Morning of:
Woke up at 3:40am.
This race started at 6:20am due to the rolling swim start, so we needed to get
there extra early. Downed 1 1/2 English muffins with pb+j and drank some grape
pedialyte. Put sunscreen on my face and arms. (mistake #1 of the day - not having
Isaac put sunscreen on my back!) We had to walk a half mile to the high school,
drop off our special needs bags (bags halfway through the bike and run you can
fill with things you might need but can't carry on you all day) and then hop on
the bus to take us to the reservoir. I have not felt that nauseous for a race
in yeaaaars as I did walking to the high school. I thought I was going to throw
up on the way. When we got to the res we all headed over to our bikes to put on
nutrition and check tire pressure. Threw on my swim skin and got ready to swim!
Swim:
This swim was a
rolling start, which means you seed yourself based on your anticipated finish
time. The options were less than an hour, 1hr-1:15, 1:16-1:30, 1:30-1:45,
1:45-2hr, 2hr+ (I think the cutoff time is 2:20). Last year in Whistler I swam
a 1:12 and I know I've gotten a lot faster. I was pretty sure I could beat
Isaac and Nate's time of 1:06 last year. The race was wetsuit legal so most
people wore sleeveless wetsuits, but my wetsuit sucks so I just wore my swim
skin. I never got too cold so I don't think this was a mistake. As we were in
line waiting to hop in the water, I felt the most emotional that I have in all
of training and racing. It was one of those moments where everything around you
pauses and you take a deep breath and just take it all in. All of my training,
all of the hard work, all the days I forced myself to train when every muscle
was screaming at me, the days I had no motivation but did it anyways… it was
all for this day. Last year I was so scared and had no idea what to expect, and
this year I was probably more scared since I knew how hard it really was - but
also felt much more pressure to be better and excitement to see what I could do
on course. It was a lot of feelings. It took everything in me not to burst into
tears as they almost spilled out of my eyes - but luckily I had a couple guys
next to me cracking nervous jokes about the swim like "hey bro, wanna go
for a swim? How does 2.4 miles sound? Then hop on the bike, go for a run?
Awesome!" kind of comments which pulled me out of my own head. We hit the
water and went to work! The rolling start is SO much less terrifying than the
mass swim start. The cannon going off and 2,000 people starting at once is
horrifying, this was much easier. I seeded myself in 1 hour to 1:15. I seeded
myself well - I didn't have anyone kick me in the face or push me under (all
things that are common at the beginning of a triathlon). I tried to zone out
and just swim and did a decent job sighting, keeping within a better distance
of the buoys than I did last year. I had a horrible moment where I thought that
the buoys turned orange at the last 1/3 of the race (this was a single loop
course), but realized after checking my watch they switched halfway which
mentally messed with me a little, but pressed on. Out of no where, I swam
straight into a wall of seaweed floating at the top of the water. It caught
everywhere on me and I freaked out. Some caught on my timing chip around my
ankle and was acting like drag behind me. It didn't stop for at least 500
meters - like a sea of floating dead seaweed (milfoil I think they called it?).
I swam to the other side of the buoys thinking it was just in the shallows but
it wasn't. It was awful! Eventually it cleared. Approaching the finish line I
was guessing I might have swam a 1:10 with all the dodging of people and
seaweed, and the fact that I hadn't really felt any current from other swimmers
pulling me along like I did in Canada. I checked my watch and was shocked at
1:14. I was pretty bummed. I let it go and ran into transition - at least I was
done with part 1!
T1: This year I knew
I would be way faster in T1 with not having to change my ENTIRE outfit since I
wore my race kit under my swim skin. This transition was the longest T1 I'd
ever seen. We had to run at least .3 miles when all was said and done. I took a
minute in the tent to orient myself since I always feel a little dazed coming
out of a long swim. I ran, grabbed my bike, and as soon as I went to mount it I
realized I had dropped my chain. I freaked out (I suck at doing anything with
my bike…) and shouted to see if any volunteers would help - a man threw my
chain back on and off I went!
Bike: Let me start
by prefacing that I had not ridden much outdoors this year. The longest outdoor
ride I did was 71 miles and the longest indoor ride I did was 82 miles. I was
scared that I hadn't built up the strength in my shoulders and grip to hang on
for the ride. I tried to psych myself up that this ride would be way easier
than Canada and tell myself I had gotten a lot faster. I had told Isaac I could
do a 16 mph average on the ride and he had scoffed at me - reminding me that my
average did include all the climbing - not just riding flats. That honestly
fueled me the whole ride - I knew I could average 16mph. I wanted to prove him
wrong since he had doubted me. I set a time goal for the bike for 7:30 to our
family beforehand and would have been very happy with that time since I was
over 8 hours in Canada. This was a
GORGEOUS bike course. So scenic. The first small loop had most of the big
climbs. I wasn't worried about them at all. I powered up them, actually tried
to keep speed on the downhills (which I don't normally enjoy, but vowed to
myself I would NOT ride my breaks). I hit 36.2 mph on my fastest downhill
according to my garmin and stayed in my aerobars for a lot of the descents
which terrifies me. The rest of the course was two big loops which had some
great, fast parts, and some really challenging false flats. Around mile 40 my
chain dropped for a second time. I pulled over and shouted for help again and
two spectators came over to help. Something weird had happened and my chain had
gotten caught where we couldn't loop it back around my crank. After about 4
minutes of them messing with it - they figured it out. I almost cried again,
thanked them, and started hauling ass to try to make up that time I had lost. I
took advantage of the fast parts of the course averaging 20mph, but when I hit
the false flats I freaked. I so badly wanted to keep up my average pace I
pushed WAY TOO HARD (mistake #2). I even thought at the time I should let up,
but I just kept going. Those false flats felt like forever. I was not happy. I
finished my first big loop and started my second. I came to the part of the
course on the highway and saw the sign "road re-routed" (or something
like that). I passed a ton of police cars and realized someone had to have
gotten in an accident. I saw blood on the highway but assumed no one died since
they didn't shut down the highway. I found out at the end of the race that a
woman racing with us had died on course. There are no words to describe knowing
that. It's so devastating, scary, and makes you realize how aware of our
surroundings we have to be. There are rumors that she had veered outside of our
course cones to pass other cyclists and was hit by a truck and then run over. I
did not witness the accident so I can't say for sure what happened, but it
makes you remember that it's not all about PR's when it gets in the way of
safety. My thoughts are with her family, tri community, and those involved in
the incident. I continued on my bike leg blissfully ignorant - if I had
witnessed the accident or known my whole race would have been completely
different.
For some reason,
when I'm on my bike I can't do math. I have no problem running or swimming
doing math in my head, but nothing makes sense when I'm on my bike. I was
thinking that based on my halfway mark I would barely hit 7:30 and couldn't
figure out how that was with what my average pace was. As I was cruising down a
hill it suddenly dawned on me - I was on pace to come in under 7 hours if I
kept it up. HOLY SHIT. NO WAY. I'M WAY TOO SLOW TO GO THAT FAST. I started
working even harder - that became my one and only priority. I completely put
the marathon in the back of my mind, knowing it was going to be a really tough
marathon if I kept going for this pace but didn't care. I had a hornet land on
my bike computer and I couldn’t watch the course for almost a mile staring at
it. I finally flicked it off when I could. Ten minutes later one landed ON MY
HAND. I freaked out and threw my hand up
to shake it off and ALMOST crashed. I barely didn't. So lucky - I saw three
people crash on course. From mile 75 ish on my front foot pads started to hurt.
Mostly my right foot. By mile 90 both were on fire. I considered pulling off
course to pull off my shoes and lay down to reduce the swelling and pain but
could only think about a sub 7 hour ride. I scrunched up my toes to build space
and relieve the pressure and kept going. I saw a man almost get hit by a stupid
car at mile 109. As soon as I got to the dismount I checked my watch - it said
6:59!!!! I HAD DONE IT! (later I saw my official time was 7:00 and some
seconds, but in my mind I did a sub 7 hour ride! Screw where the timing chip
was!)
T2: I instantly
pulled off my shoes and ran the longest transition for T2 ever made in my bike
socks. My feet had never felt better being out of those shoes. I've never had
pain like that in my feet before - it must have been the heat? Who knows. The
T2 transition was a LONG route to drop off our bikes, and a long route after
that - including stairs up to the changing tents. I figured this would take me
about 10 minutes total so I took my time and did not run it. I had a lot of
running ahead of me, and in my mind I had accomplished the greatest achievement
on the bike I could have dreamed. I could walk the entire marathon and still
finish with a PR. I was so stinking happy. I changed my shoes, threw on my hat,
and hit the run course.
Run: I started the
run telling myself to run the first 6 miles and take it from there with a
run/walk. I could walk more than I had planned since I was so fast on the bike,
so just take it easy and jog as long as I can. I could barely run the first
mile. I have never felt like that in my entire life. My guess is it was a
mixture of the heat, the altitude, and pushing way too hard on my ride. I saw
Isaac at mile 2 and warned him this was going to be a slow marathon for me so
he could spread the word when he finished to our family so they wouldn't worry
about me. I started bargaining with myself - which most people who do an
Ironman can attest happens on the run course. I told myself to run 5 minutes,
walk 2 minutes. I did that for a while. Everyone around me was walking. It was
hard to stay motivated to keep running when everyone else was walking! I talked
to a lot of people on the run course, but didn't stay too long with one person.
I hit 10 miles and thought how long 16 miles of walking would be. I tried to
run more but felt a little dizzy. I realized that the whole day I had only peed
once after the swim and once after the bike. I was probably dehydrated. I tried
to correct this but know that I never did. A girl who I spent most of the ride
with and had been going back and forth with on the run told me we should stick
together. She got me to run from mile 14-17. At mile 17 I took a clif shot and
felt so nauseous I had to walk. I told her I'd catch up but at that moment
decided I didn't want to run anymore. Then at mile 18 I saw a man being taken in an ambulance due to seizures.
For some reason this reminded me how lucky I was to be out there and tried
jogging as long as I could and walk until I felt stable and then run again. I
know I walked most of miles 17-26.2. At mile 19ish? one of my friends who was
there watching heard me and walked part of the course with me - she let me know
Isaac had finished and had done a 5:45 marathon. This became my only motivation
to push a little faster. I wanted to at LEAST beat Isaac, who had way less
running fitness than I had. I had had SUCH great running training this season,
it dawned on me that I was a little disappointed that I had lost sight of the
race as a whole and ruined my marathon. It wasn't until mile 23 I knew I
wouldn't beat Isaac's time, but I then told myself I HAD to do faster than a 6
hour marathon. I think if I would have paced better on the bike I could have
done under 5 hours. At mile 25 I went for it. Which I'm sure was still SUPER
slow. I ran almost all of the way to the finish, stopping once to catch my
breath and slow my heart rate. One lady was obviously trying to beat me and up
until right before the finish shoot had done so - but I passed her right at the
end before the red carpet which felt like a little victory. (I might be a
little too petty…) I always think I'll be emotional at the finish, but I am
always way too tired to cry. I barely heard Mike Reilly, the voice of Ironman,
announce that I was an Ironman, as this year I really wanted a good finisher
pic so was focused on that!
Post race: I was
very happy to be done, and all I could think about was lying down and taking
off my shoes. I know all of us finishers look so dazed because you truly are
delirious by the end of the race. Every finisher seems to get assessed by
medical as they finish and they encourage us to go to the medical tent to make
sure we're ok, but I just kept telling them I was tired - I had just finished
to LONGEST MARATHON OF MY LIFE, otherwise I was fine. I was so dehydrated I
probably should have gotten checked out… but I found my way to the first grass
spot I could find, and laid down with my feet in the air. I had been thinking
about that moment for 8 hours. While it felt better than standing, you feel
like total shit until like 24 hours after the race so no resting really feels
that great. I tried to clean off some of the layers of salt from my arms - and
it literally rolled off but it was layers on layers of salt. So gross. Once I
came to… kind of… we had to walk probably .75 miles after the race to grab our
bikes and walk them back home - which is probably the only reason why I didn't
cramp up that night and could partly move the next morning, working out some
lactic acid. I hardly ate that night - drank a nuun water bottle and passed out
around 11:30pm. I had really wanted to watch midnight finishers but I couldn’t
bring myself back to the finish line. One of these days I will watch a live
midnight finish!
My highlights from
this race:
- The instagram crew we had been messaging with prior to the race and then got to meet in Boulder was awesome. It was so great to see people on course and cheer each other along and have people to chat with pre and post race.
- My bike time. I still am so freaking stoked. Most decently fast ironman athletes would think my bike time was slow, but this was a huge gain for me this season, it makes me feel like I'm unstoppable, even though the marathon made me feel the opposite. :-)
- The week before the race. Getting to take a whole week off work prior really helped me clear my head. I could focus on what was ahead, really rest up, enjoy some new adventures in a new town, and only worry about resting, nutrition, and enjoying the pre-ironman events.
- Getting a PR. My new PR is 14:31 and I'm proud of that. I already have lots of goals for my next race - including keeping the whole race in perspective and not burning out on one leg so I can enjoy the run.
I feel so fortunate
to have found Ironman. It was a decision I made to do completely uninformed,
with no idea what it meant or how it would change me. I love the community of
people. I love the strength it gives me. Triathlon has become my passion. My passion
is not to qualify for Kona or place top 5 in my age group, but to just
continually grow and get better. Getting a big PR this year really fueled me. I
am so proud of the hard work I put in to cut 1 hr and 15 minutes off my time,
that makes me want to get sub 14 hours since that was what I would have loved
this time as well.
What's next? For
Ironman, I'm not sure. We're going to Europe next summer which is right in the
middle of IM season, so race options are limited. Either an early season
Ironman (which means training starting in December in the shitty weather) or a
late late season Ironman like Arizona.. Which I eventually do want to do but
have a hard time imaging not starting training for a whole year. There's always
the option to take a year off of the full distance and do a 70.3 or two. But
I'm not sure I want to spend the money on halves when it's the full distance
that really fuels me to push past my limits. Which is the reason I do these
races. Other changes for the next tri season - I think we'll invest in getting
a coach. I would love training a bit more tailored to me than the generic plan
we've used the last two races. I would love to continue cutting my bike time
down, which makes the race so much shorter.
I do have a 50k
trail race in December which I'll start training for in September, but won't be
nearly as intensive of training as Ironman. Just lots of fun trail training.
It is so easy to
forget how hard Sunday was. During the bike race, I told myself this was my
last Ironman. During the run course, I cemented that notion that this was it!
Two and done! But as soon as I crossed the finish line, the day was behind me.
On Monday I was already talking to other finishers about other races they had
done and what courses they recommended. I'm already ready to sign up for my
next race. I know, it's insane. But it's what I love. And until I stop loving
it - I'll keep racing.
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