PrairieMan Half Iron Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I was told I could not handle any more blunt trauma. Period. My body just would not be able to take it. So, instead of starting up front and fighting it out like I normally do I had to swallow my pride and start at the back. I let the group go, then started and swam way off course intentionally. I figured if I could swim long but parallel the course I could be protected from any hits. I expected this swim to be painful but figured I could push through pain. I did not factor on a few other not-so-minor details though. I could not get a full breath, the lung expansion killed the ribs so I couldn't breath every 3 strokes like normal. This ended up not being a big issue as I couldn't rotate on my left side. So, the first time I tried to breath to the left I inhaled tons of water and started choking. Awesome. Did I mention coughing HURTS??? So, great start here!

I get to the first bouy and I'm in so much pain I stop and seriously consider DNFing. I'm not sure I can do this! I told myself to swim to the next buoy and decide. I'm throwing myself a pretty good pity party when I finally decide to kick myself in the bootie and get over it!!! I think of those I love who are suffering immensely not of their own accord and how they wish they could do what they love. And here I am whining that I'm in pain yet I can still do what I love. This pushes me forward. Not without pain, but I can keep moving forward.

I finally get to the last turn and am seriously wondering if I can physically make it. My left side can only take half strokes and my right side is fatiguing quickly from doing pretty much all of the work. I can only keep trying, right?

I finally see the exit and have to get close to the course again. Luckily swimmers are pretty spread out and I stayed as far outside as I could. Yay! I'm finally out of the water. I had to use help of volunteers getting out but I did make it.

8th overall female - no idea how...

Not crash my bike. Seriously, for how injured I was I couldn't have done much differently except not get inside my head. I need to work on the mental aspect and get my mind off of the pain.

Wow, here's that lake water. I'm going to hurl!!! Nope, can't hurl. Oh wait...nope, not yet. Wow, I feel like hell. Ugh :(

Start fussing with my Garmin, I had forgotten to turn it on and set it up earlier so I sent a volunteer in to turn it on for me before the swim. However, i twas on run mode and in my nauseous state I couldn't figure out how to fix it. Ok, it's fixed. But my feet are covered in gravel. I try to wash off what I can with my towel but it's useless. Finally get going to the bike. Yay, the bike! I love the bike!

Everything, I am notoriously bad at transitions but this was terrible, even for me. I need to double check my area (ok, normally i triple check it). Today I was so nervous about the timing of my pain meds that I was just distracted and made rookie mistakes.

The bike! I love the bike! Ok, yesterday I loved the bike. Today not so much. Dang - this just never came together!!! I blame it on the swim. Actually I do. I was so nauseous it was horrible. Then my right side was so fatigued I kept trying to put more weight on my left side for relief. My ribs did not allow this. I never, ever got comfortable. I kept thinking I would warm up and get into it but I never felt it. I started to throw up once then hit a hard turn mid puke and lost it. Would have felt better if I could have finished it. Side stitches to top it off. LOVELY.

The course wasn't terrible, I was glad we drove it yesterday so I knew of a hidden uphill and a few other things. But, all in all I just wasn't ever feeling this. Mostly an uneventful ride except the last loop the roads got really busy. We were on a 2 lane road and there was traffic both ways with a slow cyclist up front. I got stuck behind a car for a good half mile or so going ~10mph. Ugh!!! Killed my average and my mojo. Finally got out of that mess and it wasn't bad after that point.

At mile 45 it got bad - I guess it was my aero helmet because I have never, ever overheated on the bike before. But, I suddenly got so hot and started getting really lightheaded. Bike started swaying a bit and I couldn't see too well. Wasn't thirsty nor feeling dehydrated, just severely overheated. By mile 50 I realized I might need to quit, my sight was going and it was getting a bit dangerous to ride.

DNF on the friggen bike??? Figured that by the time I found a ride back I might as well just ride it in. So I did. Planned to not do the run. Also at mile 50 I realized I still wasn't into the bike. Felt like I hadn't even started to ride yet. Which I guess is a good thing to feel that fresh after 50 miles. But, bad because I just never got into it mentally of physically. Never felt good, never felt like I got started on this. Just had nothing. Then my alarm went off to take my 3rd round of pain relievers. DROPPED THEM!!!! Ut-oh...

One thing I did right? Finally nailed my nutrition! Ok, well my bottle still had a lot of calories in it, but I drank every time I should have and felt like I hit it just right.

15th overall female

Not really sure - my tummy was the root of the issues and that was due to the swim which was due to the ribs. Even took my rolaids but they didn't help.

Definitely bummed about this ride. I really thought I could go over 20mph. I'm peeved I'm no faster then I was in Galveston, my bike has come so far since then and my results don't show it. Grrrr!!!

On the plus side only 3 women passed me. One was Karen and that was no surprise. Sherri surprised me. The other woman who did won overall woman so I can't be upset with that one!

I hate transitions, they are the root of all evil! My towel was full of gravel and I couldn't get my feet cleaned off to get my stinking socks on. Wasn't totally sold on the run idea yet anyway.

Not sure, my brain was foggy and I can't remember much of this transition...

Um...yeah. I started off overheated and off on my meds. My ribs let me know about this immediately so I took some Advil straight away. Told myself to go 2 miles before deciding to quit. Wondered if this was smart?

Ran a little over a mile and decided no, this was not smart. I was extremely overheated and although my hr was low I was dizzy and lightheaded. I turned around to walk back when a butterfly flew out of nowhere and started flying all around my head. All but landed on me and kept flying just ahead of me on the trail. Now, one might wonder why this is in my race report.

I have a new friend who has become an amazing part of my life and in healing everything I've suffered through recently. 2 weeks ago she asked me a favor she has wanted to ask someone for years but had never had someone she could ask. She has always wanted to run a marathon to raise money for a specific charity, but when she started training she got very sick. She's still sick and cannot run. She often asks me to do the smallest of tasks the rest of us take for granted. Running is absolutely out of the question. After she got sick and realized she would never run the marathon, she decided her new dream was to have someone who could run one for her - she could organize and raise the money and have someone else run for her. She asked me to be that person. I am so honored to do this for her and told her unquestionably yes, I would do it. Then I realized that she could help me with a long term dream of mine - to run the NYC Marathon. I grew up watching my dad run it year after year and it is my dream to run it myself. If I could do the charitable run through them, we could reach a dream of both of ours, together. How beautiful is that? Well, my friend has a thing about butterflies. When she sees one, she knows everything is ok. We have seen a few together when talking about intense topics and I cannot look at a butterfly without thinking of her. On Friday she told me "you know, every mile you run now you are doing for me too".

So, when this butterfly started flying around me, I had no choice but to move forward. I could not DNF this run. I was now running for her. I hit a painful stretch and every few feet another butterfly would appear, leading me forward. I knew there was no quitting, as much as I wanted to.

I got towards the entrance of the park and a little blind girl was walking in front of me. She yelled "go athlete!" and I smiled (although she couldn't see me) and thanked her. Then as I was running off I heard her say "she's fast! I can tell by how fast her feet hit the ground and how quickly they are fading away". Wow, that was awesome!!!

I was feeling pretty low and decided I needed some company and saw a Strive uniform up ahead. Recognized the guy (Tom) from dinner so I asked if he wanted to run with me. He said yes, but wasn't sure that he could because he was overheated. So, we ran together for about a mile, chatting and keeping our minds off the pain. Then he dropped, said he couldn't run anymore. I wished him luck and ran on, bummed I was alone again.

I then saw Karen walking back to the entrance. She had to drop out. She is one of the most amazing athletes I know and if she could drop out no one would think less of me for doing so right? Another butterfly. I kept moving forward.

I finally got to the dam and felt horrible. So hot. My hr was still low but I just could not cool off. This was becoming about survival and I quickly realized I may be walking the entire remainder of the run. Time was no longer an issue, this became about finishing. Every cart that went by had several athletes on it, their race over. One pulled up behind me and asked "do you want a ride?" the 2 guys behind me jumped on. I almost did, but couldn't. Not yet. Walking...walking. Running a bit, my legs were fine. My hr was fine. But I was too hot and could not cool off.

A new strategy emerged - take the aid stations like you do in an ultra. Stop entirely. Cool off. Recover. Then run again. This started to help. The dam never ended. Finally got to the end and was feeling slightly cooler. By mile 8 I felt pretty good and started running again (you can tell by my splits!). Run a mile. Stop at the aid station. Run a mile, stop at the aid station. Smile at the butterflies.

I'm not sure what mile it was but I caught on a guy's feet - number 122. He was running a perfect clip so I just got in behind him and followed. However, at my next walk I lost him. I spent the rest of the race trying to catch him. I could see him just a little ways in front of me. He became my motivation to keep going - if I could catch him I could just hang on.

I turned a corner to head into the random park loop and heard a little girl go "Mommy look! That one is smiling, she must be having fun!" This gave me a much needed laugh :)

I was now closing in on my pacer, very close when he suddenly started walking. I knew something was wrong so when I caught him I asked what was wrong. He was surprised and I told him he had been unknowingly pacing me. He said he was cramping bad. I had no endurolytes with me :( There was an aid station up ahead so I told him I'd meet him there. I ran on ahead but they had nothing for cramping. Just Gatorade. He got there and we told him the bad news. I had an extra gu but he was worried about his stomach. So, he took Gatorade and told me he'd catch me in a few. I ran off and at the 12 mile marker walked for just a minute. He caught me there and said "come on girl, we're finishing this". So, we ran together chatting to keep our minds off the pain. Hit the last aid station and walked for a bit there, then decided it was time to be done. Right next to each other we ran, both too tired to talk much but the company helps so much. We turned the corner and saw the finish line, decided together to pick up the pace. Ran around the corner to the cheers and stayed together, every step in unison until we crossed the timing chip, then we separated just a bit for the finish line. High 5-ed, congratulated each other at the end and thanked each other for the support.

23rd overall female

Started off not overheated. Being overheated from the get go just killed me. My splits showed right where I cooled off and started running a bit better, but the damage was already done.

Chatting and eating a banana. Then I jumped in the lake with Sherri, Ana and some other folks.

I was really upset there was no real med tent. I asked about IVs and they told me I could get one if I went to the hospital. Really??? In this weather? It was 104 with the heat index on the run course!


Broken ribs and overheating. I will not be wearing that helmet in Cozumel! I will also avoid more bike crashes between now and then.


Meh. I'll be doing Redman next year instead. Course itself wasn't challenging but the heat was nasty and the route was just stupid. I don't mind loops but the random out and backs and random circles just to hit the distance were just silly. Then having no IVs was no bueno! I honestly felt this race was much harder then Buffalo Springs. Talked to Michael after the race and he's not a climber and he agreed, Buffalo Springs was easier. He and his wife both commented on the fact that despite it all I was still smiling on the run course.

Not including relays, I got 12th woman overall. Not too shabby considering.