Ironman 70.3 Florida - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

My goal was to take it EASY on the swim. This is where my trouble started at St. Anthony's so I wanted to just relax and enjoy the swim. I did! I felt great in the water, never felt stressed and tried to just concentrate on swimming, not the rest of the race. Not my fastest time, but certainly the best I've ever felt on a swim!

Heard Trix and Fit cheering "G8R" as I came outta the water.

Nothing!

I had to pee like a racehorse and couldn't get it done while I was swimming, so I visited a portapotty for what seemed like forever! And...I drank a diet pepsi!! Hoped the fizz would help my belly issues!

Saw Jess & Q as I went onto the bike course.

pee in the water.

I wanted to take it easy the first 25 miles, then hit it harder the last half, but I knew the hills in the middle were gonna kick my tail. I felt like I had a nice pace most of the ride, except the hills. There was one spot where I was in my big ring going 7 mph! I was going too slow to shift gears, so I was just dug thru and knew it was gonna hurt!! The wind wasn't too bad, considering what we've had here lately, and I was very thankful for that! Although, the most wind seemed to be on the toughest sections of the course!!

I had a totally new nutrition plan for this race. It seemed to have worked nicely. I ate a power bar from mile 1-5 because I couldn't choke it down any faster. An uncrustable at hour 1 and 2. No gels. Water and 2 E-fuels only.

About mile 40 my belly started fussing a bit. I was nervous about a repeat of last race, but I tried to push it out of my mind and get thru the bike. I rode with a fella named Erick from about mile 25 to the finish and we chatted a good chunk of the time. That helped pass the time and made me concentrate less on the belly pain and the cramps in my legs.

Maybe hit it a bit harder a little sooner.

Again...visited the potty, but this time no results. Drank more diet pepsi!!

Move quicker

Started off trying to run, but my belly was hurting, so I did a 3:1. Then, my runs got shorter, my walks got longer and I was covering more distance just walking. I met a fella named Mike at mile 2 who was walking, so we decided to finish it up together. He was very chatty and made the time pass quickly. As we walked, my belly pain started to resolve and I felt like I could run again. We tried a 4:1, but both of us about fell down with leg cramps, so we went back to our fast walk. After that the only running we did was for the photographer and thru the finish chute.

It was great to see the BT crew out on the course cheering! Saw Jess, Q, Trix, Fit, Jeff Parr & Brian. Then saw Mike (G8RLA) and he told me he had been in the med tent with a jacked up blood sugar. Met a few BTer's on the course too.

Nutrition: The goal was a gel per hour, but with my belly issue I decided to just do one gel and rely on gatorade, ice and coke for the run. I did take a few bananas on the course too, they tasted really good, which surprised me cuz I normally don't eat them!

Prolly nothing.

Crossed the finish line with Mike (my walking buddy) and my kids. Got a picture and found hubby, my mom, Jeff Parr and Brian. Had to tell the pizza woman I was vegetarian to get a cheese pizza instead of sausage!


FEAR!! I was so worried about going at it too hard and ending up with a bad outcome that I may have backed off a little too much. I never felt like I was out of gas and had a great time the entire race!! I've still gotta figure out belly/nutrition stuff.

My race goal was not end up in the back of an ambulance again. My secret race goal was 7:30, so I met both of those and am pretty freaking happy about all of it!!