Ironman Chattanooga

Ironman Chattanooga - wow!  What a race, what a weekend!  Before I get into the details of the weekend, let me get the meat out of the way.  This is my 2nd Ironman - IM Wisconsin last year was my 1st.  I set PRs (Personal Records) for every leg of the race and improved my overall time by 3 hours, 3 minutes, and 24 seconds!  I am damn happy with the results!  The stats were:

Swim: 1:21:31 (PR from 1:50:55) **River swim with a current vs lake swim, so not apples to apples

Bike: 6:28:02 (PR from 7:37:12) **Bike was 116 miles vs. the normal 112 miles, so not apples to apples

Run: 5:16:32 (PR from 6:36:55)

Overall: 13:24:21 (PR from 16:27:45)

This was the inaugural Ironman in Chattanooga, so it was very exciting to participate.  A few things that made this race different were the fact that we were going to start the race at approximately 730am instead of 7am and the bike portion was 116 miles instead of 112.  The later swim start was because we had to wait for the sunrise and the longer bike was due to some permitting issues with certain counties in Georgia.  Because of the added bike length, the finish time was extended 15 minutes to 12:15am.

Before I get into the race itself, I want to talk about how this year has been so different than last year.  If you read my IM Wisconsin report, you know that I was under-trained and under-prepared last year and went into that race just wanting to survive to the finish.  And that’s about all I did.  Yes, I finished, but it was ugly and honestly, not as satisfying as you might imagine.  

This year, I put in the time – I put in the training.  I got a coach (Carl Noftsger) and joined his online team on Facebook, the Outkast Training Crew.  I had an incredible training partner, Kourey, and a patient, loving and accommodating wife.  At times it was hard, I wanted to quit, and I was “over” all of it by mid-August.  But I held on, showed up, and had a fantastic experience!

PRE-RACE

The weekend started out when Crystal and I started our drive to Chattanooga Thursday morning.  We had some things to do beforehand, but once that was done, we picked up Kourey and started our journey.  We arrived in Chattanooga mid-afternoon, checked into our hotel, dropped off our stuff, and walked to the registration tent to get registered.  We stayed and looked around at all of the vendors, got free samples of some items, tried out some gear and boots that we could never afford and then headed back to the room to unpack and get settled.

For dinner that evening we met up with Carl, his wife and an Outkast teammate, John at a local place called The Terminal.  We sat outside, had a great meal, and a fantastic time!  I’ve been training with Carl as my Coach since the end of last year and it was our 1^st chance at meeting face to face so it was very nice!  Carl and John did the race as well and both crushed it!

On Friday, Crystal and I got up and went to the YMCA to practice some RPM which is a type of indoor spin class.  She is taking an RPM Certification Class the weekend after my race, so we needed to get in a practice.  Plus it was good for me to get some type of “spinning” in for the day.  

When that was over, we went back to our hotel, cleaned up, and then headed to the Endurance Nation Four Keys Talk.  If you have read any of my prior posts, you know how I feel about EN, so I won’t get into that here.  Just know that the talk was once again outstanding and I got a lot out of it. 

When the talk was over, Kourey and I met up with Mike, a buddy from Nashville and we rode our bikes on parts of the run course just to stay active, but not “too” active.  We rode for maybe 30 minutes – nothing too long.  After that, we cleaned up, ran some errands, and had dinner at a Mexican place near the mall.

On Saturday, Crystal volunteered at the Ironkids race while I slept in.  She then had a volunteer meeting and I took my bicycle and gear bags to check in.  Lunch at Firehouse Subs (as always) was the last solid meal of the day and then back to the room to hang out.

Dinner consisted of all liquid as has been the custom for the last few races.  Naked Juice, sports drink, pomegranate juice, and chocolate milk.  Oh and 1 beer at a local tavern called the World of Beer.  Will definitely have to go back there when I can drink more than 1 beer!  Then back to the room again to put the feet up.  Was in bed by 930 or so.

RACE MORNING

I awoke at 5am and promptly drank another Naked Juice as my breakfast.  Got all my gear, my nutrition bottles, my morning clothes bag, and met Kourey to walk to transition.  When we got there, I put my bike bottles on my bike, my run bottles inside my Fuel Belt, and made sure my bike tires were pumped up.  We then loaded up on the bus to ride to the swim start.  While in line, I had 1 Gu and sipped on some water.

SWIM

Chattanooga is a point to point river swim meaning we swam with a current.  Based on the finishing times of most people I looked at, folks tended to average 20-30 minutes faster on this swim than other IM’s that were in lakes.  For slower swimmers like me that was a good thing.  We also did not start our swim in a mass start like we did at Wisconsin.  Instead, we lined up and jumped off a floating “dock” one at a time.  Well – more like lots at a time.  The point being, that we all started the race at different times.

The water temperature was 77 degrees making it “technically” non-wetsuit legal.  We had the option of wearing a wetsuit, but doing so would disqualify us from any awards and would also mean starting at the back of the line.  I did not want to start at the back, so I opted to not wear my wetsuit.  Now, thinking back, I wish I had worn it as it would have helped me cut at least a few minutes off my time.  Oh well – live and learn.

When I jumped in, I immediately lost my breath due to the shock of the water and remembered that I had not taken my asthma inhaler.  It took maybe 5 – 10 minutes to settle down and get comfortable in the water.  My experience at Augusta dealing with a similar issue helped me get through this period since I knew what to do and how to handle the situation.  Once settled, the swim was very uneventful and I just went along until I got to the end.  Oh, I did have to stop 2 times to pee in the water.  I am not able to swim and pee at the same time, so I had to pause for a bit and let it flow.

Because of my slow time, there were not many people around when I got to the ladder to climb out of the river.  I climbed up, ran/walked along to the wetsuit peelers, saw Crystal volunteering and gave her a high five then ran up the hill to transition.

T1

I grabbed my bike gear bag and ran into the changing tent.  There were no volunteers around, so I just helped myself.  I had worn my tri-top in the swim, so that was already on.  I changed out of my tri shorts and into real bike shorts, got my sox and shoes on, helmet, glasses, etc. and took a puff of my inhaler and ran to get my bike.

BIKE

As I stated before, this was a 116 mile bike rather than 112.  Given that, I am pretty pleased that I still cut 1 hour and 9 minutes off my Wisconsin time.  Going in, I had ridden the course twice.  Once in May at a training camp and then again 2 weeks ago with Kourey.  Chattanooga, like Wisconsin, is set up like a lollipop.  Meaning it starts out like a “stick” and then has a loop that you do two times as the “lollipop”, then you ride the stick back home.  

For nutrition, I kept the same formula I have used in previous races.  I chose to use my speefill bottle up front which had 1 hour of Infinit in it to start the race.  I also carried a 3 hour bottle of Infinit on my seat tube.  That gave me 4 hours of nutrition on the bike at the start.  I also put another 3 hour bottle of Infinit in my special needs bag which I would get at the halfway point of the ride – total nutrition of 7 hours.  So because I was carrying my nutrition, I only had to get water at the aid stations.  That made it simple for me.  As I approached aid stations, I would fill my speefill with another hour of Infinit, then hit special needs for water to top off the speedfill.  One thing I didn’t like, however, was that the aid stations seemed to be too close together.  I got to them every 35 – 40 minutes or so, which threw off the timing of refilling with my Infinit.  It wasn’t a big deal, just somewhat annoying.

I also did not use my GPS watch to track my ride.  Over the years, the battery life of my watch has dropped significantly and I knew it would not last for an entire Ironman.  So I chose to save the battery for the run where I could keep track of my pace.  I rode based on RPE instead of heart rate and kept track of my pace based on the mile markers and the clock.  It proved to work fine, but I would have like to have had the file from my ride – I love seeing my data!!  

The start of the bike had us going around downtown as we were just getting away from everything and onto more rural roads.  This was pretty uneventful and I was able to settle in nicely and was comfortable.  I eventually got to the start of the loops and at which point I felt the bike portion really started.  

This bike course has been described by different people as everything from “easy” to “hard” and “hilly” to “flat”.  Yes, same course, but different perspectives.  My thoughts are that while there are really no significant or steep hills, it is definitely not flat.  It is filled with rolling hills with very few flat sections.  Which means that I was constantly shifting my gears to maintain consistent power throughout with no spikes.  It would be easy to get lazy with the shifting and start powering up these rollers, but doing so would result in using too much power and zapping your legs.  But because I train on roads that are similar, I am used to shifting constantly, so this was no big deal for me.

I have had issues with my left foot for a while now, and in the last few weeks, it has gotten worse.  What happens is that after riding for an hour or so, I start to get pain in the ball of my foot and my middle toe goes numb.  Going into this race, I knew that I was going to have problems, so I made sure I took plenty of ibuprofen prior to the start of the bike, and again at the halfway point.  I also had to take my foot off my pedal 4 or 5 times during the ride and shake my leg to get blood flowing again.  Each time this resulted in a searing pain that lasted a minute or two before giving me some relief.

The special needs station was at the end of the 1^st loop and I was glad to stop for a minute.  I changed out my nutrition bottle, put more bag balm on my taint and was off again for loop 2.

There were reports of oil and tacks being put on the course by some local hooligans that caused a lot of flats for some racers.  The local police had been alerted of the oil before the race and were able to direct us around it, but the tacks were another issue entirely.  It is really a shame that people would do such a thing.  Fortunately for me, I did not get caught with a tack and did not get a flat.  But others did, which sucks.

Loop 2 continued to be uneventful for me and as I completed it, I got back on the “stick” and headed back towards transition.  When all was said and done, I had passed 550 people on the bike but had ridden at a pace and effort that would allow me to have a good run.  And that’s really where the race begins – is on the run.  My average speed was 17.94 mph, and if you look at my splits, I kept a consistent pace the entire ride.  I am very pleased with that.

T2

I got back to transition, handed my bike to a volunteer, and almost fell down.  The problems I had with my foot on the bike ride made walking difficult.  I limped to grab my run bag and made it to the changing tent where I took off my tri top and bike shorts in favor of a running tee and running shorts.  I also changed to dry sox, put on my running shoes, fuel belt, race number belt, and visor.  

RUN

The run course consisted of two loops of 13.1 miles each.  The 1^st 8 miles were along the Riverfront Park which I run on all the time anyway when I travel to Chattanooga and then 5 miles on the north side of the river where there are some long grueling hills to contend with.  Meaning the last 5 miles of the entire race would be on those hills!!

For nutrition on the run, I carried two 7oz bottles of Infinit on a Fuel Belt – each consisting of 1.5 hours of nutrition.  This would give me 3 hours of nutrition and get me to special needs where I had another 3 hours of Infinit in a bottle waiting for me.

After doing my clothes changing and taking more ibuprofen, I was able to walk mostly normal with manageable pain and left the changing tent.  I made a pit stop at a porta-potty and started my run.  Before I got out of transition however, I saw Crystal again, gave her a hug and went on my way.

The run starts off with an almost immediate hill that would be easy to run too hard up.  I chose to actually walk the hill just to make sure I didn’t do something stupid and once at the top began my jog.  I am not a fast runner and in reality, I am just a jogger at this point.  My goal was to run around an 11:30 minute mile for the first 6 miles, then try to just hang on for the rest of the run.  

The first 8 miles I hit an average pace of around 11:10, a little faster than I wanted.  But that included me walking up that 1^st hill and walking the aid stations which was my plan.  The aid stations were placed at approximately every mile, so the goal was to run from aid station to aid station and walk the station itself.  

These first 8 miles also were part of the flat section of the course (except for that first hill) and I found it easy to get settled in.  But after doing that part, we went across the river to the hilly section of the course for 5 miles.  For those 5 miles, I continued to run between aid stations, but the hills were pretty significant and slowed my pace down to around 12:10 per mile.  

After crossing the river back to the south side, I stopped at special needs, swapped nutrition bottles and picked up my extra pair of dry sox.  I didn’t need them at that point, but wanted to carry them just in case I would need them later.  At Wisconsin last year, I would have LOVED to have been able to change sox later in the race because I got a huge blister the last half of the run due to wet sox.

After resuming my run, my pace kept falling from the low 12’s per mile to the low 13’s per mile.  This is because my run pace did slow down, and also because I walked a little bit between aid stations for certain stretches.  At around mile 16, I officially entered the “suck” zone!  I had heard that an IM race doesn’t really start until around mile 18.  That’s when things can start to fall apart and get real hard, very sucky, and turn you inside out.  This hit me at around mile 16.

When it hit – and it was a slow progression – I found myself walking some portions between aid stations without even realizing.  I would cuss myself and force myself to pick up my run again.  I did not want to walk.  As darkness fell, I was still on the flat section and heading back towards town and it was awfully lonely.  There were a lot of walkers, very few runners, and no fans except for the aid stations.  To me, this was the hardest stretch and the point at which I found myself wanting to walk the most.
 

I have heard people use terms like “turn myself inside out” and “embrace the pain or suck” and thought I knew what that meant.  I have, after all, done a handful of half Ironmans plus a full at Wisconsin.  But in each of those, I either walked a lot or never got to the point at which I really suffered.  It wasn’t until this stretch that I really began to understand.  During the dark portions along Amnicola highway, I literally turned my guts inside out to keep going.  Yes, I could have slowed to a walk and hung on for a finish.  I was close enough to do that.  But this race was not about “just finishing” for me.  It was about crushing my performance at Wisconsin.  It was about seeing how far I could push myself – how much I could endure.

I found my answer – I can endure a hell of a lot.  I kept telling myself “this is what I signed up for” – which was one of the things that was said at the Endurance Nation talk the day before.  My left foot hurt like hell, I had a cramp in my right side that began almost immediately when I started my run, I had by now formed a blister on my right foot but was afraid to stop and change sox because I feared I would be unable to stand back up if I did, so I endured.  My legs hurt, I was dizzy, and I was mentally drained.  And that was really the hardest part – everything was screaming STOP!  But I would not do it.  Yes, I had moments of weakness where I slowed and walked, but after I got back to town, I had found my rock, my one thing, and had made up my mind that I would finish strong.  What was my rock?  My one thing?  Family – my wife, Crystal and my boys.  Thinking of how much they had put up with during my year of training, how much they sacrificed.  And how I wanted to show them how to “suck it up” when times get tough, how to deal with pain and endure to the end.  Life lessons, really all summed up in a single race.  Yeah, this is mushy stuff, but it is also true.  I also learned that although I can endure a lot, I still have a lot to learn and I know I can push myself harder and farther and endure more.  Whether in life or my next race.

Alright – enough of that.  

After my struggles and getting back to town, I headed across the river to the hilly part of the race.  The first portion of the hilly side averaged around 13:26 per mile and, yes, I purposely walked up a portion of one of the hills and half of another.  I wanted to ensure that I was running at the end.  And those were the last two times I walked.  The last 3.3 miles I ran up the long hill of Barton Ave., down the other side, and then to the finish at a pace of 11:51 per mile – the fastest split since mile 8.  I was pleased that I was able to run that much at the end and actually increase my speed during the very last split.

Overall, I feel very good about my run.  This was a VERY hard marathon with the hills being placed where they were.  And while I did walk more that I wanted, I averaged a 12:04 pace for the entire run and passed 219 people.  I am very pleased that I passed people instead of being passed.  Normally it's the other way around, so that makes me happy!  And most of all, I am happy that when I found the suck, I did embrace it, deal with it, and push through it.  

THE FINISH

There is nothing else that can compare to an Ironman finish chute and finish line!  What an amazing experience – it literally is what all of our training is geared towards.  Coming back down the hill that we had started up at the begging of the run, it was dark and there were not many people.  But then the road curves to the left and I saw the massive crowd of people cheering, waving flags, etc.  It was amazing.  I came up to the chute, picked up my pace some more and gave people high fives as I ran by.  Just soaking in the moment!  I approached the finish line, heard Mike Riley (the voice of Ironman) announce that I was an Ironman, raised my arms, and came across the line.  

Crystal was volunteering as a Finish Line Catcher, so I was looking for her as I crossed.  But the lights were bright and I really couldn’t see.  I saw a volunteer in front of me with glasses, but quickly realized she was not Crystal.  The volunteer put my medal on, walked me to have my timing chip removed, and then I saw Crystal walking towards me.  I dropped my volunteer and gave Crystal a big hug embracing the moment.  She walked me to get my hat and t-shirt, got me some chocolate milk, and sat me down on some cases of Sprite cans.  I sat, we talked, I composed myself, and then headed back to the hotel.  She had already gotten my bike and gear bags and had taken them to our room, so all I had to do was get to the room.  I walked back, ordered room service, showered, and collapsed.  

And that my friends is my race report for Ironman Chattanooga.  This will be my last full Ironman for a while.  I have some new things coming up that will take up much of my time, so I will be cutting back to half IM’s and Olympics as I will not be able to put in the time it takes to properly train for a full IM for a while.

Until next time…