Chattahoochee Challenge - Olympic distance Triathlon & Duathlon 8-11-18

Chattahoochee Challenge - Olympic distance Triathlon &  Duathlon 8-11-18

Krista and I had been anxiously awaiting this race.  It was going to be her first long distance Duathlon and a Oly for me with swim practice in a river.  We had even talked Jennifer Patterson into going and she was going to do the Oly with me.  We were all pumped and ready.  However, on the drive to Georgia on Friday, Krista and I drove through some bad heavy rain.  At some points it was so hard we could barely see the road.  We were so over rain by the time we arrived in Ga.  

Here we are trying to have fun in spite of the rain on our drive. 

Right as we were arriving in Ga, I got a text from Jennifer who was already at packet pickup telling me the swim was canceled.  I could hardly believe it.  I kept asking her if she was sure she heard the news right.  And once Krista and I got to packet pickup, the news was confirmed.  The swim was canceled.  All the recent hard rain they had received had caused some places to be near flood level and the core of engineers had to open the dams to release some water which made it unsafe for the swim.  Talk about a BIG let down for me!  I so needed that river swim!  I'm trying not to focus on my 2.4 mile swim coming up in 7 weeks at Chattanooga and really wanted some river practice.  But I couldn't change what mother nature had caused so I got ready to do the Duathlon that Krista was going to be doing.  

Friday night we had dinner at 11th and Bay.  Very nice restaurant! 

Here we are on Saturday morning setting up and waiting to start:

A cool bike we saw in transition

Mine and Jennifer's bikes ready to go

Jennifer, Me & Krista waiting till start time... it's still dark when we set up our stuff.  Yes.... we start EARLY in the mornings on race days. :) 

A race crew member took a picture of us while we waited to start.

It was an overcast morning and the humidity was very BAD!  I haven't done a duathlon in awhile so I was a tad bit nervous.  But when they blew the whistle for us to start, I got right into my pace and ran.  I ran completely the first 1.7 miles (was supposed to be 2!) with an average of 9:18... boy I was excited about that!  I haven't ran that good in a while. 

                                                         

Check out that pace.. whoop whoop 

The bike route was 2 loops.  It was a fun bike route.  It had several twist and turns so on the first loop I was kind of nervous going around the curves, but the 2nd loop I really liked it and smile most of the time. 

Jennifer found this picture of me on their Facebook page and sent to me.

Check out some of them miles on the bike. :)  The bike course was short!  Turned out to be close to 23 miles in stead of 26! 

The last run loop which was supposed to be a 10K (6.2 miles) turned out to be 5.56 miles!  All events were shorter than the race distance!  First time ever for that to happen to me.    The last run segment... started off pretty good, but the need for the bathroom hit me between mile 2-3 and I had to slow way down to avoid an accident.  LOL  There were no porta potties along the run course. :(  So I just prayed that when I finished I would not have poop in my pants.  Yep, I don't like to talk about it... but trust me... a lot of runners have this issue from time to time... hee hee 

The finish line had a water slide!  Boy was I ready for that when I crossed that finish line!  

Me, Krista & Jennifer at the finish line after we were all done. 

To my surprise I placed 2nd in my age group!  I was thrilled and shocked.  There were some fast people in the race.  I saw tons of ironman bags in transition area.

 Jennifer also placed 2nd in her age group.  Good thing she's not in my age group! ha  We got these cool bricks.

After we cleaned up from our hot race, Krista and I walked around town to stretch our legs.  As you can see the river is still flowing really good behind us.  Columbus, Ga is really a pretty place!  We had lunch at The Simple Greek.  Awesome salad!  After our walk we went back to our room and took a much needed nap.  I think between the drive in the heavy rain on Friday and then racing in very humid conditions on Saturday morning, we needed a nap / break.  Jennifer was with her man and son :)  they went water rafting that afternoon! I think they had a real adventure... they flipped and Jennifer said for a minute she couldn't find her son and was in panic mode.  She said next time she goes rafting she'll probably not take her child with her. hee hee

After Krista and I took nap we had a wonderful cup coffee in the hotel lobby and chatted.  It was so nice being off with no husband and no kids (more so for Krista than me.. hee hee.. my kids grown and my husband never wants to travel to races with me).  I have to say how proud I am of Krista!  She tackled and conquered her first long distance duathlon!  I've seen her make many improvements over the past couple of years and she's not done yet!  She will tackle her first full marathon in December and I have NO doubt she'll conquer it!  She's got sheer determination to meet her goal.   She works hard every day to accomplish her goals.  

We ended up having dinner at a fabulous Italian restaurant that one of my PPRF running friends recommended.  We actually had good food at all the places we ate during the weekend!

  Check out how charming this Italian place is:

My steak was the best steak I've had in a LONG time!  

So that's a wrap for a girls weekend in Columbus, Ga

Until next time.....  DO YA JOB :)  Continue to push forward.  Don't let set backs stop you.  Aim for that goal.  See ya at the finish line! 

#7weekstoironmanchoo YIKES :)