Ironman Kansas 70.3 - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I let the swim start for a few seconds before running in; there were a lot of women in my wave. As soon as I started swimming I noticed my timing chip was sliding up and down my leg- too loose. Should I stop to adjust it? Would I loose it in the lake? I ended up deliberately fogetting about it, but I felt it the whole time. Also, the zipper strap was in my armpit the entire swim!

I got kicked in the head once about halfway through, no biggie. I tried to concentrate on form and breathing. About halfway, I settled into a great breathing/sighting pattern I was happy with. I found myself in open water for the majority of the swim. I tried to find feet to draft off of, but it just never worked. About halfway through I relaxed enought to PEE on the SWIM! Ha! It filled up my wetsuit (gross) but then streamed out. Really glad I was able to do this.

I passed people, and people passed me. There were just a lot of people in the lake. I felt like I was moving at a solid pace, and picked it up on the final turn. The last stretch seemed like it took the longest, because you could see the beach with every sight - COME ON BEACH!

I had no idea how fast I was swimming, but as soon as I hit the sand I looked at my watch and it said 39:XX... "YEEEESSSSS!!!!!" came out of my mouth out loud. YEAH! My goal was between 40-45 minutes. Rocked this swim and had HUGE smiles coming out of the lake.

Nothing.

Since the original route into transition was flooded, we had an extra ~300 yards of run tacked onto the swim time. As I ran through the chute, I saw my mom and said HI to her... asked the girl next to me how her swim went. The run took me exactly 2 minutes. The rest of transition went great; used a water pan for my feet and the rest was normal. The wetsuit came off pretty good, considering I'd only taken it off a few times before the race.

31/52 in my age group.


Rehearse taking wetsuit off quicker.

Started the bike having rode the course 2x before. I knew what was coming... it was gonna be a long ride.

The first out was cake; very easy. The flashy bikes and wheels were whizzing past me like crazy, but I was mentally prepared for that. Race your race... just keep peddling. On the way back on the first leg I could see a wreck/ambulance and flashing lights. I immediately thought "please... please... please don't let this be Tom. Or anyone I know. PLEASE!" It was all I could think about until I got there. When we approached, I saw a guy sitting on the bridge pretty bloody. Then RIGHT in front of me I saw a guy being wheeled across the road in a stretcher. We had to slow down a little to give them some room. I looked at his outfit to make sure it wasn't Tom... it wasn't. Little did I know that it was our own BTer Veganman.

At the Ironcross I was suprised to see so little spectators. They were supposed to be shuttled out there, but there were only probably 15 people there, bleh. Later I learned that the shuttle that was supposed to take spectators out there did not realize it wouldn't be able to turn around without stopping the bike traffice... so they only took like 2 loads of people out there. Pretty disappointing for the spactators and it showed with so little people at the Iron Cross. Oh well. Off to the second - and hardest - leg.

The second leg lasts forever. Tom passed me here, at my 1:12 mark. On the way out, I was trying to figure out how to switch my first empty water bottle with the gatorade bottle behind me. I juggled them around a bit when Jason (El Flaco) came up behind me and said hello. I was so touched that he stopped to ask how I was doing - what a sweetie. GO CATCH TOM is what I told him. On this leg, the race marshal gave out a few penalties RIGHT in front of me. It was a congested area, and a pack of about 8 riders had just passed me together. The marshal was riding the other way when he pointed and screamed "RIGHT THERE, RIGHT THERE" and made a U-Turn. Came back up and screamed at the bikers, giving drafting penalties. I had laid off when the group passed me, thank goodness. Tom didn't have such good luck, read his race report for the details. I'm not sure if they were just trigger happy, or what, but they were out in full force. On the way back in on this leg, I was FLYING! Was in aero the whole time, downhill, and singing songs out loud. WOOT!

The third out is when the wind PICKED UP - oh my. I knew there was nothing I could do about it... I would just have to ride. Keep peddling, come on. I knew as soon as we would hit the turnaround the wind would be at our backs. When we did, everyone around me was yelling, and hollering WOO HOO!!!! Let's hear it for a TAIL WIND!!! At this point I knew I needed to drink the water that was behind me, on the left side of my rear hydration system. Except... I can NOT take my left hand off of the handlebars. Seriously - I'm retarded. I tried 4 or 5 times, almost lost control once, and finally decided to stop to make the switch. Only lost a couple of seconds, but man I need to get this down. Was really ready to see the Iron Cross when I did... let's bring it home.

The last back in I was flying too... just ready to be done. Towards the end I checked my average pace for the first time and it said 15.5mph. I shouted "SHUT UP!!!" to my bike computer because the first and second times I'd ridden this course I averaged 14.65 and 15.03mphs respectively. WOW I was stoked.

Coming into transition I had the HUGEST grin on my face. I had just crushed my bike time for this course by 8 minutes! HELLO crowd I love you! More cowbell! I couldn't believe my time and was about to cry coming in. What a great bike.

Nothing at all. I had a great ride.

I was the ONLY one out of about 6 or 7 people in transition running with my bike. Seriously? I passed all of them and even said to one... "what, you don't feel like running yet?" as a joke.

Moved fairly quickly through this; took a second to re-do the ponytail and make sure I had the race belt, sweat towel, water bottle and GUs.

28/51 in my age group.

Not much. This was good.

Came out of transition seeing my friends cowbelling for me... I told them "see you in 13 miles!" Heh.

From the first step, this was hard - but I knew it would be. I stopped a few minutes in to take a GU that I haden't taken on the bike. After that, my stomach was a little nauseaus, but I kept going to see what would happen. It went away, thank goodness. I also neede to burp - a lot. that made me feel so much better. About mile 2, I saw someone coming out of the potty, so I took advantage of good timing and stopped to pee. Not much came out, so I knew I needed to drink more.

After the pit stop, I found myself running with a guy named Aaron from Denver. Aaron was my saving grace. He asked if I would mind if we kept running together, since we were side-by-side anyway. SWEET! Someone to talk to. We ended up running the entire rest of the race together, laughing and talking about everything we could think of. We really kept each other going; I'm not sure what my mental state would have been without him. Total godsend.

We walked the aid stations but that was it! I was completely suprised that I was RUNNING the entire time! Seriously?! I'm not walking?! I can only attribute it to the fact that I was distracted by my new friend and our converstations. Like I said... godsend.

Saw Jason 2x on the run... wow looking strong. Saw 2Googs twice too... he passed me going FAST with his goggles up around his forehead - hilarious. The storms had begun to roll in, the temp was dropping, wind was picking up, and it had started to rain. I knew those goggles would come in handy! We started hearing rumors about the race being called because of the weather, but nothing official so we just kept on plugging away.

At about mile 7 or 8, we noticed the aid stations were packing up. Hmmm... hi we are still out here! An official race golf cart even drove by us without saying anything so we thought we still had a chance of finishing. The clouds were mighty ominous though... and then the rain started. Obviously the drop in temperature was welcome, but we heard a few claps of thunder and really wondered what was going on back at the race site. Keep pluggin away, no one has pulled you off the course yet. Aaron and I talked about finishing no matter what.

Came up on transition just after the 10 mile marker - all we had left to do was just over a mile out and back loop. Spectators came up and told some in front of us 'you know the race is off... you'll have to stop soon...' but we kept going. Saw my poor parents... soaked and looking worried. I waved. They were some of the only ones out there. My mom asked if I was going to finish. Thinking I could, I said YES! They had their keys out so I said.. just go home and I'll call you when I'm done - really! I ran around transition and there were 5 people blocking the path. "You cannot continue - proceed to the finish chute." Worst cast scenario. I could not finish. They would not let me.

We reluctantly rounded into the finish chute, just 2 miles short of officially finishing. There were no spectators. There was no cheering. No pictures. Nothing. Transition was empty, except for about 30 bikes. It was completely, absolutely heartbreaking. I crossed the stupid finish line pissed off, mad, deflated. I made the volunteer take off my timing chip and reluctantly took the finishers medal they handed me.

Control the weather.

Tom, his parents, and our friends were all still out there. What angels. Kind of in shock... talked to Tony and my friends while I made my way to transition. I couldn't understand why they had called the race. It was RAIN. I had heard 2 claps of thunder and seen one lightnning bolt a long ways away. Maybe they knew something I didn't, but it was JUST RAIN. And I was 2 MILES from the finish.

Got to my soaking wet transition area and ended up meeing RunningJayhawk's husband and chatted with him for a little bit. We saw Barb come around and cheered her in the best we could. Packed up and walked to the car to see the sun come out and create the most gorgeous day ever - almost like it was mocking me. Mother Nature is a bitch sometimes.


Weather called the race.


For the first year of this race I feel like I should give them some slack. But they ran out of shirts and water bottles at registration. They called the race because of 'weather,' which I'm sure is a really hard decision for a race director to make. I would probably do the race again; hopefully they've gotten the kinks worked out from the first year.