Wow. Has it really been a year since Ironman Chattanooga?
As a little recap, my entire 2017 season was dedicated to qualifying and then racing the 2017 IM 70.3 World Championship in Chattanooga. However, on race day day morning, just after 4am I found myself on the kitchen floor, with a smashed and bruised face and bloody lip due to fainting soon after getting out of bed. You can read more here. Racing an Ironman in 2017 was not on my season plan as I spent the season focusing on the half Ironman distance. But after my incident at Worlds, I knew that I couldn't finish my season on such a low moment.
Thus, Ironman Chattanooga will go down as one of my most memorable Ironman races, for so many reasons.
First off, Karel and I shared the course with 14 of our Trimarni athletes and we watched every one of them cross the finish line. It was incredibly special to be there with so many Trimarnis (and to even have a few of our athletes attending just to cheer).
Secondly, Karel and I both won our age groups and each qualified for the 2018 Ironman World Championship. Karel accepted his slot whereas I let mine roll down to another deserving female in the 35-39 age group. Because racing Ironman Chattanooga was never on my 2017 racing season plan (more on this in a minute), I wanted to focus on my two Ironman this summer (Ironman Austria and Iroman Wisconsin) and to get more Ironman racing experience before returning back to the Big Island. I recently accepted my slot at Ironman Wisconsin to race my 5th IM Kona in 2019.
Ironman Chattanooga interview with Marni Sumbal
You should also scroll through their other blog posts for additional information on triathlon training and racing, as well as on returning back to sport after injury. Caitlin and Drew have a successful coaching business as both of their careers revolve around athletes.