Tuesday, May 24, 2011

One last blog......

What a race! I couldn't have hoped for it to have gone any better. I'd say that was one of my favorite races ever. Right up there with the NYC Marathon. Here's the play-by-play since the Friday blog. 

I was pretty tired by six on Friday night. I hadn't been sleeping well and I hadn't napped that day. Before bed Annabelle and I set seven alarm clocks for four in the morning. I figured that would be one less thing I had to worry about and hopefully one less worry to keep me awake, knowing that at least one in seven alarms would work. I was in bed by 6:45pm and sound asleep by 7pm. I slept straight through until one am, then I was basically up after that. I managed to fall asleep at 3:30, but at four the cacophony of alarms began. 

I woke up, fed the dogs, and then made myself a bagel with cream cheese and a protein smoothie. I was able to eat most of the bagel and most of the smoothie. I was still very, very tired, and started to get really apprehensive about the whole thing. I turned on the tv to find something to distract my negative thoughts. There is absolutely nothing on tv at four on a Sunday morning. Only infomercials. And I Love Lucy. So I had Lucy on in the background. The weather was predicted to be in the low 90s with medium humidity, and overcast skies with a chance of thunderstorms. 

The plan was to leave the hotel at 5:15. I spent 4:30-5:15 changing into my outfit, and clogging the toilet. At 5:15 we left the room. I said goodbye to the pups and pulled the door shut. As soon as I turned the corner towards the elevator I started to cry. I was so scared about the race. I was so nervous about the pain. Every negative thing I could have told myself came bubbling to the surface. But it was more than just negative thoughts. It was a visceral reaction. I felt nauseous. I didn't want to do the race. But I knew that I really did want to do it. Chris and Annabelle did their best to make me feel better. 

On the walk over to transition I tried to get into a zen state. I pumped up my tires and filled my water bottles. Then I had to use the bathroom again. I clogged up a second toilet. Then we made our way to the swim start. The swim start was about a mile from the bike transition area. It was a nice walk-I tried to keep calm and not let my emotions get the best of me. I dried my eyes by the time I got to the body-markers. I was hoping we'd get the official stamp looking numbers like they do in Kona, but no luck. Just a plain old permanent marker. Which quickly came off when Chris put my sunscreen on a few minutes later. 



I dropped my special needs bag off in the boxes and then hit the porto potty line. 




It took me about 25 minutes to get to the front of the line and I was one of the last people in before the race started. 


I tried to eat a power bar, but it was just too gross.



When I came out of the porto potty they were announcing for everyone to get in the water, that the horn was going to go off in two minutes. I still had to put my wetsuit on! Chris and Annabelle helped get me dressed and sent me off to the water. I told Chris I didn't want to do the race. He said, "Ok, well just do the swim, and see how you feel. If you're not having fun, you can be done. If you're doing ok, go for the bike ride, and if you're still having fun, then go for the run." It was the best thing he could have ever said at that exact moment. He's pretty awesome like that.

I set off for the water and luckily saw Kristi as she was heading towards the non-wetsuit entry. I got a quick hug and told her I was scared. She said that I was going to do great and that I was ready for the race. As I was making my way down the entry ramp the horn sounded! The race had started! As soon as my feet were in the water, I wiped the last of my tears, put on my goggles and told myself-"OK mind, time to shut up and let the body take over now." And just like that I switched gears from being all emotional and apprehensive, to actually enjoying the race. 

The swim start was just as crazy as I thought it would be, but not as difficult to navigate as I thought it would be. All the hardcore swimmers were way in front, so I was at the back with all the other people who wanted to be at the back with the slow swimmers. Almost everytime I got hit or kicked, there was a "Sorry" that followed. Most people near me just did the side stroke, doggie paddle, or the breaststroke without putting their heads in the water for the first little bit until the crowd dispersed. It was about a minute into the swim that I heard, "HELP"! And suddenly a bunch of people were all yelling it and pointing down. The kayak lifeguard came over in a split second and saved the swimmer with the kayak paddle. I was caught up in the mass of swimmers, so I didn't see what happened after that. I can only imagine that he/she had been pushed under the water by accident and maybe panicked. I hope he/she was able to continue the race. 

The swim was incredible. It was the best and most fun swim I've ever had. I quickly got into my rhythm. I looked for the buoy that was next in line, and just swam to it. Then I looked for the next buoy and swam to that one. It was a technique that I had read about....to take the race little by little, and to not focus on the entire race and how long the race would be. It really helped me to relax and just enjoy the swim. It was a beautiful lake. No wake or waves. Very calm considering there were 2500 of us swimming in it! The lake is set in the middle of a very affluent community, so it was nice to see all the mansions and people watching from the shores. After about 2/3 of the swim, the course turns into a canal. It was a small bottleneck, but we didn't have to slow down too much. It did get a little choppy in there and I managed to take in a full mouthful of lake water. I flipped on my back and coughed it out in about five seconds, then flipped back over and kept breaststroking. 

I got hit in the head pretty hard a couple of times in the canal area. It was tight quarters. The sides of the canal were so shallow, that at one time, after I got hit and I stopped to tread water while the person moved away from me, and I touched the bottom with my feet and it was only about three feet deep! 

Before I knew it I was at the ladder to get out of the water! I thought I heard the announcer say that the time was 1:38. I thought, "Oh cool, I beat my Lake Travis swim by a minute!" And then I realized that they said  1:28! I had beaten it by 11 minutes! I was so excited because I really thought the swim would take me 1:45-2:00. That was certainly an encouraging moment in the race! 

I climbed up the ladder and was surprised to find that I wasn't dizzy at all. 





I'd been reading that it's normal to feel dizzy after the swim, and I had felt that after the Lake Travis swim. So that was another encouraging thing! And then I saw Chris and Annabelle! Things were looking good!  Chris and Annabelle said they were happy to see me smiling after the swim. They were both pretty worried about me when I headed out for the swim and hour and a half earlier! 

Out of the water, I went to the wetsuit strippers. Always fun! Then the chute leads you to your transition bag. A volunteer called out my number and another volunteer handed me my bag. I went into the changing tent and was immediately greeted by yet another volunteer. This volunteer opened my bag and organized everything for me! Helped me put on my bike outfit, put sunscreen on my legs, shoulders, and face while I ate an accel gel and drank water. When I was done with all my stuff, she put it back in the bag and walked me to the exit. I went to the porto potty again there before getting my bike. The chute takes you past volunteers who were there to apply sunscreen to the athletes! What first class treatment! I didn't need any though since I put some on in the tent. I got my bike and headed out. 



(I'm on the far left side of this pic-in the black and blue top. You can see my head, arm, and shoulder.)

Annabelle made some new friends out on the course!




The bike ride was so great. I loved the course. I'm so glad we didn't go down earlier in April as we had planned for two reasons. One, the roads are really busy with traffic and most of the roads have very small shoulders. And two, it was fun not knowing what to expect. I liked taking all the turns and jut not knowing what was going to be there. The course was so exhilarating! Early on I made a plan. Just like the buoy technique worked on the swim, I decided to take the bike course ten miles at a time. There were water stops every ten miles. So I decided that I would just tell myself I had to bike ten miles. 

My plan was to drink one bottle of water every ten miles. Every ten miles, on the 5, (so 15, 25, 35, etc.), I planned to sit up on my bike, drink a lot of water, and stretch my back and shoulders. Then every 20 miles I would try to eat. That plan helped to break the 112 miles into smaller, more manageable chunks. My water plan worked great. My stretching plan worked pretty well. My nutrition plan didn't work at all. I tried to eat at mile 15. No luck. I just couldn't stomach anything that I had packed with me. And it was all food that I had practiced with on the training rides. The only thing that I could stomach were the accel gels. They were great because they have protein, carbs, and calories. 

The highlight of the bike ride, besides the course itself, were all the signs that spectators were holding up.  Here were some of my favorite:

"Excuse me for saying so, but that bike makes your butt look fast."
"Hurry up and finish before the Apocalypse!"
"Welcome to the Ironman-now you are broke!"
"112 miles, because 110 would be wimpy"

You always hear stories about bikers during Ironman races who pee on the bike without getting off. Well, I had the honor of seeing it happen first hand. And no, it wasn't me. A dude right in front of me stood up on his bike and we weren't climbing a hill, so I moved out of his way, just to be safe. And sure enough, he peed. Then he rinsed himself off with some water. All par for the course in an Ironman!

At one point a lady came up behind me and said, "I was impressed with your skills back there!" I said, "What skills?" Then she told me that she saw me stretching and drinking without my hands on the handlebars and she said that she can't let go like that. I told her that I had to stretch my back a lot. Later on during the ride, I was stopped at my special needs bag and she stopped next to me. The volunteer asked her how her race was going and she said, "Oh, this is just a training day for me, I don't have a time goal." I said, "An Ironman is a training day for you? What are you training for?" She said that she has two more Ironman races in the next eight weeks. Wow! She must have been a professional! And she was impressed with my skills! Whoop! Whoop!

The ride was going along great. I hit the halfway point at 3 hours and 1 minute. 18.5 average. Then we turned around into the headwind. The wind was nowhere near as bad as I was expecting. It seemed to shift around a lot, and there were enough turns in the course that it was never directly in your face for very long. We sure trained well, with some really open, hilly, and windy conditions. Our training rides were so much more difficult than the actual course. 

Around mile 70 I started to get pretty sore in my neck and shoulders. I switched positions a lot, but nothing helped. By mile 90 I was really hurting. And my saddle sores were coming back. So at mile 95 I stopped to stretch and take some more aleve. I had read that taking a few extra minutes on the bike, and stopping on the bike, can save you a lot of time on the run. I stopped for about four minutes. I went to the bathroom, applied vaseline where it needed to go, and really stretched my back. When I got back on the bike, I got a second wind and felt great. I can't remember exactly what mile it was, but there was about a mile or two stretch where there was crazy chipseal pavement. The kind that jars every part of your body. That was by far the most painful stretch of the entire ride. 

By mile 106, I was just ready to get off the bike. But the end was in sight, so I just tried to enjoy the surroundings, lots of people waiting in lines of cars were cheering us on-"Girl Power!" and "You're such an inspiration!" helped me get through the last few miles. And then before I knew it, I was at the transition area! 





The transition volunteers treat you like royalty! You get a personal assistant when you enter and they take your bike for you. They say, "Whenever you're ready, I'll take your helmet, gloves, and shoes." Then they hold on to you while you bend over to take your shoes off. Then they rack your bike for you while you continue on to the changing tent. They handed me my run transition bag and I went into the tent, where yet another personal assistant volunteer came over to help. She had two cups of ice water for me, and opened my bag while I sat down and drank. She helped me get changed and then I went to the sunscreen volunteers and got covered with spf. Then headed out to the run course.

I made a plan in my head that I would try to run in between each rest stop and then walk the rest stops. There were rest stops every mile. The plan worked pretty well and I felt great! It took me about two miles to get my running legs on completely, but then it was smooth sailing. There were some great signs on the run course too.

"You survived the Raptrue, now you can survive the Ironman!"
"Toenails are for sissies!"
"Marathon-Ironman lingo for cool-down."
"The End Is Near."

I still hadn't eaten much the entire day, except the accel gels. I felt pretty good though. I did try to eat some cookies and pretzels at the water stops. The pretzels just wouldn't go down. I managed to eat a few cookies along the course.  It was a really fun run. The three-loop course was great-it takes you through a lot of shaded trails and then along the riverwalk area where there are bars and restaurants. All the patrons were clearly enjoying the race! I could tell on each of my three loops that they were getting drunker and drunker each time I passed them! Hahahaha! 

There were so many spectators on the course that you never really felt alone. I kept playing leap frog with a few different runners so we'd walk and talk together for a little while and then get back to our own individual paces. This one guy asked me if it was my first Ironman and I said yes. He asked me what I thought of the race and I told him I was loving it. I said that it was great weather. He said, "You must be from here!"  It was in the 90s with 70% humidity and I was loving it. He said he was from West Virginia and that they'd had a cool Spring and that he wasn't used to the heat at all. We talked for a few minutes and then we set off running again. 

One of the best parts of the run was seeing Chris and Annabelle every eight miles. I got to see them twice at that point because the course does a big u-turn. 







From about mile 15-18 I was tanked. I walked a lot more than I ran. It was a weird feeling-one that's hard to explain. Like hitting the wall in a marathon, it's hard to put into words.



I stopped to change my socks at mile 16. That really helped. I had an extra pair in my special needs bag.  Again, a personal assistant volunteer to help!



The volunteers are truly amazing. They made the race so much easier and more fun. They were so kind and tentative to every athlete's need. 

Mentally I was fine during the rough spot, but I felt really nauseous. I told myself, "If you're going to throw up, then just do it and then get back to running. If you're not going to throw up, then keep running." That seemed to help, because I didn't throw up, and I got back to running. At mile 20, I realized that I was going to finish feeling strong-one of my main goals for the race. I was so excited that I picked up the pace a little bit. The crowd was saying, "Great pace! You look strong!" and that helped to motivate me. I ran the last two miles in a nine minute pace per mile! Pretty good for ol' Grannie legs! 

The finisher's chute is about a quarter mile long, and it's jam packed with spectators three and four deep. When I entered that, I felt like I was flying! It was such a feeling to see all the people cheering you on-it was an incredible feeling knowing that the finish line was just around the next corner! I have goose bumps even as I type this...it was certainly a once in a lifetime experience. 









 The finish line was exhilarating! My one word of advice to anyone who is going to ever do an Ironman is, make sure you look at the camera at the finish line! I’m looking at the ground in my finish photo. As soon as you cross, you get a personal assistant volunteer who holds you up and asks if you how you feel and if you need the medical tent. I said, “I feel amazing! No medical tent for me!” She walked me over to get my finishers shirt and cap, and then escorted me to the end of the chute where you had to navigate your own way to the food. 

I wasn’t hungry at all, so I just made my way to some steps and sat down. I put my head in my hands and started to sob. Tears of joy! I can’t describe the feelings. Relief, pride, excitement, accomplishment, success, it was all rolled up into those tears of joy! I waited on the steps, knowing that Chris and Annabelle would find me, and sure enough, a few minutes later-there they were! They helped me stand up and it was hugs all around! After some photos we made a plan.






Chris was tracking Kristi and Wayne on the athlete tracker. Bonnie had already finished and was back at her hotel feeling too sick to get up. We knew we had enough time before Kristi finished that I could go and shower, change, and get back to see her cross the finish line. So that’s what we did. It felt wonderful to shower. Nice clean, dry clothes helped me feel better too. I still didn’t have an appetite, but I figured I should eat something. I think I had a pack of sharkies, but I can’t remember. We had perfect timing to see Kristi take the corner on the last quarter mile chute before the finish line! She finished strong and we were able to find her right away at the end.

We tried to find some food, but everything was closed, so we just sat down on the sidewalk and waited for Wayne. Wayne came across a little bit later and had a great finish line photo! Then we took our own photos before heading over to get our bikes and transition bags. 




We were all a little out of it, and Chris and Annabelle were so tired too from such a long day. We somehow made it back to the hotel safe and sound with all our belongings.  Back at the hotel I tried to eat a yogurt but could only eat half of it before I felt sick. I went to bed hungry, but pleasantly satiated!

What an amazing experience. Here's a close-up of the medal and my extra bib.




The next day Chris drove Annabelle back to the airport while Kristi, Wayne, and I made our way over to the finishers tent for some items. Apparently you can’t buy the Ironman Finisher stuff on-line. You have to get it in person. I got a nice pull-over for colder days and air-conditioned restuarants.

I managed to eat a bowl of cereal before we headed out of town. I think the nutrition piece of the race was one of my biggest surprises. Nothing I had trained with worked on race day. I wasn’t hungry at all. I didn’t get my appetite back for 72 hours after the race, and even now it’s not quite back to normal. I don’t even know what I would have done differently. Probably nothing. I think the amount of water I drank on the course, and the accel gels saved me nutrition-wise.

Wow, what a blog. What a six month journey. What a relief it's over!

I think the things that will stick with me the most are:

1. My friends and family
2. The course
3. The weather
4. Putting all my special needs stuff in an extra garbage bag the night before, because it did rain-and all my stuff stayed dry!
5. The spectators
6. The volunteers 
7. The fun signs
8. The hotel location-walking distance to everything-worth every penny!
9. Getting hit on the head a bunch during the swim
10. My sense of accomplishment

I can't say enough what an incredible journey this has been. I had so much fun. I met my three goals. They were to beat the cut-off times, to enjoy the day, and to finish feeling good. Check, check, and check! I wouldn't change a thing!




 Official times

Mary 
Swim-1:28:58
T1-12:34
Bike-6:31:01
T2-11:54
Run-5:15:32
Total-13:40:58

Kristi
Swim-1:21:15
T1-10:54
Bike-7:04:49
T2-21:15
Run-6:13:31
Total-15:11:41

Wayne
Swim-1:13:29
T1-11:24
Bike-7:14:17
T2-32:08
Run-7:04:32
Total-16:15:47

Bonnie
Swim-1:20:04
T1-6:05
Bike-5:51:23
T2-6:08
Run-5:04:54
Total-12:28:31


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