Day 118 & day 119: Chattanooga Waterfront Tri Weekend

Day 118: After 2 hours of sleep after working all night it was time to hit the road to Chattanooga. When I got there my mom was there waiting for me all checked in to the hotel. It is so nice to see her since it has been a while. After getting settled in the room I headed of to packet pick up and got everything that I need for tomorrow. I was excited to see that they had the Tri tattoo numbers. And boy there where also stickers for everything. I felt like I was in a 3D sticker book and just putting stickers everywhere. Jordan also decided to surprise me last minute and drive up to Chattanooga to see my race!!! This will be the first triathlon race he will see. When he got there all 3 of us walked around a little bit since Jordan has never been here. After doing some site seeing it was back to the room to put all the final touches on things before tomorrow. I am also starting to feel a little better so let's hope for a good race tomorrow!!! Oh and I get to see my dad tomorrow as well!!!

Day 119: Like always I didn't sleep well, but I don't know a lot of people that do sleep well before a race. 5 am came fast and after I got my Tri stuff on down to transition to get everything set up I went. Setting everything up is starting to feel like second nature and always seems to go smoothly but I still always have that feeling that I'm missing something. 6:40 am came and on the bus I went to go to the start

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 I was feeling relaxed and ready. I just wish I still would have gotten more training in this week. One thing that is nice about this race is it is a time trail start and the let off one person at a time every 3 seconds. Sometime around 7:50 I was off swimming. I was feeling a little tired right away in the swim, but one I got going and loosened up I start finding my groove and was on cruise control. I got out of the water about 2 mins fast then last year so I was hoping to keep this up and just go full speed ahead.

 Usually I like to take my time in transition, but really wanted this race so I got everything on for the bike and away I went hearing my parents and Jordan cheering for me! The bike started out slow my legs where feeling tired and just could push hard up these hills. I think I also forgot how long some of these hills really were as well. I just kept thinking this is good training for Wisconsin, so just push. It took me about 7 miles to get into my groove and I finally got going. I am still having problems with my garmin 310xt so I started to get a little frustrated, but I knew I couldn't let it ruin my races I just ignored it and kept on biking. As I approached the bike finish the crowd was cheering and I also heard my family cheering! That always make a big difference and just makes you wanna push that much hard.

 In and out of transition was smooth and quick and off on the run I went. And about .5 into the run there they were the dreaded stairs to climb. I took my time up them and once I finally got to the top away I went. My legs were feeling a little heavy but over all I was feeling pretty good,but oh my word it was HOT! Around mile 3  I stared to break down a little the heat was getting to me and I was just ready to be done. Around 3.5 miles at the water station they had ice and I took two cups and poured the ice straight down my shirt. It felt so good, but it didn't last long because it was so hot it melt in a matter of minutes. Around mile 5 came the dreaded hill as well and I just wasn't feeling it so I decided to walk up it. With the heat, taking my time going up the steps and walking the hill I knocked around 8 minutes off my time.

I was hoping to be under 3 hours and I just missed it. I finished in 3:01:03, if I just would have pushed a little harder on the run. Oh well next time. I am still really happy with what I did though I knocked 16 minutes of my total time from last year!