Ironman Florida - TriathlonFull Ironman

This was my first big ocean swim and my first mass start race. I stayed near the back so that I wouldnt get clobered as much but then it was hard to find a space to squeeze thru. I think what surprises me anymore about this swimming thing in a race is how many people grab your calf and pull you! I dont reach and grab the water so I cant seem to figure out how these people swim by grabbing the water. Unless they are trying to pull you down on purpose or they are grabbing to pull themselves forward I just dont understand it? At the turn around it gets extrememly crowed and the sun shines right at you so sighting is a little difficult...I kept hearing the folks on the kayaks yelling stay to the right stay to the right so I would look up to see if I was off course and realized oh...there are others swimming out here so they are just telling us all :)

Im not sure what I would do different. I cant practice ocean swims or mass swims like this before a race so not sure how to get better at it.

I saw a girl in front of me dunk down in the shallow water getting out of the swim and off her wetsuit came so easy and I said wow great idea and I followed suit....so fast just pulled it right off and then out of the water I went. Got to the tent and it was very crowed! Dummy me put my towel in the wrong transition bag so I had to stay wet. I tried to get my bra on and the volunteers were all busy and I couldnt get it to move and I said could someone please help me pull my bra down I cant dry off and got some help....actually two in the front and one from behind.

make sure I have a towel!

We started out and I just felt great...In my mind I was just riding with Tammy on her first century ride several months ago and enjoying everything. We went over the causeway and the dolphins were out there and that was enjoyable to see in the beginning of a long ride. I thought the ride was really boring...not much to look at at all. We got some strong winds that knocked my speed down and then we would turn and get a tailwind and it was like heaven. The first 73 miles though felt like we had more headwind then tailwind and my average MPH shows me that. I had to stop and tinkle a couple times and got to the special needs and they yelled my number but I had to tinkle again and had to wait....so after I got out it was a few minutes after they yelled my number so I told them again...there were about 5 of them yelling my number including myself and I got to the end and Im looking for someone with a special needs bag and nobody is around? I looked at someone and said 2342 and the young guy shurgged his shoulders at me...so I got no special needs bag. I was really looking forward to some peanut m&m's! From that point on I had to just take food from the course...I had packed on my bike some peanut butter crackers and 2 uncrustables. I ate alot of bananas and took some gu...I got alot of carmel flavor and tried one but it was nasty to me so I have like 6 carmels in my bike bag still unopened. I didnt realize the first bike segment was so long and kept thinking there has to be a mat somewhere as I was sure my son was trying to find me on the iphone. Finally we hit the mat and my ride from there on in went pretty smooth. The rodes got bumpy and really gave me a headache and since I had no special needs bag I had no tylenol :( I learned to hold my mouth a certain way cause on one stretch of rode i thought i chipped a tooth on the bumps. My aero water bottle was driving me nuts also and at one point I almost just took it off and tossed it away.

Got my run bag and was hoping I had put some food in there....a BT lady helped me in the tent but I didnt get her name...thank you! She found some shot blocks in my bag and opened them up for me. She helped me get everything changed and off I went.

I really enjoyed most of the run....I was still pretty dizzy from not much nutrition and made it to the first mile and I was at a 10:35 pace so I grabbed some pretzels and water and that really helped! Weeks leading up to the event I worried about what shirt to wear so my arms wouldnt chaf and wouldnt you know I didnt pick a good one! I started off the first segment with a decent pace and started to chaf about mile 5....damn that sucked. So I got some vaseline but it didnt help and then started to fast walk with my arms out to the side thinking if I get to my special needs bag I have a long sleeve shirt and that will really help. I saw Jeff and Andrew as I was on my way out for the first segment and they were on there way back from there second lap! I got to the turn around and grabbed my long sleeve shirt and my peanut M&M's and ofcourse my banana laffy taffy. The shirt took care of the chaffing but from where I was walking at a fast pace...the balls of my feet were killing me. So then I told myself ok..lets just continue to walk to the turn around then if you feel up to it try to run some more....I knew I had plenty of time to finish and my goal was to try to be under 16 hours. Then I would think wow...if you would run you will be well under 15 hours but then my mind would tell me what if you run too hard and then something happens and you screw up and dont finish at all! I kept a very positive attitude the whole time. I didnt like the park cause it was so dark back there and heard animals in the woods...I made it to the turn around the second time and told myself cool....just over a 10k to go and look at your time. I would calculate in my head and talk to myself alot. I thought cool you will be under 15.3 hours at this pace but if you jog some you will be under 15....what to do...I met up with some girls that had been walking together since mile 3 and we all told some stories back and forth for several miles and we discussed the pace and why the balls of our feet were hurting so badly and decided it was because of the fast pace walking. We got alittle closer and I backed off cause I wanted to try to finish by myself. I could hear Mike Riley and where alot of people were on the turn around gates they werent there anymore :( but as i got alittle closer the people were there cheering. I picked up the pace and had no pain at all...I only remember a lady being in front of me but in the video Tammy recorded for me (THANKS TAMMY!!!) there is some dude running in front of me...where did he come from? I heard my son and parents and my name but he didnt say Jennifer Hatcher You Are an Ironman! Dang it! My son and parents were soooo proud....I was so pleased with my time and realized wow you really could have been faster.

Got my medal, hat and shirt then my picture taken. I was so hungry too. We started walking to the condo but my parents drove up the last time and said oh looky here so we got in the car. I wanted a big burger and dad went to find one. He asked where a Wendys or something was but nobody could tell him and he had dropped me off at the condo already. Someone finally told him where a sonic was and brought me back a burger. It was juicy like i wanted but it was food and I wasnt going to be picky.


I had a terrific time! I so much enjoyed getting to meet so many BT'ers and the entire week was a blast. I was very tempted to sign up for next year but I have really wanted to try to get into the Nike Womens marathon and that is too close to the same time so my goal is to get into that next year. I will sign up for it and the NY so hopefully will get one of them. Then I started thinking ok...i will do KY again in August but I really think I want a summer off from crazy training and bike alot with my son. Now I will start training for the 60K run I signed up for in March and then the American Triple T is in May.
Thanks to all of you that tracked and cheered me on!