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 Swim
Comments: WHOOP WHOOP What a great time...there is nothing like an ironman swim start. I seeded my self in a pretty aggressive position...abot 1/3rd of the way across the the coral maybe 4-5 people back.....Right in the middle of the pack. Loads of drafting. There was a lot of contact, but its not vicious. I actually was able to swim a lot more the first leg than in 06. At the first turn it was a huge bottle neck and everyone was just bopping in the water whoop whooping and having a great time. You couldn't really see across the top but I just followed the crowd. I was surpised I was still getting so much contact and was getting afraid of someone breaking or dislocating a finger. I swam with fists for a while....my hands are kind of valuable to me. At the turn I just followed the pack and it opened up a bit. I looked up and realized I was WAY far to the left so I corrected. I started to get scared I turned at the wrong place but then I figured if I had it was me and 500 of my closest friends. On the second loop I realized I had made the turn correctly the first loop. Lots of contact the whole first loop. I swam as far as I could as I can swim faster than I can walk thru waist deep water. Stoop up and looked at my watch...34:30 or something close to that STELLAR!!!! Ran thru the timing mat and got a cup of water from KathyG :) Used that to get the sea water taste out of my mouth and in for lap two!!!! Everyone was so happy it was awesome. Angle out to the bouy like everyone else and there STILL was a ton of contact. I was amazed...oh well good for more DRAFTING :) I was trying to channel my inner Bob Stocks....Bob you pull to the right. Realized I was pretty off course so I straightened myself out. Back into the fray. Congested at the turn, swim into the sun, congested turn....did pretty well navigating back and only got off course a little once on the last leg. I was SHOCKED to see 1:12 on the clock. I didn't think I would be much faster than 1:15 This is more of a note to myself than anything, but my left hand/arm fell asleep about 2/3rds of the way thru each loop. This always happens in a wetsuit and rarely in the pool very odd. 2006 1:26:48 2008 1:12:50 Time in the bank 13:58 What would you do differently?: Not a thing this was kick ass for me. Very pleased. I could have been a little faster if I had not been afraid of my hands getting injured and if I had navigated a little better but its still kick ass for me.  Transition 1
Comments: Saw Kevin at the special needs table and waved. Ran up to a stripper and got my suit off. It was terribly sandy and messy. A little bottle neck under the shower but I was so covered with sand I didn't care because I wanted to get as much off as possible. Ran thru and Irene and Mike were there and I got my bag. My mom and dad were there as well so I got to see them. Into the chaos of the changing tent. I hada good easy plan for my transition tried to keep it as simple as possible. I had everything in ip lock bags so it would not scatter. Dry off a little, sunscreen, shoes, glasses, arm warmers, bike shirt helmet, off I go. I ate 1/2 an uncrustable running out to my bike, ditched the other half. Got my bike from Teresa (tbatt) 2006 8:43 2008 6:22 Time in the bank 16:19 What would you do differently?: Nada...I think I did pretty good.  Bike
Comments: WOW I never really thought I would do that well. I really thought I would be between 6:15 and 6:30. Out of transition and down front beach road. The cross winds off the beach weren't too bad. Up over the bridge. I knew I had an awesome swim. I just need to race my own race and do my thing. I don't have lots of hills to train on and I am content to spin up slow and go fast down. Onto a nice stretch of highway with good road. Had a bit of a head wind like in 2006 only not nearly as bad maybe 1/3rd as hard. This was actualy GOOD because I knew if I had head wind out I would have tail wind back. No sweat :) There must have been at least 3 big peletons of cyclists that passed me CLEARLY drafting. First big pack went thru and I could have chosen to join but I didnt' want to cheat. Kind of just kept doing my thing and coasted a bit to let them pass. Leap frogged a bit with a few people. Nutrition plan was accelerade and 90 calories every 30 minutes. I started with a gel because I cold not be bothered to open aything else 30 minutes into my ride. I didnt' start using my lava salts right away because it was COLD and I was not sweating much. I was really enjoying the ride and maintaining excellent speed. I was kind of chilly thru the first 90 minutes or so. I was just having a good time. When I do my training rides the nutrtion and its timing kind of keeps me entertained but I was so excited and having such an awesome time I didnt' want to be bothered. I know that the 2 places people screw up where you can control things are nutrition and mental game so I kept at the every 30 minute feeding. Pulled my arm warmers down around my wrists after a while which made things a little easier as it was less slippery on the aerobar pads. A few more peletons went by and I just handled them the same way as the first one. I had chosen to ride without socks and the tongue of my shoe was rubbing the front of my ankle raw. I had to pee but every aide station had a line and I was unwilling to stop. Couldn't pee on the bike. Stopped at special needs and got what I needed, threw the arm warmers off. No porta potties although I saw a woman peeing on the side of the road.... Make the turn into TAILWINDS...mmmmmmm. Pulling 22-23 with little effort life is GOOD :) I was just having a great time enjoying the day. I ahd picked up a rice krispie treat at SN so I enjoyed that in the tailwind. I started feeling a little crampy and started lava salts about 2.5 hours in I think. Up and down a few litle rollers and turn down Camp flowers rd....not such a great road.thumpa thumpa thumpa.....lots of lost gear on tht road. Turn again a little head wind, turn on to the out and back and there is my cheering team of Kathy, Kevin and Brittany!!!! Such a huge boost to see friendly familiar faces cheering for you!! Thanks guys. I had written GGRRR on my left hand for Terri and had a butterfly tat on my right hand for Christine and to remind myself why I was out there. I talked to Chrisitne a lot on that ride telling her "Come on buddy help me out with a little tailwind here" Saw a few butterflies which of course reminded me of her as well. Into the headwind for the out .... ICK.....tailwind coming back YAY. FINALLY there is a porta potty without a line....stop and use that, fill my water bottle and off I go. Saw the gang again and we are in the home stretch WHOOP WHOOP. I remember suffering so much in 2006 and I was so happy to be feeling GREAT. A few more small rollers up and down, stuck to my nutrition plan. Took a few bananas along the way. Switched to water when I ran out of accelerade. Over the bridge at the 100 mile point I can't beleive the bike went by so FAST!!! and I still feel GREAT!!! Coming back into town the cross winds off the beach really did suck. Honestly I felt great the whole ride except maybe the last 4-5 miles. Still can't believe I did tht well. Mostly I am so pleased that I felt so amazing. No chaffing (aside from on my ankle) no cramping, my upper back did great, no neck pain. an overall huge success. Note to self bike nitrition: 480 calories accelerade, 3 payday bars, 2 airheads, 5 hammer gels, 1 rice krispie treat, about 1.5 bananas 2006 7:04:42 2008 6:07:17 Total time in the bank 1:13:44 What would you do differently?: Not a thing. I didn't kill myself going into the headwind because I knew I could look forward to tailwind on the way back and didn't want to urn my legs out. I made good clothing choices and followed my nutrition plan. I just need more biking to improve my speed. I think I played it smart and did my best. Transition 2
Comments: Could not believe I was doing so well. Got my bag and into the tent. I kind of wanted to do m own thing although there were lots of helpful volunteers. Saw Sherri who was shocked to see me. Asked her about how the weather was as I couldn't really tell exactly how warm it was on the bike. She said to take my long sleeve tech shirt with me so I tied that around my waist. Washed the remaiing sand off my feet and dried them, socks and shoes on, hat, hand held, reapply sunscreen, get lava salts, take my baggies of tums, gum, bliser pads and tylenol. Off I go. Ate another 1/2 an uncrustable on the way out of T2. I had Sherri call Kathy to call my mom and dad to let them know I was out on the run.....they hadn't expected me so soon and were back at the condo eating :) THANKS SHERRI 2006 6:18 2008 7:20....only thing I did worse at Total time inthe bank 1:12 46 What would you do differently?: Nothing. I chatted a little with Sherri but I did fine and it made the day even more enjoyable.  Run
Comments: Well we all know this is my achilles heel but I already had over an hour in the bank over 2006 so I was a really happy camper heading out. I just started jogging down Thomas drive and all was right in my world. There are tons of spectators the first mile anda half or so which is awesome. I had my hand held drink and had mixed myself some accelerade to sip on. Passed the crazy drunk dressed up people...what a hoot they are. Cross Thomas drive into the neighborhoods. There is BRIAN and sable :) Nice to see a familiar face. At mile 3 they had the best aide statoin. The theme was George of the Jungle so CUTE. Stopped to pee there and went on. I tried to do a 4:1 run walk but it wasn't working out for me. I felt totally amazing coming off the bike but My legs were just sore so I ran as much as I could and walked as little as I could. Shared my lava salts when they were needed. Saw Jeff and he was looking totally amazing. Saw Jessica riding her bike. Kept on keeping on past all the signs and headed on to the park. WHOOP WHOOP......make the turn around and guess what ITS NOT DARK.....Head out of the park and see my message on the inspiration board. I'm out of the park and its still LIGHT. Irene and Mike made me the most awesome sign with Stacy and Clinton on it and it was right outside the park THANKS GUYS. Stopped to pee again but I really didn't have to go so I didn't stop again. Was refilling with gatorade but they only had lemon lime which I hate and quickly grew tired of it so I switched to water. I was eating a handful of grapes every so often and I think I probably had a glass of coke on each loop. My friend Matt who completely killed the course passed me in the park and said hi. Saw Wendi on my way back in from the first loop and twice more on the second loop. So great to see she was going to finish and SMILING. I had a secret weapon in my special needs bag.....COLD DIET COKE.....mmmm. So my friends ad family at the turn, retrieved my SN bag mmmmmmmm Diet coke.....Happy IFD :) Some picture posing and took my snack baggie with tums, blister pads and gum, also my licorace and a rice krispie treat. Walked enjoying my soda and started running again and guess what IT WAS STILL LIGHT OUT. I only made it to 6.55 before it got dark in 2006. Around mile 15ish I started kind of feeling sick. Just nauseous and a little dizzy. I tried some grapes...ick, a banana, nope, gum, tums...nope nope. I just walked until I felt better and then started sipping some water. By mile 18 or so I was fine. It occured to me later it could have been the DC but I don't think so. It didn't really get dark on e til maybe mile 15 or 16 so I was quite proud of myself. Saw Bridget right after I made the final turn around and knew she would catch me being the runner that she is.....but it was nice to see a friendly face and chat for a little. Just kept on doing my thing and was realizing I had a chance to break 14 hours.....WTF ME???? Slow old me?? I was not moving fast at all and by this time I had some blisters on my right foot but I couldn't see any blood and I kept telling myself its just skin. I considered stopping to use the blister pads but I was afraid it would feel worse or they would fall off and then I would really be in trouble. My problem child left ankle was really hurting as were my feet and hammys. Just kept with the water and the grapes. I couldn't wait to get out of the park, then couldn't wait to get out of the neighborhoods...past George of the Jungle one more time ONLY THREE MILES LEFT!!!! About a mile and a half away you can here the finish line. I was pretty sore at this point and I knew I had a really good chance of going sub 14. Plenty of time. Ran where I could run. Came intothe shoot and handed off my hand held to Janice and saw the crew....walked a bit because I wanted to RUN thru the finish.....How awesome to have Brittany there holding the tape and Kathy there to catch me with Kevin taking pictures!!! 2 time Ironman WHOOP WHOOP with a 2 hour 13 minute PR to boot :) The return of IFD 2006 7:24:37 2008 6:25:17 Improvement 59:20 Total Improvement 2:13:31 YAY ME WHOOP WHOOP What would you do differently?: Need to build more run endurance. In actuality I have only been consistently training the run since the beginning of 2007. I can't be unhappy about knocking an hour off my run time and it leaves lots of room for improvement next year. Always good to have a carrot. Post race
Warm down: PICTURES, MASSAGE, DIET COKE, WARM CLOTHES, WALK BACK...I mean LIMP BACK to the condo. I was really really tired and spent much more than in 2006. I almost fell asleep on the massage table. We had Pizza and Champange to celebrate. I had chaffing in places a girl should not chaffe but fortunately I didn't feel it til I took a shower. What limited your ability to perform faster: I killed the swim and the bike for me. I could have navigated better on teh swim and as I build more bike endurance I will get stronger there. The run is where I can really improve more and I have been steadily gaining on it. Blisters and leg soreness slowed me some. I didn't feel well for a few miles of the run but I recovered from that well Event comments: OMG this was one of the best times of my life. What a great ride!!! Good times good friends excellent performance a girl can't ask for more. Thanks to EVERYONE who came out to volunteer and cheer us all on. Thanks to Sherri for being the iron volunteer and her help in T2 esp. To Irene and Mike who made the best IM sign ever. To Brittany for flying out to help me out and was a fantastic jock strap, Janice for coming along for the wild ride with me and all her excellent help as well. My mom and dad despite their fear that I might be crazy for doing this ironman thing. Kathy and Kevin for their friendship and help and Kevin for his awesome photography. I may not even have to buy any pictures!!! Thanks especially to my coach Will Kirousis of tri-hard coaching for all his help and support. He has seen me thru a lot the last 2 years and he has always believed in me and worked with my sometimes crazy schedule and uncooperative body. I appreciate him more than he can know. I'll be back in 2009 and I'll get that run yet!!!! Congrats to everyone who toed the line. I know it didn't go as well for everyone and there are a million things that can go wrong on race day. I'm thankful it was my day. Last updated: 2007-12-02 12:00 AM
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United States
Ironman North America
70F / 21C
Sunny
Overall Rank = 1790/2270
Age Group = F 40-44
Age Group Rank = 73/99
PRE RACE DAYS
WEDS: Lets see....We left my house on weds for the 411 mile drive up. Left EARLY so we could do packet pick up weds instead of thursday as I learned in 06 the thursday packet pickup is a bit of a cluster. Texted people all the way up and it was freaking COLD...in the 30s...geez o pete. Made it to PCB in good time and thru packet pickup in about 2 minutes. Got checked into the condo then walked back and hit the expo....didn't buy anything but got to meet Jenn. Food shopping, pizza bed.
THURS: Morning swim with Jenn and Melissa and Rick. Got to meet Jasha and a bunch of other people. KICKED IT couldn't believe I went so fast. Got a little wetsuit bite on my neck but overall quite happy with the wetsuit. Fits great and I feel like a dolphin in it. Back to the condo shower get dressed..PRESS CONFERENCE. Oh my.
Janus chose me to represent them at a press conference. I asked why me and they said they wanted someone kind of local to the race with a good story. What I didn't know was that it was the PRO ATHLETE press conference. Um yeah....I hope I represented the back of the pack well. So I'm sitting at the end with my name taped to the table and Nina Kraft sits down next to me.....she kind of looks at me and so I just said "Hi I'm Sue" offer my hand and she says 'I'm Nina".....DUH. She was very nice but as I learned last year I don't think there is any love lost between her and the other pros.
It was pretty cool to be sitting there with the pros. They mostly asked me about Janus, my charity and why I was raising money for them. I talked about my mom and dad and Christine. Michael Lovato was the MC so to speak and he asked all of us to predict a split for on section of the race. I picked swim because its the most predictable for me and said 1:17. After that was done Ironman live inteveiwed me and that piece came up when I finished the race on the latest news portion....very cool. I talked about my mom and dad as well as Christine and Terri. They didn't include the stuff about Terri in their piece tho. I plugged BT as well but they left that out too.
When I finished Britany was here!!! WHOOP WHOOP. We may be twins separated at birth....we are certainly cut from the same cloth. Had some lunch and we walked over so she could see the expo. Went to Melissas pre-race party and met tons of people. Brought the butterflies for Christine and samples of aleve and tylenol for everyone. Passed on the athletes dinner because it was such a MESS 2 years ago. Came back to the condo and by then Kathy, Kevin and Sherri were here and we had a really nice dinner. Gave my digital SLR to Kevin as my official team photographer for the weekend....I think I know what he is getting for Christmas:) Good friends good times :)
FRIDAY: Got up and did my little 30 minute bike, then Brittany and I walked down to swim. I lubed up the back of my neck on the wetsuit bite but it didnt' help. Brittany and Kathy went off to a lecture and I signed up for next year :) As we were walking back to the condo tons of people were streaming down to check their bikes and gear in at about 10 am.....it wasn't supposed to open til 11 and we had til 3. I'm not crazy about standing in lines or being in crowds so we showered, ate and headed over later.....walked right in and out no waiting ALL DONE :) I had really good timing all weekend because when we were walking back there was a huge line getting into transition again and tons of people coming.
Then JANICE WAS HERE!!!!!!!!!WHOOP WHOOP :) Just rested watched a movie and napped a little in the afternoon. I was kind of nervous about not being nervous if that makes any sense. Went to dinner that Bridgtt and Jeff graciously made and hosted..tons of people and a good time had by all THANKS GUYS!!! The ritual braiding of hair took place and to bed early.....Decent nights sleep
RACE DAY!!! The plan was to get up at 4:30 but I woke up at 3:50 and didn't fall back to sleep so I just got up at 4. Got dressed, grabbed a diet coke and a scone and played on BT until everyone else got up. Put a BT tat on my calf, butterflies around my ankle, a butterfly on my right hand for Christine and a GGRRR on my left hand for Terri. Brittany and I walked down to transition at 5ish, body marking, pump tires (everyone on my rack was envious of my air compressor) set up nutrition then dropped off special needs. Went back to condo and hung out a bit. Put my wetsuit on there, and put a blister patch on my neck....actually worked well for about 3/4s of the swim but it fell off at some point. Planned a meeting place with my folks and walked down the beach to the swim start sippping accelerade. I was supposed to eat something else solid but I was too excited!!!
Went into the corral and found a quiet place to sit on the sand. I don't do well in nervous chaos. I sat and buried my feet in the sand to keep them warm. A nice very thin shivering first timer came and sat next to me and asked if burying your feet worked....YES...so he did the same and we chatted a bit. Time to stand up and toe the line!!
Walking a mile and a half to and from? The swim is the warm up