Well, it's been 10 days since
Ironman 70.3 Chattanooga! It was a great trip and a great race. The best part was my son was there to cheer me on and even better: we got a phone call that his missing kitty was found! So the even better part was he picked her up on Friday then came up to Chattanooga on Saturday morning.
I rolled into town on Friday a little before noon. I was able to get into my room at the Holiday Inn Express early which was amazing! Once I unloaded all my stuff and took the wonderful phone call from the vet that had Luna and then spoke with Patrick, I was ready to take a walk over to the Athlete Village! I was a tad over dressed, but clearly survived! I had also been hydrating, but it turns out probably not enough. Packet pick up was a breeze, and in hindsight, should have ridden my bike down so as to drop it off for the service I had set up. I had to bring it down after I got back up to my room. Oh well. There were a few fun swag/goodies such as half an Ironman gets you half a backpack! That kind of cracked me up, but the back pack is cool! And I conveniently had something to carry all my stuff back up to the room in. I also bought some
TriSlide since I'd forgotten mine at home - this is the best stuff for putting on before your wetsuit! I stopped at the Ironman store to get a pint glass for my collection and a new water bottle. Not that I actually needed another one...
Once I got Trixie dropped off for service - including new tires - I headed out to drive the bike course. Turns out for the most part I was following another car doing the same thing. I had looked at the course map ahead of time and was curious about this one turn around the half way point that was very sharp...it was also pretty steep once you made the turn. So it was good to have seen that ahead of time. It was a beautiful drive and I was very happy to have taken the time to preview it. The town of
Chickamauga was pretty neat, too. And of course, the view of Lookout Mountain!
Saturday morning I got up and did a reverse pre-race brick. I went out for a 15 minute run/walk then hopped on the exercise bike in the hotel gym for 6 minutes. Before too long Patrick showed up and we went to get my bike from the Athlete village and decided it made sense to just drop it back off. After that we headed out for lunch at
Taco Mamacita! It was across the Tennessee River and I got a little look at where I'd be swimming the next day. The tacos were different and yummy!
After lunch we headed over to
Lookout Mountain - up to "
See Rock City" where we took a fun little walk to this amazing scenic overlook! Apparently you can see seven states from this area! It was really beautiful!
We had a small dinner that night of a delicious barbecue chicken pizza from
Community Pie. And then for me it was an early night. I had already prepped some nutrition bottles earlier in the day and I knew my 4AM alarm would be there before I knew it! It did rain like crazy that night...we were wondering about all the bikes in transition and what would happen the next morning. I remember all the rain from Ironman Maryland and the swim being cancelled for Pam...
Race morning it was actually dry. Well, it wasn't raining! We drove down and got garage parking (that only cost $8!) and walked over to the village so I could set up my transition area. Things did not look too bad! We hopped on the shuttle to the swim start where we would wait... It was nice because athletes and their support people could ride the bus together. Eventually the pros went off as scheduled. Patrick left to head back to the swim finish area. However, we never seemed to get going. Turns out the current was a bit strong so they cut out the up river portion of our swim. So instead of going 1.2 miles, we only had to go .8. And it was all with the current! I had a truly effortless swim - the only annoyance was the goggles I wore kept fogging up. I had bought new ones but they had a little malfunction, so...hey it could have been worse!
The steps out of the swim were helpful and this went better than I remember trying to get out of the water at Ironman Arizona in 2011! Not sure I wrote about that, but I remember having difficulty! There were wetsuit strippers and mine came off easily and I ran up into transition and first stop was the porta potty...as I did not have time to pee in my wetsuit because you walked down the dock/ramp, jumped in the water, and started swimming!
From that point transition went well - for me. I really don't know how long it took but I generally am not fast there, so I got my stuff and got going. There is a bit of an incline heading out and I waited a few minutes before I got into aero position. I actually stayed there as much as possible. I was passed quite a bit, but my goal was just to ride strong - nothing crazy. There were times when I had some good speed going and overall I was pleased with my bike pace. I had no problems making the sharp left turn going uphill to head back. That part was slow going, but thankfully, no one got in my way. And I don't think I got in anyone's way! I think by the time I turned to make the last 5-10 miles back to transition I was definitely ready to be off the bike. The sun had come out and I felt that it was a bit warm out. I made sure to say thanks to as many volunteers and police as possible!
It was nice to roll back into transition! I had to again stop at the porta potty before heading out on the run...and maybe one day I'll learn to pee on the bike. Or not! At the start of the run there is a short out and back in one direction. I actually got to see Patrick on my way back from there. My goal was to try to keep up a 4/1 run/walk as much as possible. And walk the hills. I resorted to counting steps to keep my mind occupied. It felt pretty warm out there to me, though two guys on the elevator in my hotel later did not think it was that hot! Ack! Anyway, the rabbit ears were a bit hit out there and in addition to making lots of other athletes and volunteers smile, they certainly make me smile! I really enjoyed the run course, despite the heat and the hills, and was quite happy to see Patrick twice while crossing the pedestrian bridge that we cross near the end of each loop. The announcer at the finish line made a comment along the lines of 'this is the first rabbit we've had finish' so that was pretty funny!
We opted not to stay long after I finished. I was feeling kind of gross from the heat so we gathered my stuff up and headed back to the car...where we had to walk up a bunch of flights of steps with my bike and stuff. The elevators there were slow! Patrick headed out after an hour and by then I started to feel better. I had a leftover dill pickle from my Friday night dinner (from Jimmy John's) and I ate that...I swear that had something to do with it! That and being in a cool room. I had yummy leftover pizza for dinner and got a great night's sleep!
As I said, I had no real goals for this race. Well, other than to finish smiling - always a goal! I compared it to the other half iron distances I've done and considering I've not gone long in nearly four years I did OK! Of the seven that I've completed this was actually my third best! So that was a pretty pleasant surprise! Overall I think this was a much stronger bike for me as I've been working on that and biking hills. As for the run, this was my slowest. I've still got some run training to build back up, so when I go long again I'll be more prepared!
In the morning I checked out of the hotel and made a scheduled stop at the Krispy Kreme donut shop in town! I bought a dozen hot - half glazed/half chocolate frosted with a lemon filled to go! Then headed on my way. I planned to make three stops on my way home: in Wytheville at Sonic for lunch, in Bedford at the National D-Day Memorial, and at the Natural Bridge.
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Well, I started this post over two months ago (May 31 judging from the start!) so I'll just finish it up by saying, that I did make all the stops:
Sonic - got the tater tots I'd been craving
National D-Day Memorial - this was fantastic - I hope they raise the funds for the museum as I would love to go back
Natural Bridge - again, amazing to walk under neath; when I visited Mackinac Island a few weeks after Chattanooga, there is a similar rock formation on the island; also reminds me of the La Jolla Sunny Jim Cave I very recently visited!
Must add some pictures later!
