Wow! Now that was an experience! All the hard, hard
work led to an unforgettable, albeit, painful day. So let's rewind and
take you through this race........
Day Before the Race:
I'll admit, I was
quite emotional this day. Everything was getting to me, from the pre-race
informational meeting, to standing in the line to sign my life away, to trying
to decide on memorabilia to purchase. Tears were brimming every two
minutes. I just felt so overwhelmed and had a sense of pending doom (especially
whenever I thought about the bike). I did my best to push the negative
thoughts from my mind and tried to focus on the here and now.
Fortunately, Travis and Camilla W were there to take care of the
kids.
Later, Ryan and I packed up the bikes and went to
check them in at the first transition area.
Drove all the way up only to discover we neglected to put (or even bring)
our race number stickers on the bikes.
So we got to drive all the way back down to get the stickers. Really, I think Ryan just wanted an excuse to
drive over the viaduct several times.
Haha! Actually, he’s terrified of
heights. J We spent some time
admiring the fancy bikes in transition (I can’t believe the amount of money
people spend on bikes!), then headed back to the hotel. We had been crock-potting lasagna in our
hotel room and took it down to the breakfast area to have dinner with the
family. In the evening, we spent several
hours packing, unpacking, repacking, etc. as we attempted to get ready for each
event. There were three bags: 1-Morning
Clothes bag that was to be deposited in bins to be taken back to the finish
line; 2 – Bike Bag for all swim gear after swimming; and, 3 – Run Bag for the
run gear. There were two transition
areas, a Swim-Bike one and Bike-Run.
This was my first experience with separate transition areas. They also had “clean transitions” meaning all
of your stuff had to fit and be placed in the bag or it would be hauled off to
trash. Sleep eluded me that night, but I
wasn’t really expecting to sleep anyway.
Besides, the race didn’t start until 12:00 so we had plenty of time.
Race Morning:
We got up and
enjoyed a nice breakfast. I was
surprised at how many athletes were in the lobby and did my best to eavesdrop
on all of their conversations. Ryan and
I took our Run Bags down to the Bike-Run transition. We were the first ones to drop off our
bags! It was a sign that we would be the
first to finish the race! Ha! Dream on!!
Upon our arrival back at the hotel we discovered our families decked out
in the cutest matching T-Shirts. Travis
and Camilla had made shirts with a triathlon logo on the front and the wording
“Mommy’s Ironman Cheer Squad” and “Daddy’s Ironman Cheer Squad” on the back. Once again, I got all emotional. What great, supportive families we have! We packed up and headed downtown to catch a
bus up to the swim venue. Our families
were able to come with us and we turned many heads as we boarded the bus filled
with mostly adult athletes. They all
smiled and commented on the cute t-shirts.
We took up at least six seats.
Upon arrival, Ryan
and I went in to get body marked (side note – I think that’s one of the coolest
things about triathlons!). There were
so many athletes! It was amazing. I set up my transition area and then came out
to hang with the family.
Swim:
Promptly at 12:00 they started the swim with the
professional men followed by the professional women. My start time wasn’t until 12:35 so I stayed up on the bank and watched the
pros. We brought binoculars and as I
watched the pro men approach the first buoy, one of them ran head first into
the buoy. “A pro just hit a buoy!” I
cried. I thought that was the funniest
thing! Fortunately, the buoys were just blow-up ones and no harm was done. Little did I know that a similar thing would
happen to me……
I shimmied into my
wetsuit (those things are hard to get on!) and then headed down to the
water. I joined about 90 other
white-capped women in my age group (30-34).
The pavement was extremely hot on my feet and I tried to hop around to
keep them from getting burnt. Ryan’s
group started eight minutes behind me and I was pretty sure he would catch me
during the swim or at least in transition.
We entered the water which was about 59 degrees, but it didn’t feel that
cold. The starting line was about 20
yards off-shore so we had to swim out and tread for a few minutes before the
gun sounded. I took the opportunity to
have my last bathroom break while treading and then we were off. My arms started burning as they normally do
during the first 500 yards, but I just kept going. I struggled a bit with the swim, getting into
a rhythm, and swimming straight. I could
not, for the life of me stop zig-zagging through the entire swim! I tried to
sight every 15 strokes or so and I knew if I sighted more than that, I would
get pretty tired, but I still would end up drifting to my right every time and
have to veer back to the left to stay on course. I’m sure I swam 1.5 miles instead of
1.2! After the first turn, I saw red
caps going by me and on the second turn, a couple silver caps (Ryan’s group)
passed me. I began to think, “What are
the chances that I would actually see Ryan out here on the swim?” Lo, and behold, he swam right up next to
me! He caught me with about 500 yards to
go. When I realized it was him, I tried
to tap him and get his attention, but he was in the zone. I regret not grabbing his ankle and yanking
him back, that would have been so funny!
As I swam into the finish, suddenly, WHACK!, I hit a buoy! I didn’t even see it, just swam straight into
it. Recovering quickly, I swam around
and ran up the steep incline to the wet-suit rippers. Yep, that’s their official term. I ran in, laid down, two guys each grabbed a
side of my wetsuit, and, RIP, it was off!
Pretty cool!
Transition went
smoothly. I wasn’t in a big hurry and
didn’t have nearly the same intensity as my Sprint Triathlons where I am trying
to win, but things went well and I was able to get off nicely. Travis was close by the fence and I was able
to talk to him a little before I headed out.
On the way out, I saw Camilla and stopped to see her. I asked if she had seen Ryan yet and she
said, “No.” I was confused because I was
sure he had gone into transition before I did.
So I waited a bit and, sure enough, here he came. He was in a hurry, though, said, “Hi” to us
and then took off.
Bike……aka The Death
of Me
Crossing the
viaduct was actually pretty scary especially because there were several water
bottles that had been dropped and left.
56 Miles…..quite daunting for me.
Previously, I had been able to go 40 miles so I knew another 16 would be
difficult, but doable. The winds that
day were crazy! I felt like I had a
major headwind almost the entire way. As
usual, most people passed me during the bike and many times I worried I would
be the last biker. In fact, they have a
cut-off time for the bike and I often wondered if I would be able to make
it. During my training rides, I was
often starving so I knew I would have to pack some food to make it
through. My food of choice? A PBJ. J I stopped at the midway point to get more
water and eat my sandwich. Another girl
stopped with me and we both joked about not making it before the cut-off time
(we both did, though). Then she and I
played leap-frog the entire way back.
After mile 30,
the bike became painful. I could feel my
legs starting to burn from the sun. I
decided to focus on five miles at a time.
When I made it to mile 45, I took a moment to celebrate being able to
bike that far. I did the same thing at
mile 50 and mile 55. By that time, my
body was screaming at me to get off the bike!
It had been over four hours and I was so done!
I finally made it
to transition and once my feet hit the dirt, my legs could barely move. I walked my bike into transition and sat down
to change my shoes when I had a very rough moment. I honestly didn’t think I could get back
up. My head hung, my legs sunk, and my
spirits weren’t far behind. Travis
yelled at me from the fence, “How you feeling?”
I couldn’t even answer because I was in tears. But I told myself I have to at least try the
run portion. My feet were numb from
biking so long and forcing them in to running shoes proved to be a difficult
task. You know when something is numb
how it feels ten times its normal size?
Yeah, that was the problem. I
changed my shirt, put on my running skirt, grabbed some goo and then headed
out. During this time, I noticed I had a
severe sunburn on my thigh and it was starting to hurt. The race officials offered sunscreen services
and as I headed over there, a large, hairy, and sweaty man was in front of
me. The girl lathered him up and then
turned to me. I couldn’t stomach it and
told her, “No thanks, I’ll do it myself”.
I put some sunscreen on and headed out of transition.
Run
Travis told me he
and the kids would be set up right outside of transition, so imagine my
disappointment when I didn’t see them right away. I started running on my lead foot and just
kept running wondering where my family was!
After what seemed like forever, I finally saw them which lifted my
spirits greatly. All my kids dressed in
their matching shirts were truly food for my soul. My brother and his family were there as well
and that gave me motivation to keep running.
I stopped briefly to say hi and then went on my way. There were hundreds of runners of all
abilities on that course. I was
surprised at how many were walking and passed a lot of them. Just when I was starting to feel good about
myself, I realized most of them were on their second lap while I was just
starting my first. Every mile I was
greeted by awesome volunteers with water, Gatorade, Coke, and all sorts of food
including cookies. My insides were all
jumbled up, but I tried a cookie once and a banana. Other than that, I couldn’t really eat. I tried to run and only walk through every
transition to make sure I stayed hydrated.
But that quickly went by the wayside and I’m afraid I walked a lot of
it. My body was spent.
I’m not sure I
loved the format of the two laps because they make you run down the chute
toward the finish line only to get agonizingly close before you have to turn
around and run another six miles…..sigh.
I was happy to see my family the second time and again they gave me much
needed motivation to keep going. After I
passed them, it seemed that all the runners disappeared and I was suddenly all
by my lonesome self. I ran and walked
and ran and walked and just tried to keep going. My sunburn was really painful at this time
and I had to make sure to keep ice on it.
It seemed to take forever and I was grateful for the fans cheering. There was one fan who brought his boombox and
had nasty rap music blasting. My ears
hurt from all the swearing and I actually clapped my hands over my ears as I
ran by. Other fans were great,
though. There were some offering beer,
others high-fived me as I went by, and more just plain cheered and helped me
keep going. I approached the finish line
and saw my family down the chute. All
the kids were lined up for high-fives and I made sure to get all of them before
crossing the finish. As I crossed, I did
get a little emotional at accomplishing such a feat. But mostly I was tired, ha!
After the race,
they were serving burgers and pizza. I
went over to get some but couldn’t stomach eating anything while Ryan wolfed
down two burgers! All I wanted at that
point was a shower.
Overall:
This was an
experience I’m glad I attempted, but it’s going to take me a long time to want
to do it again! It took me over 7 and ½
hours to complete, however, other than the wretched sunburn, my body was
surprisingly fine…..no major aches and pains or injuries. I think my ideal Half Ironman would be: 1
mile swim, 15 mile bike, and half marathon run.
I should’ve done the Boise
one last year because they cut the bike short due to weather! My favorite part was seeing my family during
transitions and the run. I love them for
supporting me and being proud of me throughout this long journey.
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