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.
