When I got to Ironman Chattanooga I was feeling a little head cold coming on, so I didn’t much feel like doing more than resting with my free time. But, while I wasn’t posting my domain name expired because of an old credit card (which I found out last night). Talk about a pit in your stomach!
Anyway, I wanted to make a quick post to let you know that we are back in business.
Quick Ironman Chattanooga Summary
I didn’t sleep very well Friday or Saturday night, but found myself on the Swim Start shuttle at around 6:15 Sunday morning. Halfway up the road I panicked because I forgot my TIMING CHIP in my beautiful new backpack. I was freaking out for a second until the girl right next to me said she forgot hers too and they had extras waiting at the start line. I walked up to the very front to get one, then walked all the way to the back of the line which felt like 2 miles of walking.
We got into the water around 7:50 and it took me about 10 minutes to realize that I underestimated the swim. I had this stupid vision in my head that the current would sweep us away and drop me off at the exit in no time. Wrong! Two point four miles is a long ways. I was swimming hard and that first bridge just never seemed to come. Right before the bridge I started getting really tired, and thankfully this was about the time people who opted to wear wetsuits started swimming over the top of me (more on this later).
I didn’t feel great getting out of the water, and there’s nothing more refreshing than knowing you have 116 miles waiting for your bike wheels. Somehow I got it going and felt pretty good as we rode into the loop. I did NOT underestimate the bike course because I rode it a month earlier. I basically rode with average speed as my guide and hoped I could hold it around 20 mph for the race. There were some really fast sections and I came into transition a little above my goal. Running through the finish line arch is the best feeling, but getting off the bike is a close second.
I ran it about a month ago and it didn’t seem “that” bad, but this run course is tough. The hills on the backside aren’t devastating if you just run them, but after that bike, they get in your head. I ran the first half at a little under a 10 minute pace and hoped to pick it up a little, but my legs said no. It was all I could do to just keep running, but I’m pretty happy with that scenario, too. That’s always sort of been my thing, run the entire marathon.
My swim split disappointed me a little: 1:11. I felt great about my bike split: 5:45. And was content with my run: 4:23. TRT 11:28, which was 30 minutes better than my best at Wisconsin.
I have a ton of thoughts on this race and my brother shot some great video that I’ll be posting. So, please help me spread the word so I don’t lose any search engine reads after this domain debacle.
Great seeing everyone in Chattanooga!
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