Chattanooga Waterfront Duathlon

This past weekend I took a quick trip to Chattanooga with my brother, Seth, and my good friend, Cristina with plans to race the Chattanooga Waterfront Triathlon. The preceding week of rain resulted in a flooded river and thus, cancellation of the swim portion of the race. The swim portion was replaced with a 2 mile run. 

What we ended up doing was an intermediate (or Olympic distance) duathlon in this order: 2 mile run, 26 mile bike, ended with 6.2 more miles of running. It was all in the downtown riverfront area which made for a very scenic and somewhat hilly course. The weather was ridiculously ideal- overcast with cool (for mid July) temps. 

tourists!

We missed packet pick up on Saturday evening (driving down after a full day of work) and opted to go straight to the Crash Pad and check in; we followed that up with a little walk around the Chattanooga Choo Choo and a delicious dinner at the Terminal. I normally don't drink (alcohol) the day before a race, but decided at the last minute it sounded good so I had wine with my meal. In the same spontaneous decision making vein, we thought ice cream would be a good conclusion to our big dinner with drinks and went to Clumpies. That was fun while it lasted.  Holy crap y'all. I woke up race morning to sharp stomach pain, bloating & gi issues. Awesome. Lesson learned. I do not have a stomach of steel. 

daniel, me, seth, cristina pre-race

The bike portion was rough and hilly and I just set my mind to get through it as best I could. My stomach just got increasingly nauseous and I couldn't keep any fluids or nutrition down so I just gave up on it and didn't eat or drink anything during the race. Was that a bad decision? Maybe, but there wasn't anything more to do so I just tried to go with it and take it as a lesson learned on what not to do when it comes to days leading up to a race.

done with the bike portion, headed out for 6.2

The run following the bike was rough as well, with my ever tight IT /glute/ hip kicking in shooting pains. It was, however, super cool to hear cheers from friends, like Eddie, who were out watching the race and snapping great pics like the ones you see here. They and the crew I train/race with can take a crappy race and turn it into a pretty good experience. Their healthy perspectives, encouraging words, and adventurous personalities inspire me to let go of the frustration and negativity that I'd let build up during this race. I'm not going to lie- I was pissed for a good couple hours because of how awful I felt, and how much better I know I could've done. But, it was a good lesson learned. I am not an athlete who can "wing it" pre race. I need to rest. I need to eat well. Basically, I need to do things by the book and that is OK.

Nashville represents!

The weekend whirlwind ended with an awesome white water rafting trip down the Ocoee. I couldn't really ask for much more- and am very thankful for what I have. Moral of the weekend: be thankful for and respectful of the life you've been given.