Chattanooga Waterfront Race Report

Made the drive down to Chattanooga Saturday and got checked into my hotel room. I enjoyed some quite time after picking up my packet and then met Lana and her family for dinner.
I tried to get to bed early but with the time change it was really hard. 4:45am eastern time came really early.
I got ready and Lana came down to my room. We rode to the transition where we got our chips and body marked. It was dark and hard to set up so I just did the best I could. After Lana and I made sure we would be able to find our bikes when we came out of the water, we got on the bus to go to the swim start.
There was a delay getting the race started but finally it was underway. I was number 411 so it took about 20 minutes before I got in the water.
I was really counting on the current and I am hoping that there just wasn’t one because my time was a lot worse then last year’s time. I didn’t think I was ever going to get to the pier and get pulled out. The swim felt really LONG.
There were some stairs to get to T1 and people were everywhere cheering. It was great. But then I got to T1 and realized I forgot to open my bike shoes. T1 took extra long.
I got my bike and ran to the mount line. I had no goal for this bike. They had changed the route from last year and rumor had it that it was hilly. Rumor didn’t lie. There were no steep hills or hard climbs just lots of them. Lana had started about 3 minute behind me. She caught me at about mile 15. She stayed in site for a while and I pushed hard but finally gave up and let her go, I still had a 10K to run.
As I entered T2 I realized I didn’t get a landmark and just hoped that I was running down the right row. I was lucky and T2 went smooth.
I saw Holly and Kelly as I started the run. Then I heard “Go Michele”. Found out later it was Lana’s mom. The run last year was a death march. It was so hot. This year the route changed a LITTLE, very little. But the weather could not have been better. I felt fine the entire run and after the first mile and some quick math, I realized I had a shot at under 3 hours. I saw Lana just before the turn around and she was cramping. Just after I made the turn I saw Tom. He caught up with me and asked about my swim time. He said his was 4-5 minutes slower then last year and I said so was mine. He said that maybe it was the water.
I came down the last hill and then the finish line was in site. I heard Lana, Holly, and Lana’s mom all yelling for me. I made my final push and I crossed the finish line in 2:52.
The official results aren’t up yet so I will have to update my report once I have splits.
Special thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Flash and Holly and Kelly. Your support and picture taking means the world to me.