For an early season race on not half as much training as I did my 1st IM on, IMAZ turned out to be a great experience. Everyone always worries that they didn’t train enough for IM, and I was no exception going in to this one! Instead of steadily training in 3 or 4 week blocks like I have done for big races in the past, my training for IMAZ was pretty sporadic, based on weather, and taking a week off of work twice to go to Arizona to train hard.
Pre race-
Felt pretty relaxed and happy, was really looking forward to having a fun experience. What were my hopes? I had a few levels:
First and foremost: to finish without feeling really terrible mentally or physically, feeling like I made my best effort
Second: to beat my previous IM time of 12:45
Third: to go under 12:00
Dream: to go under 11:30 
Race day came quickly and a hot day was anticipated! Hung out with my teammates for a while before the race, watching the pro’s go off, until it was time to jump into the canal and get situated for the deep water start. I placed myself pretty close to the front and near the bouy line - I’d rather be swum over by faster swimmers than have to make my way through a crowd.
Swim- 1:09 - My swim went great - I was able to draft a bit and keep a line close to the bouys without getting beat up much at all. The turnaround of the one loop swim came up a lot faster than I thought , and before I knew it I was on my way back to the swim exit. Got a bit more beat up on the way back, more by women than men. That’s IM!
Out of the swim for the transition, got my wetsuit peeled off and made for the change tent, got great help from the volunteers. Got to my bike to discover that my gel flask had leaked all over the top of my frame and my front wheel. A volunteer and I wiped the worst of it off and I tossed the flask in my back pocket so it wouldn’t leak. I also then realized that I had completely forgotten to put my heart rate monitor strap on that morning , so I wouldn’t be doing the bike by heart rate as planned…oh well!
Bike -6:16 - The first half of the loop had a little head wind, going up the longer out and back section of the course I was averaging 15-16mph and hoping things would get better. After I made the turnaround I flew down the slight decline with a tailwind, averaging about 29 mph for the 10 mile section. This was more like it! Unfortunately I dropped a water bottle on a rough section of road and had to drink only my very concentrated pre-mixed perpetuum for about 30 minutes until I got to the next aid station: this also happened at the same spot on the 2nd loop. Made the first loop easily under 1:55 and figured I would make it under 6:00 for the bike. The next 2 loops were tougher, due to a change in the wind direction, heat, etc. Probably also didn’t help to keep losing that water bottle! I just watched my cadence, keeping it around 95 to make sure I was flushing the lactic acid through my legs. I was glad to get back to town at the end of the bike, was surprised to see the 6:16 because I expected a much faster bike leg, but was ok with that.
I handed my bike off, grabbed my run stuff and was not thrilled to find that the gel flask I had in my run bag had also leaked all over my run shorts. I debated running in my bike shorts for a few seconds but ended up choosing the gooey run shorts.
Run - 4:50 This is the most evenly paced race I have ever run in my life, at any distance, even just a running race. I usually go out hard and fade, but I covered every mile in 11:00 while walking all the aid stations except the last two (I knew I could break 12:30 at that point!). I saw sooooo much walking, I just kept telling myself if I was even jogging I was going faster than walking. The first mile sucked. All I could think was, what am I doing? Why did I do this? I am never doing ironman distance again! I am not doing Lake Placid, I don’t care that I already paid for it! I told myself I had to stop thinking negatively and decided to run each mile for a person in my life, family and friends, like Kristen Armstrong just wrote about in Runner’s World Magazine. I concentrated on that person, what they meant for me and why I was running for them. By the time I got to mile 8 I felt great again and made my way out for the 2nd loop of the 3 lap course. I drank coke from the very start and this worked really well for me. Doused myself in water at every station and put the cups of ice in my back tri shirt pocket and down the front of my sports bra to cool down. The miles ticked away, and I stayed consistent with my times each and every mile.
Another slightly low point of my race came at mile 15, as I ran up on an older man and a middle aged woman who were walking. As I ran up, I heard the mad complaining to the woman about how he had to conserve on the windy bike course to be able to do “this stupid run”. I thought to myself, “What, you think no one else had to conserve because of the wind?”. As I ran past, I hear the guy say, “Look at her - she’s got so much more extra poundage than I do and she’s making a fool of me.” WELL, there is nothing like a woman getting called fat 15 miles into a marathon in an Ironman! I had been starting to feel some knee and IT band pain, but it went straight out of my mind as I turned around and gave this guy the finger as I picked up the pace. Man, was I mad for about 30 seconds. Then I made myself laugh about it. It actaully may have improved my race, as I didn’t feel that knee pain again the rest of the time!
The last lap went by fast. It was nice telling myself I only had to run up this hill one more time, or I only had to pass through this aid station one more time. I was able to push a bit through the last 2 miles, not stopping to walk through the aid stations.
I crossed the finish line at 12:28:45, 17 minutes better than my 04 Florida time, and feeling really good!
After the race, I went to eat with friends and then we went down to the finish line to watch the last finishers come in in the party atmosphere. Met Michael Lovato, who won the race and was signing stuff at the finish line, nice guy. I had a really great time watching the end of the race, the people finishing at 16:58 looked a hell of a lot better than the people finishing around me!
I felt really relaxed and positive throughout my training, the week before the race and the race itself (except for those little low points). Never felt nervous or anxious. This had a big impact on my race, I think.
I am still on a high from the race - and am shocked at how good I feel! All in all, it was a terriffic experience. I would do IMAZ again, but it is definitely hard to train for through the winter in the northeast.
BRING ON IM LAKE PLACID!!!