IMAZ was my first IM and I had a fantastic time.
I was hesitant to post my experience after reading some of the other reports. It's odd to read about peoples difficult days, yet they still finish 1-2 hours faster than you. But then I read one of the replies in response to Marisols race report and I remembered that it is all relative. I met my goals, I felt great and I had an absolutely fantastic time! I had gas in the tank when I was finished, and I hope that I can duplicate this experience again.
My goal was sub-13, my actual time was 12:38!
Saturday evening I felt very tired, probably from too much time driving between Phoenix and Tempe to visit with people doing the race from out of town and spending to much time wandering around the athletes village. I was really excited to be doing this race and I think I wanted to participate in all the activities surrounding the event. I slept well Saturday night, all my pre-race anxiety dreams occurred earlier in the week. Left for Tempe around 4:45am, I felt pretty anxious and just wanted to get the day started.
Swim: Not my best discipline. I did the TTL swim in October in 1:23, and again 2 weeks before the race in 1:19 so I expected about the same for IMAZ.
Started back of the middle and off to the right. I got my goggles kicked off in the first 3 minutes of the swim. I swim with my contacts on so I was a little concerned. Was able to get my goggles back on, contact lenses intact and continued. I had open water for about 90% of the swim, I swam on the outside on the way out and next to the buoys on the way back. I didn't feel tired at all after the swim, but I guess that is to be expected when you are cranking out a 2:11 per 100 pace.
Final swim time = 1:22 - 1,308th person out of the water.
T1=an uneventful 8 minutes and 21 seconds
Bike goal 5:50 to 6:00 hours - The bike is usually my strength in races, so I was looking forward to getting started. Just like I have read on many earlier posts, my stomach was bothering me right from the beginning. Kind of a cross between a stitch and a gas bubble. I had read somewhere that you should slow down if your stomach is bothering you, otherwise it will come back to haunt you on the run. I slowed down, and was getting very frustrated by the number of people passing me. In fact it was 2.5 hours into the race when I finally passed the guy on the little bike that wasn't wearing any shoes!
Everything felt great except for this gas bubble. I continued with my nutrition plan and continued on at an easy pace. Stomach still bothering me, but not enough to impede my riding. By 2nd and 3rd loop I began passing a lot of people, this made me feel better, but I knew I wasn't going to make my time goal on the bike. It's funny, this wasn't my fastest time at this distance, but it was mentally the fastest 112 miles I had ever ridden. My legs were never tired, my shoulders, back, neck never hurt. I felt great.
Bike Time = 6:13, moved up 332 places to 976
T2 = an uneventful 7 minutes 44 seconds
Run: My best stand alone marathon was a 4:05, I had no idea what I could do in an IM, was hoping to stay under 5 hours.
1st loop - 10:32 average
Felt great at the beginning of the run, I had a lot of friends at the first aid station and that was a great way to get the run started. I ran the entire first loop except to walk about 20-30 seconds to drink through the aid stations. One nice thing about doing the race at home is the number of people you know racing, volunteering and spectating. My daughter's track and field coach put up signs in many out of the way spots which were great. If you saw signs on Priest and Curry and College for Val, that was me!
2nd loop = 11:11 average
I started slowing down a little bit but was still able to run the entire loop (except for the aid stations) , I think this was my mental lull. Physically, I still felt good, but I wasn't to thrilled about doing 2 more loops.Fortunately a group of friends showed up on loop 2 and this got me going again.
3rd loop= 10:55 average
at college and curry I caught up to my training partner. We hadn't seen each other all day. We ran the last loop together (again, only walking through the aid stations) and then finished together, It was great to finish together what we started together last fall. My 2 children were also able to run the finish with me. It was a great finish to a fantastic day.
Run = 4:46, moved up 319 places to a final 657th place, and 20th in my age group. Not bad for a middle aged gal with no real swim, bike or run background!
I really enjoyed running through the crowds in Tempe Beach park and under the mill avenue bridge, this was a really pick me up on each loop. The volunteers were also incredible. The were a huge reason for my success on Sunday. I couldn't have asked for a better experience, I can't believe that it is over!
I was hesitant to post my experience after reading some of the other reports. It's odd to read about peoples difficult days, yet they still finish 1-2 hours faster than you. But then I read one of the replies in response to Marisols race report and I remembered that it is all relative. I met my goals, I felt great and I had an absolutely fantastic time! I had gas in the tank when I was finished, and I hope that I can duplicate this experience again.
My goal was sub-13, my actual time was 12:38!
Saturday evening I felt very tired, probably from too much time driving between Phoenix and Tempe to visit with people doing the race from out of town and spending to much time wandering around the athletes village. I was really excited to be doing this race and I think I wanted to participate in all the activities surrounding the event. I slept well Saturday night, all my pre-race anxiety dreams occurred earlier in the week. Left for Tempe around 4:45am, I felt pretty anxious and just wanted to get the day started.
Swim: Not my best discipline. I did the TTL swim in October in 1:23, and again 2 weeks before the race in 1:19 so I expected about the same for IMAZ.
Started back of the middle and off to the right. I got my goggles kicked off in the first 3 minutes of the swim. I swim with my contacts on so I was a little concerned. Was able to get my goggles back on, contact lenses intact and continued. I had open water for about 90% of the swim, I swam on the outside on the way out and next to the buoys on the way back. I didn't feel tired at all after the swim, but I guess that is to be expected when you are cranking out a 2:11 per 100 pace.
Final swim time = 1:22 - 1,308th person out of the water.
T1=an uneventful 8 minutes and 21 seconds
Bike goal 5:50 to 6:00 hours - The bike is usually my strength in races, so I was looking forward to getting started. Just like I have read on many earlier posts, my stomach was bothering me right from the beginning. Kind of a cross between a stitch and a gas bubble. I had read somewhere that you should slow down if your stomach is bothering you, otherwise it will come back to haunt you on the run. I slowed down, and was getting very frustrated by the number of people passing me. In fact it was 2.5 hours into the race when I finally passed the guy on the little bike that wasn't wearing any shoes!
Everything felt great except for this gas bubble. I continued with my nutrition plan and continued on at an easy pace. Stomach still bothering me, but not enough to impede my riding. By 2nd and 3rd loop I began passing a lot of people, this made me feel better, but I knew I wasn't going to make my time goal on the bike. It's funny, this wasn't my fastest time at this distance, but it was mentally the fastest 112 miles I had ever ridden. My legs were never tired, my shoulders, back, neck never hurt. I felt great.
Bike Time = 6:13, moved up 332 places to 976
T2 = an uneventful 7 minutes 44 seconds
Run: My best stand alone marathon was a 4:05, I had no idea what I could do in an IM, was hoping to stay under 5 hours.
1st loop - 10:32 average
Felt great at the beginning of the run, I had a lot of friends at the first aid station and that was a great way to get the run started. I ran the entire first loop except to walk about 20-30 seconds to drink through the aid stations. One nice thing about doing the race at home is the number of people you know racing, volunteering and spectating. My daughter's track and field coach put up signs in many out of the way spots which were great. If you saw signs on Priest and Curry and College for Val, that was me!
2nd loop = 11:11 average
I started slowing down a little bit but was still able to run the entire loop (except for the aid stations) , I think this was my mental lull. Physically, I still felt good, but I wasn't to thrilled about doing 2 more loops.Fortunately a group of friends showed up on loop 2 and this got me going again.
3rd loop= 10:55 average
at college and curry I caught up to my training partner. We hadn't seen each other all day. We ran the last loop together (again, only walking through the aid stations) and then finished together, It was great to finish together what we started together last fall. My 2 children were also able to run the finish with me. It was a great finish to a fantastic day.
Run = 4:46, moved up 319 places to a final 657th place, and 20th in my age group. Not bad for a middle aged gal with no real swim, bike or run background!
I really enjoyed running through the crowds in Tempe Beach park and under the mill avenue bridge, this was a really pick me up on each loop. The volunteers were also incredible. The were a huge reason for my success on Sunday. I couldn't have asked for a better experience, I can't believe that it is over!