IMC Race Report

Howdy!

I woke up on Sunday morning to an alarm, not my alarm but Chads alarm! I thought it was 4:00am but alas it was not.....it was 4:30am. I went into full freak out mode within about 0.000000000001 seconds and in about the same amount of time Chad told me to STOP IT! So I did. It turns out we couldn't even get out of the campground until 5am anyway.

I went and got in the shower, now I know what you are thinking. Why is this chick showering before she goes and jumps in a lake. I wanted to get up and do my normal morning rituals and try and relax, so I had a nice hot shower first thing. I got into my tri clothes and went back to camp where Chad was up and ready to go (he even had his red bull already!). I ate breakfast on the way into Penticton. I was calm until we started into the city and that is when the wave of excitement/butterfly's/nervousness hit me. I couldn't even eat my entire breakfast; which consisted of a multi grain bagel with a yogurt and berries.

Once we got into Penticton we found somewhere to park really easily, and we were off to check in my gear bags, get body marking done, get my bike ready, etc. So first off I had to make a pit stop at the washrooms....gotta love being nervous! We walked with a million other people to drop off the bags. Chad had to stay on the outside of the fence, so he followed me along while I dropped off my special needs bags and got numbered.

We then had to completely separate as I went into transition to put all of my bottles, gels, sharkies onto my bike. I pumped up my tires and Lucy was feeling good to go! I had to drop the rest of my transition gear into my gear bags. Chad and I had arranged a meeting spot....but he couldn't get to it so I lost him for awhile. I went and dropped off my dry clothes bag and started the wetsuit wiggle. I didn't forget to do anything in the morning....which I am quite proud of. Making that race plan sure helped!!!

Once I got onto the beach I was soooo freaking nervous. I managed to find Chad in the crowd and say goodbye. There were people everywhere. I can't remember now what I was thinking about before the race started....the adrenaline was pumping thats for sure. The national anthem was played and I was waiting anxiously for the cannon to go off.....this seemed to take forever!

I lined myself up with the bouys and started in the middle of the pack. The start was not that bad, I had a lot of room. I didn't become rough until 200-300m out into in the lake. Whenever I do an open water swim I always take it one leg at a time. All I was concerned about was to make it to the first house boat. I did get kicked a couple of times and I can't even begin to describe the feeling when everyone would get bunched up and we were swimming on top of one another. I would look up and there were people everywhere I turned, all trying to find some space to swim. It was really transitional because you would swim a bit farther and then I would feel like I was all alone.

By the time I made it to the first house boat I was getting used to the chaos going on around me. I got hit in the head a couple of times, kicked in the stomach once (that was a gooder, it hurt for awhile:). The swim to the second house boat turn was really fast. Before the race started I thought that the swim back to the beach would seem faster than the first leg, boy was I wrong!
It was on the home stretch that I had someone literally swim over me! He was a big guy and lets just say I think he had a strong pull because he pulled me right under! If this would have happened in the first leg I would have had a coronary, but I was okay with it. I came back up, put my goggles back on and stayed clear of him!

I wasn't until I was at the beach that I even thought about the bike. I heard them announce my name as I came out of the water and I ran into the gear bag area, found my stuff easily and I was into the change tent. There were a lot of cold people in there, there was one poor girl shivering soooo hard she looked like she was having a seizure. I hope she finally got warmed up! I got all of my stuff on and I was out of the tent running to find my bike. Lucy was right where I left her a couple of hours earlier and I headed out to the mount line.

Riding down main street with all of the people cheering was unreal! There was so much to look at and take in as I went by. I saw Chad jumping up and down like he was on a pogo stick and got a wave out to my family on the way by!

I broke the bike into a bunch of sections. The first was lakeshore drive; I was sipping away on my heed, trying to get my heart rate under control and let all of the people hammer it out nice and early! As tons of people flew by me on the bike I kept myself positive by saying...ha ha ha I swim faster than you do!

I was up onto the steep hill of Mclean Creek Road before I knew it. It was a short little climb, just enough to get your legs going. The rest of the way out to Osoyoos there was a head wind, but it was uneventful as I just got down into aero and pedaled away. It took me about this long to feel warmed up on the bike!

I found my biking legs just I got into Osoyoos and made the turn to climb up Richter. I had to make a pit stop and take a pee at the aid station before the climb. You can attribute that extra 14 minutes on my total bike time to standing in line for the porta potty. Grrrrr.

Richter was fine, and the 7 rollers past that weren't too bad either. I remember them in training and I HATED them, but on rested legs they weren't so bad. The rest of the bike went off without a hitch. Yellow Lake was pretty cool with the people lining the road cheering for you all the way up. Those Thursday night hill repeats sure did the trick because I was climbing my way past everyone! I felt good the whole ride and the wind really started to pick up on the way back into town, so I was flying!

Coming off the bike I handed Lucy over to a volunteer and I went to find my run gear bag, I called my number as I came into transition and they helped me find it right away and I was off into the change tent. I put my beloved beat up Oakleys on the chair beside me as I got changed into my running shorts, loaded up my nutrition....went to grab my Oakleys and they were gone! They got picked up and thrown into someone else's gear bag! I am now out a pair of sunglasses!

With another stop in the porty potty I was onto the run course. Again, mainstreet was full of people yelling and screaming! It was awesome. I met up with Claire for a bit and we ran together and as she went ahead I stayed back and worked on staying in my heart rate zones. I stopped and chatted with my family for a minute....they yelled at me to get going. I was in no hurry to run 42km! The first 10km of the run was great. I was soooo happy just to know that the finish was in my sights...little did I know it was going to be a journey! It started to rain on the way out of town, by 10 km in it was raining really steadily.....I do believe they call it pissing rain!

I was taking in Gatorade on the run and at about 13 km mark my stomach started to disagree with the Gatorade. I stopped taking it and only took in water for the rest of the race. I was eating a few Swedish berries here and there, trying to get calories in. By the time I got to the turn around I was feeling like crap, upset stomach, freezing cold, ohhhh the fun! I got my special needs bag from the volunteers and loaded up with more food, wiggled my way into my long sleeve shirt, I read my note from Chad and decided to hunker down and keep it going!

I got the bright idea at the next aid station to eat some pretzels and hopefully they would help my stomach calm down....it worked! I still couldn't really eat anything besides water...but I was able to continue to run. For the last 10 miles I didn't dare eat anything, I stuck with water and hoped to god that I had enough left in me so I wouldn't bonk!

The only time I walked was through the aid stations, half way up a couple of the giant hills, other than that I was running. It may have been a very slow run for about 25km....but running any speed was faster than walking! The last half of the marathon was more about having the mental strength to keep going and knowing that my body would put up with doing the physical part.Believe me it let me know that it wasn't happy, but I guess that is the challenge of doing an Ironman isn't it.

I am really happy with how my race went. I had a smile on my face the entire time and enjoyed the day. Coming across that finish line felt great, I have never experienced anything like that before. All of the hard work was worth it....and yes I want to do another one!

Once I hit the finish line my legs were saying "no more." It was tough to walk around and just getting them going was hard work. Greg helped me get all of my stuff and took me over to meet my family. Looking back on the day I have to say that getting a coach was the best Ironman investment I made. Greg answered all of my questions, made sure I got all of my training in, and the knowledge about race day. There is more to Ironman than swim, bike, run! I know that my day would have gone a lot differently if I hadn't learned so much from IronGreg!

After the race that night Chad and I were wiped, we stopped by Timmy Ho's to grab some food. This was after Chad had to lift me into the truck:) I thought I would be out cold that night....I hardly slept at all!

Monday and Tuesday were tough moving days. There were times I thought that my legs just were going to give up and let my crumple to the ground in a big ol' pile of Leslie would stay there until someone came along to rescue me! Luckily that did not happen. My quads were the worst, followed by the blistered feet, my shoulders, triceps, lats, lower back, calfs, hamstrings, all were sore. I am still sore today, but not nearly as bad. I can even hobble jog across the road if I need to (like if a car was going to hit me:).

Final thoughts on Ironman, I'm not sure yet. I don't know if I got everything in there, a lot happens in a 14 hour race! If you have questions please let me know! Thanks again for all of the support, it helps so much during a race to know that you have so many people cheering you on!