2025 Chattanooga 70.3 Race Report

It was the 10th anniversary of my favorite 70.3 and my 5th time competing here. I’ve done 10 different courses at this distance and Chattanooga always is the one that pulls me back. The town itself makes for a great race venue, the swim is in a river but usually with little current so it never seems to have a huge effect on my time, the bike ride is beautiful and challenging enough to be fun but not a slog, and the run…well, usually its like running on the surface of the sun which sucks. But its also a really pretty run for the most part. My goal coming into the race was to do a sub-6 hour race.

So did I hit that? I mean, in the most literal sense I did! Unfortunately I was helped out by the fact that there was no swim. Of course, the flip side is that my bike – run split was a significant PR. Even if I had a bad swim, I would have absolutely hit my overall time goals.

Pre Race

After my DNF at IMTX last year, I paid a lot more attention to the day before the race. I got up on Saturday and did a quick workout on the bike and run to stay loose and also make sure the bike was working after the travel day. You never know what happens when it bumps around! With that all set, I started focusing on what I needed to do to be ready for the race…mostly just staying hydrated. I had a nice breakfast, then did bike check-in and went to the race briefing. I’ve done dozens of races now and I still go to the briefing since every race is different. I really needed to know what the morning looked like with the time trial start.

With that all out of the way, I could get lunch at my normal time (which sometimes is a challenge when doing race prep) and then I did something smart…went to a movie! Nothing like sitting in a comfy chair, in a cold theater, drinking water for 2 hours. After the movie I went and got all of my gear ready to make sure I had everything since there was still time to make any last minute purchases. But nothing was amiss so once that was all done I got dinner with my dad who came to see the race and went back to my room to relax and go to bed.

Race Morning

Transition opened a little later on Sunday so I got to sleep a little longer. With transition opening at 5:30 and the AG start around 7:45, I decided I didn’t need to rush quite as much and woke up at 5:15. That gave me time to get coffee and breakfast before heading down to the transition area. It really only took me about 15 minutes to get my area set up. The biggest change I made was putting most of my run nutrition in my jersey so I didn’t have to worry about it after the bike. By 6:15 I didn’t have much to do other than keep loose. With no swim, I wanted to warmed up for the bike so after the pro men started, I did some light jogging. We were allowed to go in and out of transition so that made it really easy. After about 20 minutes of that, it was time to go!

Bike

This is why I do this race. Hands down, this is my favorite bike course of any race I’ve done (and I’ve done quite a few!) There’s no really scary climbs. Its a big loop in beautiful, rolling farmland. There’s always farms and mountains and hills to look at. The first 26 miles take you most of the way uphill, which means you finish 30 miles with a net descent. All the way through its just rollers, rollers, and more rollers. I’ve always found it really easy to modulate my effort. I wanted to PR the race…but I also REALLY wanted to PR this bike course.

I came in with a BestBikeSplit plan loaded. Unlike at North Carolina last year, my power meter stayed connected the whole race. Of course, it was set up slightly differently this time which took me about…2 minutes to figure out. But then I was squared away and was able to understand what it was telling me. It still needs some tweaking. Not ideal for race day but it wasn’t a big deal.

I did a few things, strategy-wise, that really helped. First, I did really respect the numbers the computer was telling me while letting myself ride a little higher than it suggested on climbs. Second, I made a change to how I passed people. I have 25 seconds to make a pass. I used all of my time rather than powering past (unless I had to in a few cases). This let me gain some really good (legal) draft benefits. I’m sure I passed at least 30 – 40 people during the race and that works out to 15 – 20 minutes of being in that draft zone. Usually I’ve always tried to pass as fast as possible but that just isn’t necessary (and is counter-productive). Third, I made sure to focus on hydration and nutrition. I’ve been letting my Garmin guide my hydration during training and its worked out really well. On race day, I stayed ahead of its alerts on both food and drink. But especially drink.

The end result was my fastest bike split by far. But, just as importantly, I have NEVER felt so good from start to finish on the bike. I was extremely comfortable in aero from start to finish. I never felt like I needed to get out of position. I also felt like I could just keep it up even at the end. It really had me in the right frame of mind to move into the run.

Transition

I’m just slow. I’m really annoyed I took almost 5 minutes here. I thought I’d be closer to 3. To be fair, I did take time to apply sunscreen…but I just was to slow. Something to work on. This was the worst part of my race (I mean…I’ll take it)

Run

This is where my dreams always die. And I really didn’t want that to happen today. When I started the run, I felt really good but before I even hit the timing mat, I did feel a bit of a cramp in my leg which did worry me a bit. If I cramped up, it was going to be all over. No matter, I had 2 bottles of Hot Shot with me. My secret weapon! So I opened one up and…it was empty. I’m not sure if I had put a used bottle back in storage or something but there was a little bit in the bottom which I absolutely did not trust. But I carry two with me so I opened the next one and took about half. Fortunately, it immediately calmed down the cramp.

The run course was slightly changed from years past so instead of a brief climb to the Springhill Suites, you immediately head down hill to the river and then to the longest (but not hardest) climb of the course. This was where I needed to test to see how I felt. And this is where I continued to have a few issues at the start of the run. I was about halfway up when my CORE sensor popped off my HR monitor. I tried to put it back on while moving but its a bit tricky. I had to make a quick choice…pocket it for the rest of the day or stop for a moment and put it back on.

I decided that where I was on course and how long I had left, I’d put it back on. I’m pretty sure this cost me about 30 seconds total. Not ideal but also I really wanted the heat data on what is usually a pretty warm day. Once it was back on, I continued on my way and just felt like I was cruising. When I went up grades, I let myself slow down and then picked it back up on the downhills and flats. My goal was to finish my handheld bottled ever 30 minutes or so and to take in a Gu every 30 minutes. Through 8 miles, this worked perfectly.

The first loop of this course takes about 6.5 miles and when I came off the bridge the first time, my average pace was almost exactly a 10 minute mile. And I still felt like I could keep that pace indefinitely at that point. After refilling my bottle at the 8 mile mark though, I started to notice that I was running out of hydration in my flask really quickly. It was completely empty before I even hit the next aid station. Since the water had been so key through the race up to that point, I decided to slow down and fill it again. And it ran out again in under a mile. This is when I realized it was leaking, somehow (It was leaking…I threw it out when I got home and found the leak!). So after mile 9 I started just relying entirely on course hydration. I’d been using Mortal the whole race in addition to my Skratch so I figured with 4 miles left, I’d be fine.

There were only three times during the race where I really walked. I did not even attempt to run up Battery hill on either loop. The climb took about 2 minutes and running up just didn’t seem worth it. Its a 70ish foot climb in a quarter of a mile. I’ve tried running it before and the ROI isn’t very good (for me!) The only other time I walked was the second time over the pedestrian bridge. I wanted to push a little harder to the end at that point. I actually though I could get my pace slightly under 10 min/mi if I just went for it. Well, this is when I actually started to cramp. I still had a little hot shot left but not much. I decided it was NOT worth the extra minute or two I’d gain vs the 5+ minutes I might lose if I had to walk the final kilometer. So I walked for a moment to get things set. Once I got past the steepest part of the bridge, I gently eased back into a run.

This let me hit the final downhill at a decent, but not blistering, pace. A few times my leg threatened to cramp again but I was too close at that point to let it slow me down and I was able to get across line. Amazingly, I never cramped post-race!

Final

My final time 5:05:57. So was this a PR? Its hard to say yes, absolutely! There was just no swim. But if we’d swam the river with the max allowable current…my time would have been under 30 minutes. Add in even a bad transition time and I’m looking at a MASSIVE PR. Would it have worked out that way? I’ll never know!

The flip side is, I’ve wanted to go out and have a race where I finished the race smiling. My run didn’t fall apart on me like it invariably has in the past. My best bike – run split previously is a 5:18 (with T2). This was 12 – 13 minutes faster. So while I didn’t get to have the race I was hoping for because of weather, I’m extremely proud of what I did this past weekend and when I had time to think about it during my 8 hour drive home, I realized that yes, this absolutely was my best 70.3 race. And I think I can do it again!