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 Swim
Comments: I started towards the front-ish of the pack since I am a fairly strong swimmer. The mass start was rough, but no rougher than a water polo game--yes, I got punched in the mouth, swum over, and kicked, but I guess I just figured it par for the course... You kind of end up swiming catch-up (for those of you familiar with the drill) because you instinctively want to have at least one arm in front of you at all times to help protect your face. I knew I was moving at a decent pace for the first lap... made my turns close to the buoys and was shocked when I was done with the first lap... around 32 minutes. The whole time I kept reminding myself to stretch out and relax and keep the effort low. When I re-entered the water, there were definitely less people, and I did some backstroke to keep with the keep-it-easy strategy. I think I pissed the guy swimming freestyle next to me b/c I was going faster than him. Hehe. I then got stung by a little jellyfish on the neck, I think. Then I decided to pee on myself for the first of many times. Haha. I still got kicked a lot on the second lap--I seemed to find myself in the middle of the age-group guys who were very agro... I was like, come on guys, is it THAT hard to just move your stroke 3 inches to the right or left so that you don't hit me square on?! Bastards. A couple of times I had to hold myself in check when I wanted to smack some dudes upside. On the last leg into shore, I couldn't believe that I was almost done with the swim portion of the IM. What would you do differently?: Nothing, except maybe be an even stronger swimmer--I went light on the swim workouts since I knew that I needed more training in the bike and run, but I could have been even faster I suppose.  Transition 1
Comments: Fairly uneventful. I didn't get a helper from the start which was okay. I did a full change, and didn't forget anything. Unfortunately my race number ripped off my race belt pretty soon into the bike, so I think I was pretty rough on it during transition. Oh well. This went faster than I anticipated (I'm usually a pretty slow transitioner) especially since I did the full clothing change. What would you do differently?: I'd probably swim with my tri short and maybe even the tri top. I mean, it's not like the shorts don't eventually get wet (remember, I pee on myself)... so it wouldn't be a big deal for them to start wet from the ocean. I also probably would have just had my number pinned on my jersey (which I wore over my tri top b/c it was a tad chilly out), and just used the race belt for the run.  Bike
Comments: The bike went pretty well--the winds on the way out were nasty, and they didn't stop "five miles out" like "people" were telling us in transition and before the race. LIARS. Haha. But no biggie--the only thing I was worried about was that I kept thinking, well, maybe the winds are even WORSE on the way back!!! At mile 30 I got stuck in an Iron peleton for like 3-4 miles. It was absolutely crazy... there was NO way to get out of it or around it.... it was like seriously 50 people bunched up... I guess becuase of the headwinds... I felt like I was on a freaking weekend ride... I was looking around, and asking people what we were supposed to do... I'd never heard of this sort of thing happening in an IM--you couldn't even really slow down safely to get OUT because there were so many people behind you...F-ing crazy. Fortunately I dropped that shit when I stopped to pick up some more water at a stop... I kinda was trying to bridge back up to the group, more as a pace goal than anything, and then the good old ref motorcycles zoomed by. Haha--suckers! It still took a while to get the peleton thinned out, but eventually it did thin. Sheesh. In that situation, most people just got stuck in the group and weren't trying to cheat, but I did see a TON of people BLATANTLY cheating... losers. Haha. Whatev. So right after I picked up my special needs bag, we took a a right turn, and THANK GOD FOR A TAILWIND! It was sooo fun! Honestly, the bike went by so fast too... a lot of people complained about the scenery, but I didn't think it was that horrible... I was looking around, just taking it all in and trying to savor the moment. For the last 40 or so miles, I literally started chanting "calm and easy" to myself... I was doing really well, and feeling really good, but I knew I had a marathon to finish as well, so I wanted to conciously calm myself down and stay in control. It seemed to work. At one point, a friend I trained for blew past me like I was standing still... I was going like 23 or 24 mph... yeah, she finished 2nd in her AG, is going to Kona, and had a sub-4-hr marathon. I decided I would pee on myself... and I'm glad I did... I would have had to get off the bike a lot if I stopped, and that would have made me shy away from drinking as much, etc. and I think I hydrated perfectly, so the conclusion: PEEING ON YOURSELF IS GOOD! Uh, sick. As we came back along the beach, I started getting ready for transition... thinking about what was in my bag, took my gloves off (lost one--oops), and while I did spin the legs, I tried not to let up too much on speed becuase I knew that once the running started, I'd be losing ground, so I wanted to finish the bike strong. What would you do differently?: Not much--I was very pleased with this virgin IM-bike effort. I brought myself up to 7th place in my AG with the bike, so I can say that it was a strong effort--and I felt good at the end... with plenty in the tank for the run. I guess if I do it AGAIN, I would just try to be an even stronger cyclist. Duh. Transition 2
Comments: Once again, I surprised myself with the speed of my transition. I think I was WAY slower when I did my first HIM! I took off my bike jersey, switched socks, and pulled on the shoes. Grabed my mini bottle of sun screen as I left and slathered on some goop. Then I had to fiddle with my ripped race number as I was running, but I fixed it w/in the first half mile. What would you do differently?: Not much... maybe had a bike jersey that zipped all the way down so that I could take it off like a jacket not over my head.  Run
Comments: I'm a sucky runner. It's definitely my weakest dicipline. That being said, I'm very pleased with my marathon performance--I honestly didn't think I'd come in under five hours! I did use the port-o-John two times (once I had to wait for a while in line which was WAY annoying but since I wasn't willing to shit in my pants--a necessity). I stuck to my plan of walking through each aid station to take in some nutrition, and then ran the rest. The second leg out to the park was a little long--mentally you were just like, ugh, but I never hit the wall or bonked. Thank God! When I hit mile 20 on the run, I looked at my watch, and was like, holly crap--if I run 10 minute miles, I might actually finish under 12 hours!! So I very very gradually started to pick up the effort. I knew that 6.2 miles was still a long way to run at the end of an IM, and that I could still blow my load too early and pay for it at the end. So I kept walking through aid stations, but I put a little more effort into the running... with about a 5k left to go, I started to really mentally turn it up and didn't walk through anymore aid stations. Then, with about a mile plus to go, Paul and Bridget found me and started to run with me. I kept building the pace, and I was running quite strong for the last mile of the race...once I passed the turn around point (for the 1st loop), I started sprinting. I will say that the little hill you have to go up before the finish is a bitch--I saw it and was like, "no way" but I kicked it up another notch, and just kept "sprinting." What would you do differently?: Have done more run training. Period. I just could have been faster overall. Goals for the future baby! Post race
Warm down: Uh, massage, cheering for other finishers, and then a mile and a half walk back to the house (parking was so crazy). The walk back was probably a great thing, however, since it helped me get the crap out of my muscles... and while my feet were tired (literally just from the impact of the day--sore), my muscles were surprisingly fine. What limited your ability to perform faster: More training. From an actual race point-of-view, this was an awesome race. I blew away my own finish-time expectations (was hoping to come in between 13 and 15 hours). There wasn't much more I could have done on race day to perform faster. My fitness level was the only thing that prevented me from being even faster. From a cardio-point-of-view, I was fine... I could have gone LONGER... but from a muscle and joint point of view, I don't know how longer I would have lasted if I had pushed my intensity up a notch. Event comments: This was a great race. It is well organized, well supported, and while it's expensive (when you consider all the costs you end up having), I wouldn't trade it for the world. The volunteers are, as always, the key, and were absolutely fantastic. I got a little sick of the commercialization of the sponsors during the athlete-banquet, but that was the only, very small, negative thing I took away from the event. I would highly recommend this race to anyone interested in an IM race! Last updated: 2005-12-05 12:00 AM
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United States
Ironman North America
44F / 7C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 786/2192
Age Group = W25-29
Age Group Rank = 16/52
Got up around 4:00 AM, went downstairs and found Jess and Aaron already eating and on BT (shocker)! Ate a small bowl of Life cereal, and two slices of cinnamon rasin toast w/ natural peanut butter and drank a glass of Diet Coke (gotta get the system running). Got dressed, gathered up my wetsuit and special needs bags, and Jess dropped us off at the race site. I had a small panic attack because I couldn't find Sherri for body marking (I have this weird-ass thing about having my race numbers VERY neat--messy numbers annoy me, even though I know they'll just smear off in a matter of hours). In any event, I found her and got some KICKASS body marking--THANKS SHERRI, you're the best!
After checking the bike and dropping the bags, I headed up to Jim's room (another small panic attack as I first looked for his room in the wrong building and freaked out when the room number didn't exist) which overlooked the swim start. We stayed warm, applied BT tats and laughed and Nola and her antics. May, Janelle, Aaron, Jim and myself were all there, ready to rock and roll.
Uhhh, right. Negatory!