Ironman St. George - TriathlonFull Ironman

I was very nervous about getting worked on a physical start but there was very minimal contact. I started off maybe 50-75 yards to the right and 3 rows back. Focused on getting out of my comfort zone the first 500 meters and getting out in front. Only had my googles knocked off once but put them back on quickly. Had a hard time sighting but somehow I was still on perfect course bringing myself right to the buoy line very quickly. Focused on keeping my turnover up and I just felt GREAT in the water. Better than I have in a long time. Never found feet, I'm bad. I like avoiding people. I can't seem to ever find the right feet. I kept being right on course with minimal sighting effort and my body felt great until the end. I couldn't believe how fast the last buoy came and when I saw 1:01 on the clock I was super happy. BIG improvement.

Nothing. Great swim. Well.... maybe find feet off the front to get under an hour but overall, very pleased. Glad I went with the blue seventy wetsuit hat- kept me toasty the whole way. was the perfect temp and never got too warm or cold.

the volunteers in st. george are AMAZING. There are so many of them and they all know exactly how to help. They pretty much dressed me, bathed me in sunscreen and set me off in record time. Basically just put everything on and went.

Nothing

Plan was water as long as possible before switching to efs and 100 cals every 20-30 minutes. Some soild food at 4 hours. Heart rate 165 +/- 2.
I love this bike course, its stunningly beautiful, challenging and fair. I really liked climbing and with Dirk's guidelines, I knew exactly what I needed to do and just focused on keeping my heartrate where it needed to be and putting in the calories and work. I was so confident in the plan and not worried about racing anyone aroudn me. I puked at mile 10 to my surprise, no loss of nutrition- just sea water and stomach acid. I started off with perpetuem every 30 minutes and then became more hungry going to every 20 minutes when my stomach settled. Did saltsticks one/hour too. Tried to get half a hammer bar down at 4 hours but it was rough to swallow- didn't do well with solid food. I was already struggling with hydration at this point I think.
Hills didn't hurt the first time and my legs felt great. My stomach was intermittently not good but a little gas and I would feel better. I got to the end of the first loop and wondered if my legs would even feel good for the second loop because I knew I was pushing it. Reached the descent and FLEW! hit 47 mph max and it was just pure joy. So much fun. Your legs really do recover on the descent. Surprisingly I started the second loop with strong legs feeling great. The wall and the hill just before it were more painful the second time around but I just made sure I didn't go over 170 heart rate, put it in my lowest gear (27) and spun. The winds picked up on the second loop and when we hit veyo, they were head/cross for the descent making it tricky to stay safe and fast. I was much slower descending the second time and it took some effort to hold my bike down in the crosswinds. Flew back down into town and knew I was close to breaking 6 hours and I was in total shock and amazement about how well the race was going so far.

Maybe switch to EFS earlier. Something I need to talk with dirk about but my dehydration started on the bike and I may have stuck with water too long. By the time I got to my EFS it was hot and hard to get down.
Otherwise, execution and patience were perfect.

I almost broke down into tears in the tent- great bike split and I had 5 volunteers spraying me down with cool water, putting sunscreen on me, dressing me and attending to my every need. The people in st. george are incredible and I was just in so much shock I had so many people helping me.

nothing- took a little extra time to fix my hair, could have run and put it back up but whatever.

Started off and legs felt great. Told myself that this was going to be all about energy management- tough hilly course mixed with brutal heat and no shade. The first loop I wanted to keep steady, watch my heart rate and try to continue to get nutrition in. Dirk had told me to continue with calories every 20-30 minutes and that going over 170 heart rate was akin to suicide. I'm glad I knew that because the first 5ish miles up my heart rate wanted to go there. I was sipping on efs and getting water/perform from aid stations. Somewhere along the way I started to get pretty nauseated and taking in calories became almost impossible. I was disappointed in myself for already walking the aid stations but I knew it was necessary. I don't even remember what I was really thinking on the run. I guess I just did well at staying focused and in the moment. Ran through the half at about 1:56 and was horrified at how slow that was. Told neil, mer and my dad how nauseated I was and I was getting worried I would DNF if I couldn't get my stomach turned around. I kept forcing salt pills, using ice down my pants at every opportunity to keep my temp down. I got my special needs bags and thought maybe something solid would do the trick but I could barely nibble a fig newton. I made it to a garbage can and thew out my efs and bag of fig newtons. It was time for coke. And for the last 13 miles, that's all I had was coke. Suddenly I was burping and getting brighter with all the sugar and caffeine. My legs were still holding up well on the inclines but I did make a porta potty stop around mile 18 hoping something would happen that would make the nausea go away but it didn't. At this point, EVERYONE was walking. It was pure carnage out there in the heat. People would see me and say "wow, she' flying, looking strong etc..." and I would look down at my watch and see 9:30 pace. That's how bad it was. You looked strong just because you were one of about 10 people out there running at all. I kept mixing ice and coke and it was heaven everytime I took a sip. The last part I just focused on cheering people on around me and trying to drap them with me up the last climbs. When I finally got to the downhill part it was hard to keep pushing but I did. I had no idea where I was in my age group, I just told myself to stay focused and get it done and it hurt right until the roundabout where the finish chute began. And that's where the magic happens. All the pain goes away and suddenly your are surrounded by crowds of people cheering you to the finish. I finally let it hit me that even with this weak run, I had put together a very solid race. I high fived everyone I could in the chute and felt invincible pushing to the finish line. I went to medical and they denied me an IV initially. I tried to get fluids in and take a bite of pizza but the nausea was building. And then I puked 5 times straight out my nose and mouth just pure stomach bile. Right in front of masses of people. Went back to medical and got 2 IV's and felt so much better after that. Neil and my dad told me that I was second in my age group by only 1:20. I had no idea there was someone right in front of me. I thought maybe just maybe there would be 2 kona slots but I wasn't sure and I didn't focus on it. Either way, I had a very solid race on a tough course on a brutally hot day. I was very pleased. We celebrated packed the bikes and I slept about 3 hours before I woke up dreaming about that kona slot. We got to the convention center and when I saw the little star next to my name I broke down in tears. I did it, I'm going to kona. This is all still so surreal. So many years of dreams and hard work have all come true.

Not be super dehydrated and turn the temp down about 20 degrees?? Not sure. I wish I could have run the run I had in my legs because I know even on those hills I could have put up a very nice run split with how great my legs felt. But given the conditions, the motto was slow down slower, never surrender and keep moving. And that's just what you have to do when its 95 on your ironman marathon.
I gotta chat with dirk and get my hydration plan down since that was part of the problem on the marathon. I was glad he had me take in so many calories on the bike though because that pulled me through the last 13.1 on only coke.

ha. vomit profusely and get an iv?


heat and severe dehydration


You must do Ironman St. George. It is a fantastic race, completely embraced by the local community, stunningly beautiful and a great challenge. Don't be scared by all the negative hype, its a tough course. But of course its hard, its ironman :)