Last weekend I traveled out to Tennessee to race Ironman Chattanooga. I had never been to this part of the southeast and I enjoyed getting a chance to see a new part of the country.
The race turned into one of the hottest races I have ever done. It wasn't quite as hot as Ironman Texas in 2013, but it was close with temperatures in the high 90's and not a cloud to be seen.
In the end, I finished up in 5th place behind some quick dudes. I felt as though I was racing from the start of the swim to about mile 10-11 of the marathon. After that, I had to shift to a bit more of a survival approach in the heat. While I do prefer warm weather races, this was a bit too much. Fortunately I was able to hold it together and finish in the top 5.
And now the photos:
The airline sunset photo is a bit overdone, but it was a cool one as we headed into Atlanta on Wednesday evening.
Meet Leo. Our homestay in Chatty had this awesome cat and we hung out throughout the weekend. Leo does tricks for treats including jumping through hoops. Leo is awesome. Be like Leo.
Made it out to the Ironkids race on Thursday evening. Always a blast.
Looking at T1/2 from across the Tennessee River.
Some pre-race contemplation.
Chatty Sunset
Checking out the Run course on Friday. Athletes crossed over this bridge twice in final mile of each run loop.
Pro panel with last minute location change to get out of the sun.
Made friends with this guy while previewing the bike course.
Last ride before the race.
Race morning warm up. I often jog as part of warm up, but opted against that because of the morning temps.
Waiting for us to get the thumbs up to go into the water. Had to wait pretty close to race start time because of the lack of daylight.
Warming up. Current was evident, though maybe not as much as it was in the race's first year.
Race start. Somewhere on the left side of group.
I promise there was a bike ride at some point, but I don't have any photos right now. In this shot, you can see Matt and I running together and just catching Eric Linkemann. You can also see Jeff Symmonds closing the gap just behind him. At this moment, spots 3-6 were only a few seconds apart. I believe this was mile 9.
Volunteer: "What do you need?"
Me: "Everything!"
My 140 character summary of the day.
Post race with Leo.
Awards
We headed back to Atlanta and stopped at Varsity; a famous hot dog spot near downtown and Georgia Tech.
Also had a little time to check out the College Football Hall of Fame. Pretty cool spot. Wish we had more time to check everything out, but we only had about 45 minutes before having to get to the airport.
Lot of helmets.
As in triathlon, you have to do the work.
That's all I have from this trip. I'm heeading over to Kona next week to help out the Endurance Corner team. I will try to get a good group of photos while I'm there.
That's going to be a wrap for the 2016 season for me. I will follow up in a few weeks time with some thoughts as to how it all went and what I have planned for next year.
As always, thank you for the support.
-Justin