2025 IM 70.3 NC - spectating

On October 23rd (Thursday), after I did my run workout and Karel went for a swim, we were off to Wilmington, NC. 

IM 70.3 NC was our last team race of the year. I've always wanted to visit Wilmington because I've heard great things about the race and race venue. Plus, Karel and I are really enjoying making new memories with Sunny and this would be his second time seeing the ocean. Additionally, Karel's mom is with us (until December) and it's always a treat to take her to new places. 

Our 5 hour drive to Wilmington went smoothly and we arrived to our downtown Airbnb around 3pm. After unloading our stuff, Karel met with two athletes to work on their bikes and Sunny and I walked a few blocks to the race expo area (next to Aloft hotel). Ironman gifted us with two VIP passes as we were one of the top 3 largest tri clubs at the race. I picked up our VIP stuff which included an emergency pack of sprays (ex. bug spray, sunscreen, etc.), wrist bands, cowbells and backpacks. We also received access to the athlete shuttle on race morning to T1 and VIP food areas in T1 and T2. We said hi to a few familiar faces and then Sunny and I walked around the streets of the historic downtown. 

Although Sunny doesn't use his e-collar when he does his therapy work, we still keep it on him when we are out and about. He feels really confident with it on and we are always working on his obedience to make sure he doesn't get rusty. We are still so proud of how far he has come. Karel mentioned to me that Sunny earned the opportunity to travel with us as a year ago, we were afraid to take him anywhere because of his reactivity to other dogs, anxiety in new places and excessive barking. He worked really hard and now he gets to enjoy the rewards of being an obedient dog by going everywhere with us. We love him so much. 

I ordered pizza in advance from Cugino Forno and had it delivered to Jim's beach house. Normally I pick up the pizza for our pre-race team pizza parties but not knowing the area and arriving a few hours before our team pizza party had me a little overwhelmed so the easy option was paying a little extra to get the pizza delivered. We picked up water from Food Lion as we made our way to the beach. It was ~40 minutes to get to the beach due to traffic. 

Our athlete and long time friend and team sponsor Jim rented a beach house by the swim start and it was the perfect location for our pre-race pizza party. We had a great time catching up with our athletes. 

Our Airbnb was in a great location - although it was a little noisy due to the music/weddings from the bars/restaurants in the area. We were located by the Museum of Bizarre which is on the run course (last 1/2 mile before the finish by the boardwalk entrance). We ended up sleeping really well once we officially fell asleep. 

On Friday morning we drove to the beach around 8:30am and went for an open water swim with a few of our athletes. Our athletes only swim for around 10-15 minutes to get a fell of the current in the water. Karel and I ended up swimming with the current and then against the current for a 30 minute swim. The water was a little chilly to enter but felt great with our wetsuits on. It wasn't too salty. 

After our swim, we changed at Jim's and Karel and I went for a run. It was a nice change to run on completely flat roads compared to our hilly terrain where we live. I ran for 1:22 and Karel ran for 90 minutes (he did a workout). After our run, we took Sunny and Karel's mom for a walk on the beach (dogs are allowed on the beach in the fall/winter) and then we went to lunch with Jim and his family and coach Joe at the restaurant on the beach. The food was ok (not much vegetarian options at the seafood restaurant). After lunch we went downtown to meet our athletes for a team picture at 3pm at T2. Then it was time to relax as all of our obligations were done for the day. 

In the evening, Karel and I walked to Castle Street Kitchen for dinner (it was really good!). I got a veggie burger and Karel got a regular burger. I set an early alarm for 4:45am so that we could get to the beach to support our athletes on race morning. 

RACE DAY

Trimarni athlete Brittany made us this awesome sign! 

We left our Airbnb in downtown around 5:10am and headed towards the beach. The traffic was really backed up as we got closer to T1 so we decided to park at Harris Teeter and walk 3 miles to the race start. It was very chilly in the morning so it was nice to warm up a little when we got to Jim's house. We saw a few of our athletes when they were lining up to enter the water. We then walked back to T1 and hung out in the VIP tent to see our athletes transition from swim to bike. Everyone looked cold starting the bike! 

We made our way back to the car (with a quick stop at a bagel shop) and then drove back to our Airbnb. Thankfully, no traffic getting to downtown. We parked our car and had a short rest in our Airbnb before heading back outside to the run course. We stood on the corner of Orange and Front street and watched our athletes come by. This was around mile 1.75 into the 13.1 mile run. The weather had changed from windy and cool on the bike to very pleasant on the run (although we were still cold while spectating, our athletes looked comfortable running in the 60-degree temps). 

Sadly, during the bike portion, our athlete Ruthanne was hit from behind by another rider. She was taken to the hospital via ambulance. Thankfully, she is ok with nothing too serious but she did have 6 fractured ribs and some road rash. Ruthanne was part of a Trimarni relay (she was the biker) so the other two relay members went to the hospital to stay with Ruthanne. We were worried all morning and were relieved when she left the hospital in the afternoon. On Sunday, I drove Ruthanne back to Greenville in her car (with Sunny) since she lives a few miles away from us and Karel drove him and his mom home. 

Although the logistics of IM 70.3 NC are a bit stressful with the two transitions, it was nice have two locations for the race. We really enjoyed our time at the beach but we also enjoyed walking around the historic downtown. If I were to do this race, I would stay at the beach so that I didn't have to ride the morning shuttle on race day morning (which runs from downtown to the beach). Because athletes cannot access T2 bags on race morning, I would leave my car at downtown after checking in the bike in T1 and run gear bag in T2, and then uber back to the beach. This way I would have a car at the race finish and an extra hour to sleep on race morning. 

There was a farmers market going on during the race.

Although it was a long day on our feet (we walked over 10 miles!) we loved seeing our athletes in action. We had several best performances on a day that proved to be challenging with the cold weather and wind. 

At 4:30pm we walked to Aloft for the awards (coach Joe placed 2nd in his AG and received a slot to the 2026 IM 70.3 World Championships and we placed 5th Tri Club). We ordered food from Kale Me Crazy and had it delivered to our Airbnb around 6pm. 

We were tired so we went to bed around 8:30pm. The next morning we packed up the car, picked up Ruthanne at the beach, said good bye to our athletes and hit the road back to Greenville. 

Spectathleting Ironman 70.3 Chatty

It was a very quick and last-minute decision to drive 4.5 hours to spectate Ironman 70.3 Chattanooga but it was well worth it. With nine Trimarni team members racing (6 age groupers, 1 pro, 2 educational team members), we couldn't pass up this opportunity to see our athletes in action. Plus, we know the Chatty area really well after being there for Ironman 70.3 Worlds and Ironman Chattanooga last year so it was an overall stress free, quick and fun weekend. 

Although the weather was iffy for the weekend, it turned out to be absolutely perfect. It was hot and sunny instead of stormy which I'm sure delighted the minds of the athletes who were racing this weekend as it can be mentally exhausting to have to worry about the chance of storms and the possibility of a cancelled swim or race. The weather forecast looked to be worse for our athletes racing the Greenville Mountains to Mainstreet half ironman on Sat but thankfully the weather gods were in our favor.

We left Greenville on Friday late morning. Because our weekend was dedicated to our athletes, we strategically used the weekend as "recovery" from our training instead of trying to pile in longer Ironman workouts in a different training environment, without being able to focus well on recovery and nutrition. Therefore, we did our "longer" workouts on Thurs and Friday morning - although, neither was too long by most Ironman triathletes standards but we have been focusing more on quality and intensity over volume lately to help us fine-tune our fitness for our upcoming races.

After we checked into our hotel around 4pm, we quickly unpacked the car and drove to the expo to meet up with our friend Rachel at Ventum. It was nice to also see some other familiar faces at the expo. We had all the excitement of racing but without the nerves :)
We are so excited about our recent Ventum + Trimarni partnership and to have the opportunity to support and ride Ventum. I'm excited to say that I'll be riding a Ventum one at Ironman Wisconsin as my new bike will arrive later this summer (after we return home from our Europe race-cations). I only say all of this after I had the opportunity to test out the Ventum bike. Since we were in Chattanooga and there was a size 46 demo bike available, Rachel (aka director of happiness) let me borrow the bike overnight (how cool and awesome is that?!?) for Karel to do a quick fit/adjustment for me to test-ride the bike on Saturday morning. I was super excited to try out a new bike brand (with a radical design) as I have been riding Trek for about eight years and I have head nothing but great things from Karel since he got his Ventum a few months ago.

Since we brought a cooler full of food, we didn't have to rely on eating out or searching for food but we did pick up dinner at Whole Foods (on the other side of the river) to give us a nice meal to eat in the hotel room before calling it a night. After two extremely tough days of training, we really needed to make sure we stayed up on our nutrition and hydration, especially with being a bit off of our normal routine in Chattanooga. In the evening, I worked on the computer for a little bit as Karel watched the Giro (or Tour of California - not sure as he is in cycling heaven right now with so much to cycling to watch!) and then we went to sleep around ten. Campy loves road trips and he was so happy to be with us this weekend. With so much travel for us this summer, it was nice to have Campy with us as he makes everything more entertaining with him around.

We woke up rather early to get out on the bikes before the expo started so that we could return back the demo Ventum. With our athlete Josh staying in a hotel across the street from us, he joined us for the ride at 7:30 so that he could do some of his warm-up with us before we carried on with our ride. Karel had his road bike as this Sat ride was all about me getting to test out the Ventum. We were so thankful to Josh's wife Eedee for babysitting Campy at her hotel while we were out spinning our legs. Campy is one spoiled pooch.

After a quick 45 minute spin on the race course, Josh left us to head back to his hotel and Karel and I carried on with our ride up Lookout mountain. It was important for me to test the bike in all types of terrain and my biggest concerns were how the bike rides on bumpy roads, climbing and most of all descending. Because me and the wind tend to not get along really well, I was anxious to hear if the Ventum would help me feel more in control of the bike when riding in the wind (especially descending). Although there wasn't much wind if at all, it was still good to climb and descend on the Ventum. My immediate feedback was that this bike feels just like a road bike - it's extremely easy to control, smooth and responsive. I felt in control while descending and it's very comfortable in aero. If you know me, I don't like change but I was loving this bike so much that I didn't want to get off it!

After about 1:30 of riding, we rode to the expo to meet up with a few of our athletes so Karel could help with some bike mechanical needs of our athletes and so I could say hi to others. I went back to the hotel after almost 2 hours of riding the Ventum and didn't want to stop riding it.

After getting Campy, cleaning up and eating, we headed back to the Expo to return the Ventum and finish off our morning helping our athletes out however needed. We spent the rest of the afternoon in the hotel room working, watching cycling, eating and taking a short nap (phew, exhausted!) before heading out for dinner with Eedee in downtown Chattanooga at Bluewater. Dinner was so good and it totally hit the spot to have something filling, fatty and salty.

On Sunday morning, we stayed at our hotel instead of heading to the swim start so that we could see all of our athletes (and  the pros) start the bike (around mile 2). We were in the perfect spot to give some cheers to everyone. It was so great to see our professional triathlete Ericka in action as she put together a very strong race and was in the mix throughout the entire race, from start to finish. We are so proud of her. Our other athletes, Josh, Reid, Diane, Michaela, Pat and Andy did amazing, as did our educational team member Gin. Another team member Josh had a mechanical which took him out of the race on the bike but he was in good spirits which is important as that's part of racing. Everyone was smiling and looked in control throughout the entire run.

We headed down to the race venue before the male pros got off the bike, just in time to see Starky finish the bike and start the run. It was very inspiring to see the pros in action and we were able to give a big cheer for a few of our favs out there on the course, especially our athlete Ericka who was rocking this race and ended up 11th pro female.

The Chatty run course is perfect for spectating so we headed up the hill to backside of the course (before the bridge over the river) to see our athletes on both sides of the course. It was the perfect location to cheer for everyone. Campy was a trooper although he spent more time in my arms than on the ground as his 10.5 year old body doesn't move as fast for as long as it use to. Regardless, he had fun out there and gave a lot of barks/cheers. 

We watched most of our athletes finished but we needed to hit the road by 2pm in order to get back to Greenville before a busy Monday for us (nutrition consults and Retul fits). Thankfully, we saw everyone out on the course and it's always a relief to know that your athletes are off the bike. It was exhausting to spectate but well worth it as it was so awesome to see so many familiar faces and to be there for our athletes. Next up, Karel will be racing Raleigh (I will be staying at home with Campy so Karel is making the trip solo).

A few pics from the weekend....