Ironman Chattanooga 2015 – Race Report – Prep & Swim

This is my Ironman Chattanooga Race Report with a few deep thoughts about training, racing, becoming an Ironman, and life thrown in for good measure.

Training:

Let me just get the elephant in the room out there.  Training for an Ironman is grueling and boring work.  There’s no way to sugar coat 75-100 mile rides by yourself in the 100 degree Texas heat.  Hours spent running in 1 mile circles around the neighborhood and mindless laps in the swimming pool.  By the time Sept 27, 2015 (race day) rolled around, I was DONE!  Just plain DONE!!  Why did I keep training?  Simple, I was dedicated to my goal.  Successfully complete Ironman Chattanooga!  In the last few weeks of training,  I began experiencing some minor aches and pains that worried me, so I adjusted my schedule to allow more time to recover from the long workouts.  I was NOT going to do anything that would compromise my chances of making it to race day.

Race Day:

On race day, I got up around 4:00AM.  I had determined that the easiest thing to do for nutrition would be to mimic my typical start of the day, so I had a super nutritious, high protein meal replacement shake.  I knew this could be some of the only protein I would get for the day so I savored every drop.  Since my bike and most of my gear had been sitting in transition since the day before, I didn’t have much to take with me.  I put on my tri-short, a t-shirt, sweats and a light jacket and headed out the door with Maria (designated Sherpa for the day).  For people not familiar with Triathlon, there is a LOT of gear involved.  Keep in mind I was going to swim, bike, and run a lot today.  I needed all kinds of gear to keep me going and someone to help me keep it all organized and collected by the end of the day.  Maria was kind enough to be that person for me.

We got to our chosen parking lot, about 5 blocks from the transition area and began our walk through the streets of downtown Chattanooga.  It was exciting as we got closer and closer and more and more people joined together in a steady march toward transition.  I went in, checked the bike, aired up the tires, loaned my pump to someone, and attached my water and nutrition bottles to my bike.  Bertha, my bike, was ready to go.  The rain had left my Aero bar pads soaking wet, but I was going to be soaking wet too, so no big deal.  The night before, I made a strategic decision to change up my attire for the day.  Since Active was sponsoring me, I needed to race in Active logo equipment.   I’d gotten a sweet matching set of tri-shorts and tri-top.  I’d planned on going the whole day in this suit.  I’d done Hotter ‘N Hell in my tri shorts and had ended up with major chafing.  Tri-shorts have a very thin pad, designed to dry quickly, but they don’t provide much by way of protection.  In most triathlons, there is no opportunity to change, but in Ironman, there is a gender specific transition tent where you can get completely naked and change.  I’d been debating what to do.  I decided the night before the race that I would change up my clothing plans.  So I was going to wear last year’s Active tri-shorts for the swim, change into last year’s Active bike shorts and this year’s tri-top for the bike, then change before the run into my new Active tri-shorts.  I was happy we could make changes to our bags at transition on race morning.

I’d hoped to have Maria come with me to the swim start, but after reading a lot of blogs, we decided she would stay in town.  Spectators can’t see the swim start, so other than keeping me company, she wouldn’t have much fun.  I headed for the bus while she took my bike pump back to the car.  She wandered around and took some amazing photos as the sun came up and the swim began.  She really is a great photographer.  I headed for the bus and we were on our way to the swim start, to wait.  When I got t
here I realized that I had waited too long to get going.  I thought it was silly to get there at4:30 when transition opened when I could easily sleep a bit longer and be fine.
Since IMCHOO has a rolling swim start, you just get in line and wait for your turn.  I had made my first mistake for the day.  There were hundreds of people in line for 8 porta potties and several thousand more in a single, straight line stretching for at least a mile from the start.  I started the long walk to the end of the line.  It turns out that everyone and their extended families come to the start area and wait in a single line.  I sat down and thought about my day and felt a little lonely surrounded by groups of athletes and families chatting about the events of the day.  Finally they came down the line and told the families to get out of line and began the process of separating the wetsuit athletes from the non-wetsuit athletes.  The Tennessee River was too warm today to make it a wetsuit “legal” race.  I could have worn a wetsuit, but I would have to wait till all the non-wetsuit athletes had started.  I needed every minute I could get to complete this course.   So I opted to go without a wetsuit.  I was so far from the start that I barely heard the canon fire for the start of the race.  The line started moving.   I took my e+ shot (B vitamin drink) and a Hammer Gel to get some pre-race calories in. The closer I got to the start, the faster the line moved.  By the end it was a run to the dock and before I could think about it, I was in the water.  I surfaced, oriented on the first buoy and headed out.

The water was cool when I jumped in, but warmed up quickly as I began to swim.  I have a stroke that works well for me. L-R-L-R breathe L-R breathe L-R breathe.  Then repeat over and over.  I was feeling good, but wandering around the river a bit.  I thought the current would keep me in a more or less straight line, but my own pull was pulling me right.  So I adjusted and soon was pulling to the left.  Eventually, I started sighting more often and fixed my issues.  There’s an Island in the river and we were going on the left, narrow side of the island.  At this point, it began to feel like an ocean swim.  I thought boats must be creating waves, but when I looked at the boats on the side, they were all stationary.  It turns out with so many people swimming in a restricted space; we were generating our own waves.  I got lucky because I breathe 99% to the right and the waves were mostly coming from the left.  My left arm started to flare some pain at 1 mile in, but I’d felt this before and knew that I could keep going.  Eventually I got close to the first bridge.  It is so cool to swim in THIS river and under THESE bridges.  I grew up thinking nobody could swim in this river without dying especially in this part of the river where the bridges were.  Here I was swimming in the unswimable waters under bridges I’d been over since I was a small boy.  It was exciting and I got new energy from the bridges.  I knew I was almost done.  Red buoy, left turn, head for the stairs.  And I’m reaching out for a hand or two as the volunteers pull me onto the steps.  I’m done with the swim.  2.4 miles done, 142.2 to go.