Just because you’re alone, doesn’t mean you’re lonely. This sums up my experience at my first ever IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships in Chattanooga, TN on Saturday, September 9th. I traveled to this race solo, which allowed me to
- Easily make new friends, and not just out of pity (I think).
- Fully realize the support of the triathlon community at home.
- Fully realize the support of the satellite NYC community who were at the race.
There is not much to note leading up to the race other than the usual scouting, so I’m going to skip right to the race!
Swim – Streamlined
The swim was in the Tennessee River in a trapezoid shape. Within the age group waves, the start was a rolling start. We lined up into about 6 chutes as we approached the edge of the dock. About every 20 seconds, a clock beeped, and volunteers stood in front of the chutes with their hands out so that no one could start too early. When it was time to go, I ran out of the chute, ran 3 or 4 running strides, and dove with my best streamlined position into the water. I felt like Michael Phelps on a relay team, if he was allowed to run up onto the starting blocks.
After 300 meters, we swam against the current for 860. I heard from a few people that the power plant upstream has some control over the current, and I could feel the decrease in current compared to the practice swim. Times were still about 2 minutes slower than usual, but I didn’t let that get to me in the swim. Since I was too far from either side of the river to gauge how fast I was moving through the water, I perceived the water wooshing past me as all self-generated, like the water was coming at me so hard because I was pulling it so hard! Whatever works, right?
While I could feel the current against me, I couldn’t really feel it going with me on the other two sides of the trapezoid.
T1 – Stripped
There must have been moonshine in the Tennessee River…