Ironman Florida - TriathlonFull Ironman

It was really crowded at first and even after the second turn on the first loop. I've never had people try to swim over me in a race like they did in this one. I was able to get into a good rhythm, though, and I felt great throughout. I felt fantastic the whole time.

Maybe try to get even farther back so I don't have people swimming over me. I thought I was pretty far to the back but I guess I wasn't far enough. Still, since it cleared out by the second loop, it wasn't too bad. Maybe I wouldn't change a thing about the swim.

I had to stop the wetsuit peelers from trying to pull the top over my watch, which took some extra time, then the bottom wouldn't come off my ankles. Other than that, transition was good. The woman next to me in the changing tent commented about how easily my shorts went on.

Pack a towel in my T1 bag rather than my morning clothes bag ... it would have been nice to have been a little drier.

I knew I was going to be slow on the bike, but when I had a good swim I knew I would have some leeway and not have to worry about making the cutoff time. This helped me relax a little and not push it too hard. I was able to take some bathroom breaks, which was nice.
For the first 10 miles, my HRM seemed to be going haywire. One second it would show zone 1.9, the next it would say I was in 5.5, then 6.1, which is really weird because I don't have a zone 6 on the HRM. This made me just go by RPE and ignore the HRM, which was probably good considering the tough headwinds at the beginning. HRM finally settled in.
I don't think I ever made up any time from the initial headwinds - the winds must have died down by the time I started going the opposite direction on the loop because I didn't seem to get much of a tailwind.
At the beginning of the bike, a motorcycle pulled up along side me twice. I was scared it was a race official giving me a penalty, but for what I had no idea. It turns out it was just one driver and a guy on teh back with a videocamera - they had some official Ironman insignia but I have no idea why they were recording me, unless I was the only one going slow enough to be captured on tape without it being all blurry.
I did great with my nutrition - had watch set to beep every 15 minutes and was able to drink all of my Perpeteum mix and take in plenty of gels. And I can't remember right now who suggested it, but major thanks to the BTer who suggested the padded envelope and cold packs for special needs - it was great having cold bottles!
I had dedicated part of the bike leg to a friend who is going through chemo, and thinking of her helped me get through what was definitely the hardest part of the day.

I need to totally rethink my bike. A newer lighter one might help, but I need to start gaining some speed. I might try some weights in the offseason to see if that gives me more power. My time was worse than I expected by about 20 minutes but I still made the bike cutoff with plenty of time to spare thanks to a decent swim.

I was so happy to get off the bike! I made a decision to leave the fuel belt (loaded with Perpeteum) and just rely on water, Hammergel, and whatever was on the run course because I was just so sick of drinking that stuff.

Turn my Garmin off on the bike before having it racked (fortunately a volunteer did this for me) - I used my old Garmin on the run for pacing since I didn't think the 305 would last the entire race.

I started out jogging because I felt really good. After a while I checked my Garmin and it said I was going at an average 10:30 pace. I knew that was too fast for me to hold so I backed down. The water and gel held me through pretty well. It started getting dark when I reached the park for the first time. I started walking around mile 12 when I saw my husband on the course, and I decided to keep walking from there with a little bit of jogging when I felt like it. It was really tough making that turn at 13, though, seeing people go on straight ahead to finish. I ate some fruit on the second loop (you could call this my fruit loop - groan!) which tasted really great and gave me a nice boost. I hit the wall at mile 18. I didn't want to quit, but I wanted to just sit down for a few seconds/minutes. I tried to do the math in my head to see how much time I had to take a break, and when I couldn't figure it out, I just decided to forge ahead. I recovered from the wall at mile 22 and started walking faster.

Start out slower - save some energy.

Cross finish line with a huge grin on my face then break out into tears. Ate pizza, drank Coke, retrieved bike, banged my shin on the pedal - the only injury for the day.


The bike.


I really had fun before, during and after the race! It was great meeting all of you BTers who were there, and thanks to all of you who stayed up late to watch me finish (both live and on the net). I don't think I'll do another iron distance next year, but I will definitely do another one!