S: 15,791 yds - 3hr 39min
B: 124.89 mi - 6hr 44min
R: 28.38 mi - 3hr 33min
Total: 13hr 57min
July 15 - July 21
S: 10,134 yds - 2hr 32min
B: 154.21 mi - 9hr 2min
R: 18.38 mi - 2hr 30min
Total: 14hr 5min
I've come to realize that I have a love/hate relationship with the Chattanooga Waterfront Triathlon. This race usually falls around mid-July, and anyone that lives in the southeastern United States knows that July is about as miserably hot as it can get. The Chattanooga course is wide open on the bike, so if it's hot then you absolutely cook. The run is somewhat shaded but is right on the water so the humidity seems to really skyrocket on the course. Add in a decent hill at the start/end of the run and it's a recipe for suffering. This would be my 6th year in a row to do this race, and it's pretty much 50/50 as to whether I'll have a decent race or not. I usually pride myself in being able to execute most races pretty well, but this course has historically been the exception. I even vowed last year to never do this race again! Ha! But Chattanooga is just an awesome city, so it's really hard to turn down this quick 2.5 hour drive for some good racing and good competition.
This year's race brought some unexpected changes. Chattanooga saw record rainfall the week before the race, so on Tuesday of race week we all received an e-mail informing us that the swim would likely be canceled. Both the swim start and finish docks were completely underwater, so there was pretty much no other option. The swim would be replaced by a 2 mile run and the rest of the race would proceed as normally planned. So...on Saturday Lori and I drove up and headed straight to packet pick-up. Lori was signed up for the aqua bike but with a swim cancellation she opted for a credit to another race. Next, we headed to Lupi's with Hallie and Lee/Heather Simms for some pizza...probably my favorite pre-race meal. Luckily we made it right before the crowd and were able to eat and get back to fix up our rides and get some sleep!
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| pre-race |
Rain was in the forecast but luckily it stopped about an hour or two before the race. We biked down to the race site from the hotel, as it was only about a mile away. The day was shaping up nicely in terms of conditions...the rain was gone, the sky was cloudy, and temps were actually somewhat low (70-80's)...a recipe for a good race! Here's how it went:
Run 1 (2mile): 11:48
Unfortunately, even after this race was turned into a duathlon it was still a time trial start. I was the 21st racer off the line and quickly settled into a very comfortably hard pace. I was thinking I'd probably settle in around 5:50 pace and that's exactly what happened. Jeffrey Shelley started a couple numbers behind me and quickly bridged up to me, and then we stayed together for the rest of the run. I knew we would be dead even for most of the race so staying with him was crucial.
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| Leading Jeffrey into T1 |
T1: 1:06
Usually T1 is pretty fast and uneventful, but I really screwed this one up. I *thought* that we were supposed to run out the far back corner of transition but as it turns out, that was not the case. Since transition was rather large (this race had close to 1,000 people in it) this cost me a decent chunk of time. Jeffrey exited T1 23 seconds faster than me...crap!! I saw him up the road and could just not believe how stupid of a mistake I had just made. It really only cost me 1 position in the overall but it was still a huge screw-up.
Bike (42k): 1:04:09
The bike course was somewhat hilly so I had a plan of upping the watts slightly on the climbs and backing off slightly once up to speed on the descents. I came out of transition close to Bruce Gennari and we traded off back and forth for at least the first 10-15 miles. It was good to have him near me for some motivation. Watts felt good, and I found myself wanting to hover around the 270-280 mark with a slight increase/decrease on the climbs/descents. I could see Jeffrey up in front of me at the turnaround and we were practically dead even. I finally got away from Bruce and reeled in one other guy, who then passed me back as we rolled the last few miles. Coming into T2, I knew I 'd have to lay down a good run to catch Jeffrey and the other guys up the road.
T2: 0:58
No mistakes here, thankfully.
Run 2 (10k): 38:39
The run starts off with a hill and after learning from my past mistakes I eased into the first mile. After a slower mile 1, I clicked off a 6:13 and 6:16 before nearing the turnaround. The leader was 5 minutes ahead and Jeffrey was a probably 1.5 minutes...probably too much to catch but I would certainly try. Mile 4-5 were 6:14 and 6:18 before hitting the final mile and one last hill before the finishing sprint. Alex Solomon came around me with 200 meters to go and we had a nice little sprint but he edged me at the line...not that it mattered because he started behind me anyways.
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| the final sprint |
Total: 1:56:38 (9th overall, 3rd AG)
All in all, this was an excellent race. Both runs were executed well, and considering I wanted to quit about 5k into the 2nd run I'm happy about that. As it turned out, this was actually my fastest 10k run ever in a triathlon so that's certainly a good thing. The bike was my fastest time at Chattanooga my about 1.5 minutes, which is massive! The only mistake I made was in T1, which cost me an overall spot and an age group spot. *But*...if I had not made this mistake I would have started the 10k run with Jeffrey and would have been in a head-to-head race with him to the line. Oh well...you race, you learn...I just can't make that mistake again.
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