Ironman Chattanooga Race Report

It only happened once and it really only lasted for a few seconds. I had a negative thought. "I am not going to do this again. I am tired." Fortunately, I know how to deal with negative thoughts. I pushed it aside. I thought of my brother John and his stoicism. I thought of my Dad who was no longer with us. I thought how lucky I was to be alive and able to push my body. I thought of Melissa and my friends who were there to cheer me on. By thinking of all these positive people and things, I was able to push the negative thinking out of my head. And that was good. Because the hard part was yet to come.

Here are a couple of pictures I use during the race to fight negative thinking. I carry these pictures in my head.

John learning to walk

Inspiring Smile

Ironman Chattanooga starts with a downstream super easy swim. At least it was for this inaugural event. Unfortunately, there was no way to warm up before the swim. Our first order of business after body marking and putting nutrition on our bikes was waiting in line for the busses that would take us to the swim start. I sat next to an older Japanese man on the bus. He asked me if this was my first Ironman. I told him it was number three for me. Then he told me this would be his 20th Ironman and that he was a 16 hour guy.

The swim was a rolling swim start that had us all lined up, sitting down, waiting. I really did not like sitting and standing around before the race. As luck would have it, I ran into a friend who I was able to hang out with so at least that made me a bit more comfortable. Normally, I would swim for a while before the race to get my mind and body warmed up and prepared to race. For this race, once it was time to race, we ran down the ramp, jumped into the water and started swimming.

The current was fast. Interestingly enough, a strong current favors slower swimmers more than fast swimmers. I did not know that going into the race. But afterwards, my coach explained it in a misunderstood Facebook comment that enlightened me and made me understand how the entire dynamics of a race can be changed based on the swim conditions.

I am not a fast swimmer. But I am also not slow. I put in lots of work in the pool to prepare for Ironman and while I might not be fast, I am persistent and consistent. Since the swim was so short, I did not get to reap the fruit of my labor as much as I might have in a lake swim. But I have come to love swim training and am very happy that I put in as much swimming as I did. I plan to continue to work on my swim so I can improve my speed and endurance. To me, having a strong swim is a great foundation. When I come out of the water, I don't want to feel as if I have survived the swim. I want to feel like I crushed it and am ready to charge into the changing tent, have a quick transition, and move right onto the bike.

Once I was finished with the 2.4 mile float down the river, I ran up the steps leading out of the water to a wall of sound. There were so many spectators lining the swim-out chute. Where did they all come from? It was quite amazing to see and hear everyone cheering us on. The cheering and attention made me feel special and it made me run faster into transition. I ran up the steep carpet covered ramp with vigor, passing several people who were struggling with the ascent. One thing that lots of hours in the pool does for you is help you with the transition from swimming to the run into T1. Some people get a bit wobbly when they get out of the water. I was the same way when I first started in the sport. But all my training had prepared me well and I scooted up the ramp with ease.

Here are a couple of Pros running from the water towards T1

 



Once in T1, I grabbed my bike bag, made my way to the changing tent and changed as quickly as I could. I had a faster transition than my last Ironman for sure. I have dropped a couple of things from my gear so that I have less to deal with. I used to wear a cycling "do rag" and cycling gloves. No longer. I don't need them and dealing with them adds time to my transition. In the end, I had a 6:30 T1 which, for a middle of the pack age grouper like myself, is decent. There are plenty of people who were quicker but I was by no means the slowest.

Once on the bike, it was time to enjoy a very fast ride out of town. Typically the swim portion of Ironman greatly spreads out the athletes in the water which in turn spreads everyone out on the bike course. Because of the nature of the swim course, this did not happen at IMTN. There were so many bikers crunched together on the course, it was virtually impossible to follow the rules. In Ironman, there is no drafting and riders need to keep a distance equal to four bike lengths between each other. It is up to each rider to maintain this distance. Passing is permitted of course but you have 20 seconds to complete the pass. Otherwise, you have to drop back out of the draft zone. The course was so packed, that was impossible. While there was a speed advantage due to the drafting, there were also plenty of times where I found myself looking for space on the course. This caused me to surge here and there to get in front of some of the packs so I could ride at the pace I wanted. I probably over cooked the first loop because of all the leap frogging I did with various people.

Once I went through special needs and onto the second loop, things had finally thinned out a bit. By then, I was already starting to fade. The second loop was much harder than the first.  I looked at the bike splits for my friends and it looks like everyone struggled in the same places that I did. I did a lot more coasting on the second loop and my average speed was slower. But I still felt pretty good. My legs were not hurting, I was getting plenty of nutrition, and best of all my butt did not feel terrible.

Before I continue on to the rest of my riveting story, I have to tell you about the "Sabotage on Hog Jowl Road." Apparently some locals thought it would be funny to scatter tacks and motor oil on the road. Fortunately for me, I made it through unscathed. But many people were not so lucky. I saw at least 20 people on the side of the road changing flat tires. That is way more than normal. Usually you see one or two people here and there with flats. Twenty to thirty is very unusual. I did not think much of it until another rider asked me what I thought and suggested sabotage. After the race, Ironman confirmed the sabotage. Some people just really suck.

That last 20 miles of the bike course was tough. Not because there were giant hills or anything. I had simply been out there 5+ hours and was getting fatigued. I think I did well with my nutrition although I did not drink as much Perform as I usually do. The Perform they had on the bike course was so sickly sweet and did not taste the same as the Perform I had used in training. I don't think I could have done anything differently with my nutrition that would have prevented my fade except maybe drink more Perform. Likely I slightly overcooked the first 30 miles of the course. My average speed for the last 20 miles was much slower than any of my other splits. But I rallied on the way back into town and was excited to move onto my strength, running.

Racing an Ironman is great fun. After completing the 116 mile bike ride, I jumped off my bike and handed it to a volunteer. At Ironman events, the volunteers rack the bike for you in T2 which is a nice luxury. I ran through the rows and rows of bags, hoping that I did not already run by my bag. My mind was not exactly sharp at that point and I had a feeling of uncertainty as I trotted through the rows of red bags looking for mine. I finally spotted it and grabbed it up and ran into the changing tent for a quick transition. Running shoes-check. Visor-check. Bike gear back in run bag-check. Quick trip to the porta potty- double check. What a relief. And I was off.

Here are a couple of shots of the rows of run bags I ran through to pick up mine plus a close up of my bag.

 

The run-out chute was jammed with screaming spectators. I heard and saw Melissa which always makes me smile. And I saw my good friends Jon and Meredith as well. My friend Sally saw me and started running along the fence and cheering. I got a chuckle out of that which is a great way to begin the marathon. Relaxed, feeling good.

During the bike leg, I was passed by a fair amount of riders. Not as many as in the past but still a large number. Also the swim was a rolling start and there were several hundred people in front of me in the line when we started the swim. My division (men 45-49) rank on the swim was 190 out of 274 finishers. On the bike, I was 176 out of 274 finishers. All of this means there were a lot of people on the run course in front of me. It was time to do something about that.

Once on the run course, I immediately starting passing people. I was running strong and maybe running a little too fast. But I was determined to catch some people who I knew were in front of me. For the first 8 miles I ran a 8:26 pace. At one point in the first few miles, a woman ran past me. I looked at her calf to see her age group and it said, "P". At first I did not know what that meant. Then I realized she was a pro, likely on her second lap. She still had a ways to go to finish so she may have been one of the many unfortunate ones to suffer the wrath of the sabotage on Hog Jowl Road. I decided to pick up the pace and run with her. After all, I do these races for fun and what is more fun then running off the shoulder of a pro? We were running pretty fast and she could hear me breathing and shot me an icy stare over her shoulder. She looked a bit perplexed.  After just a few minutes, I backed off and let her go. But I kept her in my sights for a while until I hit an aid station.

Typically I walk through the aid stations so I can adequately refuel and cool off. I grabbed several ice cold sponges at each aid station and tucked them into my jersey right over my heart. I would run with those in my jersey for a while and then as I approached the next aid station, I would take them out and wring them out onto my head and down my stomach. I mostly drank water, Perform, and coke at the aid stations. That is, until I started burping up gross Perform bile. Then I simply stuck to coke and water. This strategy worked for the first 2/3rds of the race.

It was about mile 16 where I started to have doubts and started to fade. I was able to quickly push those doubts out of my mind but I was starting to lose my mojo. Miles 17 to 20 were mentally tough. I did not really like that part of the course. We were running in the shoulder and while it was flat, it was a junky part of the course. Cars would wiz by honking their horns and cheering. The honking was more annoying to me than helpful. I finally made it to the Veterans bridge and made my way across. Of course I knew that the hills on the other side of the bridge would be waiting. I had run up them the first loop. I was not sure I could do that on the second.

Sure enough, I hit the hill and had to walk. I did get a spark from seeing Melissa and my friends on the hill. It was the last time I would see them until the finish. I tried to soak in their cheers but I was struggling. I finally crested the hill and started rolling down the hill. I run pretty fast downhill typically and tried to gain back some of the time I lost walking up the hill. Even my downhill running was much slower than on the first loop. My energy was waning. Looking back, I think I could have done better with my run nutrition. Next time I do an Ironman (next October in Louisville, Kentucky), I am going to experiment with taking in some bananas on the run. This time around, when I stopped to walk through the aid stations, I found my breathing to be elevated and walked much longer than the first time through. Lesson learned I think.

After walking up almost all the hills in the last 6 miles, I was finally crossing the Tennessee river for the last time. There was a gradual incline on the walking bridge and I was so cooked that I had to walk some of that. But once I crested the bridge, I knew I only had a little ways to go so I picked it up and hammered it home. There was a nice downhill section into the finish line chute. Somehow I always find one more gear at the end of these races. I was able to pick up the pace and pass several people in the last 200 yards of the run. And while most people slow down for their finishing picture with their hands in the air, I just ran. I love to run and this was the time to do it. For me, that is the way to finish.  No fancy dance, no rituals, just running hard through the finish line.

It was a hard fought run and I missed my run goal by about 8 minutes but was still pleased with my overall performance. 1:01:24 swim, 6:25:40 bike, and 4:08:08 run. Add in 6:30 for T1 and 4:57 for T2 and my total time on the day was 11:46:39. I had beat my goal of 12 hours and was pleased. I also learned some things about how I could do better the next time around.

Since the race, I have done one very short swim and an easy 2 hour bike ride. My knee is bothering me from the race and I am working on rehabbing that now. I hope to be able to some 5Ks over the next month. Of course, I have already started looking towards next season and have done some tentative planning.

I have lots of people to thank for helping me reach my fitness and racing goals. First and foremost is my genius wife who supports me in everything I do. We both train and race. That can sometimes takes its toll. But with Melissa, it is so easy. We look out for each other and work well together. We have had over 20 years of practice. We are pretty darn good at being married.

I also have to thank all my friends who came out and cheered. It was great to see you all on the course. It still amazes me the power a friends smile or shout of encouragement. Thank you all!

Thanks to all my training partners, JJJ and BOTRBOTL. Thanks to Meredith and Jill for their support throughout the season. Thanks to Jon Cencich for all his encouragement and straight talk.

Finally, I have to give a big shout out to Dave Luscan at DLMultisports. It has been a real joy working with Dave this past season and I am looking forward to continuing to work on my triathlon goals with him. Dave is extremely knowledgeable about all things triathlon. He is quick to offer advice on gear, training, attitudes and anything else related to the sport. Dave is grounded in science and if there is data available to guide training decisions, you can guarantee Dave has analyzed and interpreted the data. It would be an understatement to say that I liked his approach. Thanks for a great season Dave!

Thanks for reading. Comments appreciated.