Hi all,
Well, we made it back from Hawaii on Wednesday 25th. We left Tuesday night and flew from Kona to Oahu. Then we took a red-eye from Honolulu to Dallas and then onto Denver Wednesday morning. We made it home before the “Big October Blizzard”. When we landed it was 60 degrees and sunny, so Shawn and I decided to rake up the leaves before the first major snow. Eleven bags later we were done. When I got up on Thursday morning, everything was covered in snow and the rest of the day was crazy, it just never stopped. Gotta love Colorado.
Anyway, the race went ok and I actually PR’ed by a few seconds over last year. However, I had bigger plans and they just didn’t pan out for the day. My goal was to win my age group and maybe even be the top amateur. Dreams aren’t always fulfilled but I can’t complain too much. I finished 10th in my age group and 15th overall among the amateur women.
I had a rough start to the day with a slow turtle-like swim. The first mile went great and when I reached the turnaround, I was happy to see I was on pace to PR for the swim. I saw my watch, it read 32-minutes and I figured I could pick it up a little on the way back because I felt good and under control. As I swam back from the turnaround towards the pier, I checked my watch and thought, “Gosh, I should see the pier by now.” I kept trying to pick up the pace but the pier was just not coming fast enough and I exited the water in a disappointing 1 hour and 14 minutes. Last year, I swam 1:09 and in Arizona in April I did 1:07, so I was really hoping for something around 1:05. I tried to shake off my slow swim, but I couldn’t help but wonder what had happened and it messed with my head a little. Not to mention my calf and foot had cramped in the second half of the swim, which left me a little worried about the 138 miles I had ahead of me.
My transition through T1 to the bike was pretty good, but once again I was unable to run very well. All the blood was in my arms and had not got to the legs after being vertical in the water for so long. It still surprises me just how bad the legs feel after the swim. I think that is the part I hate the most, next to the middle of the marathon. I jumped on my bike and decided to just settle into the ride and get my legs loose as we rode through town. I saw Shawn, his parents, and some friends along the way. Shawn actually yelled to me that my swim was good. I laughed out loud because it was far from good. I wondered if he was just trying to make me feel better, but would later discover the swim times for everyone were slower than normal. There was a strong current pulling us away from the pier which added minutes to the overall time.
As I rode out onto the Queen K Highway, my legs came back to me and I started to get into a better rhythm. I couldn’t remember my times from last year at checkpoints along the way, so for the first half of the ride I was just going by feel and heart rate. The weather stayed overcast, which meant the temperatures were not as scorching as they have been in the past. This was good and bad because I love the heat and know it can break down my competitors. The wind seemed relatively mild too, like last year.
When I reached the town of Hawi, I was right at 3 hours. It was past the half-way point of the bike and once again I had no recollection of my split from last year. I hoped I would make it back to town faster but I was a little worried that I may have been on 6-hour pace. As I passed special needs, they called out my number and I went to grab a bag on the fly but it wasn’t mine. I had to stop and sort out the confusion which wasted a little time, but eventually figured it out and was off again. Trying to ride at 28-30 miles per hour downhill while holding on to the bars with one hand and with my special needs bag in my teeth, trying to pull out 2 water bottles and a gel flask proved to be a difficult task. I got it done without crashing and I even grabbed my extra CO2 canister and stuffed into my jersey for the ride back into T2. Shawn would be happy I didn’t leave it in Hawi.
As the miles went by on the bike, I realized I was well within my limits and once I saw mile 90, I decided to push my effort a little more. The weather remained overcast and I actually felt chilled a few times. There was even a little rain shower for about 15-20 miles. I find the bike to be a little lonely because I only see Shawn during the first miles in town and then no one but volunteers for like 100 miles. To stave off the boredom, I have to come up with some ways to entertain myself. I put the same picture on my handlebars as last year. It’s a picture of my friend’s dog, Whiskey the Greyhound. He talks to me during the race and reminds me to keep my eyes on the bunny!!! I searched for the infamous lava goats but without luck. I sang to myself. This year’s soundtrack included, “Pictures of You” by The Cure, “Honey” by Moby, “Idioteque” by Radiohead, and “Smile Like You Mean It” by The Killers.
I entered T2 with a 5:32 bike split and was pleased with the ride but wondered if I should’ve pushed a little more. Hopefully, it would mean my legs would have more life for the run and I could catch all those fast swimmers and uber-bikers. I had a fast transition but decided to stop for a quick bathroom break after holding it for 5 ½ hours on the bike.
As usual, I thought I was really holding back and running slow, but my mile splits told different. Shawn saw me and told me I was running really well and could catch a lot of girls if I could maintain the pace. As soon as I heard this, I got down to business. I had two small 6 oz bottles of Cytomax on my Fuelbelt but they tasted really, really bad. After a few tries I decided they had gone bad and chucked them off to Shawn along Ali’i Drive. My nutrition plan up to this point had gone really well. Immediately, my stomach started to cramp and I was feeling really bad. I switched to Gatorade and water and stuck with my E-Gels but my body wasn’t happy. I knew I had to keep taking in calories because I was only 6 miles into the run and had a long way to go. Even with all the stomach trouble, I was passing bunches of people along the out and back along Ali’i. As I was heading up Palani Hill, one of the girls from my age group, who I had passed at mile 4, returned the favor. “What? That’s not how this is supposed to go”, I thought.
I didn’t remember feeling this bad at this point in the run in my previous two Ironmans and started to worry. Had I gone too hard in the beginning? Was my body shutting down and not absorbing the nutrition? Did that spoiled Cytomax ruin my day? With all these negative thoughts streaming through my mind, I got right on the girl’s shoulder. I was about to surge ahead of her again when we started out towards the Natural Energy Lab. With the loneliness of the lava fields and a tightening hamstring, I decided to wait a little before making a move. However, the wheels seemed to be coming off, all in a matter of a few thousand meters and I started to fear I was hitting the mythical wall. I popped two salt tablets and hoped they would help my legs get right again. During this episode, the girl in black quickly gapped me.
Along the Queen K, I kept the girl in my view. Yeah she was in front of me. Yeah, she had gapped me quite a bit over a very short distance. But, I wasn’t going to give up without a fight. My mind and spirit were ready for the fight but my body wasn’t playing along. My stomach was really nauseous and my legs felt like dead weight. I finally got sick and I started to walk. When I went to run again, I got sick again. There I was, on the side of the Queen K, with my face in my hands feeling completely broken, broken down to the raw emotion of mere survival. I was barely halfway through the marathon and all I could do was shake my head and pray that the island would give me the opportunity to just finish. I refused to let my day end this way, so I starting walking, then shuffling, then with the encouragement of some spectators, I started to run again.
Amazingly, within a few miles my body started to feel better. My stomach was calming down and I was feeling more energized. I started counting the age group women coming out of the energy lab and I found myself in about 18th place. As I plodded along, I tried to up my tempo and increase my turnover. Back on the Queen K, I was starting to catch some of the women who were in front of me. I managed to pass two age groupers and a handful of pro women who had really blown up and were now walking. I was trying to find the girl in black but never saw her again.
Although my day was not going as planned, I vowed to keep pushing hard because the day doesn’t end until I cross that line and hear the announcer proclaim me an Ironman, again. I started to count down the miles and with 5 to go, I was really looking forward to the end of this long day.
Normally two miles feels like nothing any other day, but at the end of an Ironman it just seems to last forever. I had convinced myself I had already passed the 25-mile mark and just didn’t see it. I decided to give it one last go because I had gotten all I could out of this Ironman and just really wanted to see Shawn at the finish line. I headed down the final hill and welcomed the gravitational pull. I knew I was getting close. I just wanted to pass as many people as I could before the finish. But, more importantly, I just wanted to be done.
Finally on Ali’i, I pulled off my sunglasses so my face could be seen in my finisher photo. With sunglasses in hand and a smile on my face I did a little dance across the finish line. I did it! On a day that was far from perfect, on a day that seemed to be against me with the tides, the rain, and the cramps, I had made it to the finish line with a smile. Shawn placed the lei around my neck, kissed me and told me how proud he was of me.
What if everything would’ve been perfect? What if my drink wouldn’t have gone bad? What if I wouldn’t have gotten sick? I’ll never know but I’ll use this as motivation for next time because the ‘what if’s’ keep me going.
By the way, the girl in black finished a mere 2 minutes ahead me. Congratulations to her and all the other Ironman athletes who conquered their own obstacles and lived their own dreams. Thank you to all my family, friends, supporters and sponsors. It’s great motivation to know you’re there for me, even when things get rough. Aloha.
PS I finally saw a lava goat on the way to the airport!!! (Chad, I’m a believer now)
Tracy
The truth is that W25-29 has a lot of the top AG women… it’s not easy!
I will be re-paying the sherpa (sp?) favor for Shawn. Plus me and the coach are going to focus in on 70.3 this season and only race Kona for IM’s. At least that is the plan right now. Are you racing IM AZ??? I hope so it will be fun to see ya again.
I was in red) - actually I think I saw you on my way out of the energy lab and thought you were familiar. From the Honolulu Tri maybe?
