Team Member: Hannah Meadows

Race Name: Chattanooga Waterfront

Race Date: July 11, 2010

Race Placement/Time/Qualification: 1st AG/ 14th OA

Tell us about your race (limit 500 words)…: This was a race with its ups and downs, but overall a fun and exciting race. Half of my family (mom, Aubrey, and Sheila) got to come up and enjoy beautiful Chattanooga with me. This was probably one of the most competitive races I have participated in and definitely the largest Olympic distance as my only other Olympic was 11Global with 130 people. It was pretty odd and distracting having to wait about an 1.5 hours to get started, but I thankfully had Katie and Brian to help pass the time. I had heard well before the race how amazing the current was so when I started swimming, I was surprised to find that it did not feel as fast as I had expected. Running up the first set of many steps, I headed to the transition area and got on the bike for the famous highway course. It was hilly, but I got into a good groove early and really enjoyed that part of the race. I was probably dehydrated heading into the run since I only had my AERO bottle for the 42k bike after my other bottle fell out. Like a lot of others, I was a bit lost in the transition area for a moment, but finally found my shoes and started on the run. I have not been feeling too great on the run lately, but was hoping I could pull out a great run for a great race. Seems that it will have to wait since I ran 4 minutes slower than I had planned, but at least I can learn a lot from my inexperience. Things did not get that much better when I found that I got a drafting penalty (I think I have a fat sign on my head that says “Penalize me!”)so that hurt my overall standing from pushing me from 7th to 14th OA. Like I have been saying a lot lately- you learn something new every race!