OFF THE PODIUM

I came in FOURTH!!! The results are in for 2024 and I missed the North Carolina Tri Series podium by only 656 points! I am disappointed - I was hoping to bump up a step from last year and get into second place. But, the great thing is that I was FOURTH! The women in my age group consistently crush it and I am happy to be in the top ten - much less the top five. I have been chasing Elizabeth Skiba, Suzanne Tulsey and Amy Cocanour FOREVER!!!!! I am happy to be within 20 minutes of their finishing times.

In order to qualify for NCTS series awards and year-end "swag", participants must compete in a minimum of four NCTS races. Each race awards points and only the top 4 scores will be counted. Races are weighted according to distance with the a half-iron distance races receiving more weight than Internationals which receive more weight than Sprints.

This year, I competed in SIX series races. I missed the podium at Pinehurst (which meant 0 points) and somehow my second place finish at Wrightsville Beach Sprint got 0 points (or was not one of the top four races) even though the field was bigger and the swim was longer than most sprints.

I will say that podium spots are always always always icing on the cake. It all depends on who shows up. I could have the race of my life, but if an ex-pro in my age group shows up to the same race, I will probably be at least one step below. But, it sure is sweet to be on the podium.

Back in September, I raced back to back weekends. Both times - funny things happened on the way to the podium. The first race was the WB Sprint. When I finished, I checked the overall results online and realized I was second! WooHoo! I hung out for the awards ceremony and as it approached, I checked out the results again. I noticed that I’d been bumped to third. Oh well, it happens. I happily accepted third place and the awesome medal. The second-place finisher wasn’t there, but I got a great podium selfie with Elizabeth Skiba who had a very strong race.

Later that day, I checked my splits online and compared it to the others in my age-group. I noticed that the woman who finished second (the one who didn’t show up for awards) had a 16-minute 5K. Um……..what?! The winner of the entire race finished his 5K in just under 18 minutes. I am all about girl-power, but, I doubt a woman in the 50-54 age group can beat that. I debated for hours on whether or not to contact the race director….and finally did. She double-checked her timing and reached out to the 2nd place athlete and learned that her lost chip was turned in by another participant and somehow recorded the 16-minute run finish. I was bumped back up to second place. Unfortunately, my score for that race was not in the top four of the series and was nullified in the final standings.

A week later, I raced the Pier 2 Pier swim at Wrightsville Beach. This race is not in the NC Tri Series so I wasn’t going for podiums or prizes or points. In fact, I mentioned in a previous post that it was a tough race. Honestly, I was happy to finish at all! However, I did place at this race in the spring so there was hope. I really wanted a podium spot for this race - the prize was a pair of GOGGLES!!! It’s never a easy to gain a podium spot when the age-groups are grouped by nine years. My chances in a four-year age group is much better! Plus, this year, I am smack-dab in the middle of the 50-59 year-old age group. That age group is full of super-fast swimmers (they all finished 10 minutes ahead of me!). Needless to say, my name was not called. And, when I checked the results later - I found out that one of the podium winners in my age group was actually listed as 60!!!! [And, what’s up with Anonymous. C’mon!] WTH?

There is always this year. There are always new podiums to reach. There are always new personal bests to chase. I have quite a few time goals in mind for 2025 for a few A-Races. I can’t wait to see what awaits.

Third Place, but really Second Place

Selfie from the Podium

Pier 2 Pier Results. One of the top three is NOT 50-59.

IRONMAN ARIZONA - PART 2

The bike-to-swim transition might have been the best/worst part of the whole day. My feet were numb. But, they also hurt to run. They felt heavy. There were five more concrete steps to climb, hard packed clay/sand, grass and mats heading toward the change tent. Before I grabbed my bag, I stopped to have the wetsuit peeler volunteers strip my wetsuit. They helped peel my sleeves off (one sleeve hit the volunteer in the face), I sat down on the ground and they yanked the suit off from my ankles. It took two seconds. Brilliant. I grabbed my T1 bag and headed into the changing tent. The tent was so warm - the temps and the volunteers! I put on two long sleeve shirts - but decided to skip the arm warmers. I dried off my grass-and-dirt encrusted feet and pulled on my socks while one of the volunteers opened my hot hands packages. I stuffed those into my socks. I stuffed nutrition into my kit and headed out to grab my bike and go.

T1: Swim-to-Bike 10’25”

For the first hour on the bike I was very cold. My hands - miraculously - weren’t. Everything else was. I felt like I had goosebumps on my arms and legs for the first loop. But, the sun came out and warmed the concrete and desert around me. I eventually warmed up enough to take off my top layer. Because the bike is three loops and so it’s easy to break up the work into segments. The town turns out technical section, out on the beeline, back on the beeline, and the technical turn section again.

Town Turns Out: Getting out of town and to the beeline was fairly straight-forward, despite all the turns and a bit of bumpy road. I had goosebumps from top to toe, but fortunately, my hands weren’t frozen. I could eat, grab bottles, shift and brake without a problem. My feet stayed cold until mile 62. My biggest worry here is that I lost Barbie! I had zip-tied her to the back bottle cage and as I made a turn, I encountered a couple of rough patches in the intersection. I heard a rattle and thought Barbie had jumped ship. I reached back and couldn’t feel her back there. At least RocketFire Jesus was still with me!

Beeline Out: This segment was uphill but had a tailwind. It was warm and I got to see all the bikes of the leaders headed back into town. My biggest issue was that my right glute and hip flexor were tight. I stood several times to try and work it out - but I couldn’t quite figure out the issue. The other issue: I tried to find my lip balm in my bra pocket and came up empty.

Beeline Back: This segment is a net downhill, but had a headwind. They had called for calm winds in Tempe, but, near Salt River and out in the hills, the wind picked up with every loop. My biggest issue on this segment was a RATTLE in the front of my bike. The roads were rough - so much so that in several sections they marked the pavement with signs, paint and tape. There was cold-patch all over the place. I tried what I could to quiet the RAT-A-TAT-TAT - holding the bottle cage, checking the front cap, checking the stem cap, digging into my bento box for whatever could be loose in there. Nothing stopped it the t-t-t-tt-t-t-t—-t-tttt-t-tt-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t-t. Talk about anxiety. I couldn’t shake the feeling that I had missed a screw somewhere when putting my bike together.

Town Turns In: I liked making the turns back into town. I felt pretty good despite the cold and was a little ahead of schedule when I made the first U-TURN at the hot corner. I had been SO WORRIED about the train tracks at this turn-around. I lost sleep about it the night before. I was so relieved that they were covered with carpet! Brilliant! On my way out, I searched in my bra pocket for the lip balm. Still no luck.

Town Turns Out + Beeline Out: I felt great in this 18-mile section. The rattle had stopped, my glute and hip seemed to be better and I actually needed to pee. I think I stopped at the aid station near mile 45. I peeled off my top layer TOUR DE BLUEBERRY shirt and stepped into the porta-potty. I remembered to turn so that I emptied my pockets away from the pot. Because I was wearing a one-piece tri suit, if I had peeled my suit down over the pot, my nutrition and RocketFire Jesus would have taken a dive in the blue lagoon. As I pulled out the ziploc bag of nutrition - out jumped Rocket Fire Jesus. He landed between the door and the floor. I scooped him up and put him in the boob pocket with the lip balm. It’s very close to my heart where the real Jesus resides.

When I exited the porto, the woman holding my bike helped me play bartender (mix a new bottle of SKRATCH) and said: What’s this? She pointed to Barbie! She was still there!

That’s my Barbie pez, I explained. I take a different PEZ dispenser on each Ironman. This is number 17!

WHAT?!!!! She exclaimed! Then to another volunteer: Roger!! This woman has done 17 of these! You look like Barbie, she called after me as I rode off into the desert breeze.

Beeline Back: Ahhhh…..down hill. Grrrrrrrr……..wind. And that dang rattle again. I felt okay, but I had a little reflux and I started to worry about my nutrition and hydration. I decided to stop to get my personal needs bag - in hopes that I’d find an extra lip balm in there. . Instead I found: CHIPS! I forgot that I’d put Lay’s Baked Potato chips in the bag (along with a chocolate stroop waffle, a spare tube and spare air canisters. Oh my goodness! I was so happy! I stuffed the bag of chips and the stroop waffle in my tri kit top and headed out.

Town Turns In: My favorite part of this section was passing a group of girls near an intersection. They were volunteers directing riders to slow down for the upcoming turn. They yelled: OH MY GOSH I LOVE YOUR HOT PINK!

Thank you! I yelled back. I’m in my Barbie era. They squealed and yelled GOOOOOOO!!!! When I came back by they all yelled GO BARBIE!!!

Town Turns Out/Beeline Out: I am about ready to be off the bike. The turns out of town were not significant, but I told myself to use the momentum of the wind to gain a little speed before the turn-around. I was feeling pretty good and trying to step up my mental game and this dude passed me. He was really moving so I wasn’t surprised at the pass. I was surprised when he stood up about 100 yards ahead of me. He sat back down. I slowed so I wouldn’t catch him in the draft zone. And then he stood up again and I noticed water dripping from his bike.

You’re PEEING? I yelled at him. You pulled in front of me and THEN peed?

Sorry! he shouted. He sped up again and took off up the hill.

Beeline Back: I made the turn-around and decided to stop one more time. I filled my torpedo with ice and cold water and filled my last bottle of Skratch with ice. It made all the difference in the world. I was able to finish that bottle and eat the chocolate stroop waffle. Plus, I was able to take in a little salt and chase it with that icy cold water. I hit the 100 mile mark and cheered as I always do. Out loud and with gusto!

Town Turns In: Now I was REALLY ready to be off the bike. I braced myself for the last turn into town on the bumpiest road and the headiest head wind. Right before the turn another dude passes me, stands up and PEES!!! What is the deal guys?

I made it into town and crossed the carpeted train tracks one more time before bumping up onto the side walk and soft-pedaling into the park for transition 2. I was happy to hear Neal’s voice and even happier to get off the bike.

BIKE TIME: 7:08:58

IRONMAN ARIZONA - PART 1

I can’t believe it’s been a month since I was on the IMAZ course crushing my 17th Ironman and my 82nd triathlon. I did 140.6 miles in 14:56:55. I am still processing the meaning behind the madness, but for now, I am reveling in the fact that I DID IT! I did an IRONMAN! Here is a little of what happened:

I woke up at 3:45AM and took about 15 minutes to prep my mindset before I even started all the normal morning prep. I journaled about my confidence to swim strong + bike strong + run strong + tri strong. I wrote down some of the memories from the training season and from racing these past few months. Neal’s alarm at 4:10AM signaled that it was time to “put on some spandex and do this thing!”

We left the hotel and headed down to transition at 5:15. It took about 10 minutes to get down there. I headed into the maze that is transition. I headed to my bike first. I checked the tire pressure and my Di2 shifters. Then, I started to load Lana up with snacks, bottles, my Garmin Edge and my Barbie Pez. Usually, I put my PEZ in my Bento Box, but she didn’t quite fit with all the snacks. So, I decided to zip tie her to my back bottle cage this time. I also tucked Rocketfire Jesus in the back pocket of my tri kit. He could have fit in my bento box, but, I really wanted him to be with me on the swim, bike and run.

Next up, I headed over to the fence to check in with Ace. He had all my personal needs bags so he chucked them over the chain link so I could finish the maze and meet me on the other side.

The bike and run personal needs bags were about 500 yards away so I did a quick out and back to that area underneath the bridge and then headed over to our transition bags. I realized that I forgotten to put my lip balm in my bento box on my bike. Instead of going all the way over to my bike, I thought of dropping it in my swim-to-bike bag. Then, I worried that I might forget it. So, next logical place for it was my bra. It has a pocket along the front and it seemed like a great place to stash it. This will come back to haunt me later in the day.

Once I’d done all the chores of transition, Ace and I headed over to a quiet little spot where I could sit for a bit. This might have been the longest part of the day. They announced that the race would be wetsuit mandatory because of the water temps (in the low 60s) and the cold air temps (in the 40s). I tried to eat a little more and drink some water before I had to wiggle into my wetsuit.

We watched the crowd, I got dressed and eventually headed over to the swim start chute. At first, I moved into to the 1:20 - 1:30 finish time and then decided to move up further to the 1:15 finish time marker. Ace hung out in the crowd on the other side of the fence so once the official cannon sounded, I handed him my shoes and socks. For a few moments I stood on the cold concrete. But, a woman to my left ditched her fleecy sweatshirt on the ground near the fence and I reached down and moved it over to me to stand on. I spread it out so the girl beside me could use it, too.

Within a few minutes, we were moving forward down the sidewalk, past the announcers, down a ramp and onto a floating dock. As we got close, I poured cold water from a bottle I’d been saving on my head and in my face, down my neck and front. It helped soften the blow of the VERY cold water temp. Swimmers were sent off four at a time every 5 seconds. Almost everyone jumped in feet first. I am a wimp so when I walked to my spot, I sat down on the dock and the pushed off into the water. It took my breath away. I did my normal float and scull move for a bit to catch my breath and acclimate my ears and face to the cold water. Finally, I started to swim.

The swim was everything the blogs and how-to videos claim. It. is. cold. My head and body were fine - wrapped in neoprene. Once I warmed up - about 1000 yards in - I thought: this is a great temperature. But, my hands and feet started to feel the effects of the air temps and water temps. As predicted, sighting was a challenge in some spots. There is a good 800-yard stretch on the way out where siting is great. The shadows of the bridges and the buildings kept the sun out of my eyes. But, there is a slight curve in the rectangle and for another 800 yards the sun is in your face. I was lucky to have my FORM goggles to keep me on track. I think my heading was 240 on the way out, a 0 on the turn and 180 on the way back. Sighting on the way back was better. The sun was rising somewhere behind me and it lit up the buoys and the kayaks The problem was that the kayaks were as red as the buoys. At first, I found myself siting and heading towards kayaks that were to the right of the buoys. I kept thinking: trust your heading, trust your heading and I ended up right on target. The left curve into the finish was short and easy to sight. I finished the swim in 1:19:24 and was 8th out of the water in my age-group.

About 500 yards from the finished I started worrying about a calf cramp in my right leg. Sometimes when I swim long, with my toes pointed for my (non) kick, my legs can get a little tight. If I flex my foot, I can get a calf cramp. I had to purposefully relax and think about it and not think about it at the same time. As I was exiting the swim, I worried that flexing my foot and standing on it would cause a cramp, but I was able to swim up the ramp and stand without an incident.

The exit was a different story. Leaving the ramp required a large box jump…..er…….I mean step up. Well, I missed it. I was a little wobbly from the cold, the noise from the volunteers and crowd was loud and still had my goggles on. I followed the volunteers direction to step up and I missed. I banged my foot against the step and caught myself with my right hand. The crowd went: oooooooh! The best thing was that the photographer was RIGHT there. I looked at him and said take this picture! I will buy it! He laughed and did just that.