Allatoona Sprint & Chattanooga RR

Due to some changes (more on that later) I have been trying to fit in the last couple of weeks everything that I have not gotten done in the last 4 years. That is my excuse for not being able to keep up this blog alive, I am sure I can think of many other excuses but for now on I am going with this one… So before I update on my latest changes I wanted to post a quick race report on the last two races I’ve done since I got back from Spain: Allatoona Sprint & Chattanooga Waterfront.

The Allatoona Sprint is one of the 3 races PT Solutions puts together, Dale and the crew do a phenomenal job at having plenty of volunteers and making the finish line even more memorable. Knowing that the venue is the same as the Acworth Women Sprint Tri, I debated on doing this one but at the end of the day I decided to sign up for a couple of reasons, time wise it worked out perfectly with my trip back from Spain. After a three week hiatus is always good to have a reminder on what the racing scene looks like and get some adrenaline going.

I started on the last wave and knew there were a couple of overall contenders ahead of me, their wave started 3min before mine. I got in the water and felt pretty good, went as hard as I could and hoped to put a bit of a gap on my competition. On the bike leg I felt strong and pushed hard, I knew they had changed the run course but on a sprint distance tri there is only one way of racing. I came into T2 and saw one of my competitors heading out of transition, I knew she is a very good runner but I did a quick calculation and thought… she started 3min behind me so I would have to have a really slow run for her to make up for the difference, well apparently either my run was that much worse or hers was that much better (however you like it best J) but she put a heck of a run leaving me on the dust and as 2^nd OA female.

Two weeks later I headed to Chattanooga for my dream race (not really!). Like I’ve said many times, there is always that one race that you do once, twice… or THREE times and you have the same exact thought ½ way into the run … ‘I am NEVER doing this race again’, somehow I’ve manage to do it three times (and counting) , I am 100% I will be going back, because for once I’d like to say ‘I had a KILLER race in Chattanooga’.

The swim was fast as always with the current, this was the fastest I have ever swam 1500m breaking the 19min, I would love to give full credit to my coach, masters coach and swimming partner but the reality of the situation is that there was a STRONG current this year, but I’ll take it. I got off the water and realized I had never started my watch, got on the bike and felt good right away. Since this was my third year doing the race and I ALWAYS die on the run I decided to hold back on the last half of the bike, I caught up many of the girls who had an earlier start time and wanted to make sure I could held on the gab for as long as I could.

Halfway into the run I started to feel the fatigue, the heat and the overall exhaustion, coming into the Shute I was very tempted to  get on the floor and just roll down the hill as I was pretty much done.

1st Masters, 5th OA female

Overall I was happy with both of the races, specially Chattanooga, not so much for the results itself but mentally these are the ones that make you stronger and at the end of the day are the ones that differentiate you as an athlete.  Like I said to my coach after Chattanooga, I am hoping this mental toughness pays off coming race day in IMFL, cause I do have to admit that other than NOLA this season’s races have been a 'mental test’