Hey guys,
I know it has been a long time coming to write my race report...our computer was broken so thus no race report. I am also so very behind in blogland.
Where to begin....
Pre Race
I woke up race morning feeling okay. I choked down my breakfast; I always have a hard time eating race morning. Got all of my stuff, had a shower and we were out the door. Once I got to the race site I had the race dread feeling...but not like last year. I can not believe how different your second Ironman is compared to the first. You don't have the same unknown excited nervous anxious feeling. It was just the same old race nerves.
I got my bike all set up, to the porta potti, dry clothes bag drop off, body marking was done the day before...so all I had left to do was a 3.8 km swim, 180 km bike, and a 42 km run. No worries right?
Swim.
I saw Chad and Susi's parents (who are a great cheering squad) on my way out to the swim. The swim started off of the pier so into the water and I did the same as last year at IMC - lined myself up with the buoys. In water swim starts are not nearly as exciting as standing on the beach because yoiu have no idea what is going on until you are swimming.
This was such an easy swim. It was not very rough at all - the same craziness at the turns though. We swam with the buoys on the left in a counterclockwise direction in a big rectangle. We were against the current until the first buoy, but the water was soooo nice a calm you could hardly tell (especially with the waves leading up to the race).
After the second buoy it was smooth sailing because we were with the current. The water was sooooo crystal clear, I saw fish, starfish, and got stung by four jellyfish. The swim was really uneventful....I was sight seeing the bottom of the ocean the entire time. There was some guy who was drafting off of me the entire time who kept touching my feet which got pretty annoying after an hour or so.
T1
Transition went pretty smoothly. Except running on the gravel hurt the feet and the door to the womens tent were proped open a bit and there were tons of people wandering around outside - they maybe got a bit of a show. I wore a swimsuit in the water and changed into my shorts and jersey.
Bike - 3 laps
I think this is the hardest bike ride I have ever done. I had so much stuff going on I will try to remember it all.
My legs were tired and feeling dead right away. I was trying to spin them out to get them moving but they weren't having it. This happend to me at Sylvan this year too...not too sure what that is about. There was a crazy head/crosswind on the southside of the island which was like nothing I have ever experienced. This will keep you honest let me tell ya. I just couldn't get comfortable in aero and I must have been hitting a nerve because I was getting numbness down my leg. I think this was do to the wind, I must have been sitting funny because as soon as I turned out of the wind it stopped.
After about 50 km I was beginning to feel good and I put the hammer down for awhile. I was making some head way into having the race I wanted when I got a flat at about 100km. There was no cloud cover yet so I was sweating it out in the sun while I changed my tire. This was the turning point in the race for me in a couple of ways.
Once I got back onto my bike I resumed my nutrition plan and intensity right away. Live and learn...do not do this...especially in the heat when it is harder to eat anyway. About 20 min after getting back on the bike my stomach started acting up. I was also mad about all of the time I lost changing my tire. I think the only reason I was so stuck on this was because I wasn't feeling so good and once you get into negative thought spiral it is hard to get out.
A three lap course is so hard mentally! I didn't think it would be but holly crap it was aweful. The wind had gotten worse which I didn't think was possible and my GI problems just continued to get worse. I was so very excited to get back into town and hang up my bike.
T2
Transition welcomed wobbly legs for me and I could really feel the humidity. I changed, hit the porta potti and was out the door.
Run
This is what everyone warned me about of flat courses. They use the same muscle groups on the bike and the run - no hills to break it up. Normally when I get off the bike I am ready to rock...not so much. I had a hard time regulating my breathing and finding my legs - they were tired already - uh-oh was all I could think. Even so I kept running and my stomach kept hurting and the negative/positive thoughts were rambling around in my head. I kept flipping back and forth from "it will be okay...you had a rough bike...your legs will come around...this race goal is not out of reach for you" and "if my legs hurt this much within the first 5 km what and I going to feel like for the last half of the marathon." Around and around I went for the first lap of the run.
3/4 of the way through the first lap my legs started feeling better but my stomach still was not. I was able to run and maintain an okay pace but it was not happy. I started trying everything I knew to get rid of an upset stomach; the problem was that they didn't have the same stuff at each aid station. Crackers, water, pop...I tried it all.
The second lap was my best on the run. I had managed my GI problems enough to run with it and my legs were not hurting as bad and Greg told me to try and catch him. So I did. At about 1/4 of the way into the third lap I realized I wasn't going to get my goal time and gave up a bit. I was taking more and more walk breaks and my GI problems were getting worse. I was having sharp pains across my abdomen and mentally I was having a tough time. I did the run walk run thing for awhile until I could come up with a new game plan.
It had been a battle since km 100 on the bike so I was happy just finishing the race but I could not allow myself to enter into the 15 hour mark. I may have been close but I suffered my way to the finish line.
What a day.
This race tested me in every way possible. I learned so much about Ironman from this race - Ironman Canada was a piece of cake next to this one. It will take me a long time to willingly sign up for a flat course again. It was physically and mentally tough - I like the hills, they break up the race so much espescially for the bike. I am happy I did it for all of these reasons - that is why Ironman is such a great accomplishment. You can have the perfect training season, but there are sooooo many variables that can make up your day. I am not done with Ironman...there will be more of them for me just not next year :)
The part of this race that I didn't mention in my report was the people out there cheering you on. Going through town on the bike was awesome - it was like mainstreet IMC 3 times but in spanish. So fun and the people there were so great. I have so many pics that we took of the trip - you will have to make a coffee date with me to see most of those because we took over 400 pics and hardly any of those were of the race. I still have to order my official photos also - but they got some good ones.
That is all I remember for now.
Happy Holidays everyone!
