On Saturday I became an Ironman! The most important thing I can share with everyone out there who is training or thinking about doing one in the future is that finishing depends 85% on will power and 15% on training. For those who dont know me you are probably wondering why I chose 15% for the training component - well basically I did about 15% of the training that is commonly recommended for completing an Ironman. There were a lot of reasons I ‘decided’ to go into this ‘unprepared’ but to make a long story short there were 2 main reasons - injuries and fear. Not sure if anyone has experienced the fear factor while training for Ironman but I can finally be honest and say I was scared to train … scared to get to that start line knowing I did everything I could to have a good race and finish because that would have left me with no excuse if I failed, it would mean I was too weak … that mentally I was not capable of pushing myself that far.
By now everyone knows the conditions pretty much sucked this year and I can confirm that! Originally I was supposed to do IMCDA but had to drop out … the only race I was able to sign up for and get the time off to do was Florida which unfortunately meant I would have to swim in the ocean. Everyone who knows me knows that my biggest fear is the ocean … I am simply terrified … I have great respect for the power of water and the living things in it.
The gun went off and there I was running into the scary ocean … the waves were crashing and I kept running and finally got in there and started swimming … in a way I had already won … I had moved past a major fear and was on my way to accomplishing something I never believed would be possible for me … I did it … I swam 2.4 miles in the ocean!!! Maybe for some of you this is not such a big deal but for someone who has never swam in the ocean for fear of being swallowed up by sharkies or stung by jelly fish this was HUGE! I started right smack in the middle … I decided that getting the shit kicked out of me was better than being at risk of swimming in open water without being protected on all sides … those sharks would have had to eat through a lot of triathletes before they were going to get me. Funny thing is that once I started swimming that was the last thing on my mind … instead I was concentrating on not getting sick - I forgot to mention … I tend to get sea sick … and I would like to apologize now to anyone who had to witness the consequences of my swimming in rough waters. Yep … I threw up three times during the swim … it was only water but still it wasnt pretty and it wasnt fun! My first lap was actually pretty good … around 36 min I believe … but the second lap was tough as I got off track and was pretty dizzy from the waves so I wound up doing the swimming in 1:23. Thats about 15 minutes more than I expected but honestly I didnt care … I was sooooo happy to get out of that water and on to the bike.
It was pretty cold when I got out of the water and I was glad I had decided to stick some arm warmers in my bike bag … well atleast that is what I believed until they dumped my bag out and I realized that in my nervous frenzy that morning I had actually put the arm warmers in my run bag by accident. So luckily I put pretty much everything else I owned into the bike bag (im not suck a good packer) so I had a jacket to wear. I got out on the bike course and for the first twenty minutes all I could focus on was the fact that my world was still spinning from the motion sickness and that I was now about to bike 112 miles using a nutrition plan I had never tried before. Yep … basically I threw some carbo pro and gatorade in 2 bottles and put some clif blocks in my bento box … since I only did two long rides this year I never wound up testing nutrition strategies so I went with a simple plan. For the first 15 miles I was cursing at myself because the winds were really bad and I was riding a disc … at 5’2 and less than 120 pounds I was barely able to keep my bike upright. Finally the wind started to die down and things got a whole lot better. The next 50 miles were cake … I was riding 18 - 22 miles per hour most of the time and feeling great. Somewhere around 70 miles I realized I had to run 26.2 miles after this and started slowing down out of fear of the unknown … having only done 2 long rides I wasnt sure how fast I could go without blowing up. Around mile 90 I decided to go real easy and spin at a high cadence in hopes of getting off the bike and being able to run a few miles. I ended up with a 6:15 bike split which I was pretty unhappy with since I was hoping for a 5:45 but oh well I was glad to get off the bike because even with my assos shorts my ass was hurting!
I was off the bike and running through transition … I got to the run bags and had a tiny heartattack while the volunteers struggled to find my bag … a few minutes later I had my bag and was off to the tent to throw on my running gear. I left the tent running … I couldnt believe it … I felt great! I had recently injured my hip flexor so I was running in fear of what was to come. My plan was to run to each aid station and then walk the entire aid station in hopes of getting some nutrition in and giving myself some rest so I could run as many miles as possible before blowing up. Luckily I was blessed with the ability to eat mass amounts of food while running … this came in handy since I realized after the third mile that I had only consumed about half of the calories I needed on the bike. The volunteers must have thought I was crazy … I grabbed everything at every aid station … I drank water, coke and chicken broth and I ate cookies, pretzels, and bananas … I think I could have won the award for most calories consumed on the run. So I stuck with this plan until mile 14 … thats when the trouble started! My legs felt great but I had a blister that was starting to become a problem … it started out being a bit uncomfortable but then it popped … omg it hurt like a b**** … and everytime my foot hit the ground it got a little more painful. To make matters worse my hip flexor started to tighten up as expected and it became harder and harder to keep running. I wound up walking a little extra after each of the last 6 aid stations but still ran 90% of each mile. I was about 2 miles out from the finish line and I realized I had done it … I was going to be an Ironman … funny thing is I felt like crying instead of celebrating … its funny how this race plays with your emotions. Anyway I crossed the line in 12:49 and had accomplished my goal despite my lack of training and learned a lot about myself while doing it. My only regret was not asking my family to be there … it was a bit of a downer to cross the line and not have anyone to there to share it with.
I have a new found respect for the distance and the people who actually ‘race’ it! Even though I swore never to do another Ironman during the race I find myself reading through the race reports on here and researching my next IM … guess Im hooked!