I am so thrilled to have successfully completed Ironman Canada 2015! It was an incredibly challenging race - the hills on the bike were no joke - and it poured rain on us the majority of the day. Despite the things we couldn't control like the weather, I had a very well planned and executed race. It's so easy to already forget the low's of the race and only remember the high's.
Before the race: We were lucky that the rain held off until we climbed into the water. We took the shuttle from T2 to Alta Lake, and it felt like the longest ride of my life. It was very overwhelming to begin mentally preparing for what was ahead of us. We setup our bikes, added fuel to our race bags, and climbed into our wetsuits.
The Swim: I had been very nervous about where I should start in the pack for the swim. I didn't want to get run over and kicked in the face and also wanted to make sure I didn't spend the whole swim passing people. I decided to stay off to the side at the front of the pack. This meant I wasn't in as dense of a pack of people and would have more room to swim but would definitely end up swimming a further distance than 2.4 miles. This plan worked out great for me! I typically had space but was still surrounded by people that were quick enough. The first lap around the buoys felt quick but the second felt twice as long. My arms were trained up enough for this part - I was very confident going into the swim. I've been a swimmer my whole life and knew this portion wouldn't be tough for me. I was hoping for a 1:20 swim and got out of the water at 1:12! I was pumped!
T1: At Ironman they always have wetsuit strippers, thank goodness. My transition from swim to bike took almost 10 minutes! When I got out of the water it was pouring rain. This meant I had a lot more gear to put on. Gloves, jersey, jacket, shoe covers, etc. Once I got all geared up I made a quick porta-let pee stop and once I got in I slipped a bit on my clip in shoes, grabbed the wall with my hand, and my pinky finger got caught in the crease of the door. It broke my nail in half and ripped off most of my nail! It started bleeding everywhere. Thankfully I had enough adrenaline pumping that I barely noticed it most of the day. First aid put tape on it and I ran off to hop on my bike.
The Bike: I think I already blocked out all of the worst parts of this 112 mile ride. It poured on me the whole first half of the ride. I remember being so cold despite the constant uphill climbs, I wondered if I would ever feel warm again during the race. My hands were so numb despite my gloves that it was hard to brake and shift gears. My bike time was terrible because we could never really accelerate down hill. My biggest focus was not crashing which thankfully did not happen! It truly felt like this bike went uphill, uphill, downhill, uphill, uphill, flat, uphill. More uphill than I ever imagined. The best thing I did during this portion of the race was fueling every half hour and consuming as much Gatorade as I could. I stayed well hydrated and well fueled which made the challenges of this bike course SO much better. I felt like I got passed a LOT and vowed that for my next Ironman I will focus heavily on the bike. I got to see my family twice on the ride and it was the one of the two times I almost cried during the day. I felt so blessed that I have such amazing family who were there to support us. I love my fam. I also got to see Isaac a couple of times on the ride, as well as Nate, and Chelsey once. I was worried about Chelsey on the bike, but THANKFULLY she made the bike cutoff. When she was about 45 minutes away from the finish one of the support vehicles pulled up alongside her and said "If you have anything left, you need to give it all you got - we're about to set up the cut off" meaning that she was super close to getting pulled from the course. That little monkey pushed so hard, hit the transition spot with 7 minutes to change and cross the T2 line to NOT get cut off, which she did with 3 minutes to spare.
T2: I could not have been more relieved to finish the bike. I passed so many flat tires and broken chains and wheels that I could not have been more thankful that I did not encounter those same fates. Once I got into transition I knew I had 7+ hours still left despite my slow bike time to finish this marathon. I can basically walk more than half of that and still finish in enough time. I was hoping for a 5 hour marathon. I thought I had fueled enough and was hydrated enough to maybe do that. The weather had cleared up and it was looking like it would be a gorgeous run!
The Run: I felt pretty good the first 12 miles. I passed a lot of people, was enjoying the course and felt like I was going to smash it. I saw Isaac finishing up his second lap of the run course and was amazed at how great he was still running at 24 miles! I saw Nate who was looking great finishing up his first lap as I started mine and kept looking for Chelsey. At mile 10 a family of black bears came on the course! When I ran by there was a young black bear running on the course 10 ft ahead of me. I freaked out and jumped over a barrier onto the road. They were able to scare off the bear and I kept running. I finally saw Chelsey around mile 12 while she was at about mile 9 and she shouted "I AM SO TIRED! I am going to try to catch up to you so we can walk!". Shortly after that I started thinking about what my strategy would be for run/walk. I wanted Chelsey to catch up (running alone without music is boring) but wanted to keep a good pace. I started running 5 minutes, walking 5 minutes, then running 10 minutes walking 5. Around mile 14 this started turning into walking up hills, running down hills, and running some flats, walking some flats. I kept hoping Chelsey would catch up. By mile 15.5, I got a second wind. I realized I did NOT want to walk 10+ miles and decided Chels must have started walking and was never going to catch up. It also just started raining again, which was great motivation to run. I jogged most of miles 16-21. By the turn around at mile 21, I finally saw Chelsey again! She was less than a mile behind me. I told her I'd start walking so she could catch up. At this point it was POURING and it was almost totally dark out. It was miserable. I could feel in my legs they didn't have a lot of run left in them so I was thankful I'd have someone to walk with. When Chelsey finally caught up I almost cried. I was so happy we were going to finish together. We walked the rest of the way. We caught up on how our day had gone and how we couldn't believe we were actually almost done. Chelsey and I crossed the finish line at 15:44 together. It was perfect.
While I would have loved to have finished in the 14's, I was beyond thrilled at how this race went. Everyone competing that day knew we had to throw away our time goals and just focus on finishing safely. Rain can really ruin a race for the bike portion.
I can't believe I did so well with nutrition and hydration and never truly bonked. Isaac ended up finishing in 11:52! I cannot get over how fast he is. It's incredible. Less than 1% of first time Ironmen run the whole marathon, and of course Isaac is in that group. Nate finished in 14:30. We all finished, we all survived the horrible, freezing weather, and we all were glad it was done! It was so cool to do this race with three other people. I loved our little team. And I love our big team of supporters that were there as well. Stephanie, Nate's girlfriend cheered so hard she got a blister from ringing a cowbell! Stephen, Chelsey's boyfriend spent the whole day in the pouring rain and helped us the whole week as well. All of us had parents there watching and were lucky to have a cheering section. I was also overwhelmed by all of the love we received from friends and family once I finally got back to my phone at midnight. We are all so lucky to have such support behind us in this all consuming sport.
I have never felt such fatigue, such soreness, and such hunger after any race. We all only slept about 5-6 hours after the race and spent Monday hobbling around. I had a hard time eating on Monday, everything I ate made me nauseous. By Tuesday we felt a lot better but still very sore. Today I am starting to feel human again, but know it'll take another week to feel 100%.
Now Isaac and I are wondering... what race is next?
Before the race: We were lucky that the rain held off until we climbed into the water. We took the shuttle from T2 to Alta Lake, and it felt like the longest ride of my life. It was very overwhelming to begin mentally preparing for what was ahead of us. We setup our bikes, added fuel to our race bags, and climbed into our wetsuits.
The Swim: I had been very nervous about where I should start in the pack for the swim. I didn't want to get run over and kicked in the face and also wanted to make sure I didn't spend the whole swim passing people. I decided to stay off to the side at the front of the pack. This meant I wasn't in as dense of a pack of people and would have more room to swim but would definitely end up swimming a further distance than 2.4 miles. This plan worked out great for me! I typically had space but was still surrounded by people that were quick enough. The first lap around the buoys felt quick but the second felt twice as long. My arms were trained up enough for this part - I was very confident going into the swim. I've been a swimmer my whole life and knew this portion wouldn't be tough for me. I was hoping for a 1:20 swim and got out of the water at 1:12! I was pumped!
T1: At Ironman they always have wetsuit strippers, thank goodness. My transition from swim to bike took almost 10 minutes! When I got out of the water it was pouring rain. This meant I had a lot more gear to put on. Gloves, jersey, jacket, shoe covers, etc. Once I got all geared up I made a quick porta-let pee stop and once I got in I slipped a bit on my clip in shoes, grabbed the wall with my hand, and my pinky finger got caught in the crease of the door. It broke my nail in half and ripped off most of my nail! It started bleeding everywhere. Thankfully I had enough adrenaline pumping that I barely noticed it most of the day. First aid put tape on it and I ran off to hop on my bike.
The Bike: I think I already blocked out all of the worst parts of this 112 mile ride. It poured on me the whole first half of the ride. I remember being so cold despite the constant uphill climbs, I wondered if I would ever feel warm again during the race. My hands were so numb despite my gloves that it was hard to brake and shift gears. My bike time was terrible because we could never really accelerate down hill. My biggest focus was not crashing which thankfully did not happen! It truly felt like this bike went uphill, uphill, downhill, uphill, uphill, flat, uphill. More uphill than I ever imagined. The best thing I did during this portion of the race was fueling every half hour and consuming as much Gatorade as I could. I stayed well hydrated and well fueled which made the challenges of this bike course SO much better. I felt like I got passed a LOT and vowed that for my next Ironman I will focus heavily on the bike. I got to see my family twice on the ride and it was the one of the two times I almost cried during the day. I felt so blessed that I have such amazing family who were there to support us. I love my fam. I also got to see Isaac a couple of times on the ride, as well as Nate, and Chelsey once. I was worried about Chelsey on the bike, but THANKFULLY she made the bike cutoff. When she was about 45 minutes away from the finish one of the support vehicles pulled up alongside her and said "If you have anything left, you need to give it all you got - we're about to set up the cut off" meaning that she was super close to getting pulled from the course. That little monkey pushed so hard, hit the transition spot with 7 minutes to change and cross the T2 line to NOT get cut off, which she did with 3 minutes to spare.
T2: I could not have been more relieved to finish the bike. I passed so many flat tires and broken chains and wheels that I could not have been more thankful that I did not encounter those same fates. Once I got into transition I knew I had 7+ hours still left despite my slow bike time to finish this marathon. I can basically walk more than half of that and still finish in enough time. I was hoping for a 5 hour marathon. I thought I had fueled enough and was hydrated enough to maybe do that. The weather had cleared up and it was looking like it would be a gorgeous run!
The Run: I felt pretty good the first 12 miles. I passed a lot of people, was enjoying the course and felt like I was going to smash it. I saw Isaac finishing up his second lap of the run course and was amazed at how great he was still running at 24 miles! I saw Nate who was looking great finishing up his first lap as I started mine and kept looking for Chelsey. At mile 10 a family of black bears came on the course! When I ran by there was a young black bear running on the course 10 ft ahead of me. I freaked out and jumped over a barrier onto the road. They were able to scare off the bear and I kept running. I finally saw Chelsey around mile 12 while she was at about mile 9 and she shouted "I AM SO TIRED! I am going to try to catch up to you so we can walk!". Shortly after that I started thinking about what my strategy would be for run/walk. I wanted Chelsey to catch up (running alone without music is boring) but wanted to keep a good pace. I started running 5 minutes, walking 5 minutes, then running 10 minutes walking 5. Around mile 14 this started turning into walking up hills, running down hills, and running some flats, walking some flats. I kept hoping Chelsey would catch up. By mile 15.5, I got a second wind. I realized I did NOT want to walk 10+ miles and decided Chels must have started walking and was never going to catch up. It also just started raining again, which was great motivation to run. I jogged most of miles 16-21. By the turn around at mile 21, I finally saw Chelsey again! She was less than a mile behind me. I told her I'd start walking so she could catch up. At this point it was POURING and it was almost totally dark out. It was miserable. I could feel in my legs they didn't have a lot of run left in them so I was thankful I'd have someone to walk with. When Chelsey finally caught up I almost cried. I was so happy we were going to finish together. We walked the rest of the way. We caught up on how our day had gone and how we couldn't believe we were actually almost done. Chelsey and I crossed the finish line at 15:44 together. It was perfect.
While I would have loved to have finished in the 14's, I was beyond thrilled at how this race went. Everyone competing that day knew we had to throw away our time goals and just focus on finishing safely. Rain can really ruin a race for the bike portion.
I can't believe I did so well with nutrition and hydration and never truly bonked. Isaac ended up finishing in 11:52! I cannot get over how fast he is. It's incredible. Less than 1% of first time Ironmen run the whole marathon, and of course Isaac is in that group. Nate finished in 14:30. We all finished, we all survived the horrible, freezing weather, and we all were glad it was done! It was so cool to do this race with three other people. I loved our little team. And I love our big team of supporters that were there as well. Stephanie, Nate's girlfriend cheered so hard she got a blister from ringing a cowbell! Stephen, Chelsey's boyfriend spent the whole day in the pouring rain and helped us the whole week as well. All of us had parents there watching and were lucky to have a cheering section. I was also overwhelmed by all of the love we received from friends and family once I finally got back to my phone at midnight. We are all so lucky to have such support behind us in this all consuming sport.
I have never felt such fatigue, such soreness, and such hunger after any race. We all only slept about 5-6 hours after the race and spent Monday hobbling around. I had a hard time eating on Monday, everything I ate made me nauseous. By Tuesday we felt a lot better but still very sore. Today I am starting to feel human again, but know it'll take another week to feel 100%.
Now Isaac and I are wondering... what race is next?
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