Black clouds and searing heat

You know when you read reviews for a product and it’s 4.5 stars out of 5. You scroll through all the raves, the benefits, the amazing “this changed my lifes” and get to that one bad review that fills you with dread. Should I buy this? One person had a terrible experience, it broke, they never got their money back, it failed at the most inopportune time. It’s a black cloud on that product.

That 1-star review is my swimming black cloud.

As a swimmer on the weaker end of the spectrum, I’m drawn to races that boast a fast swim. Here’s my swim track record:

2023 Wilmington: Current swim through a harbor, the swim starts as the tide comes in, pushes us towards the finish. The year I did it? Freak tidal pattern: first half of athletes were swimming against the current as the tide went out, while the last half swam with the current as the tide came in. All the people that started early anticipating fast overall times, had terribly long swims, while all the slower people who placed themselves at the back ripped through the swim. Absurd.

2024 Eagleman: Current swim in an inlet off Chesapeake Bay. It’s a rectangle with a short side against the current and a long side with the current. What happens? The current flips so the long side is against, and the short side is with. Bizarre.

2024 Augusta: River swim with current. Entire race is cancelled due to hurricane. Unprecedented.

2024 Edisto: It was a true current swim, but I had bronchitis, and I don’t remember most of that race.

2025 Chattanooga: When Augusta was cancelled athletes were given their choice of deferrals in 2025 and this was the most practical due to date and location. It’s a downriver swim with very fast times.

The swim is cancelled because of flooding. The river was too fast. Too. Fast.

Under normal circumstances I would be thrilled a swim was cancelled, but after the effort I’ve put into swimming and the skills I learned at Pool School, I was excited to have a great swim! It was cancelled!

May the odds be never in my favor.

Instead we had a time trial bike start. This was an entirely new experience, we had to self-seed based on anticipated bike times. Swimming typically creates a natural selection of speed for athletes. So you get out of the water and might have to work around a couple dozen people who are faster swimmers than you are biker, but within 10 miles it evens out and you can ride your race.

This was a mess. It’s difficult to know how fast you’ll ride a course you’ve never ridden, with unknown hills, draft packs, and other attributes. I guessed 2:45, turns out I should have guessed 1:30. Not that I rode that fast, but apparently the competitors for Chattanooga think very highly of themselves. I passed so many people in the first 10 miles. It was jam packed.

In this case, it was 30 miles before I was no longer in some group of cyclists and dodging around slower ones. The roads were open to traffic too, which meant cars were passing us, we were getting stuck behind them. It was rather frustrating. Despite that, the route was beautiful. Huge, luscious trees hanging over shady highways, perfect overcast sky that kept the sun away.

There were benefits to the time trial. Starting on the bike was comfy, not getting on it soaking wet, having time to buckle my helmet tightly, knowing I had my shoes on all the way, I could get used to that.

I placed 15th in my age group and had my 2^nd fastest time at this distance. My bike leg was strong considering all the obstacles plus a couple steep hills I was not expecting. There were people walking their bikes up one of the hills. I ended up biking a 2:31and averaging 22.5 mph with 1800 feet of elevation.

Then came the run. Holy hot batman! The sun came out a little, it was muggy and crowded. Hubs caught me on the uphill out of transition and gave me some splits, when I heard I was 11^th in my age group I knew the podium wouldn’t happen, so I decided to focus on controlling my run and holding as even a pace as possible. I ran 8:30, which is one of my slower times, but I felt very good and never wanted to quit the sport entirely, I’m counting that a win. The course was so hilly, one bridge went uphill only. I didn’t know that was architecturally possible and it felt a little cruel.

We had a super fun time and were able to watch a few of the professionals out on the course.

The kids and I watch a lot of races on TV, and they’ve developed a few favorites over the years. Sam Long is one of them and getting my picture with him was awesome.

Hubs did great as Sherpa, inclusive of hotel bike tech and excessively heavy bag carrying. He also got some great pictures and chauffeured all weekend.

As always, triathlon vibes were high and I was able to meet up with a friend from a previous race. Shout out to Austin! We ran together at a Kinetic race last Fall, he motivated me for the last few miles and we’ve enjoyed hassling each other on Strava ever since. We’ve stayed in touch via Strava and the blog. It was great to see each other in person and commiserate over the cancelled swim. I love how sports bring people into our orbits. Hope to see you at another Kinetic race this season, Austin!