2 smooth knowing exactly where I was headed. I got everything set up and my gear laid out, bottles filled, tires pumped – but made one mistake. The night before I loaded up a small Hammer nutrition flask with 5 Clif Gels that I was to take during the bike and left them in the hotel! It was too late to ask Natalie to bring them with. Thankfully I had a few spare gels in my bag and got those stored on my bike. Not how I wanted to start the day, but felt I had a decent backup plan in place. I kept telling myself at least you are getting to race today.
The Swim
After hopping on the bus that took us to the swim start it was time to sit and wait. I had about 90mins until the swim start began. I sat for a bit, laid down, made a few trips to the bathroom and felt the time went by quickly. I grouped in with others who were looking to complete the swim around 35 mins. I figured with the current I’d be close to there with my finish time. It wasn’t long before the gun went off and the male pros hit the water. I couldn’t see them start from where I was, but you could feel the excitement from the crowd getting ready to start the race. The female pros went in a few minutes later and we were moments away from starting. It felt like it was taking forever for the first age groupers to start and for the line to start creeping forward. Then a voice came over the speakers and told us the changes to come. A few female pros had a difficult time swimming against the current for the first portion of the swim leg and it was decided that age groupers would swim directly down river. This cut out 0.4 miles and left us to start Chattanooga 69.9.
Being my first triathlon I tried to stay as calm as possible before jumping in the river. The calmness turned to panic almost immediately. I read time and time again about getting OWS in before a race, about how different it is from the pool and about being surrounded by other swimmers, but naively felt my training had me prepared for the day. I had a very hard time getting my breathing under control and sticking with my swim form. I did a large portion of the swim with my head out of the water as I couldn’t get into a comfortable breathing rhythm otherwise. I checked my watch every 5 mins or so and was happy with the progress I was making. Hearing the fans cheer as I neared the swim exit was a thankful time. I knew I was finishing the swim and was excited to get out on the bike.
Swim 22:13
T1
Pretty basic time through transition. I got helped up onto the steps, pulled off the swim gap and goggles and started the jog to transition. I stopped and got my wetsuit stripped off and up the ramp I went to my bike. A quick pit stop at the bathroom and quick to my bike. There was no flying mount coming from me today to I got my shoes, helmet and sunglasses on. Bike off the rack and shuffled my way to the mount line. I got to see my Dad for the first time here and seeing him gave me a nice motivation boost to get out and ride hard.
T1 – 5:22
The Bike
Oh did it feel good to have the swim behind me. Coming from training near Chicago there wasn’t any chance to get any OWS done, but we had enough nice weather days to get a decent amount of outdoor rides in. Most of my training was indoors so I was a little concerned how I’d handle the hills. I wanted to stay in control during the ride as I wasn’t entirely sure how I was going to feel at race pace for close to 3 hours. I wanted to average around 175-180 watts and hopefully 20mph for the bike. I kept an eye on my 5 mile bike splits as my Garmin beeped and was checking my power often. The first 15 miles flew by and I saw my watch read off 14:24, 13:28, 14:04. This was going better than I hoped and every time I saw a split come under 15mins I knew I was going to hit my goal for the bike. The first 25 miles were very congested on the roads, it was almost impossible not to get stuck drafting for a little bit here and there. Quite a few times I had to just sit up, stop pedaling and coast until room opened up again. It got more frustrating when I saw groups of people riding together and just flying past me. I made a few passes on the uphills to get away from them, but shortly after they would pass me again. I decided to stop yo-yo’ing with them and just take it easy for a bit. I had a gel, took my time through the aid station and got more fluids down and got ready to keep the 5mile splits below 20minutes. Everything continued down the right track and miles 15-40 went as follows: 14:19, 13:39, 13:38, 12:58, 13:19. There wasn’t much going on here, just kept my effort the same and tried to control my power on the uphill sections. The big hill during the bike wasn’t bad, took my time up it and made a joke to someone about “Is this why we all bought aero helmets!?†– it got a small laugh and I kept trucking on. I had to pee towards the end of the bike and no more aid stations were to be found. I tried to go on the bike with no luck. Not sure if is my inexperience, my shy bladder or what, but I knew I’d have to wait. The final 15 miles did have a nice downhill section where I made a handful of passes, topped out at 42mph which was a lot of fun! We got a few rain drops on the highway back in to town, but ultimately avoided any serious rain for the day. As I got closed to T2 I could feel a bit of stiffness in my neck and I was happy to be off the bike. Made it into T2 and felt good, legs weren’t too heavy and my heartrate was in a good spot.
**Bike – 2:37:06 | 21.39mph | 177 AP, 189NP | Beat my goal by ~8 mins! **
T2
I got off the bike and left my shoes clipped in. I saw my dad again as I headed to rack my bike and was excited to start the run. Shoes and socks went out, I grabbed my race belt and ran off. Another quick stop at the port-a-potty and I was on my way.
T2 3:19
The Run
Right out of transition I got to see my wife and my dad again. With the crowd cheering and adrenaline flowing it was tough to take it easy out of transition. I went off feel and tried to stay in control for the first few miles. I was happy to see my first few miles come just under a 8:00min/mile pace and started to guess my finish time. I thought I had a shot at going sub 5 hours here, but told myself I still have a ways to go. Not too long after I started to feel very labored running. It was a struggle to hold a pace close to 8:00min/mile. I walked an aid station and dumped cold water on my head, stuffed ice in my trisuit and took down a Clif Gel. I was able to get my legs moving again but it wasn’t long until I was running out of gas. I started to think back to forgetting my primary nutrition for the bike and how I had a long day ahead of my still. The sun finally came out which sucked even more life out of me. Then seeing the future mile markers for Mile 8 & 9 made it feel like I had forever to go. The middle chunk of the run I saw mile splits range from 8:37 all the way up to 10:15. I did see a familiar racing kit on one of the small out and back sections. It was someone wearing a Rybread Racing suit and I tried to call out to her twice, but don’t think she ever heard me. It ended up being someone from my hometown and I thought she looked strong on the run. Shortly after seeing her for the 2nd time we got off the Riverwalk and we were greeted with a pretty gnarly uphill section. I said to myself “I’m not even going to try running up this†and started my power walk up the hill. Behind me comes the Rybread Racing kit and she just cruised up the hill! I was impressed and tried to keep her in my sight for as long as I could. The remainder of the run was pretty uneventful, lots of walking and jogging happening. There was some tightness starting in my lower back, but nothing a few stretches didn’t solve for me. I finally felt like I was going to make it when I ran over the last bridge back towards the finish line. Being able to make the left turn for the finish instead of going right for the second lap felt amazing. Hearing the music, the crowd and the finish chute down the road took all the pain and fatigue away. I took my time and tried to soak it in as best as I could before crossing the line. Again I got to see my wife and my Dad before hearing my name called out for finishing the race.
Run 2:01
Final Time 5:09:15
I was ecstatic to have finished after all the stress surrounding the drive, weather, hotel issues and my nutrition fail. No excuses and no regrets, but it did leave me hungry to keep at it and improve. I don’t think I’ll tackle the 70.3 distance again this year, but will be thinking about which to do in 2018. After all, I still haven’t really finished a Half Ironman. The plan for now is to do a few local races and continue training through the summer and into Fall. After falling apart on the run I know I want to focus on upping my weekly mileage slowly and get a few more long bricks completed in training. If you stuck around this far, thanks for reading!
