IM CDA Race Report, Part I

Pre-Race:
I actually slept well the night before. I got to bed a little later than I wanted to because of finishing a few final prep tasks (story of my life) but I got to sleep right away and slept until the alarm went off at 4am. Had my pre-race breakfast of a bagel and peanut butter,



grabbed the run and bike special needs bags and my sports drink from the fridge, and Mick and I headed to the race start. Body marking started at 5am and I was supposed to meet Adam there around that time.

We easily got a parking spot at the downtown lot because we were so early. It was barely 5am so the body marking volunteers weren’t busy yet. I had three ladies do my body marking- one for each arm and one for my leg.




It gets light out up there by 4:30am, so by 5:00 it didn’t even feel like it was that early. It was pretty chilly though, so I got my clothes back on as soon as the ink dried.



Then I had to go put my gel flask, extra bars, and towels in my transition bags and put my sports drink bottles on the bike. After that it was off to drop off bike and run special needs bags. On the way back from doing that, I realized how much more crowded it had gotten since we’d arrived. It was definitely a good idea to get there as early as we did. Adam passed by going the other way, saying he was getting one of his gels and that Stacy was waiting by the big blowup Gatorade bottle. Mick and I met up with Stacy there,



then Molly arrived,



and before long my parents, Rich and Heather showed up and then Adam got back. By that time it was almost time for the pro start, so we stood around and talked and then watched the pros go off at 6:25. There were age groupers filing down to the beach start area but I liked where we were standing for the time being. No need to get down there and get myself all worked up before it was necessary.



After a few more minutes, Adam and I realized that we really better get headed down there soon, so we started putting on our wetsuits and sunscreen.





Somehow all of a sudden it felt like we were late, or maybe it was just butterflies making us hurry. We took a quick picture in our superhero suits,



hugged and high-fived our support crews, and then we were gone. By this time it was an absolute crush of people everywhere, but people were pretty good about making room for us when they saw we were athletes. It was slow going when we got down to the walkway along the lake leading to the opening to the beach, and Adam started worrying that we wouldn’t make it in time. I wasn’t worried, either because there were tons of other athletes around us and I assumed they wouldn’t start with half of us still on the sidewalk, or because I wasn’t wearing a watch. I lost Adam about three times between there and the beach, and oddly enough it is not easy trying to find a neoprene-clad, swim-capped triathlete among a sea of other neoprene-clad, swim-capped triathletes. We never spoke about why we were staying together- we clearly weren’t going to swim together since he’s a lot better swimmer than I am- but I think we both at that moment wanted the familiarity and comfort of each other’s company. There were too many people out there and this was too big of a deal to be alone. So each time I found him again after a few seconds of being “lost”, we were both relieved.

We finally made it down to the beach and then it was decision time- outside or inside? I had talked to my coach about where the best place to start would be, and she wouldn’t tell me what to do beyond giving me the pros and cons of each option. Outside- more swimming room, less crowd, but you have to swim further and angle in. Inside- you get to stick to the buoy line and have a more direct route, but you’ll get pummeled. I knew the reason she wouldn’t tell me what to do was because she didn’t know what it would be like on race day, and she couldn’t know what I personally would be comfortable with. I didn’t really know either, so I decided to play it by ear and decide when I got down there. So as I looked down the beach towards the outside, I saw that if I truly wanted to get on the outside of the crowd, I’d have to go waaay down almost halfway to the end of the beach. The people lined up out there were already SO far away from the buoy line, it was crazy. It looked like most people had the idea of starting to the outside to avoid the crowd, so ironically that’s where the crowd was. So then I looked to the inside, and saw that it was noticeably more sparse, although there were still lots of people. But how badly would I get trampled if I started there? Wasn’t it insane to consider swimming the buoy line unless you’re a really good swimmer? We didn’t have a lot of time to decide, so when Adam said, “So what do you want to do? Outside or inside?”, I didn’t even think and just said “Inside.” He didn’t hesitate either, said “OK”, and off we went.

We ended up a few people back from the front, just a few strides away from the water and directly on the buoy line. It was crowded of course- there was nowhere on that beach that wasn’t- but we weren’t packed in there like sardines, like we probably would have been if we’d gone outside. I decided we had made the right choice and I was happy about it. It’s a good thing, because all of a sudden, BOOM! The cannon went off. I heard Adam say something like, “whoa, crap!” and then we were headed for the water. I’ve seen video clips of IM swim starts on youtube, and one thing that struck me was how long it takes everyone to get in the water. It seems like there are swimmers already making the first turn and there are still people on the beach. But because of where we’d lined up, we took about five steps and we were in the water. Easy peasy!




Swim:
I knew I’d be getting pummeled no matter where I started, so I was ready for it. I’d heard stories of people panicking because of all the bodies around them, kicking and punching and flailing, and I was a little worried about it. I was well aware that there’s really nothing in training that can prepare you for an Ironman mass start (well maybe something like this Clif bar ad)



so I wasn’t sure how I’d react. And you know what? It was the weirdest thing. I felt oddly detached, somehow, from the whole experience. Almost like I was floating above myself, watching it all happen. The people around me who were pawing at me, hitting me, swimming into me didn’t bother me at all because it’s like they weren’t really there. Or I wasn’t really there. Or something. I just kept stroke-stroke-breathe-ing, following my own rhythm, mostly unaffected by the chaos around me. And it really wasn’t that bad of chaos anyway. Sure it was congested, yeah I got hit in the face a few times, but it really wasn’t as bad as I’d imagined it could be. It was actually more exciting than anything- I was in the middle of an Ironman mass swim start! How cool is that! Overall, the swim was a very zen experience. It never thinned out totally to where I got my own swimming room. It was more off and on. For a few minutes it would be congested, then for a few minutes I’d have open water. Off and on like that for the whole swim. When we got out after the first loop, got back in and angled to turn at the first buoy, it did get pretty chaotic again but then settled back into the off-and-on pattern. I pretty much cruised easy the whole time. I did use some of my “sprint speed” (Ha Ha) a few times to get out of traffic jams or to get away from someone on my feet. When we made the far turn at the end of the way out, the sun was in our eyes and it was hard to see the next buoy. A lot of us (including me) turned too sharply and ended up heading to the inside of the course until the kayaks got us pointed the right way. I almost hit a kayak a few times. It’s weird how hard it can be to see those things until you’re almost on top of them!

When I got out after the first loop, I heard the announcer calling out times- “36:39” was what he said as I was turning to get back in the water. I briefly thought, wow cool, that’s almost exactly my time from the swim in the N.O. half-IM, I must be moving pretty well out there. There was a moderate chop in our faces going out, but it must have been evened out by getting to swim with the chop on the way in. It wasn’t as bad as it had been on my practice swims on Thursday and Friday, which I was very happy about.

Getting out of the water after the second loop, I almost couldn’t believe that my Ironman swim was already over! One third of my day, although nowhere near the other two in terms of time, was already completed! And swimming the 2.4 miles continuously was way easier than I thought it would be.



I looked for some of my support crew on my way out of the water, but there were tons of people and I needed to concentrate on not falling down while running in the sand and on getting my wetsuit top down by the time I got to the strippers, so if they were there I didn’t see them.




T1:
I got to the strippers and it took a second to find one who was free. Finally a few of them noticed me and called me over. I already had my wetsuit down to my waist so it was a quick pull to get it over my hips and then I was down on the ground. They had it off my legs in a flash and I was back up and on my way to my Bike Gear bag. The volunteers directed me to the women’s changing tent, and once inside a volunteer who was free grabbed me and sat me down in one of the folding chairs. She said, “OK, what do you need?” and it took me a minute to think of an answer, because I’d never been helped before! Finally, she said, “Shorts? Socks?” and I snapped out of my daze and said yeah, socks! I grabbed my towel to dry my legs so I could put on my bike shorts and my calf sleeve. It was sunny and pretty warm out so I decided to leave the arm warmers and gloves, and took my dark sunglasses rather than the clear ones. I put sunscreen on my face while she did my legs. I grabbed my Thermotabs and helmet, she put my number belt on for me, then I sat there a minute reading a few of my support notes. I’m pretty slow in transitions anyway, and to my thinking, what difference are a few extra minutes in transition going to make in an Ironman? So I took my time. My volunteer just kind of sat there waiting for orders, which made me hurry more than anything else. I didn’t want to be keeping her from someone who needed her to actually DO something! I finally told her I was ready, she asked me if I needed anything else, I asked her where the port-a-potties were and headed out. Halfway to the port-a-potties I realized I had passed up the sunscreen volunteers, so I headed back against the flow of traffic to get my arms done. They certainly did their job well, and I spent the rest of the way to the bike racks trying to rub the sunscreen in so I wasn’t a white-covered mess for my bike pictures :)

Race Week, Wed-Sat

As I write this, I'm looking at the IRONMAN wristband I'm wearing. It means that in a few short hours, I'm going to be out there doing something that I've been training for, visualizing, anticipating for so long. It's finally here, and that feels both wildly exciting and slightly surreal.

Fortunately, I'm really not that nervous. I know I'll have some butterflies tomorrow when I get down to transition and swim start, but I've been surprisingly calm all week. I think a lot of it comes from the confidence my coach has in my preparation- she says I'm ready, and she's never been wrong, so I must be ready, right?

I probably walked around a little more than I should have these past few days. I did my best to stay off my feet and rest, but I couldn't resist getting out there into the excitement of it all for at least a little while. It's a good thing I got here as early as I did too, because I found tons of last-minute things that needed doing. Fortunately, it turns out the only thing I forgot to bring was my salt tab dispenser. Not so fortunately, they didn't have any more at the bike shop and I wasn't looking forward to driving all over the place looking for one. Then Erik had the brilliant idea that the canisters for mini M&Ms are pretty much the same thing, so I headed to the grocery store for some. They didn't have any mini M&Ms, but the Mentos gum containers are really similar. So my salt tab dispenser for tomorrow is a Mentos gum container, and there is a pile of Mentos gum sitting in a baggie on the table.

The athlete village was really cool. I bought my requisite CDA gear, of course. I also got my mom to buy me a luggage tag that says "CDA 2009 Finisher" with my name on it- I'm not so superstitious that I couldn't buy something that said "Finisher" already, but even so I don't really want to look at it too much yet :) I also went to the "Ford Motivational Zone" and entered some messages for my friends, which they'll display at some point on the run. I didn't realize at the time that they only accept the first message they get for each athlete, so I hope my friends' families didn't try to send them messages, because they're only going to get mine (since I got here first). Whoops!

My parents are super excited. They've never seen me race before, not since high school and not in a triathlon anyway. I'm really happy that Rich and Heather could make it, since Rich is one of my very best friends and it's awesome to have him here to share this (and getting to meet Heather has been awesome too!). Mick has been insanely helpful this entire time, between giving me a flat-changing clinic and helping with everything bike-related, to keeping my parents occupied when I've been busy with other stuff. Molly got here this afternoon too, to stay with us and to cheer for not only me but also the other 98237493827 people she knows who are racing. It's great to talk to her since she's on the same path I'm on and understands what I'm feeling.

Slight drama with the bike, but everything seems fine now. When Mick and I tried to change the tire on the Zipps, we found out that they're insanely tight and neither of us could get the tire back on. We even broke two tire levers trying. We ended up having to bring it to the bike shop and have them do it for me. So, if I flat in the race, I pretty much have to wait for the bike wagon to find me. BUT, that's not gonna happen, right?? Then today, as we were leaving to go to bike check-in, he found a gouge in the back tire. It wasn't super serious, but it was enough to make me nervous to ride on it. So we ran back to the bike shop and had them swap it out with one of the tires on my other wheels. So now the new tire is on, Stella is happily camped out in transition for the night, and all is well.

The athlete's meeting on Friday night was pretty cool. All 2000+ age groupers in one huge banquet tent, listening to all the details, warnings, and rules for the course. One of the guys was really funny. He was explaining how some parts of the bike course are pretty technical and that we really should listen to the posted signs that say SLOW DOWN- he said, "I know you've been watching the Tour de France and the Giro, but, you're not that guy. So slow down." Then when he was talking about how age-groupers aren't allowed to leave their shoes clipped into the pedals for the swim-bike transition, he said, "I know you want to do it and you think you can handle it. But I've seen you, you're not that good. So don't do it."

Right now, my parents and friends are out on the front porch drinking wine and chatting, I just finished my final pre-race talk with my coach, and I'm about to mix up my bottle of concentrate for the bike and then go to bed. Wakeup time is 4am, with the goal of getting to body marking when they start at 5am. Adam is supposed to meet me there. We'll exchange our special needs bag notes for each other at that time too. I still have to write his, but I've been thinking about what I want to say for a while now so it shouldn't take long. I saw Shannon at bike drop-off earlier, WITH his bike fortunately (the airline had lost it when he first got here! Talk about stressful!). On Friday I saw the two guys I met on the plane from Denver who were coming to volunteer and sign up for next year- Joe and John- they're strippers and catchers tomorrow. I also saw John and Karen on Friday- the couple who split the cab with me to the Enterprise rental car place in Spokane when all the airport rental car places were sold out (hooray for not being the only one with poor pre-planning skills!).

This week has been awesome, the whole town has Ironman fever. But I am definitely ready to GET IT ON already! If anyone wants to track me, go on ironman.com and my bib number is 2044. See ya on the other side!!

Packing

I definitely should have started this a few days ago. I still have time, but I'm a little nervous that I'm procrastinating on something that is so important. But I think actually that I'm putting it off *because* it's so important... I guess that makes me nervous, so I don't do it. Or something like that. One thing I hate about packing is I ALWAYS feel like I'm forgetting something, no matter how far in advance I do it. So I know that makes me avoid it a little.

I just finished making out my list- Swim, Bike, Run, T1 and T2. I still don't know what to put in my bike and run special needs bags. Any suggestions? All I can think of is a long sleeved shirt in the run bag in case it gets cold in the evening. But I don't think you get your special needs bags back, so whatever I put in them I have to not mind losing.

On the plus side, it looks like I do have everything on my list. I just have to get it put in one place! In retrospect, I should have sent a gear bag with Stella. Then I wouldn't have to be packing stuff like my helmet, pump, wetsuit, etc in my regular suitcase. Oh well. It should all fit.

Speaking of bikes, look what I got to ride this past weekend!


My friend/spinning instructor/kick-ass cyclist Courtney let me borrow her TT bike since Stella was gone already. We ride the same size bike, so all it took was a few seat adjustments. Actually, this was the very first bike with clip-in pedals that I ever rode. It was probably the first bike I ever rode that didn't have a kickstand :) When I was thinking about getting into triathlon a little over a year ago, Courtney and I went riding on the levee. She took her road bike and let me ride this one. To this day I have no idea how I didn't crash the thing- I had NO clue how to stop and start with the clip-in pedals. By some amazing stroke of luck I stayed upright (or rubber-side-down, as Ariel likes to say). I know it was luck because the very next time I rode a bike like that, which was when I bought Stella, I fell over the first time I tried to stop. I'm glad I didn't know how nice of a bike hers was when I rode it, or I probably WOULD have crashed it just from the extra nervousness!

So I still say this weekend was my first time riding a carbon bike, since I didn't know anything when I rode it that one time. OMG it was so nice! Courtney has always told me that a carbon bike rides so much smoother than aluminum, especially for a smaller person. I was skeptical, but not anymore! If it wasn't for the painful saddle (I'm spoiled by my Adamo!) I would have been riding in crazy style AND comfort! Courtney laughed at me when I thanked her today and said how nice it was, saying that she and Todd (bike shop guy) were saying that after I rode that, I'd be wanting a new bike. Not quite, Stella's still my girl, but damn it was nice!!

OK, back to packing! Quick, someone remind me of something I'm forgetting! Socks? Sportsbras? My race belt? Help me out here!

10 Days!!

Ten days away from Ironman. Ironman is in TEN DAYS!! And I haven't even freaked out yet. Honest. I'm still just excited. I have definitely been having my moments of, "Can I do this?? I CAN do this, right??", but I keep reminding myself that my coach knows what she's doing, and I've done everything she told me to, so I MUST be ready. Even if it doesn't feel like it sometimes.

I read an article somewhere which described the feeling of standing on the beach before the mass start as something like 'wondering whether you belong there', and I can totally see that. Me, an Ironman? Seriously? No way, right? I mean, people who do Ironman are these crazy super-athlete people, and I'm just... me. I don't *feel* like I'm made of iron. I don't feel much different from how I did a few months ago, or even a year ago. But I've done all the training, so I must be different.

Taper is going pretty well this time around, I must say. Normally I feel like crap during taper but I feel alright. Still working on the sleep thing though. Tonight's going to be an early one, I swear! Open Water Wednesday today was fun, they fired up the grill so we all hung around eating burgers and hot dogs in the parking lot after swimming. People were wishing me luck, since it was my last Wednesday at the lake before I leave for CDA. I got asked "so when's your race?" a whole bunch of times, so I got to say "not this Sunday, but next" a whole bunch of times, and it felt so weird each time!

On a not-so-good note, I had a little bit of a rough time on my last long run. It was my longest run, 22 miles, which was preceded by my longest bike the day before (118) and my longest swim the day before that (5500). Everything was going fine until about mile 14, when I started to get a pain in my left quad. I realized after a while that it must have been a cramp, which hasn't ever happened to me before. It wasn't awful, just annoying, for a while so I kept going. Then I was on my last loop with about 4.5 miles to go and it just kept getting worse. It spread through my whole quad and intensified to the point where it felt like my muscle was getting ripped out of my leg every step. But it was my 22-miler! THE big one! I couldn't quit this! It felt OK when I walked, but I didn't want to walk. It was a 22-mile RUN. I figured since it was just a cramp, I wasn't doing any serious damage to myself, so it was OK to push through. I ended up spending the last 2 miles hobbling and crying, it hurt so bad. But, me and my stubbornness finished that damn run. It took all week for the pain to go away, then on my first taper "long" run of 11 miles, it came back again. Bad news. I got a sports massage the next day, which hurt like HELL but the therapist thinks it's going to be OK. I ran yesterday and today and it feels fine. I'm going back for more pain next Monday and hopefully that will fix me up 100%. The other 2 long workouts of that weekend, the swim and the bike, were pretty uneventful. I had to do most of the bike by myself since Shannon had to leave early, but I managed OK. My Garmin actually said 128 miles, but it was reading off of my speed/cadence sensor instead of the GPS and I think its calibration is a little off. So I went conservative and said 118.

Then on Sunday this week, I got to jump in the lake with all my clothes on to fetch an errant pit bull who was intent on following a family of ducks all the way to the Northshore, it seemed.

"Who, me? Naughty?? Never!"


"You must have me confused with someone else. I was just playing with my ball like a good girl."


Pretty sunset at the lake


Rough day for a swim



Training totals, 5/25 - 5/31 (last big week; M & Th off):
Swim- 11940 yards
Bike- 133 miles
Run- 24 miles
Total Time- 16:25

Training totals, 6/1 - 6/7 (Taper Week 1):
Swim- 5380 yards
Bike- 95 miles
Run- 20.4 miles
Total Time- 10:52

Oh and did I mention- TEN DAYS?!?!

TAPER TIME!!

I am officially on day 2 of my taper for IRONMAN! How crazy to be able to say that! I guess there were some parts of me that thought this would never come. Or thought that I'd never get through all those crazy long workouts to get to this point. Peak 1, Week 1 underway. Does this mean I'm at the "peak" of my fitness? I guess it does, that's the idea anyway, but it's kind of weird because I don't really *feel* any different from a few weeks or months ago.

Yesterday I got the official "Athlete Guide" for CDA in my email. I started getting crazy butterflies just reading it. Special needs bags, bike drop-off, pre-race lake swim, transition closing time... it's all getting so REAL. I guess I should buy my plane ticket up there, huh??

I also just found out that Stella has to get dropped off at the bike shop for shipping next Wednesday. That's so close!! I might have to borrow a bike for my last ride or two before I go up there, since Stella's the only one I have. And I get to use the Zipp 404s again! Courtney also offered to let me use her aero helmet, which I politely (though gratefully) declined. I am definitely not cool enough yet to use one of those things.

To recap, it's been a long couple of weekends of training. Jennifer's prediction of "eat, sleep, train" for most of the month of May wasn't far off. Not TOO far, anyway... :P

Sunday, 5/24: How much fun can you have in 8 hours? A lot, if your idea of fun is biking and running, and biking and running and biking and... The agenda for the day was a 20 mile bike/4 mile run brick, four times. I was kind of intimidated, but as I've been doing a lot lately, I told myself "the only way out is through", and got going. I admit, I was a little excited too. Plus I had some training buddies lined up which I knew would help make it fun.

Loop 1- Went with Shannon. 7am and we were off! Bike good, run good but starting to get hot already.

Loop 2- With Shannon again. WINDY on the bike and HOT HOT on the run. The icewater from the cooler in my truck at refueling stops between biking and running was sooo refreshing. Making sure to keep up on salt tabs. Was that thunder I just heard in the distance?

Loop 3- Rode and ran with Erik, who did an awesome job on his first brick. Especially considering he was riding a mountain bike so he had to work 10x harder than me. More thunder, and then some rain out at the turnaround on the bike. It started raining harder and I was scouting out places to stop and take shelter, but then it stopped. Phew. The run was good. Passed by Coach Kevin and Coach Rick's trucks at the shop for what felt like the 85th time.

Loop 4- Did the bike by myself, then rode back into the parking lot to find Erik had come back. Apparently he felt guilty leaving me to do the last one by myself, so he volunteered to ride his bike alongside me for the last 4 mile run of the day. Nice! I'll always take the company. About halfway through the run, I started to really get tired. I held up really well all day, no pain or excessive fatigue or anything. I still felt good, but like I told Erik, "I just would kinda like to stop now". Jen told me that for my last run I should imagine myself at mile 22 of the IM marathon, with 4 miles to go until the finish. I visualized that, like I often do. I imagined how I'd be tired (which wasn't hard, since I was), how I'd want to be done, but how excited and thrilled I'd be to be so close and how I wouldn't want to waste a minute of the experience by wishing for it to be over. That last run was my fastest of the day, and I ended up finishing close to my 1/2 marathon pace. DONE!! I made it! The single longest day of my IM training- success! And I had no pain anywhere, just tired.

Training totals, 5/18 - 5/24:
Swim- 8300 yards
Bike- ~160 miles
Run- 28.8 miles
Total Time- 18:13
(I missed an extra day this week because I was starting to get sick, plus I had an extra scheduled day off to prepare for the big weekend, in addition to my regular Monday off, so this was actually 4 days instead of a whole week)