It has been almost two weeks since my biggest race/event yet and I am just now feeling ready to put it to bed by writing my race report. I said the other day that training for this was somewhat like being pregnant. You put your heart, soul, and every spare second of time you have into preparing for the big day. For seven months my training was the pretty much the main focus of my life (outside of family and moving to another state). One of the biggest differences is that at the end of it all, you're pretty much left empty handed with only your thoughts, a cool medal, and a sticker to put on your car. And then you wonder...now what?More on that later.
Doubt
During my last 2-3 taper weeks I started feeling very nervous. Did I do enough? Is that one workout I missed in week 9 going to come back and haunt me? Is the swim that I cut short a couple of times because I was feeling too exhausted going to do me in? What about all the juggling I did with my training schedule...will that matter? And how come my plan only had me running for two hours? I should have been running more than that. I don't think the plan had enough brick workouts!So many doubts filled my mind that I was doubting my ability. I started to wonder what not-finishing would look like. Not good. Usually my best strategy is to visualize myself feeling good and going strong in all 3 events. I spent each training session almost in a trance visualizing race-day. This negativity was eating away at that. Fortunately, my friend and former coach Leslie gave me my new mantra: Trust the Plan. With that in my head...I was ready to go.
Here's the recap!
Saturday:
Rick and I went for a very short swim in Cayuga Lake to get the feel of the water, wetsuit, and seaweed. This swim was horrible. I was scared, out of breath, and unable to finish the very short distance I had set out to do. I kind of expected this...it always seems to happen in open water swims when there are no lifeguards and I am in deep water. So I left it at that. Trust the Plan. Then it was time for a quick 20 minute ride to stretch the legs followed by a 10 minute run.
My cousin decided to ride with me because he knew the road and had a good place in mind for the turn around. Unfortunately, he miscalculated the distance and we ended up riding for 50 minutes instead of 20! I was definitely NOT supposed to do that. I decided it was best to scrap the run since I already overworked my legs. More doubt creeping in...
The rest of the day was spent at my aunt's lake house finishing up my hydrating and carb-loading with a big bowl of pierogis and just hanging out in the water, getting a feel for the lake. There was lots of seaweed around so I had to get used to that, too. It really felt great and I was thankful for the opportunity to calm my fears in the water. From there we went to packet pick-up and then to rack the bike and set up transition. I loved that they let us do that the night before! Of course, I didn't get much sleep that night, but I knew that was coming.
Sunday PreRace:
Four a.m. came pretty fast. I quickly got dressed while eating my dry Honey Nut Cheerios and banana. It was a really nice race morning since everything was already set up at the race site and I didn't have to rush around. I got to the site nice and early and had plenty of time to get everything done...body marking, warm-up bike and run, wetsuit on. The transition site was HUGE, but I had a good flag to mark my row and spent a few minutes counting rows just to make sure. Then it was into the water!
Again, I had plenty of time for a little warm up swim to the first bouy. I was so happy because I realized the water was shallow up to that point. Awesome...a little added security for the swim start. Perfect. I was also feeling great about being in the second wave. Hanging around forever waiting to start always makes me more nervous. No time for that today!
Swim:
When the gun went off I of course let all the maniacs go on ahead. Then I started jogging out with the rest of the apprehensive people. I realized that those around me kept walking...and walking...and walking. So, I walked too. No sense in tiring myself out before I had to. Conserving energy was good. We walked almost to the first bouy (probably about 75-100 yards) until the water started getting deep. Then the swimming started. I did my little chant in my head... "steady and calm" out to the second bouy. I had different chants for each part of the swim and it worked. I felt great the whole way through. It did seem to go on forever, though. I wasn't tired out or anything, just wanted it to end because I had other things to do.The middle portion was a little choppy and I felt myself rolling over a lot. After the turn around it was nice and easy though. I can honestly say that I truly enjoyed the swim and I felt energized coming out of the water.
T-1: Thankfully I had no problem finding my bike and had an easy transition. I grabbed a power bar and gobbled it down the minute I crossed the mounting line. I gulped down some sports drink and 4 enduralights and I was off again!
Bike:
Looking at the clock on my bike, I couldn't tell exactly how long my swim was, but I knew it was under 50 minutes, so I was happy. My goal was 45. The bike was HARD. Rolling hills, steep hills, and some rough roads. Nothing I was used to in training. But it was BEAUTIFUL! I had forgotten how gorgeous the Finger Lakes region was. The scenic lake views on that bright sunny day took my breath away. At times I forgot I was in a race and just looked around at the scenery. I loved passing the Amish farms and seeing the children outside playing and looking at us. And I loved passing all of the wineries and vinyards. It was definitely the most beautiful bike ride I had ever taken. I stayed hydrated taking sips of sports drink every 15 minutes, and a gel every 45 minutes. I'm glad I wore my camelback to sip water whenever I wanted. I never had to stop or get anything from the aid stations. I wonder why more people didn't wear camelbacks on the ride.
By mile 50 my back was really hurting and I was ready for the bike to be over. Miles 50-56 seemed the longest of the whole race. I thought it would never end. I noticed that I was approaching my goal time of 3:30 and I didn't see transition anywhere in sight. Oh, well. It was definitely hillier that anything I had encountered in training...so I was ok with a little longer time. I finally crossed the dismount line and rolled into T-2.
T-2:
Again, this was pretty uneventful. Got what I needed and got the heck out of there. At the last second, I grabbed my running hat. I wasn't planning on wearing it, but for some reason I grabbed it...thankfully!
Run:
The first thing I noticed was it was HOT! It really didn't hit me on the ride, but wow it was hitting me now. My legs were a bit wobbly, but boy it fet good to be off the bike and stretching my legs and being off my butt. Coming out of Transition I saw my family and friends and that was awesome. My plan was now to just make it to each aid station along the way. The first one was where I had friends volunteering and it was great to have them there. I began my aid station ritual of sports drink, water, enduralights, and cold sponge and ice in my cap. That worked great because everytime I felt myself getting hot I just pressed on the top of my cap and icy water released down my head.
Then I spotted Rick. He was running with me, but a bit behind me so as not to get me disqualified. I called him my phantom run partner. It was helpful knowing he was there, but I felt bad he wasn't able to get anything from the aid stations. The absolute BEST was that about every mile there were people holding hoses spraying us down with cold water. That is what got me through. I felt like a new person each time I got sprayed and I knew I was going to make it. I actually felt really good throughout the run pretty much all of the way through. Before I knew it, we were half way through. It was a pretty tough run course, though; hilly and hot. Fortunately I was used to running in the heat living in FL, but the hills were another story. I never remembered Geneva being a hilly town! When I reached mile 9, I started to feel myself running out of steam. I took one last gel and pressed on to the next aid station. I noticed a lot of people walking, so I felt pretty good that I was still running. At the last aid station, I once again saw familiar faces and that gave me what I needed to go that last mile. On the last stretch I came upon a line of men (racers)walking and blocking my way which annoyed me. I yelled out "Excuse me boys, I don't have the energy to go around you!" They apologized and moved aside and I ran on through them :) I crossed the finish line with my family there and I was feeling good. No crawling, no collapsing, surprising even myself!
Overall time: 6:53:54...place in age group 34/64
Swim: 47:53...place in age group 48/64
Bike: 3:33:30 place in age group 48/64 Pace 15.8
Run: 2:24:44 place in age group 27/64 Pace 10:53 :)
So that's it!
Over the past months of endless swimming, biking, and running I told myself that this was going to be it. There is no way I could ever train any more than this, so a full Ironman is out of the question. This HIM will be my big "Hurrah" and then I will just have fun, try new things, do some smaller tris and running events. I would even love to learn to surf if I can ever get over my fear of "things" in the ocean. I signed up for the Tough Mudder-a 10 mile mud run/obstacle course. I did my first training session yesterday and found out I cannot do more than 3 push-ups and cannot even do 1 pull-up. Certainly I have something new here to conquer and focus on for the next 5 months. But then it's still out there...140.6 miles I've never covered. At the finish line, Mary looked at me and said, "Mom, you can definitely do a full Ironman." well, if my baby girl thinks I can do it...I can do it. 2013 will be my year. Trust the Plan...and yourself!
