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 :)