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 Swim
Comments: My plan was to find someone to draft behind who was going at my pace. The problem was, you could not see more than one foot in front of you. The first and last 300 yards, there were 6 inch floating pine branches, which brushed up against my face, arms, etc. I stayed several yards away from the buoys to avoid the washing machine effect. By 400 yards, I was running into people from the wave in front of me. Now, I did a VERY easy pace, and didn't push myself at all, but there were definately some struggling people out there. Half way through the swim course, I began getting passed from the green and light blue capped waves. The result was a mass exodus of people at the exit, and transition. I peed three times in the water. Watch out you drafters! What would you do differently?: Take a Master's swim class. Perhaps push myself. This was a very easy pace for me.  Transition 1
Comments: I took the time to finish my porta-john job during transition. Then looked, and they had run out of toilet paper! I ended up using the paper that covered the rolls. Urrggh! Scratchy! I downed another Boost, ate half of a peanut butter cookie, and was on my way. What would you do differently?: Eat three hours before the race to allow nature to work before the race begins! Overall, my transition time was fairly good for all of the business that was accomplished.  Bike
Comments: After about nine miles I looked at my bike computer and noticed that it wasn't working. It worked on Saturady when I zeroed it in transition. I think that the magnet got bumped at some point. Anyways, I had planned on using this for guiding my efforts, but had to change plans and adapt. I decided to do an easy spinning pace, afraid that I would bonk out later. At arouind mile 36, while I was down on my aerobars, I felt an insect go down the front of my jersey. No big deal. This has happened before. And then WHAMMY!! I was stung on my right side while riding. I quickly got out of the aero postion, managed not to crash, then slapped the side of me where I was stung. I wanted that insect dead! I then lifted my shirt, and the darn wasp fell out. Another one of those things that just is not in the overall plan. I had planned to drink 7oz of gatorade or MDX every 20 minutes. This plan seemed to work quite well. By mile 15 I had to pee again! I managed to hold it until the last aid station. I just could not bring myself to pee on the bike. There were soo many people on the course, and I knew someone would get sprayed. When I stopped at the last aid station, a volunteer held my bike and placed another bottle of gatorade in it. She was great, with some very kind words. I tried eating some fuel bars on the bike, but managed to only get 2 of the 4 planned bars down. The last mile was a narrow road and bike path. I was forced to slow considerably due to the amount of bike traffic. What would you do differently?: Increase my effort. Transition 2
Comments: Peed again in transition. Drank another boost and took two endurolytes. Packed up my six gels and put then in my running shorts. I then ran to the sunscreen man who sprayed me down effectively. What would you do differently?: Nothing  Run
Comments: Coming off of the bike with a total time of four hours, I thought that I could easily do the run in 2 to 2:15 hours. Wrong!! I felt extremely hot the first mile and really questioned my ability to finish this race. I walked half of the time. By mile three, I figured out how to keep myself from frying. Every aid station I got two glassed of ice water. One for drinking, the other for placing under my hat and down my shirt. Initially I tried putting it down my pants as well, but found that the ice tended to settle somewhere where I didn't want it! That area was numb for at least one mile! By mile 6, both knees and ankles hurt with every foot strike. Walking helped. I began to get discouraged. I felt that the 7 months of training was going down the tubes. There were so many self doubts. I knew I would finish, however, even if I had to crawl. The athletes has thinned out by this point, and 3/4 of the athletes seemed to be walking. Many were kind to share their stories and pass the time. I never bonked or felt dehydrated. Just extreme joint pain. At the 12 mile marker, I decided to run again. This was painful, but I only had 1.1 more miles to go. Easy right? In training, 1.1 miles seems easy. But not on race day. By the last 200 yards I knew it was almost over. As I ran down the chute, the anouncer stated "another young lady has finshed the race." So much for race numbers with our names on them! Post race
Warm down: I couldn't find my family for 2 hours. In fact, they didn't even see the finish. As I lay on the bench, waiting for them, the experience caught up with me, and the tears started to roll. Two years ago, I was out of breath climbing one set of stairs. Now I finished a HIM!! Think of all the people out there that can be empowered to do the same thing! This lifestyle is demanding on a young family, but my children see how important eating right, exercising, and staying away from substances are. Two of my kids are now getting into the triathlon/duathlon arena as well. They tell their friends. What a positive way to change our youth! Event comments: During the run, I swore that I would not do another tri for at least one year, but I have already started looking for the next one! Last updated: 2006-04-20 12:00 AM
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United States
Ironman USA
96F / 36C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 1528/1937
Age Group = W35-39
Age Group Rank = 79/107
Just for some background....About 2 years ago I lost 30 pounds as the middle-aged spread was in full force. Less than 6 months later, half of the weight was back on. I decided I needed to exercise. I did not have any experience in swimming, biking or running. I started running with my 13 year old daughter. She would patiently wait for me every 100 yards while I stopped and caught my breath. Eventually, I worked up to 1 mile without stopping. I also got an entry level road bike, and thouroughly enjoyed the rides with my husband. The next step was accidently finding this site on the internet. My first tri. was a super sprint one year ago. I swam a 3:00/100yd pace, 12mph on bike and 12 min mile. Slow, but I was hooked. By the end of the season, I completed an olympic distance race. In November I took the plunge and signed up for the Florida 70.3. This commitment encouraged me to become more consistent with training.
Having never done a half marython, I felt like I needed to do this before the HIM. I did one with a great time (for me), finishing in 1:54:55 (an 8:45 pace). The Florida HIM was exactly 2 weeks later. I suffered a left sprained ankle, ITB of the left knee, and bursitis of one of the right metatarsals. I did little to no running the two weeks prior to the HIM, and felt generally good on race day.
My whole family (husband and 5 kids) drove with me from Nebraska to Florida. We spent a few days at Universal, and one day at the beach.
Woke up at 430 and was at transition by 0530. Ate a small bagel with peanut butter, and drank a Boost. The couple of women next to me were very finicky about their transition set-up, and questioned me as to why I was not. I said, "I'm not racing, I'm just finishing." I'm not sure who they were, but they looked shocked.
Goals for the race:
1) Finish
2) Finish under the eight hour limit
3) Finish under 7 hours
4) Finish under 6.5 hours
5) If I was really lucky, and everything went right, finish at about 6 hours.
Stood in line at the beach for the porta-john's. Nature was calling, and a dump was in order. But NOOO! They called my wave before I had the chance. I put my feet in the water to check the temperature, and seeded myself towards the back of my group on the right, since I breathe mostly on the left.