Chattanooga 70.3 2022 Pre-Race & Swim

I primarily signed up for Chattanooga 70.3 since some of my family recently moved to the area. I’ll take free housing and race support whenever I can get it! This enabled me to travel to Tennessee on Thursday and spend a few days nestled on Signal Mountain, away from the hustle and bustle of thousands of triathletes getting ready to race.
 

My husband and dog (the most stressed family member on race day) traveled with me and my in-laws joined on Friday, all staying at my dad’s house. On Friday I got to spend some time with my sister and get in some training before they arrived. I was thankful for my mother-in-law who made herself at home in the kitchen and cooked us dinner (along with other meals over the weekend) so I could enjoy a rare day off from cooking. The rest of the evening we enjoyed time outside at the new pool, taking in the views and warm weather.
 
Saturday morning, I hopped on the trainer first thing. It might seem strange to do a trainer ride right before I race but I have my reasons. One, I’d ridden the entire bike course a few weeks earlier so I didn’t need to scope out the course again. Two, my dads house is almost at the top of a mountain but not on the top. Meaning the beginning of my rides from his house are often the highest heart rate of the entire ride and I didn’t want to ride that hard the day before a race. Three, I still have PTSD from my bike crash four days before Ironman New Zealand which resulted in a pelvic stress fracture and torn muscles (unknown at the time) and a race DNF. So, trainer it was. I made the mistake of thinking it would be nice to set up the trainer on the back deck and watch the sunrise. I couldn’t figure out how to get the fan working so instead sweated it out. This was not ideal the day before a race where I’d be sweating buckets.

 

 
I decided the best way to quickly cool down was to jump into the pool. What better way to jump into a pool than a cannonball?! Except I jumped into the middle of the pool. Which was not the deep end. The outside of my foot hit the bottom, ankle twisted, then knee hit the bottom, resulting in my knee bleeding. My husband and dad shook their heads in the this-is-so-typical-of-you-pre-race way. Luckily my knee hit below the patella so I wasn’t too worried about it.
 
After breakfast, I went to the community pool and swam in as straight of a line as I could for a non-lap swimming pool. Then I cleaned up and headed to downtown Chattanooga to wait in a long line for athlete check in. I thought since we had to sign up for a check-in time that it wouldn’t be too crowded but Athlete Village was very busy. After baking in the line for a while, I got checked in and was able to check in my bike immediately. I bought my usual shirt with the finishers names on the back and was informed that I needed to look for the correct shirt since they had to make two different shirts (A-K and L-Z) to fit all the participant names. Over 4000 people signed up, although not everyone did the race.

 

I spent the remainder of the day trying to relax, finish prepping for the race and cooking potato, white rice, and tofu with tomatoes for dinner (low fiber). I drank some Pre-Load in preparation for the warm weather and humidity. The two big topics among racers were about the possible water temperature and weather conditions on race day. Leading up to the race, it had been hot with no rain so the river water was warm with a slower flow. People were concerned it wouldn’t be wetsuit legal but I’m a strong enough swimmer that I didn’t care either way. The weather forecast all week had changed multiple times, showing 90s, then 70s, then 80s, rain, no rain, thunderstorms. As it does for EVERY race which is why I tell athletes not to stress about it 10 days out from a race. Or even 5 days or 2 days. I went to bed Saturday night with the weather app showing 50%+ chance of thunderstorms all day and really was not worried about it at all. Sure enough, I woke up race morning and the chance of rain had pushed out to the afternoon, around when I’d be running.
 
I woke up at 3:30 since I wanted to be out of the house by 5 and don’t like to be rushed. I wanted time to drink some coffee, poop, eat oats with some peanut butter and banana, poop again and do some mobility work. I also take quick showers before big races which seems odd but I like to start the day feeling fresh. I also have not developed the skill to braid my own hair (despite it being a joke New Year’s resolution from probably 2019) so my hair cooperates best when it’s wet and in a low bun. I saw a sign on the kitchen table from my sister and her daughters. I was informed it was made from all my mom’s old craft supplies which then made me slightly emotional the rest of the morning. As I told my dad later in the morning, I always think about my mom while racing.
 
Then it was off to the race! Except a few minutes into the drive, I realized I forgot all the bottles in the fridge so after a quick backtrack, THEN it was off to the race! Following the usual race setup and activities, I said goodbye to my family and loaded a bus to swim start. I kept sipping on my bottle of OSMO and eventually ate a few chews. I started lathering on sunscreen in hopes it wouldn’t all wash off inside my wetsuit. I got into my wetsuit too early which led to me spending almost 40 minutes sweating in it but I wanted it all zipped up and ready to go before trying to make me way through the herd of people. I ran into a bunch of people I knew along the way and it was nice seeing so many familiar faces at such a large race. Unfortunately, I waited too long to make my way there and I could only wiggle my way so far into the crowd before I accepted my place. It took over 30 minutes before I made it through the rowing house and onto the floating dock. They had us quickly get into lines and jump off, four at a time every five seconds. Ready, steady, go.
 
Swim 

1.4 miles, 32:07, 16/106 AG
 
I had a few simple goals for this race. I generally do not have time goals since it doesn’t help me on race day. My time will be whatever it will be and all I can do is focus on my effort and my plan. My primary goal: be happy and have fun! This was my first big race back and that’s all I really wanted out of the day.
 
Goal two: avoid stomach issues. In a few races, including my last Ironman, I’ve had stomach issues. Not from the usual eating/drinking too much/too little and I’ve never thrown up or had diarrhea. No, my issue is when I do eat and drink, I swallow a lot of air. Seriously, I feel like I don’t even know how to drink water sitting down without burping any more. I’m not really sure what basic human function I forgot but it can be a real problem on race day, especially since I’m eating/drinking while breathing heavier and in awkward body positions. It causes a lot of air to be trapped in my stomach and then I can’t digest anything. My stomach literally bulges out and it causes a lot of pain. Sometimes to the point where I can barely stand upright, let alone walk or run. I also seem to swallow air when I swim really hard (I’m sorry to anyone who has heard me trying to discreetly burp at the pool wall) and when I’m really hungry (maybe I think air will make me feel full?). So, I really wanted to avoid any of those issues during this race. Those were the only two things I wanted out of the race. By happy and no stomach issues. I went in with no expectations.

 

My plan was to swim a steady moderate-to-strong effort and not fade. I tend to fade towards the end of 70.3 and Ironman swims so pacing was the name of the game. I also didn’t want to swim too hard and risk swallowing air while breathing heavy.  I had no idea what time to tell my family to start looking for me. The swim was point-to-point, downstream, but not a strong current, wetsuit legal and 1.4 miles instead of the normal 1.2 miles. I told them maybe 35 minutes but I really didn’t know. Based on most people’s swim times, the longer swim minus the water current helped balanced out the times compared to “normal” 70.3s. The swim was pretty much a straight line which made sighting easy. Given people lined up however they wanted to, it was a mixture of abilities around me but generally I felt like I was moving through the crowd. I never pushed the pace. I only picked up my effort a few times here or there to not get pinched between two swimmers I was passing. The water temperature was a bit warm for a wetsuit so I took the time to pull it away from my neck twice to let cold water in, especially after sweating in it beforehand.

 

The swim overall was pretty uneventful. I felt like I was back in the racing game, and it made me happy. I decided to wear a watch out of curiosity and since I knew I wouldn’t cast any judgement based on the times. I took a peek underwater every time I felt the buzz of 500y and was holding very steady splits. I didn’t feel like the water was too crowded other than near the bridge pillars and at the end. I got to the steps, fumbled a little to find the bottom step and hauled myself back onto land. I started peeling off my wetsuit and took advantage of the wetsuit strippers. For some reason I find it fun throwing myself onto the ground and having the wetsuit ripped off me in one fast yank versus trying to get it off myself. Then I was off, running up ramps and all around trying to make my way to the transition area and to my bike. 

 

T1 

5:01 

The transition area was large and I was very fortunate that my bike was racked close to the bike in and bike out. As always, I know I have room to improve on transition but the two sprint races recently refreshed me on transitioning. Generally, I felt I moved through the transition phases of the races well. I noticed while putting my cycling shoes on that my ankle was bleeding a bit and still have no idea where I got that small cut.